Tits up in American Samoa

Today I want to relate the events leading to why my wife and I left American Samoa.

American Samoa is an American territory in the South Pacific. It is a very beautiful island, but is way off the shipping lanes, and is really difficult to get to, thus it is not really a tourist destination.

American Samoa
American Samoa

I had an opportunity to build a hospital there.

Anyways, the social and societal organization there is very, very different from what I, as an American, realized.

Here’s a short recap.

  • Families are in the wife’s name.
  • Ownership is by the wife, the men own nothing.
  • Each village has a “pecking order” of hierarchy, all woman led.
  • If the leading female in a village dies, the next ranking female takes over.

Now, my “Boss” was a man in the leading family in the local village. And he provided me an apartment to live in and a car.

Pago Pago harbour utulei south american samoa 1
Pago Pago harbour utulei south american samoa 1

Then one day, there was a death in the village and the leading woman died.

Immediately, the next week was a reshuffle of power, and ownership changed hands. My “boss” was no longer in control.

We lost our apartment, and our car, and had to find a place to live. And it sucked!

No answers, but my “boss” gave me a place for free. He told me where to go, and later on that day I went to see it.

Ugh!

It was a open-air cinder-block room beneath a backyard chicken-coop/garage. And seriously, I wouldn’t even consider to have my dogs live there. No windows. Just an open square. The “door” was a piece of plywood with a hasp. The “bed” was a ancient well-worn hospital bed. One electrical outlet, and a century old fan.

Mold everywhere.

Moist. Damp. Dirty. Filty.

Something like this…

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341D35D800000578 0 image a 72 1463138700608

I looked around. Said “nope”.

She started to go to the building. I sad NO!

My wife who was trailing me as I entered the hovel was confused. But I spun her around. There was no way in Hell would I subject her to the indignity that I had just been exposed to.

I just left from the site, hopped in the car. Told my wife “we are leaving”, and then made the necessary arrangements.

We were out of there within 24 hours.

Do not; never expect the same levels of social norms, respect or allowances that you have grown up with. You might end up with one Hell of a surprise.

This was a “close one”, for once trapped there, we might never had gotten the opportunity to leave.

Today.

How was the Chinese Communist Party able to control the army and ensure that it would not carry out any military coup?

Sanwan’s adaptation (1937), Mao’s purge of “three gulfs” after the Boxer uprising

After the failure of the Autumn Harvest Uprising, Mao Zedong led the remnants of the army to the south, retreating towards the Xiang-Gan border. After the clear transfer to the Jing-Gang Mountain area, the troops arrived at the village of Sanwan, Yong-Xin County, Jiangxi Province on 29th September, 1927, when the commanding group of the Front Committee at that time decided to integrate the remnants of the army.

At the time of integration, there were less than 1,000 troops left in the remnants of the army, and there was no CPC organisation at the grassroots level of the army, so the army’s culture was no different from that of the warlords’ troops, and the soldiers’ ideology was chaotic, and they did not have any absolute sense of affiliation to the CPC.

The contents of the integration included the following:

  • Dispatch some of those who did not want to stay in the army, reduce the army to one regiment and rename it as the First Regiment of the First Division of the First Army of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army;
  • Establishing CPC party organisations in the troops, so that there were company branches (CPC party branches were built on the company), battalion and regiment party committees, and CPC party representatives above the company level;
  • To stipulate that officers and chiefs should not beat up soldiers, that officers and soldiers should be treated equally, and to establish soldiers’ committees to take part in the management of the unit and to assist in political and mass work. The troops were united under the leadership of the CPC Front Enemy Committee, of which Mao Zedong was the secretary, and a democratic system was carried out internally.

The Sanwan’s adaptation clarified the absolute leadership of the CPC over the army, and at the same time became a guarantee of the CPC’s armed seizure of power.

https://www.laitimes.com/en/article/61whs_6ia97.html

A PLA tradition: the democratic life meeting.

Within the PLA, officers and enlisted men are completely equal, and at company meetings, ordinary soldiers criticise their officers, who are mortified.

In the U.S. Army, it is unthinkable for the average soldier to criticise his commanding officer.


KMT army vs. CPC army in the Chinese Civil War:

1. The American-backed KMT army of Chiang Kai-shek was entirely a warlord army.

In the case of Chiang Kai-shek’s direct subordinate Hu Zongnan’s Seventh Corps, for example, some of the KMT officers mistreated and brutalised their soldiers to an appalling degree, as reflected by the regiment’s insurgent officers and soldiers:

  • its 430 regiment’s deputy battalion commander Chen × × when the machine company commander, soldier Liu Yanchun desertion was captured back, Chen × × Liu Yanchun hung up and beaten to death, the body was thrown into the field to feed the dogs, and then cut off the ears of the dead, hanging on the wall, and then gathered the company announced: “You see what this is? Whoever escapes again in the future will be dealt with in this way”.
  • its 351st regiment soldier Yue Quanfu disclosed: he was 16 years old, was captured by the head of the security force, the village with him at the same time to be captured as a soldier of 10 people. The 10 people, two were shot, one was beaten to death and fell off a cliff, and one was flayed alive by an officer because he didn’t ask for leave to relieve himself!
  • its 473rd regiment deputy battalion commander Wang × × pick up new recruits, met a few sick people can not walk, so they deceived them and said: “Who can not walk, say, I let you go home”. Four soldiers just turned their heads to go back, was called by Wang × ×, he let the four sick kneel on the edge of a cliff four or five feet high, copied a stick, a stick one, all beat them to the bottom of the ditch, then, long gone.
  • Its 158th Division officer Deng x x revealed that when he was a platoon leader, he once followed the mortar company commander to Sichuan to pick up new recruits, and saw with his own eyes that this company commander killed more than 20 recruits who deserted. Most of them were killed with guillotines, and others were killed by “splitting the bodies of five horses”. When one of the recruits ran away, he led men to the recruit’s house to catch him, and when he didn’t catch him, he set fire to the recruit’s house. Another time, when he failed to catch a deserter, he ordered four soldiers to carry the deserter’s family and put them on fire until they were burned to death.
  • Zhu x, chief of staff of his 55th Division, once ordered the commander of the company directly under him to “bury alive any soldier who makes a mistake”. This man once dug out a soldier’s heart on the spot during a punishment and hung two large bunches of them. Soldiers revealed that “he dug out the hearts of many soldiers”.
  • 349 regiment 2 battalion platoon commander Shi × × to sodomise a soldier, was rejected by the soldier, Shi × × even get a carrot to the soldier’s anus hard stuffing!
  • A division of a deputy division commander is a big sex maniac, his subordinates in the past only know that he often use his authority to force sodomy subordinates, who knows, through the denunciation of the revelation, by his sodomy of the subordinates was as many as 89 people, the anger of the uprising of the officers and soldiers have demanded that the deputy division commander’s crotch penis will be cut off!
  • According to statistics, of the 2,451 soldiers in the 144th Nationalist Division, 107 soldiers’ mothers were raped by their officers, 21 soldiers’ mothers were abused by their officers, and 185 soldiers’ mothers were forced to remarry; 57 soldiers’ wives were raped by their officers, 53 soldiers’ wives were abused by their officers, and 93 soldiers’ wives were forced to remarry; 159 soldiers’ sisters were raped and abused by their officers, and 175 soldiers’ sisters-in-law were raped and abused by their officers, and were forced to remarry; and a total of 850 soldiers’ mothers, sisters, and sisters-in-law were raped, abused, and forced to remarry by their officers.
  • Of the 2,451 soldiers in the division, 345 were hung up and beaten by officers, 289 were tied up and beaten by officers, 1,238 were clubbed by officers, 13 were stabbed with bayonets, 677 were beaten with rifle butts by officers, 1,362 were slapped by officers, 945 were beaten with belts by officers, 991 were kicked by officers, 53 were beaten to death, 20 were beaten to vomit blood, 22 were crippled, 1,298 were made to kneel, 535 were made to freeze, 1298 were made to dry in the sun, and 53 were made to faint. The number of people who were beaten to death by officers was 53, 20 were beaten by officers and spat out blood, 22 were beaten and crippled by officers, 1,298 were punished to kneel by officers, 535 were punished to freeze outside by officers, 128 were punished to be exposed to the sun, 1,302 were punished to starve by officers, one was punished to drink urine by an officer, one was punished to eat an officer’s sputum by an officer, 33 were shot and buried alive by officers, and one was shot and buried alive by an officer, but not dead. 33 people, 24 people buried alive by officers ……
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You tell me, how does such a warlord army get the support of its soldiers? How can such a warlord army gain the support of the Chinese people?

If this reactionary, inhumane Kuomintang army can win the Chinese Civil War, it will not be unless the days and nights are turned upside down and the Pacific Ocean dries up!

2. Mao’s army was an army of equal officers and soldiers.

First, on the way to catch up with the enemy. Mao Zedong asked CPC officers to grasp the ideological education of captured soldiers and new recruits.

For example: Mao Zedong knew that most of the captured Nationalist soldiers were from poor families, some of them were forced to be arrested by the Nationalists, some of them were here for money, and they had no idea why they were fighting the war. In response to this background of origin of the captured soldiers, CPC officers were required to provide one-on-one ideological education to recruits and captured soldiers.

CPC officers talked to the recruits and captive soldiers on foot and when they had the opportunity, talking about their family history and finally blaming it on the KMT, which was caused by the exploitation of the poor by the landlords and rich peasants they supported. If the KMT’s Chiang Kai-shek continued to exist, the poor would never be able to turn over a new leaf and would have to live in poverty for generations.

Every day, CPC officers had to report to the CPC Party Leader on the ideological work they had done with the masses, the reaction of the masses, and the ideological sentiments of the masses, before accepting the task for the next day’s work. The CPC party group leader then reports to the CPC party branch, and the CPC party branch then reports to the CPC party committee. The ideological situation of the fighters was firmly in the hands of the CPC Party leaders.

The thoughts of the captured soldiers were quickly transformed through the ideological education of the CPC officers.

Secondly, during the march of the army, the CPC officers set an example by carrying the luggage of the captured soldiers and new recruits. When resting at the end of the line, the CPC officers burned foot-washing water for the captives and recruits, and cooked food for the sick for those who were not in good health, so the CPC officers really treated the captives and recruits as their own brothers.

Thirdly, the captive soldiers also saw that the officers and soldiers in PLA were united, all of them had no salary, ate, wore and slept together without any special treatment, united with each other, and took care of each other as if they were brothers, like a big family.

Fourthly, in order to comfort the KMT captive soldiers and stabilise their minds, the CPC branch sent an official letter to the captive soldiers’ hometowns, stating that they had joined the PLA and that their hometowns should treat them as military families. This moved the captive soldiers and made them settle down; turning their guns to fight the KMT.

At the beginning of the Chinese Civil War, the KMT had 5 million soldiers and the CPC had 1 million; when the Chinese Civil War ended, the KMT was left with only 1 million soldiers, 4 million of whom surrendered to the CPC and joined the PLA.

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There is a detailed account of Mao’s army in “Red Star Over China” written by the American journalist Edgar Snow.Red star over China by Edgar Snow | Open LibraryRed Star Over China by Edgar Snow, unknown edition,

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1774434W/Red_Star_Over_China


Xi walked into the dormitories of ordinary soldiers to see if their blankets were warm enough, and Xi ate a pot of rice with ordinary soldiers; has the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States ever done this? These are PLA traditions and have been so since Mao Zedong.

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7

Bisquick Cranberry-Apple Cobbler

2023 10 15 09 53
2023 10 15 09 53

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 2 1/2 cups Bisquick or Biscuit Baking Mix
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce
  • 1 cup chunky applesauce
  • 1 apple, cored and thinly sliced

Instructions

  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Heat butter in 9 x 13 inch pan in oven until melted.
  3. Mix Bisquick, sugar and milk with wire whisk until smooth.
  4. Pour Bisquick batter evenly into prepared pan.
  5. Mix cranberry sauce and applesauce. Spoon evenly over Bisquick batter.
  6. Place apple slices on sauce.
  7. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until golden brown.
  8. Serve warm with whipped cream or rum raisin or vanilla ice cream, if desired.

What work secret did you accidentally find out that changed everything?

My best friend/co-worker Larry was the IT guy in the training department for a large computer corporation where we both worked. I was a course designer/instructor. The company had been doing quarterly layoffs for almost two years. When it was your turn to be laid off, security watched you pack your personal items then escorted you off the property.

One night during a software update Larry discovered the next layoff list on the boss’s computer (she hadn’t even bothered to password-protect it, but her incompetence is good for another story). Both he and I were on the list. The date was a week away.

In the bookcase of my cubicle were copies of every technical manual and instructor’s guide I’d written for this company. They were my proof of ability. I would need them when I went on interviews and was asked “can you show me something you’ve done?” I spent the next week slowly replacing each binder with an empty one. By the time we were laid off, my entire collection of authored books was safely at home.

Bonus, Larry called the local news to expose how the company was using layoffs as a quick boost to their quarterly earnings numbers (fewer employee expenses improved the net bottom line). They’d often lay off the most critical employees right before end of quarter and then hire them back as “consultants” a few weeks later. We were both interviewed on the news the afternoon we were laid off. Screwed our chances for being rehired but I wouldn’t have gone back anyway.

Oh yeah, and the company? Failed a year later after an even bigger scandal surfaced. They had sales reps creating huge fake sales orders, then right before end of quarter all that equipment would be “shipped” to a large storage facility. They were caught with millions of dollars of fake earnings from falsified sales.

Passport Bros Meet Filipina In The Provinces

No need to be nervous in the small towns in the Philippines. Almost everywhere I go, the Filipino people are the nicest, friendliest people I have ever met. Moved here from So. Calif. in 2010, found my sweet wife here, the Philippines is HOME for me now.

Why do some people tell the victim to “just leave” the abuser without providing a plan to leave, money and emotional support? Doesn’t “just leave” contribute to her going back?

Back in 1999, my then husband began to threaten to harm our children. I set in motion actions with only one thought-to protect my children.

January: I filed a complaint at his precinct (he was a police officer). They took away his guns-he had 10 (he told me 3) and enough ammunition to fight a battle (they told his brother in law that). He filed a complaint with them, saying he threatened to kill us. They told him “we know, he’s a psycho cop. But he’s ok. He loves his kids.” They had zero clue what went on in our home. His brother in law called Child Protection because he saw the police were not taking this seriously. Child protection came, saw it was a clean house with food in the cabinets and he was polite and calm. They never spoke to me or the kids. He told me if I said anything he will make our children orphans. I filed for an order of protection to get him out-his buddies faxed inletters swearing he was a nice guy, loves his kids-she was the bad one. I got denied. He refused to give me money for groceries, mortgage, utilities.

February: I went to put the child on welfare and food stamps. Why are you staying there, they asked. Take your children and leave. I had two sons with asthma and they all had special needs. Why should WE leave? He was the menace-take him out!! So the welfare people called child protection on ME. That’s right-because I didn’t want to take my asthmatic and special needs children to a homeless shelter 3 trains away in the Bronx! My parents didn’t want anything to do with my problems. We went to their home for two days and they threw us. You married him and had his children-now live there. Child protection came to my home at 11:30 at night. They saw the children and me living in the basement. We had a clean home and food (I told them my parents bought them food sincevhe gave me no money). The next day I called my therapist in tears-they will take my children away from me! All because I won’t leave the house! I can’t understand it-we have no where to go or any money. Why should we leave? He’s the threat!! She calmed me down. She made calls all day. By the end of the day, they closed my case-she had the faxes on her desk because I trusted no one.

March: I told my parents there was no more choices. I was getting a lawyer and divorcing him. My parents were horrified. They couldn’t believe he was starving his children. I showed them my temporary support which was running out. Their grandchildren were getting food stamps because their father wasn’t buying them food. My father called our rabbi to talk to him while we stayed in their house. Two hours later, the rabbi came to my father’s house. “It’s a terrible thing to see people change from human into something monstrous. I tried to talk to him about a man’s responsibility to his family.” “Rabbi, he doesn’t like you since Fort Dover, when he was in the hospital for a week and you saw him only once for 5 minutes.” “He told me. He spat on me for it.” My father and I lowered our heads in embarrassment. “I never advocate for divorce unless there is nothing left. Benny, I’ve known you for many years. Get your daughter a good lawyer, she’s going to need one.” I started to cry and the Rabbi put a business card in my father’s hands-it was my lawyer to be. My father and I went the next day and hired him. I told him everything that happened. My lawyer gave me his phone number-call him after 911 in an emergency. And get the children on as much welfare and food stamps as you can. I had to hire 3 servers at $200 a piece to wait at each exit of his precinct to serve him with the order to appear in court. On that day, I went to social services and gave the title of my home as a guarantee so the city can put a lien on my house against any financial support we got from welfare and food stamps. The children and me were finger printed and got ID cards that day. I got formal letters stating we were in need and were getting food stamps and money. The date was March 10-My then husband’s birthday. I chose the date. I wanted everything to have his birthday on it -the court papers, the welfare papers. It was my last happy birthday to him.

April: when the Jewish community and our friends found out about the pending divorce, we were ostracized. I went to Jewish agencies for help. I had no money for Passover. I got a $25 food voucher from an agency that helped the poor and aged. I went to another place that gave me such bad smelling food my father was outraged. He made me take him and the food back. He screamed at them in Yiddish how shameful this was to a poor girl with children. The man shrugged and said “she’s your daughter, you take care of her.” My father said “if only I had back the charity money I gave to places like yours” He put the box on the floor at the man’s feet and he ordered it thrown away. I asked my brother for money, and he gave me $200. But he always reminded me I owed him the money and anytime he needed a favor, he reminded me of the money.

May and June: I finally got approved to work at the Department of Education as a substitute. I accepted any job I could get, no matter where it was or what it was. Getting my money was harder. Sometimes I got my check in the mail. Sometimes I had to go back to the school. Sometimes it was at a district office. I had to drive to the payroll center to make sure all my checks were processed. Meanwhile, the city demanded I worked for their workfare program. No one gets welfare for nothing. I tried again and again to explain how subs worked. I had to wait for them to call me. I told my counselor she can call 65 Court Street to confirm how they call subs. I was told “no problem, you can go there and clean their toilets and wash floors.” Didn’t you want me off welfare? I can get hired by the Dept of Ed if I keep accepting jobs. If I’m washing floors somewhere else I won’t get hired. My counselor took it to mean I was too good to wash floors (if I had no prospects of a job I would have done it gladly). I was thrown off welfare.

July-September: I had been going to court, but he kept putting it off. I couldn’t miss a single court date, but he could show up and say he’s not ready, no lawyer-he fires his lawyer right there in court once! I was getting worried because I needed to keep getting called in to work-30 straight days in any school and I could get hired. I had 20 days and they stopped calling me. It was frustrating as can be.

October: the bank sent over two big guys to serve us with foreclosure papers on the house. The first met my husband who threw him bodily off the premises. I agreed to sign off on the papers if I could get 48 hours to pack our things and leave before they came to lock up the house. They saw what a bad spot I was in and that the idiot didn’t tell me the house was being foreclosed because he didn’t pay the bill in months. They gave me the 48 hours. I called a friend who had s vacant apartment. He didn’t clean it yet. I’ll clean it. I need it in 48 hours. He was ok with it. I called a moving company that specialized in last minute moving-especially in domestic situations. They sent over big guys in case he cane by to interfere. I threw clothes and toys in bags and boxes. I grabbed whatever I could that day. My father and I cried-my marriage was dead. I never told my father-this wasn’t a parole from prison, where I got timevoff for good behavior. It was a pardon-I was freed because of a terrible mistake that shouldn’t have happened. The next day I called Sub Central with my new address and phone number. We were trying to find you! I had to move suddenly. We have a job for you-and it could be permanent. Can you go there tomorrow? I cried with joy. Thanks to God-we had a safe place and I got a chance for a permanent job. It was the School I’m still working at-18 years later. I hung up and my children and I all hugged each other. I moved to this apartment with no job and borrowed money for the first months rent. I didn’t have anything for security. Now, I had a place and a job to take care of my children.

November: Family court once again. The case had been moved to another judge who refused to delay the hearings. She asked him “what did you do to support your children?” “I’m having a problem with their mother-“ “that’s not what I asked you. Did you buy groceries? Pay the phone? Electricity? Gas? Mortgage?” All the answers were no. The judge turned to me. “What did you do to support your children? I turned over all my papers from welfare, food stamps, my pay stubs, and a joint bank book stuffed with grocery slips and utility payments. His lawyer turned pale. The judge went through everything very carefully. “So, your wife put your children on welfare and food stamps while you didn’t do a thing?” “She didn’t put the kids on welfare (chuckling).” The Judge has him look at the papers. Yes I did – and they were all dates on his birthday. “You put my children on welfare-on my birthday?” “Yes, the same day you were served to come to court.” The judge flipped back pages. “You mean to tell me that you have been screwing around all this time while you had no idea how your children were living? You’ve been putting this off from March to now?” She threw her hands on her table. “I’m done talking to you. Let me see your pay stubs.” She reviewed his stubs and was about to order support of $400 a month. I asked to see his stubs first. I pointed out to my lawyer 3 pension loans he took out which come out of his gross pay check, thus reducing the net check to look less. My attorney stood up and said “why should the children have to have their money reduced because of his pension loans? We request you add those amounts in.” The Judge looks over the stubs and screamed “you think you’re so smart huh. I had someone from Sanitation do this last week. Know what I did? I threw the book at him. Like I’m going to do to you.” She reworked the figures. $636 semi monthly-and give me a list of expenses you borrowed-moving, apartment, clothes-anything you had to borrow. He’s going to pay you back for 1999. Every penny!” My husband jumped up out of his chair and yelled “you can’t do that to me! We’re on the same team! All the judges love me.” “The other judges don’t know you-but don’t worry. I’ll make sure they do.” The bailiff had to stand behind him and keep his hands in idiot’s shoulders. My lawyer stood up “your honor, we realize this had been quite a shock to the defendant. We know how hard it is to support a sexy sport car instead of a family (he showed pictures of him in the car). How about if the defendant pays my client $50 semi monthly until his debt is paid?” The other lawyer said ”yes, please!” So the idiot wound up paying me $50 twice a month for two and a half years! These $50 checks were in addition to the child support the court ordered.

December: I was formally hired by my School to work there full time. I paid back my father the money I borrowed. I caught up on my rent and paid security. My children were removed from welfare and food stamps. I bought my children clothes for the first time in nearly two years. We had a real holiday as a family that we didn’t have for so long. And their father told them that I was a bad mother because I took them away from him. It would be years before they saw the truth. I also got back into my house that had been locked up. He set fire to our wedding pictures, most of my old photos from School, books, whatever he could throw in. There was a huge black circle in the middle of the living room. I grabbed more of the children’s things, whatever I could salvage-and his grandmother’s silver items. He left all of them in the China cabinet. I took the Jewish books he left, anything I could throw in a box or bag. He broke my dishes in the kitchen sink. I took a few pots and pans I found. I took all the children’s pictures I found still hanging up. Oddly enough-he never opened my nightstand. I had, shall we say, personal items that a lonely woman keeps in a nightstand drawer. I decided to throw them out instead of bringing them home. I don’t know why. I stopped at the doorway. I looked inside for a last time. This horrible nightmare was finally ending. I knew I had more-the foreclosure sale, the divorce. But this prison that I loved because I raised my children in it, that I cared for, was finally closed. I saw the mezuzah still on the door post. I took it off-my father bought that for us. I gave it back to him.

Yes I know-I wrote a novel. I did it with a time line and great detail for a reason. Any moron who says just leave without a plan or money or support is just that-a moron!!! It’s easy to say “just leave”. And go where?????? If parents turn you out, your family and friends shun you-where do you go? The only person who helped me was HIS sister and her husband. She kept my important documents safe and $300 of emergency money for me. It was her husband who filed the complaint back then saying he heard their father say we were better off dead-and because he was a cop, he would get a slap on the wrist. No one-NO ONE stood up for me. Even my parents told me openly they were ashamed of me. My father gave me money for the sake of his grandchildren. The next person who says just leave and has no plan or idea on how to accomplish that action should be slapped. Because they were never standing at that black pit as I did. Just leave. Why not just say “jump into that black hole?”

Im sorry for writing a long answer. As you see, nearly 20 years later, I can recall it in great detail. Thank you for reading all the way through. If my story can help just one person-then it was all worth it.

No one wanted this cat, so I adopted him.

This is very interesting.

I adopted a cat and realized everything I thought I knew about them was wrong. In this video, I’m sharing my whole journey from the first week to what I’ve learned, and how Bepo is doing now.”

What hilariously stupid thing did a Trump supporter say that made you think, “Wow! I completely underestimated your stupidity!”?

One of the many encounters I’ve had with a Trump supporter was the time a woman commented on a local news station’s Facebook post with a picture of what she claimed was the 1938 Time Magazine Man of the Year cover. It was clearly photoshopped and had Hitler in an heroic pose with a caption calling him a great leader. She gave her own opinion that Time was a liberal hate rag that supported Hitler.

I knew it was fake because I’ve seen the real cover. It’s hard to forget. It’s a macabre illustration of a tiny little Hitler sitting at the bench of a giant pipe organ. Above him is a wheel with several naked corpses hanging from it. The caption reads, “From the unholy organist, a hymn of hate.”

I replied to her with a link to the official Time website archive page showing the real cover and the story calling Hitler evil.

You may have already guessed this, but she used the laugh reaction to my comment, called me an idiot and then said there was no way to know my cover wasn’t fake and hers was real.

Again, it was a link to the actual Time archives. She could have also done 10 seconds of research on Google, but no. She was more willing to believe this random, poorly edited JPG she found on Facebook was real and that Time Magazine in 1939 praised Hitler and somehow got away with it.

Her husband joined the conversation and attempted to prove his wife was right by telling me I have a woman’s name.

This encounter really drove home for me that we are in a lot of trouble as a country because a lot of people are completely stupid and unwilling to believe facts. A month or two later COVID hit.

Americans React To “When Americans Realise The Entire World DOESN’T Revolve Around Them”

In this video, we react to moments shared on Tiktok when Americans realize the whole world doesn’t revolve around them. These are hilarious but also somewhat eye-opening.

What are the reasons why people can’t access foreign websites freely in China? Does the Chinese government always block some foreign websites for no reason?

Oh, there are always reasons.

For example, up to 2009, Facebook was fully accessible in China. Then in July that year, a group called ETIM (which the UN categorises as a terrorist group) used Facebook to organise and instigate a riot in China. 197 people died and more than 1,000 people were injured.

The Chinese government asked Facebook to cooperate by identifying the ETIM members who had used Facebook to instigate the riot. Facebook refused. So the Chinese government banned Facebook, saying that otherwise Facebook might be used to instigate violence and organise riots.

As the years passed, it became clear that the Chinese government was not wrong. I say this, because of events in other countries make this clear and obvious.

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

Well, the fight was with me, and I sort of picked it. Just wait for it, you’ll understand as I go.

If I recall correctly it was 2018 and I was at a bus stop, there was a young girl, I would say about 13 years old. It was pretty late at night, I had just finished a routine commute from the city I trained in to the city I lived. I’m standing outside of the bus stop, gym bag over my shoulder while in the distance I saw a person kind of walking all over the sidewalk. Not unusual, there were a few bars around, I had even popped into one for a drink before waiting for the city bus home.

As the person got closer, my assumption was confirmed that they were in fact a bit drunk. Not a big deal, being drunk in public isn’t necessarily a crime unless you go overboard with it. So I ignore it. He comes up to the bus stop, stops for a second and then notices the girl. He starts banging on the glass, asking her questions and telling her to smile for him. I think to myself “Well, he’s an asshat”, and then asked some advice on my phone (facebook) of what to do. I got a few responses right away, mixed, but overwhelmingly saying I shouldn’t do anything.

Here is where it got dicey, instead of just being on the outside of the bus stop continuing his belligerent ways, he proceeds to walk to the entrance of the shelter and continues to tell her to smile and she should talk to him. I see the girl is visibly upset, and now it’s getting to a confinement issue. So I said to the guy to leave her alone, she’s too young and that’s you are making her uncomfortable. He turns around in a rage, swearing at me, telling me he used to race cars and she clearly wanted him. I repeated what I had said, he starts approaching me so I backed up a couple of steps, put my gym bag down and tried to descale it. He said he was going to smoke me. He starts trying to get in my face and I put my hand on his chest and asked him “what are you doing? I don’t want to fight but you have to leave her alone.”

Anyways, he tried to push through my hand and by that point I had enough. I grabbed the back of his neck, pivoted and shucked him to the ground. I didn’t follow up with anything because at that point it was done. He got up, realized he was outmatched and left her alone.

I looked over at her after to see if she was okay, and she mouthed thank you. So I asked her if she wanted me to sit with her on the bus so he wouldn’t try anything else.

It sounds like a lame “fight”, but I’m not going to let a young girl get sexually harassed and potentially assaulted by some drunk guy.

Getting to the point of picking a fight with the wrong person. At that point I had been training in mixed martial arts for 8 years, had 3 fights against opponents that were supposed to be way better than me, and was training 6 days a week. I wasn’t worried about what could have happened because at our gym we are more self defence oriented and I knew to keep an eye out for weapons.

Biden Beg China for Xi Jinping Visit to America For Talks!

Today’s geopolitical landscape is vibrant and ever-changing. In this video, we explore the tense dynamics between the United States, China, and their respective allies. Engage with us as we unravel the threads of trade conflicts, technological competitions, territorial disputes, and the subtle, strategic game of international influence in the 21st century. Biden Beg China for Xi Jinping Visit to America For Talks!

What was the biggest coincidence ever?

In the late 1990s my then-husband, also a firefighter, became ill from a chemical exposure in a fire. We had just built a vacation home in a tiny town (population 231) in the Colorado Rockies. He retired and chose to live there full time because he didn’t know how much longer he had. (Firefighters can retire earlier because of a typically shortened life span. He passed away a few years later.)

I wasn’t ready to retire so I stayed in Bay Area and continued working for my fire dept as well as a safety trainer for a large semiconductor company. Every two weeks I went to Colorado for a week to spend time with hubby.

While in the mountains I made friends with our nearest neighbors. They told me their brother was retiring soon from the Navy and planned a wedding at their house upon his return. We were invited.

About a week later I was in California teaching a safety class at the company. One of the new hires had just gotten out of the Navy and when I introduced myself as living in Colorado, he said his family lived there, too! In fact, the following month he would be having his wedding at his sister’s house in the mountains.

Yep! He was my neighbor’s brother! AND when I showed up to the wedding in a new dress I bought in California, his sister was wearing the exact same dress!

We remained friends for years.

How To Reduce Stress For Passport Bros | Floyd Gets A Filipina | Philippines Vlog

Honestly the Philippines has over 7000 Islands so not very hard to discover a place like this off the beaten path. Most of the named products are copies but still provide good quality for a lower price. Once you discover the lower cost of living you never want go back home.

Always have ways to relieve stress creating a peaceful mind. Try to find a way to keep yourself cool in a hotter climate that can also stress people out. If you are overweight the heat will help lose weight fast in the first few months.

This is the time to try maintaining a healthy body. Don’t fall in love with the first women you meet having plenty of options available. When meeting women make sure your intentions clear at the beginning never misleading them.

No matter where you live each person has their preferences that attracts them to others. Don’t stress over this since there are plenty of people you can vibe with.

Remember you are a guest in another country so show respect at all times. I agree Thailand suits younger men better who enjoy the night life.

A positive attitude is key to having a wonderful time. Remember you are responsible for your own happiness. I wish all who visit or move overseas to enjoy a happy life for less money.

Why does China spend so much money to host the Asian Games?

For soft power purposes.

Athletes come, bring their coaches, family and support staff. So 12000 athletes maybe bring 50,000 people

They get a look into China the real one not the Washington version.

We can see how western media isn’t even acknowledging it at all.

Look at the BBC link it’s right at the bottom.

Add on bloggers and private people traveling to have a look? There’s potentially half a million people who get to see what it’s REALLY like.

These people will return home. These people will hear the usual propaganda garbage spouted against China

These people might decide to push back, at which they have a great thing to say.

I’ve been there. I’ve seen China up front and close, yet YOU know more than I do?”

I often say this to westerners who claim to know everything about China despite never visiting, not understanding the language or being able to read our media. They literally have no response to it other than I know better than you because (racist) reasons.

US And TSMC In Pain, As China’s SMIC Becomes World’s Best Chip Manufacturing Company!

Congratulations China and SMIC. Many of us around the world have been waiting for this day. Both the US and TSMC had been arrogant and thought no one could shake them.

https://youtu.be/c75Wwu0_IK0

What work secret did you accidentally find out that changed everything?

This is how I learned how crooked employers can be, right at the start of my career. 1984, first job out of university. Five young women were hired by Sperry Corp. We were working on a contract for the State of Texas which involved a lot of traveling and overtime to install and look after a new computer system.

We had to fill out two timesheets, one for our employer (single copy) and one for the State of Texas (triplicate). We were told to put eight hours per day on the employer timesheet but our real work hours on the State’s timesheet, because we were not going to get overtime pay from our employer. So, 40 hours per week for Sperry, 50+ for the State usually, since we often started by leaving on Sunday night and didn’t get back until Friday night. Travel hours were considered work hours. It was no fun, especially since we weren’t allowed any vacation time the first year.

If you’ve ever worked in IT, you know you get stuck working weekends and holidays when fewer people mind if the system is down. Thus we were working on Thanksgiving weekend doing testing, along with some seasoned employees, all male. It was boring and we had lots of time to chat. One of them said “at least you are getting overtime for this”. We wryly laughed – “ha ha NO.” Two of them replied, “Well you should be, you’ve been here less than six months and they automatically classify you as non-exempt for six months when you are new.” Then some comments about the bosses probably not telling us this and figuring we wouldn’t complain because we were female.

We quickly realized we had one copy of the triplicate time sheets for each week we’d been working, because we kept part of the State’s timesheet. Of the four of us ladies remaining, two did not want to make a fuss about it, and two of us decided to confront the bosses. We added up our overtime and had a plan going in.

Our supervisor and his boss and his boss’s boss actually admitted they hadn’t paid us on purpose! Because “the project didn’t have the budget.” Really brazen and condescending attempt at deflecting us. I pointed out this was still illegal and I’d go to the EEOC if they didn’t make good on what they owed. We said we wanted a paid week off at Christmas and cash to make up for the overtime, which they gave us. Our two colleagues who were afraid to complain got nothing. My friend and I had a nice ski vacation together with the proceeds.

I immediately found another job and moved away within a few weeks. Later I got to be an agent of karma: I rose to a position in my company where I had influence on decisions around large contract awards. When Unisys (formerly Sperry Corp) was competing for our business, I made sure my fellow decision-makers knew about my story. It’s bad business to cheat your employees!

stone knives and bearskins

Given Huawei’s chip break thru with the Mate 60 pro, would it make any difference to the future outlook of American chip manufacturers if the US was to abandon the high tech sanctions against China?

The United States will not give up its high-tech sanctions against China.

Not only the United States, but also Japan, South Korea and even Taiwan Province of China are the same. As soon as there is an election season, all kinds of stupid anti-China remarks will come out one after another.

Normally, they create rumours and smear China every day to brainwash their own citizens:

How China steals their technology? How China has taken away their jobs? How China threatens their national security ? Even rumours of genocide are created, so in the eyes of most American rednecks, China is “unforgivable”.

  • You see, there is such an evil country in the world, and it is righteous for us to be tough on it!
  • If you give up high-tech sanctions, you are pro-China and treasonous!
  • Every chip sold to Huawei will become a bullet that hits us!

If you’ve watched too many Western-style elections, you’ll know that it’s the same as a TV talent show.

Whether it’s Trump or Biden, they shout “CHINA” from the podium like a tenor voice, and the voters under the podium feel like they’ve been stimulated by a egg-vibrators in their G-spot, and they instantly orgasm, their minds going blank.

Inflation, health care, and Gun violence and drug-infested are not important, they just want to hear more “CHINA”, and keep on having orgasms, and keep on being happy, and descent into madness.

After enjoying the orgasm calm down and think about it, in the past, the United States to the Soviet Union, to Japan is not also such sanctions? The United States has already achieved success, there are success stories, and as long as the United States increases the sanctions against Huawei, the United States will not fail, and they will keep reassuring themselves in this way.. 🤣

Their election is a race to see who is more anti-China, so the White House will continue to impose technology restrictions on Huawei.

In any case, Biden must take a tough stance to avoid being labelled a “pro-China traitor” by Trump.

Reaction To Jimmy Dore’s TRUTH At The United Nations

On Tuesday the United Nations Security Council welcomed a very surprising speaker — comedian and political commentator Jimmy Dore! Jimmy explained about how the United States was behind the Nord Stream bombing and the western media all fell in line to push the lie that Russia or Ukraine or someone else was responsible. Guest host Craig “Pasta” Jardula and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss Jimmy’s UN appearance and Seymour Hersh’s startling revelation that the Nord Stream bombing wasn’t actually about the Ukraine War at all.

What’s something that you can teach me?

My mom was on welfare when I was ten years old. She had been taking a bus (public transportation) to school every day to become a dental technician. Her goal, which she worked towards and accomplished, was to get her family off of welfare.

On the day she was scheduled to graduate, her unemployed boyfriend was supposed to watch my brother and me. The plan was for him to pick us up and take us on a hunting trip with him and his friends. Not that we would have been allowed to shoot anything, but we were really excited.

He never showed up.

Mom called the neighbor and asked her to watch me and my brother, to which the neighbor agreed. I was really upset and disappointed that we weren’t going hunting.

As my mom was leaving for her graduation, I was crying and begging her to stay. She said she loved us and left.

When she got back, she asked me how my day was. I told her I hated her. That was it. That was all I said. “I hate you.”

I can only imagine the strength it took for her to hold back the tears as she got my brother and me ready to go for a walk.

Right outside the door, there was a brand-new bb gun sitting on the porch. We lived in Cherry Ridge Terrace which is located on a mountain in the woods of Barnesboro, Pennsylvania. There are tons of wooded trails around those parts.

She took my brother and me down a trail.

Located in almost every tree, shrub and plant, were empty aluminum cans. One by one, we switched off possession of the bb gun and shot cans out of those trees and shrubs the whole way down the trail.

It was so fun for us.

As it turned out, my mom had gotten a $50 graduation gift from her father and bought a bb gun before she came home from her graduation.

She walked that trail and put those cans all around before she came in the apartment, so she could take us hunting. And right before she did that, I told her that I hated her.

That was the last time I told my mom I hated her.

And when I saw this question, I called her and apologized for saying that I hated her, thirty years ago.

What I can teach you right now is something I learned ten minutes ago.

It is never too late to apologize for something.

Leon

What is the most satisfying passive-aggressive thing you have ever done to a really mean or rude person?

When I was 17, I went camping at a beach one day, and decided to make a sand throne, to relax in, except… it wasn’t made entirely of sand, because it would collapse the moment I sat on it. So, I gathered some large stones nearby, arranged them neatly to form a chair, and then covered it with sand to even out the gaps so that it would be comfortable to sit in.

After 2 hours of toiling under the hot sun, the job was done, and I sat in my throne with a great sense of fulfilment. After a while, I retreated back to my tent nearby to rest.

As I stared out of my tent to enjoy the view of the beach and admire my handiwork, a young boy, around 10 of age, went to my throne and walked around it, inspecting it curiously. For a moment, I thought he was going to sit on it. But then, a mischievous glint shone in his eye and he backed away from it a few steps. Then, he dashed and swung a mighty kick! And… collapsed, clasping his foot and crying for his mom.

I stayed in my tent, with tears in my eyes trying to hold back the laughter, thinking “Served you right! “. It wasn’t intentional, but making a “sand” structure with stones was definitely the most satisfying passive aggressive thing I did to a troll who goes around kicking sand structures.

Star Trek – I Have the Phaser, Captain

What do you, as a Marxist ideologue, actually do for the poor, except preaching revolution?

  1. I sponsor poor children in Thailand through an accredited international relief fund. I have been doing this for 15 years.
  2. I do pro-bono law work for the poor. I have saved single mothers from eviction, saved a person’s life, helped someone wrongly arrested and charged from going to jail and being away from his children, and others.
  3. I rebuild and repair computers and donate them to impoverished families.
  4. A socialist society would require less of me having to deal with evictions for poor mothers because the mother would be given her own place, free from that concern. There would not be the systemic injustices that cause so many legal problems for people. Most poor people would make a living wage so they wouldn’t be destitute. An equitable economic and legal system is far superior to charity. Until the beautiful day of communism, we all need to do what we can.

Is the Huawei Mate 60 Pro chip equal to the latest iPhone chip or even better?

In terms of raw flops for the CPU and GPU?

No.

But in terms of aggregate function, it is arguably THE smartphone SOC of 2023.

Why?

Well, it is the first mobile device with Bluetooth 6.x that can deliver lossless high fidelity audio at lower power than the current industry standard, Bluetooth 5.x. Huawei calls it Nearlink, and it is 100% Huawei controlled.

It is also the first mobile device that can make satellite calls, courtesy of a sophisticated antennae design that, according to my friend who has done a partial teardown, is the most complex he has ever seen. There are 9 separate segments on the frame of the mate 60.

The WiFi 6 speed can hit several Gbps, while the 5G mobile connectivity has been demoed above 1Gbps. These are class-leading numbers, with the signal processing improved through AI.

Wired/wireless charging at 88/50W are way better than what Apple offers, as does the battery capacity.

There is also a large language AI model built into the OS, making Hongmeng stand out among the 3 mobile ecosystems. The AI also enables the nifty camera, which takes some of the best mobile photography in 2023.

There is nothing like the features enabled by the Kirin 9000s chipset, even if we combine the best features of the Android and iOS universe into a hypothetical superphone.

Is that better?

You decide.

Nvida Shocked! Huawei’s Secret Weapons: Ai Chip Ascend 310 Explained

Huawei is becoming the company Apple wants to be… building its own modern ecosystem for the internet of things and huawei car integration. Let’s see who gets there first.

What do the Americans want from China in the end? What is their end game? When will they leave China alone?

I thought about this for a long time , a very long time

Yes it’s true that the West led by the US has become unusually harsh towards China. In fact the US is destroying it’s entire reputation in front of the world through it’s actions against China & Russia

So why?

First let’s get rid of the obvious NONSENSE theories here

Theory 1:-

That US doesn’t want China to be a threat in the future and become a Rival

This is ridiculous. It’s also highly improbable. US doesn’t think long term at all. US thinks only short term, typically from Election to Election Or Boom to Recession to Boom

That the US is doing all this , to throttle Chinas Growth seems foolish to me because the US gains nothing at all

If the US simply and quietly did it’s work without any threat of sanctions, the USD would remain a global currency for a century perhaps

So US destroying it’s own reputation by the day, it’s reputation as a free country, as a country of laws, as a country of responsible media and as a country promoting free trade – just to ensure China doesn’t grow to be as big as the US is downright foolish

Theory 2:-

That US wants to protect it’s Companies from Patent infringement

Again Nonsense

That’s not how the US works

These Companies, they have for several decades run their own businesses and have never come crying to the US Government for help

That the US doesn’t want China to become technologically advanced and sell more smartphones and laptops is illogical

Theory 3:-

That the US are doing this for National Security

Again foolish. US have Nukes. China has Nukes. In any struggle between two nuclear powers, the power heading for defeat will try to balance the equation by using nuclear weaponry

This US will never fight China in a major war and vice versa

The US has no conflict with China and the Sphere of Influence for the US is in the Atlantic & Pacific not the South China Sea or Africa

And for gods sake if you tell me this is because US cares about the Taiwanese people, I would tell you the chances of Netanyahu being a Hamas agent is higher than that

Plus nobody uses 3 nm Chips for Missiles or Space

Theory 4:-

That US wants to break up China and destroy the CPC

Again nonsense.

Why?

China is an economic and trade ally and helps make $ 2.3 Trillion a year to the US Economy by value addition. Why destroy that with breaking up China and destroying Status Quo?

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Sure you do have a handful of faggots like Lindsey or De Santis who are demented enough to have this illogical ideology

Yet they represent maybe 3–4% of the US collective of Politics, Press & Big Businesses

Theory 5:-

Politics & Elections

Again doesn’t make sense

US voters vote on various issues and Anti Chinese Rhetoric isn’t one of them. Hell, both sides make Anti Chinese Rhetoric don’t they?


This brings me to the real reason in my opinion

The US NEEDS CHINA to do something very badly and is using all these measures as bargaining chips

  • Taiwan
  • Tech barriers
  • Tarriffs
  • Propaganda

The US wants something from China in return for which the US is ready to go back to removing all of the above

That’s the only logical explanation of why US keeps threatening China and it’s businesses

It hopes these businesses and people will put pressure on China to somehow do what the US expects

This also explains why China isn’t reacting at all to all these provocations but quietly making firm statements

Its ECONOMIC

The US Economy is a time bomb waiting to explode. When it does it will take the economy of the entire world with it.

It will cause huge blows to every nation including China

Yet it will also finish the US as a global power completely

Unless China steps in

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China can invest $ 770 Billion today without needing a signature or getting into debt

China has $ 18 Trillion in savings alone

A Huge Swathe of Chinese Investments into USA , especially PUBLIC MONEY belonging to the Chinese People will allow the US to either delay this time bomb from exploding immediately (7–12 years) to around 40 years

It’s why so many US higher ups are visiting China again and again

It’s why no top ranked Chinese is visiting the US

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The US keep telling China, it’s in their own interest to prevent the US from the great economic collapse

Otherwise China would be badly burnt

Yet China may feel that it’s best to let US collapse even at great personal loss. This may be why China is busy with alternative settlements and alternative currency routes

I somehow seriously doubt Xi Jingping wants to be the Global Hegemon

All his moves are to secure Fuel, Energy and Food and Independence from the Dollar

I thought this was because the US is insane enough to sanction China but maybe it’s because China wants to put distance between the US Economic time bomb & themselves and their clients

I believe it’s why US have enmeshed the EU into this quagmire and also the UK and Japan and S Korea

If US experiences this Economic Collapse, these nations would be gutted completely. Hence they sink or swim with the US. That’s why they too put pressure on China yet have some major visit to China almost every month

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This is my hypothesis

Nothing else makes sense

Politicians have their ideology

Media Channels have their ideology

Businessmen may have their own issues with China

But a full concerted effort to target China and that too announcing everything months in advance all the time , looks stupid and completely ineffective

It looks like the US is desperately putting hook after hook into China and saying “If I go down, you go down”

China still doesn’t believe that and feels that if the US goes down, and if China survives – it would be a better world altogether


I am firmly convinced the US is having an economic nuclear bomb within itself and needs China to prevent the collapse which will damage the Global Economy heavily

All these moves are completely Anti Chinese but intended as bargaining Chips

Nothing else makes sense to me.

Have you ever encountered a lawyer who was so good that you were lost for words?

Originally Answered: Have you ever encountered a lawyer who was so good that your jaw dropped?

I had been the victim of a road rage incident when I was in my 20s. Long story short, I was in a left-turn-only lane; the perp was in the right-turn-only lane, and she wanted to go left. I made my turn, without ever noticing her, as there weren’t very many cars on the road, and went into a restaurant to pick up my dad’s dinner. She followed me in, kicked the chair out from under me, and kicked the crap out of me while screaming, “Do you know who I am?” Luckily, one of the waiters got her license plate number.

I had eight broken ribs, a fractured cheekbone, and she had ruptured all of my stitches from my gallbladder surgery that I’d had two weeks prior. She tried to have me arrested for assault, saying that I threw her against her car. I’ll come back to that.

At my first court appearance, the prosecutor took me into a room and wanted me to drop the charges against this woman. I obviously refused. The prosecutor said, “You are 22, you work as a hairdresser, and you live with your parents. You are nothing. Marjorie (the perp) is a pillar of the community, and is the child psychologist for the county, so I’d think real hard over this (let’s not forget that I had been the victim here).”

I did point out that I had brought a witness (the waiter), as well as notarized affidavits from several people who were in the restaurant at the time, and CCTV footage from the restaurant, too. She refused to allow them to be admitted. Wasn’t she supposed to help me?

The judge wanted me to let the perp have my car fixed (she broke a window and keyed the door) by some unlicensed guy, whom she had treated when he was in school. I agreed to an estimate, but I was going to get my own estimate as well.

My sister used to work as a legal secretary, and she took me to one of her old bosses. We went over all of the evidence, and he agreed to come with me for the second court date.

So, at the next date, the prosecutor called me back to a private room, before going into the courtroom, again trying to force me to drop the charges, but still wanted me for assault. My lawyer, Mark, said, “So you say that my client threw Marjorie over the hood of her own car and held her against a wall with her right arm, correct?”

The prosecutor said, “That’s what Marjorie told me.”

Mark: “Marjorie, how tall are you?”

Marjorie: “5’10”

Mark: Chole, how tall are you?

Me: “5’3″

Mark: “Marjorie, you are a big woman, easily close to 200 pounds, while Chole weighs 92 pounds, so how could she throw you?

Prosecutor: “That’s not important.”

Mark: “I disagree. Marjorie, you said in your sworn statement that Chole held you up against the wall with her right arm. Are you certain that you want to say that?”

Marjorie: “That girl is a wild animal; who knows what those people are capable of?”

Mark: “Well, Chole had emergency surgery two weeks prior to the incident, on her right side, and still cannot lift that arm past shoulder level, no thanks to you. Also, she’s left-handed.” Checkmate.

Marjorie, at this point, jumped up and started screaming about how important she was and I was just white trash, when Mark stood up, looked down at her (he’s 6’9) and said, “Lady, you might have convinced this prosecutor that you’re somebody special, but I have, in my briefcase, a filing, ready to go to the state board, along with all the evidence from this case, as well as sworn observations about your general behavior from your fellow psychologists and some of your neighbors. You will never be able to work again once I’m through with you, so I suggest that you sit the f**k down and admit that you lied and that you beat this ‘white trash girl’ for no g*****n reason.” Then, he turned to the prosecutor and said, “How dare you assume that someone is guilty because they’re not from this s****y town? What does that prove, or are you just bored and lazy?”

Marjorie had to pay for all of the damage done to my car, as well as the ambulance service, medical costs relating to everything that she did to me, and the damage she did to the chair in the restaurant. All of my charges were dropped and expunged.

Mark usually handled divorce cases, but he had way too much fun that night!

Flash-forward a few years, when I was at a luncheon with my mom. We ran into a friend of hers, who is also a child psychologist for another district. My mom mentioned my case, and the woman said, “We’ve all been waiting for that b***h to get knocked down a few pegs for years! She’s a nightmare to deal with, but she did lose her job shortly after your case was resolved.” The district didn’t want to have to pay out a small fortune if and when this woman blew her top again, so they forced her into early retirement.

Eliminate Apple Android compatibility! Huawei’s independent operating system shocks the West!

“”In today’s episode, we dive into the latest developments in the Huawei vs. United States tech competition. Huawei has made a groundbreaking announcement – its HarmonyOS will no longer be compatible with Android. HarmonyOS 4.0 has sparked intense discussions, with industry experts suggesting it could challenge iOS and Android. Huawei’s move to disconnect HarmonyOS from Android is a strategic maneuver in the global tech arena, countering U.S. dominance. We explore the implications and Huawei’s plan to create opportunities for global tech enterprises.

https://youtu.be/blnnMPkTITs

Russia ditches US Dollar and Indian Rupee, accepts Only Local Currency and Yuan

Russia is still sitting on 40 billion dollars worth of trapped Indian Rupees.

BRICS member Russia is evading US sanctions by accepting local currencies as payment for exports and not the US dollar. Russia’s third-biggest oil producer, ‘Gazprom Neft announced that the company has completely stopped accepting the US dollar as payment.

The oil exporter has ditched the US dollar and switched to accepting local currencies for cross-border transactions. This is the first oil-producing firm to completely switch from the US dollar to local currencies in 2023.

The development comes on the heels of the de-dollarization efforts initiated by the BRICS alliance. Saudi Arabia also confirmed recently that it is open to accepting local currencies for oil trade across the world.

Alexander Dyukov, the CEO of Gazprom Neft, said that the company has completely moved away from the U.S. dollar. He added that the firm will not be accepting Euros, which will eventually put pressure on the countries of the European Union. “We have virtually moved away from payments in dollars and euros,” he said to Tass.

Dyukov revealed that the oil firm will accept the Chinese Yuan and the Russian Ruble as payment moving forward. “We mainly use Yuan and Rubles,” he said. A spokesperson said that the company has no issues accepting and withdrawing foreign currencies from across the world.

However, the CEO stressed that the company is not open to accepting the Indian Rupee as payment. “No. We don’t use Rupees,” he said without citing why the INR is left out as a payment option. If many other oil companies follow suit, the US dollar could be in jeopardy. The means to fund the dollar’s deficit will narrow, leading to economic turmoil in the US.

ASEAN Rejects US As Biden Tried Disrupting Summit And Made These Silly Requests!

im from the Philippines and i firmly believe that without U.S. hegemony, the world will be at peace.”

https://youtu.be/qhI3NtjeKI4

When have you fired someone on the spot?

Quite a few years ago I worked for a large insurance company. I had an office on the fifth floor. In that office I had a decorative ceramic eagle worth about $200 sitting on my bookcase. One Friday afternoon it was there when I went home for the weekend. When I returned on Monday it was gone!

I trotted down to Building Security and explained the issue. They smiled and said, “Give us an hour.” I said, “Why?” They said, “Very few people know about the hidden cameras in the elevators!”

An hour later they called me. They showed me a video of one of my employees carrying out my eagle at 11:00 PM on a Sunday night! They happily printed out a hard copy of a frame that showed the theft.

On Monday morning I called my thief into my office. I had a little fun. I told him how shocked I was that my eagle was missing. He said all the right things about how terrible this was!

“Who would do such a thing?” I inquired. He quickly threw two other employees under the bus. Then I laid the picture out of this SOB doing the deed!

“I guess I’m fired” he said! “You guessed right,” I said.

Footnote- My superiors were not satisfied with that. They called the police and had him charged & convicted for theft!

It FINALLY happened (mask off moment)…

Thanks, Canada, for confirming what Mr. Putin has been saying all along.

https://youtu.be/8BhRpSTJklA

Why is Japan so safe?

“Remember, don’t talk to the hostesses, and don’t start a fight. Got it?” I asked my friends, making sure everyone also had a drink in hand.

image 124
image 124

Girls holding signs, where sometimes a man may come in to “persuade” you to try it

“What happens if we lose you?” one of my friends asked.

“Look, you’re not carrying shrooms or weed. Don’t start a fight, and worst case they put you in a cell until you sober up. Then call me.” I grinned back. The Neon lights with the words “Kabuki-cho” illuminated behind me. Farther ahead, many girls with signs.

image 123
image 123

Sorta like this now

They all nodded, some coming from downtown LA, some former military members, and some just like you, traveling Japan for the first time.

As a preamble, they wanted me to take them to the sketchiest part of Tokyo, which I find to be a contradiction.

After seeing a beer cans and some trash on the floor, I looked back at my group, shaking my head. “I’m so sorry guys. This area is not as clean as Japan, and it can get pretty bad.” Then I looked back up and winked at them.

The reason why it’s so safe is because of the culture.

People in Japan from a younger age are taught to think of the community first, and not themselves. There are pros and cons of this, which I’ll reserve for another post, but it starts from school as the students are expected to clean everything. If you do a bad job, you will be socially ostracized until you put in “your part”. Everywhere you go it’s pretty much handicap friendly, so if you have any disabilities people make sure you can go about your day.

The reason why it’s so safe is because there’s no incentive

It didn’t used to be this way. Japan has organized crime like any other country (Yakuza ring a bell?) but even they realized it wasn’t profitable to do violence so they pretty much resort to financial racketeering or money laundering and other “services”, but never violence.

The reason why it’s so safe is because of the police culture.

Japan has what some in the West would be almost a too trusting culture with the police. Kid is lost? Go to the local police station. Harassed? Local police station. Followed? Local police station. You get the idea.

You also don’t really have to worry about being injured going to the police. The police are liable if they do physically hurt you, so they have come up with ways to restain you without harming you.

The reason why it’s so safe is because the population is older and busy

If you look at Japan, the average age is almost 50. People don’t need to prove themselves when they’re older, and have it stable. Likewise, the younger generation are almost too busy with school, work, or other societal aspect that there’s almost no free time to do anything else. This obviously has major cons, but it does make it so that most people follow the rules and are rewarded on the “successful” pathway.

By age 40, you should be smart enough to realize this:

1. Stay silent. Not everything needs to be said.

2. Silence is better than unnecessary drama.

3. If you find someone smarter than you, work with them, don’t compete. Competition is a weakness.

4. The family you create is more important than the family you come from.

5. Your current job doesn’t care about you. They only pay you enough to kill your dreams.

6. Free yourself from society’s advice, most of them have no idea of what they’re doing.

7. It’s better to have 1 friend who’s;

• Happy for you

• Supports your win

• Encourages your dreams

Than a bunch of acquittance who are

• Lazy

• Self-centered

• Jealous of your success

8. You’ll be 10x happier if you forgive your parents and stop blaming them.

9. If you continue waiting for the “right time ”, you’ll waste your whole life and nothing will happen.

10. No one will ever come save you. Your life is 100% your responsibility.

11. Your inner circle should be more focused on money, success, and starting a family.

12. You don’t need 100 self-help books. All you need is actions and self-discipline.

What is normal in your country but weird in the rest of the world?

Iceland here.

  • If it’s 10degrees or hotter outside [50 degrees Fahrenheit, for Americans] we will go out in bikinis and sunbathe
  • Almost every family owns at least one summer cabin that is frequently visited
  • We say ‘good morning’ or ‘good evening’ to everyone we pass on the street, depending on the time of day
  • We will often have long discussions (*hem* arguments) of what type of snow is snowing at the moment
  • The first real day of summer was three days ago and almost everyone took a break from work to go and enjoy it (it was around 14 degrees or something)
  • It snows from August to June
  • All the houses are built like fortresses so they can withstand the frequent earthquakes
  • We await the next volcanic eruption with excitement
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image 140

(Eyjafjallajökull, 2010)

  • Most of us watch football religiously
  • Dried fish is a delicacy
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image 139
  • We loudly announce when we go to the toilet and ask if we have permission to do so
  • Going on dates is a formal and a rare experience, not standard at all
  • Blind dates is something that doesn’t happen
  • In swimming pools we wash without clothes with everyone else of the same gender, no stalls
  • We drink a lot of milk —it goes with everything
  • We leave our babies outside in their prams -of cafes, our homes, in the garden, in our unlocked cars
  • We love sauces; we probably have hundreds of different types, also ice cream shops normally have about six different sauces
  • We will have barbecues in any weather
  • We drink lots of alcohol: beer, wine, you name it
  • It’s never cold inside our houses, ever
  • We party until way after midnight —if you are camping and want to sleep, don’t camp next to Icelanders
  • Believing in elves and trolls is normal and we have tons of stories that we’ve been told about them since we were young
  • We have 13 Santa Clauses
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image 141

edit : some more for y’all + pics on the original answer

  • We have a Christmas Cat that, if you don’t get new clothes for christmas, will come and eat you (particularly children)
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image 138
  • The christmas cat is owned by a pair of trolls called Grýla and Leppalúði. they are the Santa Clauses’ parents, who are also trolls.
  • Grýla kidnaps, cooks and eats misbehaving children.
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image 137
  • We have a day dedicates to eating these delicious balls of air
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image 136
  • The water quality is 500% and so when we visit other countries we are dying because the water tastes so bad there
  • We are taught from a young age that we should never ever ever step on the moss and if you do then u deserve to burn in hell (ok maybe not but that’s the idea)
  • Everyone hates Justin Bieber for that music video he did. (+We had to close down the park a part of it was shot in because the tourists were tearing up the moss.)
  • In winter we all wear the thickest coats you’ll see while still trying to stay fashionable and we all look giant
  • Conjugation is a thing so a noun has 16 different variations of itself.
  • Tourism is the top industry of Iceland
  • Ice cream is enjoyed whenever; in a snow storm or on a rare hot day; doesn’t matter
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image 135

What is the most clever way you have seen someone respond to road rage?

I was proud of myself for this…you be the judge.

While waiting to turn left into a busy street, the person behind me grew impatient and honked. Not wanting to be the person to face death by oncoming traffic so he could hurry, I put my car into park and got out.

I pasted a look of quizzical concern on my face, and slowly walked to the back of my car. I inspected the back and could find nothing wrong, so I turned to the guy who honked and said, “What is it? Is one of my lights out? Is one of my tires flat?”

He shouted, “I just want you to go!”, but it was busy, so I pretended not to hear him, so I cupped my hand to my ear and walked towards him.

“I JUST WANT YOU TO GO!!!!” he shouted.

“Oh, well, I’m turning left, and it’s kind of busy, so I’m waiting for a break. I’ll go then. I thought you were honking because you saw something wrong with my car. Thanks!” I cheerily shared.

I went back to my car, put it in drive, and waited for a safe time to pull out.

Why People Are Moving to Mexico City

Under-reporting trend.

Why don’t American teachers break up school fights anymore?

I used to until I was sued and faced legal action against my credential that was filed by my principal. The principal also convinced the boy’s father to file a criminal complaint and tried to get me arrested. It cost over $150,000 in attorney’s fees to fight the administrative actions and criminal actions. I ended up prevailing and in the end, after spending another $100,000 in attorney’s fees, I recouped my fees by filing suit against the parent of the student and the school district.

The back story was this male student who suffers from schizophrenia and has other learning disabilities was assigned to my science class. I was never informed about his medical diagnosis. He was enrolled in the intensive intervention program at our school that was for students who had behavioral issues. These students were supposed to have an aide with them in the mainstream classroom or they were supposed to be in the II room doing their work. They had a behavioral intervention plan for each student.

I was not given this student’s BIP because his mother, a teacher in the district and at another site, did not want his medical diagnosis shared with his teachers. She also did not agree with it and refused to administer his medication at home. To be allowed at school, he had to take his meds. The year prior, he had beaten two students so severely, they were hospitalized for several weeks and one almost died. So his meds were administered at school. He did not take them on the weekends so on Mondays he was always exhibiting extreme behavior. It also turns out that at times the voices he heard told him the meds were poison so he would pretend to take them and then spit them out when the school nurse was not looking.

I knew he was supposed to have a BIP and I made several requests for it by email. I cced the requests to the vice-principal and the principal and never received a response. By state and federal law, I was supposed to be given the BIP and made aware of anything that could possibly endanger myself or my students. I was supposed to be informed that the previous year he went into a psychotic rage and nearly killed two students in his PE class and it took 4 PE teachers to pull him off of the student both times. It was after the second attack that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and placed in the II program and assigned an aide to be with him at all times.

Well, his case carrier let him go to his classes without an aide because none of the aides would deal with him. He had assaulted all of the aides that were available and so they refused to work with him. He was confined to the II room for the first 5 periods of the day. She sent him to my class 6th period because it was her prep period and she wanted a break. Since no aide would work with him, she did not send an aide with him, so I had to deal with him on my own. Of course I had no idea about the schizophrenia or that his constant talking was due to his talking to the voices of his imaginary friends that were real to him and that were telling him what to do.

One day those friends told him to beat the crap out of a female student that was half his size because she had disrespected him because she was looking at him funny. Of course she was at the back of the room and he was at the front and she wanted nothing to do with him. Nobody wanted to even talk to this kid. So he got up and walked back to her, and pulled her out of her seat and started beating her. When I got to her, he had her on the floor and she was in the fetal position. He was kicking her head repeatedly. I grabbed him in a bear hug from behind and walked him to the door. He was continuing to kick and so he and I went down. I just continued dragging him to the door and pulled him out the room. I left him outside and returned to the room and shut the door behind me. He was locked out side.

I called the office to come and get him and to send for paramedics for the girl. He spent the next 30 minutes pounding on the door and windows with his bare fists. He actually shattered several windows to the classroom. It took administrators 10 minutes to get to my classroom. They spent 20 minutes asking him to calm down and walk with them to the office. He charged them several times and hit and kicked them but they would not use any physical force to restrain him. Even after he broke the windows with his fists and cut his hands, they refused to restrain him. I finally had enough and called the police. They came and took him down and cuffed him. My principal was upset. But the paramedics were able to stop his bleeding before he bled out. Then they were able to treat the student he had kicked in the head several times. She had a severe concussion and needed medical attention now, not 30 minutes from now.

Of course in this day and age of cell phones, a few of my students filmed this. As allowed by state law, I confiscated the cell phones because filming inside of a classroom is a violation of state law, and filming fights is a suspendible behavior. I handed the phones to the admin and wrote the appropriate referrals.

The district policy is the admin is supposed to review all photos and videos with a parent present, copy any thing taken in a classroom then delete those images from the phone. Those copies are then saved as evidence for the basis of the suspension and depending on the severity of the offense and the number of previous offenses the student gets from 1 to 5 days of suspension. The phones do not get handed back under any circumstances until the videos are erased.

Well, the principal just handed them back immediately. I still wrote the referrals. I documented everything.

The next day. I get called to the office. I find the SRO wanting to interview me. I respectfully declined. I invoked my right to have an attorney present before answering any questions. I have attorneys for relatives and friends. When a police officer asks you a question about a situation you were involved in, they are not your friend. Anything you say can be used against you. You do not say anything without an attorney. What the officer did not say that I learned later was the father had filed a criminal complaint against me. The principal had encouraged him to do so. The problem was, he did not have custody of his son nor did he have legal educational rights. In fact, there was a restraining order prohibiting him from being on school grounds or within 1,000 feet of his son. Mom did not want to file a criminal complaint because she knew what would happen, absolutely nothing. She was a teacher and knew what the education code was.

In CA, a teacher may intervene to protect the safety of a student. So if it is mutual combat, I could legally intervene to prevent both students from harming each other. I am not legally required to but I can if I feel I can do so. If I am injured, I am covered by workman’s comp for injuries sustained in performing my duties. The top duty of any teacher is to ensure student safety. That takes a higher priority over teaching students. I have broken up fights before and have been injured and they have always been covered. I do it because I am a teacher and student safety is first.

The principal then filed an administrative action against me for violating the rights of a special education student. I did not follow his behavioral intervention plan. Had this been successful, I would have lost my job and my credential. This was made worse by the fact that the video taken by a student was posted to social media. It then made the local news.

Of course the story was one sided. I could not provide my side of the story. Anything I said would violate the student’s privacy rights under state and federal law. So, I was the teacher that assaults students for no reason. Nothing was said about the student that was on the floor, in the fetal position, having her head repeatedly kicked. Nothing was said about her traumatic brain injuries or the induced coma she was in for two weeks or her overwhelming fear of returning to the same school this monster of a student was at so she ended up transferring to a private school. By the way, this student who was the aggressor was never suspended because his special education rights were violated. He did this to at least 6 other students after this incident over the next 2 years and the district ended up paying out several millions to the parents of his victims. They finally got rid of the student by moving the program off of my campus to another one. This allowed them to fire this inept teacher. At the new campus, this student is confined to his II room and not allowed into any general education room. That principal has made sure of it. He has signed one school security officer to be with the student at all times.

My union would help pay for the legal defense, but only if I prevailed. So I did what was best for me, I hired the best attorney in the field of Education Administrative law. She has earned several awards and has won many cases that went all the way to the CA Supreme Court. I mortgaged my house and paid the retainer. I then shut up and let her talk for me.

My district told my principal to back down, she would lose. Since this was a legal action, I got a copy of all emails and I got this email. My principal did not realize I got this email and her response was she was not going to because I hurt a student and she needed to make an example of me. Their response was they would not pay for her legal costs, she was on her own and she had to pay for all of her attorney fees. They would not provide an attorney for her. She decided she did not need one. She went it alone. If you are dealing with a legal issue, never, ever appear before a judge without a competent attorney. If your boss tells you to drop it and you insist on following through on the legal action, it is a sign you are going to lose.

After 3 months, she lost. Then I took all the documentation of where she went wrong and filed suit. Then she realized she screwed up big time because the district told her to get her own attorney. She refused to settle out of court and so her costs went up and she lost. The district also lost because I went after them because she was their employee. I also went dad for his defamation and libel and filing a false police report. Because of the deep pockets law, I won an enforceable judgement against the district and the principal.

Now, as a teacher, I really do not want to take money from the education of students. So, I negotiated with the district. Since I won against the original criminal and administrative complaints against me, my union will cover much of the attorney’s fees for that. I also had to hire a criminal defense attorney. His bill was only $10,000 because he only had to file some paperwork with the DA to get the DA to make a decision to either charge me or drop it. The DA decided that at worse I was guilty of an infraction, and since I was protecting another student and had a strong defense that I was protecting her from certain death or permanent harm, what I did was legal, he would never consider filing charges because the case would be too weak and I would never be convicted. The district negotiated with the principal to cover my administrative attorney’s fee not covered by the union. This meant they told her they would withhold the money from her paycheck to pay my attorney or the principal would no longer have a job.

Then, the principal would buy 10 years of credit into my retirement plan with the state. This would come from her paycheck rather than from the district so students do not suffer. If she did not agree, she would not longer be working for the district. This will allow me to retire early and leave the state and seek employment outside of CA where education has not become so bad that the schools are run by the lowest common denominator and the students who want to learn and get an education are being left behind and whose safety is in danger every day.

In exchange, I signed a contract that I will never intervene in a fight. I will call the office and report it to an administrator. Last year, I had 8 fights in my classroom. Administrators are trained to not run to fights. They are supposed to walk because it demonstrates a calm response. My classroom is at the back of campus and it takes a minimum of 5 minutes to walk from the front to my room. The average administrative response time from the time I call to inform them there is a fight in my room to them actually arriving is 15 minutes. During that time I am supposed to evacuate the classroom of all students who are not participating and who will follow my directions. I have to supervise those students outside. The defiant students stay inside. Since I have done my duty, I am good. The students inside can hurt and maim each other all they want and they do. After the administrators arrive, a few ambulances are required.

The result, last May a police officer attempted to do CPR on a student that collapsed at lunch time. Other nearby students assumed the officer was assaulting the student or arresting the student and started a riot. They threw trash cans at that officer and the other responding officers that arrived within two minutes. The 4 administrators that arrived and told the students to disperse were ignored. The administrators sounded a lock-down and the students ignored it. They continue to attack the officer attempting CPR. The student died.

That student had tapped a mixture of pentyl and THC and she stopped breathing. It took 20 minutes for the police to to control the students, including arresting 30 of them, clearing the area enough to get the paramedics to the girl. They could not perform CPR during that time. The officer that tried to do CPR was taken to the hospital with a concussion after having two garbage cans slammed over his head.

Students learned if they fight the adults back down.

If I see a fight or a student assaulting another, I walk the other way. I am legal safe if I just call the office. If I intervene, I can lose everything. I can be sued, I can lose my job, I can lose my life savings. If I do nothing but just call the office, I am protected from all legal consequences. The worst that can happen is I get called to answer the questions from a few attorneys. I spend a few days at the district office with pay while talking to attorneys. I did that two months ago.

It went something like this. Did you see the fight. Yes. What did you do? I called the office to report it. Who did you report it to? I reported it to the attendance secretary who answered the phone and she said she would call security. I then waited in my room because I feared for my safety. I watched the fight through my classroom window. It took security 15 minutes to arrive.

Why did you not break up the fight? I did not feel I had the physical strength to do so without incurring injury to myself and I have a written contract with the school district stating I will not break up fights but will only report them to the administration because it is their job to break them up. Here is a copy of that contract.

The district hated that I brought that up but it gave me 100% legal cover. It was proof I did exactly what I was directed to do by a superior so they were 100% on the hook for my actions.

The truth is, your students are not as safe at school as district administrators want you to think.

Banana Custard Cobblers

2023 10 15 09 54
2023 10 15 09 54

Yield: 8 servingsIngredients

Custard

1 cup granulated sugar1/2 cup cornstarch8 large egg yolks3 cups whole milk1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise6 tablespoons (34 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature1/4 cup dark rum

Topping

3/4 cup all-purpose flour1/2 cup almonds6 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces3 bananas, thinly slicedInstructions

Custard
  • Whisk sugar, cornstarch and egg yolks in large bowl to blend.Bring milk and vanilla bean to boil in heavy large saucepan.Gradually whisk hot milk into egg yolk mixture; return mixture to saucepan. Whisk over medium-low heat until custard boils and thickens, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.Whisk in butter and rum. Cool slightly.Discard vanilla bean. Cover with plastic and refrigerate until cold. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated.)
  • Topping
  • Blend flour, almonds and brown sugar in processor to mix.
  • Add butter and process, using on/off turns, until coarse crumbs form. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Transfer to bowl; cover and chill.)Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.Place eight 1 cup ramekins or custard cups on baking sheet.Divide custard equally among ramekins, using about cup for each.Top each dessert with about 8 banana slices.Spoon topping over banana slices, dividing equally.Bake cobblers until topping is golden brown, about 15 minutes.Remove from oven and cool slightly, about 15 minutes.Serve warm.
  • What was a big mistake in WW2?

    Originally Answered: What was big mistake in WW2?

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    image 127

    This is the Lorenz cipher.

    Unlike its better known relative, the Enigma machine which was infamously deciphered by code-breakers at Bletchley Park throughout the war, the Lorenz cipher posed a much greater challenge. Utilising 12 wheels to scramble up the message being sent as opposed to the 3 or 4 rotors found in the Enigma machine, the Lorenz cipher was incredibly secure. As a result, unlike the Enigma that was used by the German standard armed forces, the Lorenz cipher was used only by high command with messages coming from Hitler himself. As a result, to crack the Lorenz cipher (or Tunny as it was code named by the British) would have the potential to change the course of the war.

    Not much headway had been made in breaking the Lorenz cipher through the war until a German operator made a catastrophic mistake on 30 August 1941. When a German receiving operator did not receive a message correctly, he asked the transmitter to resend the information and despite clear protocol against it, the two operators resent the message without changing their key settings (the settings that determine how the text is scrambled up). However since the message in question was 4000 characters long, the lazy German operator abbreviated several words, thus changing the length of the message. Since their key settings were both the same, the two messages had the same scrambling pattern of characters. Thus by comparing the locations where the message text changed, details of the way the rotors worked could be determined.

    These two messages were intercepted by the British who soon realised the importance of what they had discovered. This task of cracking Tunny was given to W T (Bill) Tutte who began to find repetitions in the cipher which allowed him to reverse engineer the Lorenz machine’s logical structure in what would be later described as “one of the greatest intellectual feats of World War II”. In order to support the painstaking decryption of German messages, the British Colossus was built in 1943 by Tommy Flowers, the first ever modern computer.

    image 126
    image 126

    The Colossus Machine

    The impact of the decryption of Tunny was enormous. It gave the British intimate details of Hitler’s most secret communications which was most notably vital in D Day where the Allies were able to deceive the Germans that they were going to attack at Calais as opposed to Normandy and at the Battle of Kursk in 1943, Germany’s last ditch attempt to reverse their fortunes on the Eastern Front and one of the largest battles in history. Involving 3 million men, without foreknowledge of German planning provided by the British, the Soviets would have been badly prepared defensively and could have lost this crucial battle and as a result, the war would’ve been prolonged. In fact, historians estimate that the breaking of the Lorenz cipher shortened the war by two years and thus saved millions of lives all due to the careless mistake of two lazy German operators.

    However this pivotal event is not well known due to the Official Secrets Act keeping the nature of the code breakers working to break the Lorenz cipher secret until 1974 and some former staff even today still refuse to break their vow of secrecy, preferring to take their knowledge to the grave.

    image 125
    image 125

    W T (Bill) Tutte, the man responsible for cracking the Lorenz Cipher

    Sweet cat is trying desperately to fit in, find a home

    Gaza nightmare

    Some disturbing stuff going down right now. The idiots in Washington DC are Hell-bent on war, and all of us are feeling like we are trapped in some kind of cage lashed to the back of a speeding car driven by a madman.

    The West has gone completely koo-koo.

    No shit.

    In case you all haven’t noticed, I am not “reporting” or commenting on the insanity of the Middle East. It’s all a cluster fuck that I want no part of.

    Today…

    What is the smartest thing you have seen a lawyer do in court?

    How about the Judge?

    A long time ago, I owned one of the first Honda Accords. I had bought it new in 1977, and around 1984, the engine had a very bad oil burning problem. I was pulled over by a Metro Toronto Police constable, who gave me the choice of a ticket for “excessive smoking” or a visit to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment testing centre.

    I chose the test, filled the engine with 50 w oil and while there was no smoke, the rest of the needles went fully to the right. Busted.

    I was given a chance for a repeat, but knowing I would fail that one also, I put the car on the driveway, pulled the plates and used a borrowed vehicle. About a month after the missed test, a summons came in the mail to appear at the Provincial court one morning in the not too distant future.

    I showed up early, and approached the clerk to find out where I should be and when. They never tell you that on the summons, just to appear. While talking the the clerk, a man walked up and was dealing with another of the clerks. I asked the clerk I was talking to “what the fine would be” if convicted. She didn’t know, and man beside me became interested in the matter. I had no idea who he was, but we kind of looked at the summons and neither of us could see anything about a fine. There was a little conversation; I assumed he was a lawyer, and we had a friendly chat. Court was starting shortly, and the fellow left, so I also went inside, told the bailiff I was there – important to do so, otherwise they might not call you for hours – and sat down.

    At the stroke of 10:00 am, someone says “all rise” and in walks the Judge, the fellow I was talking to at the desk. Before the proceedings began, the Judge asked me if I had received an answer from the clerk. I told him that I had not, and then the proceedings began.

    The Crown (prosecutor) presents the charge, an environmental offence, which he obviously felt was on par with burning down a forest or killing baby seals. Looking very smug, he sat down.

    I am called forth, and I told the Judge that yes, the car had failed, but it was off the road and here are the license plates in my hand proving that it was no longer driving or polluting.

    The Judge then asked the Crown what the minimum fine was for such an offence. The Crown responded that “the Ministry has a range up to $5000 for such an offence and the usual fine is this case would be $100.”

    The Judge asked again about the minimum fine and the Crown repeated his same line. The Judge then asked “so there is no minimum fine?”

    The Crown sheepishly answered “No sir” and the Judge turned to me and asked “the car is off the road?” and I responded affirmatively, at which point he said the charges were dropped as the intent of the law was to keep polluting vehicles off the road and obviously this had happened. Case dismissed!

    I can’t say for sure, but there was a bit of smile from my new friend on the bench as I walked out of the court.

    The smartest lawyer in the room was the Judge.

    What are the best socializing tips that are not said but everyone should practice?

    I couldn’t unsee it.

    We’d just celebrated a diversity milestone as part of our quarterly meeting. It was one of those corporate cheerleading events where I stood in the back resisting the painful urge to roll my eyes.

    “We are far more than a team of coworkers,” the CEO said, gesturing wide with his arms to the crowd, “We are a family.”

    He was such a phony. The summit concluded and I went to the lunchroom. Right as I walked in, I stopped in the doorway and noticed something obvious that I hadn’t noticed before this diversity meeting.

    All the white people were at their tables. All the black employees sat at another set of tables. Three Asian ladies sat at another. It was like we were living in the 1950s. And it wasn’t confined to this office. I still see this trend so often when I walk through malls, or along the sidewalk.

    A similar phenomenon was observed on the set of Planet Of The Apes in 1968. The director noticed that during lunch, the people dressed as gorillas sat with other gorillas, chimps with chimps, and humans with humans. He described feeling a chill in the air and wondered if we were already in a dystopian sci-fi future. It even happened on the set of Babylon 5. People self-segregated according to their alien skin color.

    This trend has long predated echo chambers, and it’s detrimental to your growth.

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    image 116

    The closed network problem

    The trend is called homophily, where we magnetize towards clusters of people similar to us. Race isn’t the only sorting mechanism. People sort by social class, age, political ideology, and even the type of music they listen to. And the unfortunate result is that we often live in a “closed network”. We sort ourselves into increasingly tight homogeneous groups.

    A closed network forms in these four steps and I suspect you’ll be able to think of a few examples as you read this (I certainly did):

    image 74
    image 74

    Putting all moral platitudes aside, social diversity has great predictive qualities for your career and life.

    Count on one hand your closest friends. I’d bet that for many of you — they are pretty similar to you across a few demographic touchpoints. It’s no fault to you. This happens naturally, but you can disrupt this habit.

    By mixing up your friend group, you are exposed to ideas different than your own and stretch your thinking. Your professional network also becomes much more potent, which is especially important: Within 10 years of graduation, a majority of people won’t work in the area they majored in.

    Beware of gatekeeping your network

    My ex’s family was deeply conservative — which is fine on its own. People are entitled to their beliefs. But this was often a barrier to who could spend time with them.

    They were constantly sizing people up and figuring out their political opinions to determine if they were friend-material. Many people do this without realizing it. These parents were just explicit about it and they had a very small town syndrome (cliquey behavior, when you forget there is an entire world outside of your own).

    This introduces the other pesky problem. It’s not all that easy to make friends — especially as we get older. So what next? There are a few solutions.

    A route out of Cloneville

    I moved 15 times before I turned 18. I lived in California, DC, Florida, Virginia Beach, North Carolina — and every new batch of people was so different than the next. I went to an all white, deeply conservative private school in 9th grade, a liberal high school in Coronado. I was one of the only white kids at an inner city middle school in DC. It wasn’t always easy.

    Every summer, I waited for the talk. My mom or dad would come to my bedroom and tell me we were moving and how I was going to love this new school and place. Early on, I realized implicitly, “OK. I need to learn to make new friends.”

    I was a new 5th grader at Linkhorn Elementary. We had a substitute teacher who happened to be gorgeous. She was passing out quiz papers. Before she passed out each quiz, she did that thing where she licked her finger to grip the paper.

    After she handed me my quiz, I looked across the table at a classmate Joe and say, “Hey Joe! Pssst.”

    He turned to me and I pretended to lick my finger and put it down to my thigh and made a hissing sound, like bacon hitting the frying pan. It was a corny joke — but it made Joe laugh and we were instantly friends. And from there, I learned that humor was one quick path to win anyone over.

    Often, it’s less about how funny a joke is — and more about the energy it establishes. It signals, “I want to play.” Think about how a dog plants his chest down to the ground while keeping his hind legs standing to get another dog to play with him. This is the human equivalent.

    It says, “I like you. Let’s have fun.”

    “What if I’m not that funny?”

    An even better solution that is painfully overlooked is to smile. Researchers have proven that smiles motivate people to interact with you. They are seen as a “prosocial invitation”. Stand upright and give them a quick, natural smile right when you spot them. It signals you are excited to see them.

    After getting to know so many types of people, I’ve realized most people just want to be accepted as a complicated human being. And if you are just nice to them, and seem happy to see them and talk to them — you’ve nearly won the battle already.

    When you go to your lunchroom, consider sitting with a new group of people. Don’t be afraid to talk to someone who looks different than you.

    There’s a concept called contact hypothesis whereby tension between groups is reduced when they are brought together and interact. It promotes trust and reduces stereotyping. It reminds two different people that they’re both human beings. But the only way to make different types of friends is to actually spend time with people who are different from you.

    One of my close friends couldn’t be more different from me. His political views and background are a full 180. But we are both fully candid about our opinions and thoughts, and know we can do so without fear of judgement or being disliked. Sure, he says crazy stuff sometimes but that’s fine. He’s still my friend. He’s taught me a few things about the world and changed a few of my opinions, and I’d like to think the reverse is true.

    My hope, is that in a world that is so divided, more people from different walks of life can share the same path. They’d expand their own perspectives. They’d have more love and understanding, and more career opportunities.

    And it would save us from being fenced in with our own. Closed networks beget closed minds.

    Quite an intriguing visual.

    image 115
    image 115
    • Brazil was inches away from recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital not very long ago, mind you.
    • Surprising split in South America nonetheless, you’d imagine they’d have a uniform stance like they had for Ukraine.
    • A sea of yellow in Asia with only the usual suspects in blue but hey there’s someone new this time!
    • India’s position sits perfectly with our new found friends and within our domestic political landscape but ought to disappoint the fellow global southerners. But tbf, it is not to be construed as a paradigm shift in our policy, our Ministry of External Affairs clarified our two state stance on Palestine only yesterday, rather bad memories getting rekindled.
    • Nepal lost about a dozen citizens to Hamas’ attack. Poor folks go under the radar and didn’t even get sufficient coverage.
    • Irans sphere of influence, man, from Caspian Sea to Red Sea. Bush what have you done?
    • This is a map from TRT— Türkiye’s state run broadcaster. Interesting that they construe Erdogan’s position as call for de-escalation.
    • Sudan’s case is the perfect microcosm of the viability of normalisation deals that Israel is pursuing. You try so hard and get so far, and then a coup happens.
    • Morocco, UAE understandable, but Saudi and Pakistan? Who would have thought? Not me. Only 2% of Saudis are in favour of normalisation, I wonder if that matters at all. And 2% would be too high a number for Pakistanis.
    • Those who follow Bangladesh’s politics ought to find Bangladesh’s silence intriguing, if not outright discombobulating, especially with Hasina up for election soon and US breathing down her neck (yeah, not making this up, US is the biggest threat to Hasina’s re-election).
    • I don’t get Mexico’s neutrality, they don’t even recognise Palestine.
    • I don’t get New Zealand’s contrarian take either. What gives? I imagined if anyone from the West was going to have a contrarian take it would be Norway. The right is on the rise in Norway, left rules New Zealand, perhaps that explains?
    • Ghana coming all out to condemn Hamas? With a similar religious demography split like India, I wonder if there’s domestic political considerations involved.
    • Foreign policy really is domestic politics with its hat on.
    • Given that Indonesia’s support will be construed differently then Iran’s support, Venezuela joins the “axis of evil”. But in all fairness they joined the club previously after Ukraine invasion.
    • DPRK has been silent?
    • What explains the silence of that many African countries? None of our business paradigm?

    Putin tells it like it is…

    Fudge Cobbler

    chocolate cobbler 2 pn
    chocolate cobbler 2 pn

    Yield: about 9 servings

    Ingredients

    • 1/2 cup butter
    • 1 (1 ounce) square unsweetened baking chocolate
    • 1 cup granulated sugar
    • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • 2 eggs, beaten
    • Vanilla ice cream (garnish)

    Instructions

    1. Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease an 8 inch square baking dish.
    2. Melt the chocolate and the butter in a saucepan over very low heat. Stir often. Remove from the heat.
    3. Stir in the sugar, flour, vanilla extract and eggs.
    4. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish.
    5. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes.
    6. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

    What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

    Everyone in the office was paid on an hourly basis and it was each person’s responsibility to keep track of how many hours they worked each day on a paper time sheet. At the end of each week each employee turned in their time sheet to their supervisor who would sign them and then give the to HR so everyone can get paid for the hours they worked. In practice, everyone showed up each day, did their work, wrote down”8 hours” on their time sheet and went home. Everyone was happy.

    Then along came a new guy in management who stated that nobody was actually keeping track of their hours and just writing down what HR wanted to see. This meant that the company was losing money and productivity from people not working a full day but being paid for it. So he instituted a new digital time sheet system where each person had to log their times in and out on their computers and the system would track how many hours each of us worked.

    What the company discovered was that everyone tended to come into work 10–15 minutes early, hardly ever took a full hour for lunch and often stayed 10–15 minutes late to get their work done. Thanks to the new time sheet system every employee was now getting paid for all that overtime they had been working but not tracking. This affected the company because it was added payroll expense that wasn’t budgeted. So management put out a new rule that nobody would be allowed to work any overtime without written permission from their supervisor and HR. So everyone was very diligent to log in and out exactly in time.

    Except now productivity had fallen because nobody was working those extra minutes each day, which multiplied over all staff added up to an extra 60 hours per week of work. The company ended up needing to hire two more people to make up that productivity.

    After Huawei released Kirin 9000S, Biden revised the bill: banning China from owning high-end chips.

    So China cannot make their own, if they do, they will violate American law.

    Malaysia’s switch to a dual 5G network will allow for more effective participation by China’s Huawei – PM Anwar

    Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Wednesday the country’s switch to a dual 5G network will allow for more effective participation by China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

    Malaysia in May had said it would allow a second 5G network to operate from next year, following concerns over a monopoly held by a single state-run network.

    The European Union and the U.S. had warned Malaysia of risks to national security and foreign investment amid efforts by Huawei to bid for a role in its telecoms infrastructure.

    Anwar on Wednesday acknowledged concerns from some countries over the “security and capacity” of technology stemming from China, but said the decision to allow a second 5G network was made so that Malaysia could benefit from different technologies.

    “We in Malaysia… and I believe rightly, decided that while we get the best from the West, we also should benefit the best from the East,” he told an event hosted by Huawei in Kuala Lumpur.

    “After extensive discussion… we made the decision to allow for a dual network, and thus the decision for more effective participation by Huawei.”

    Malaysia had in 2021 unveiled a plan for a state-owned agency, Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB), to own the full 5G spectrum, with various carriers using the infrastructure to provide mobile services, but the plan had come under industry criticism over pricing and competition.

    State-run DNB partnered with Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson to roll out Malaysia’s 5G network. It is unclear how Malaysia’s plan for a second network would affect DNB’s agreement with Ericsson or other mobile operators.

    WHAT THESE FILIPINAS CAN OFFER TO THEIR PASSPORT BROS!

    Three chicks talking.

    How do expats view other expats in China?

    I really don’t like most western expats in China.

    They are generally ignorant about China and Chinese, and conversations about China are very shallow and full of misconceptions. It is not worth my time to correct those misperceptions, and there is no reward for doing it.

    Chinese are much fun and interesting, and even if they have silly ideas, they are often entertaining. Most importantly, they know the local restaurants and dishes, and can introduce me to some dish I have never had before. Unlike for most westerners, dining out is a social event, not just filling the tummy.

    What was a gift that made you speechless?

    I was age 14 in the early 1960s and living with a family who had one child around my age. On my 14th birthday, my mother said I needed to pay room and board. I decided to pay for a room in other homes where there was no violence. My rapidly increasing scoliosis was becoming a problem. I had three jobs to pay room and board — (1) feeding and washing people in a nursing home and doing laundry), (2) babysitting at the country club 1.5 miles away, and (3) stocking shelves in a dry goods store. I made $29.00 a week. My room and board was $28.00 a week. I went to high school about three days a week.

    I was happy with this family. The father was Welsh and sang Welsh songs every Friday night as he walked home from the Legion. The mother was one of the cafeteria ladies at the high school. They were good to me.

    Then one day, the father came home with an envelope and pulled out a Beatles ticket and handed it to his daughter.

    And then he handed another ticket to me.

    TO ME!

    It cost $15.00. I told him it would take me years to pay him back. If I didn’t buy shampoo, pads, or deodorant, it would take me 15 months to repay him. The father disregarded this idea with a flick of his hand and a Welsh phrase I didn’t understand.

    The father drove us the 80 miles to the venue, let us off and circled the building during the performance and was right there when it was finished. Not only that, but the man put up with us singing Beatles songs all the way home. We were not good singers.

    Even now, decades later (and I am a retired person), whenever I do something nice for someone, I think, ‘this is for you, John Cooper, this one is for you.’

    I carry such lightweight debts with me.

    Pepe Escobar: China Has DEFEATED the Neocon Agenda as US War Fails Before It Starts

    I don’t expect Xi or Putin to meet with Biden. He doesn’t make the decisions.

    This is really, really, REALLY good.

    Do you think Huawei can produce smartphones with advanced chips in large volume despite the US claims that Huawei may violate trade restrictions?

    LOL, this is China.

    If they know how to do something, they automatically know how to do it at scale.

    This is a country that builds entire new cities at one go. They produce 600,000 engineers per year. They make four out of every five solar panels in the world. They can build a 57-storey skyscraper in 19 days, and as we saw during the covid-19 pandemic, a brand new hospital in 10 days. They are the world’s biggest factory.

    If they know how to make one Huawei Mate 60, they already know how to make 100 million Huawei Mate 60s.

    China does not know how to think SMALL. It is unnatural and weird for them to think on a small scale. China has cities with populations larger than countries such as Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, even Australia. Thinking big is China’s default mentality.

    New round of US sanctions started against Huawei! U.S. tech war enters stage 2.0!

    In this episode, we dive into the latest updates on the potential second round of sanctions by the United States on Huawei. Huawei, the Chinese tech giant, unveiled its new smartphone, the Mate 60 Pro, sparking intrigue amidst ongoing U.S.-China tech tensions.

    These cutting-edge smartphones, powered by 7-nanometer chips from China’s SMIC, bring 5G connectivity to the forefront.

    The implications of this move are significant, causing a reevaluation of the technology blockade against Huawei and even calls for a complete halt to technology exports. We also explore China’s efforts to boost its self-sufficiency in chip production and navigate U.S. export restrictions.

    https://youtu.be/CI-ZOcv2CaI

    What sort of sexism do most women face in the workplace?

    I generally like my employer.

    But the worst part of my job is that I occasionally have to be the “male voice”.

    One of my female colleagues will refer a call to me to tell a caller about some iron clad policy we have that we can never, ever overlook.

    I am on the same pay level as all of them. I am not the manager. I often work in a different department. I am, however, the only one of this fairly large group of people that is male.

    I tell them the iron clad policy. They shut up. End of story.

    Part of the problem is that the engineering profession is still about 80% male, and so is the applicant base. They are not used to being told “no” by someone who isn’t male. It’s not like it’s just immigrants either.

    Here’s the irony. The second highest ranking staff member, and the person two steps above me, is a woman. She’s had to put up with it too.

    But I will tell you about my ex-colleague, boss and PEO president. She left her position as my boss to take on a five year position at the university she was hired by to get female enrollment in the engineering program up to 40%. It took her one year and she shot past the 40% goal to boot. Then she went to another university and did the same thing.

    China’s LATEST Hypersonic Drone Can Destroy US F35 Stealth Fighter in Seconds

    China’s hypersonic program has emerged as one of the biggest and heavily advanced sectors of the nation. In this remarkable sector, the PLA boasts having a drone in its arsenal which is capable of reaching hypersonic speeds and destroying world renowned stealth fighters that have dominated the aerial warfare sector for years. Today’s episode is covering China’s hypersonic drone and how it can be used to destroy US Stealth fighters.

    Why is Quora full of Westerners who praise China?

    Many of the westerners have been to China, like it, and see a lot of criticism of China in the western media which is based on planted information and is basically untrue, in order to drive western public opinion against China.

    These westerners try to compensate for this distorted view by praising China. Their intention is to restore balance in how China is viewed.

    Unfortunately, the western view of China has become so distorted that it is impossible to have a balanced view of China: either it is completely bad, or it is good.

    A balanced view of China would say that there are many good things about China, and there are some bad things as well.

    China is just like the US: it is just another country and society, each facing its own set of challenges.

    What is the most satisfying thing you have done to someone who blocked your driveway?

    I live in Northern Maine. My property borders a state park/forest. The state forest has a parking lot you need to pay to park in the lot although the park/forest is free to enter. Alot of people will park along the main road and walk into the park. my property is on a side road that is beside the park the park entrance is 2 mile up the main road from my road.

    Some park/forest visitors have taken to pulling down my road and parking on my property and hiking across my property to enter the park. they block driveways and the road with poor parking abilities. Some pull into driveways.

    My property is a farm I have many driveways used by tractors and equipment to enter the feilds for feeding livestock and tending crops. All driveways are gated (keep livestock in feilds and out of crops)

    One group of annoying tourists pulled up in 3 vehicles (2 rvs and a 12–15 passenger van) All had New York plates. they pulled in blocking the access to the feilds and began hiking across my feilds. I caught up to them and informed them that they would be towed if they did not move the vehicles. The leader of the group told me to f-off while giving a one finger salute. I watched as they walked away across the feild. once they entered the park/forest I went to my equipment barn got my large green and yellow tractor hooked up a slurry spreader tank and drove over to the slurry bin and filled the tank. ( Slurry is cow manure that is mixed with water to make it able to spray) I adjusted the spray bar and drove over near the area and sprayed liquified manure (did not spay any on the vehicles) just near the road along the fence a nice heavy thick layer then sprayed more along the area they entered the forest. Since it was 85 degrees outside the smell would bake in the sun to keep it fresh I placed a water tank and sprayer/ sprinkler nearby and set the timers to run for 5 minutes every hour. After 4 hours I called and had the vehicles towed.

    They returned and found me spraying slurry in my feilds as they walked across the feilds the slurry is sticking to the shoes (most wearing sandles or flip flops – Nothing like the feeling of liquid poop between the toes) They find the vehicles gone and ask me where they are. I tell them where the inpound lot is and inform them that as they exit onto the main road they should stop and read the large SIGN that says private road. I called the police who informed them that they could walk to impound as it was 20–30 minute walk down the road.

    I would imagine that they found out that the oder of sun baked slurry permeates into things. (they left the widows open on the vehicles) and with what was on the shoes it must have been an interesting ride back to New York.

    Josep Borell, EU foreign policy chief, accuses China of treating Europe as a US puppet. How can this perception on the part of the Chinese be changed?

    The problem with the EU is Josep the Chief Diplomat’s words do not represent the cohesive attitude, or indeed, policy decisions of the EU towards China. EU member states hold even more divergent and polarizing attitudes.

    The fact of the matter is, the G7 does not have a China seat, but the EU gets its own seat, on top of individual EU members. The currencies of these nations power the global financial market, while the yuan issued by the world’s No. 2 economy is an afterthought in BIS reports.

    Senior figures in the EU have repeatedly made rude and damaging attacks on China and Chinese interests, including the core issue of Greater China sovereignty. Entities and individuals have been sanctioned, just like their American counterparts, whose actions they mirrored.

    Nord Stream is a key European infrastructure that cost billions to build. After it was bombed, the lack of condemnation for an act of war is curious, to say the least. Government findings were blocked from release, while there remains a shocking lack of blowback and demand for accountability in the press.

    The EU-CHINA CAI, which is tilted in Europe’s favor, is also dead in the water, after 10 years of painstaking negotiation securing an agreement in principle. EU leaders are complaining about lack of market access in China, when it is self-inflicted.

    There is also the issue of the EC, with Ursula completely at odds with Josep’s conciliatory, if shaky, diplomacy. She was given the cold shoulder on a recent visit to Beijing as Emmanuel’s invited partner. The message was clear. She wasn’t the guest invited by the Chinese state.

    Who represents the EU? Who has the authoritative voice that can be trusted? How has the EU demonstrated long-term policy independence from the US?

    Wang Yi, and before him, Yang Jiechi, have had regular hours-long closed door conversations with Jake, the National Security Advisor. Jake is 46, and not even elected, but he has access to top Chinese leadership that the EU can only dream of, because he is the personal envoy of Joe.

    Do we really have to spell out who calls the shots in NATO, which is tied at the umbilical with the EU power structure?

    As the Cantonese say, 画公仔唔使画出肠。

    Israel Conflict Just Became Scarier And Weird!

    Yes. Too odd. For certain.

    How does culture influence human behavior?

    During a 10-hour flight, she was heading from Seoul, Korea, to San Francisco, USA. This mother distributed more than 200 passengers on the plane a plastic bag for each one. The bag contains candy, chewing gum and earplugs as a kind of advance apology for using them in the event that her 4-month-old baby screamed during the flight.

    The bag also contained a message containing (hello, I am Jan Woo. I am 4 months old and today I’m traveling America with my mom and grandmother for my aunt’s outfit. I’m a little nervous and scared. This is my first flight in my life. It’s normal for me to cry or cause some disturbance. I’ll try to stay calm, but I can’t promise you. Please use it if my voice gets too loud.. Enjoy your trip. Thank you)

    A culture of respecting the freedom of others…

    Is China still a communist country? Can we say that the rivalry between the US and China is the ideology conflict?

    Not at all.

    Communism and Marxism is hardly an issue to the U.S. with Vietnam that the U.S. is courting shamelessly and Saudi Arabia a Islamic Monarchy hardly liberal democracy but does it bother Uncle Sam for the last half a century?

    For me it is as simple as China cannot be made submissive and subservient to the U.S. that is all to it. And worst China is simply a lot lot more efficient and effective than the U.S. can ever be! In fact China has a better human rights record than the U.S. anyway! That perturb the US to no end.

    But what is worst for the U.S. Is 150–175 nations out of the world’s 195 nation prefers Chinese and China way and none in the global south wants anything to do with Uncle Sam. They find them obnoxious and despicable. To me this is not due to China at all but due to the shit U.S. did to the world since 1945.

    I know Americans who are mostly highly naive and hugely made ignorant to think the U.S. media or government is well liked by the world. But in truth it couldn’t be further than the truth!

    Abusing nations has consequences, bullying nations turned them off, arbitrary sanctions puts nations off, they will hedge, they will stop letting you fxxk them! It does not matter what your media lies and your propaganda says. The world is no fool!

    Just figure this. US the biggest murdering nation telling China in Alaska about human rights! Is totally laughable and utterly ridiculous! Chinese officials told Blinken save the advise for your dogs and slave vassal nations!

    The “American Dream” is actual Slavery (It’s all a Lie)

    Harsh truth about the United States. Soak it in.

    What’s the dumbest thing your boss has gotten mad at you for?

    I was an admin assistant at a department at my local university. I was just about to clock off and make my way home in a wild windstorm that eventually knocked down 20,000 trees across the city when for some reason I decided to check one of the grad student offices and discovered that the skylight had blown off, exposing multiple desks and computers, some of them running data, to the elements. I called the relevant campus department and was told that restoring electricity and clearing roads and whatnot took priority, and they likely wouldn’t get to replacing the skylight (which I’d located, but lacked the strength and roof access to lug it up myself) until the next day at the earliest. So I cracked open the earthquake kit and rigged, using tarps and duct tape, a patch, then moved, ever so carefully so as not to accidentally disconnect the computers, all six desks away from the skylight shaft, in case my patch failed.

    This all took about four hours past my usual knock-off time. Everyone was really glad I’d taken the time and initiative to do it, but my supervisor refused even to consider giving me time off in lieu for those four hours because she hadn’t pre-approved them, never mind that, in those pre-cell days, I’d had no way of reaching her. So I appealed to the department head, who overrode her. She was livid, and thereafter made my life so miserable that I leapt at the first decent opportunity to leave.

    If universal healthcare is actually cheaper than our current system and covers everybody. Why not just do it?

    I’m a retired US citizen who moved to Uruguay in 2015 after spending my entire working career in “Corporate America”.

    It’s entertaining to read discussions about the possibility of implementing Universal Healthcare in the United States.

    It will NEVER happen. It’s 1000% impossible. The reason? Health insurance companies.

    The concept of Universal Healthcare does not involve insurance companies. There is no need for a bloated middleman.

    There are 563,366 Health & Medical Insurance Employees in the US, costing approximately $50 billion annually.

    These companies would have to be closed, freeing up all this cash for actual medical care, instead of bloat.

    The main problems with the US Healthcare system are listed below. None of these problems exist with Universal Healthcare.

    • Greedy Health insurance companies run by highly-paid executives.
    • High-paid pharmaceutical & insurance company lobbyists.
    • Greedy congressmen who take millions of dollars in bribes annually.
    • Expensive TV commercials pushing expensive drugs.
    • Doctors who earn outrageous salaries to pay for outrageously expensive college educations with insane education loans.
    • Outrageous malpractice lawsuit settlements, requiring doctors to carry outrageous liability insurance.
    • People with no medical knowledge make decisions about whether a patient can have a medical procedure, overruling the attending physician.

    Now, with the outsourcing of call centers, people with no medical knowledge in Jamaica, India, and Pakistan make those decisions.

    Here are some typical costs in Uruguay:

    • Office visit: US $8.00
    • ER visit: US $ 10.00
    • House call: US $12.00.
    • Electrolyte blood analysis: US $7.11.
    • Cerebral CT Scan: US $23.29

    If you call an ambulance, it arrives with a full-fledged MD, not an EMT.

    Before I turned 70 years of age, I paid around US $55 per month for health coverage.

    Now I pay around US $70 per month. For that, I get totally free hospital stays and all costs are free, including hospital stay, surgery, medications, doctor care, and nursing care. When you check out, regardless of what was done or how long you were hospitalized, you pay nothing.

    The monthly cost for my cancer medication is around US $2.50. The same medication in the US is around $500.00.

    Here are the main reasons everything is so cheap:

    No claims to file

    No EOB

    No Deductible

    No Out-of-Pocket

    No Coinsurance

    No Allowed amount

    No Benefit period

    No Preauthorization

    Sincerely, A Tax Payer

    “It sucks being poor…”

    Can China manufacture semiconductor chips and create a rival to Intel, Apple, TSMC, and NVIDIA?

    It’s been proven China can with Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro.

    Chinese companies can rival the giant U.S. tech companies like Intel, Apple and Nvidia but what takes time is building up the ecosystem to make this possible. Thousands of companies make up the support system that manufactures and supports the tools and machines for the manufacturing processes of semiconductors.

    The most critical of these companies are in the design (specifically EDA tools) and packaging (chiplets) processes, as well as the lithography machines for the making of the chip itself. There are now Chinese companies with the leading edge (or close to) technologies to rival industry leaders.

    Just as critical is the consolidating of resources and capabilities to have the companies to ensure adequate supply of legacy chips. These are actually the more important players because they make up 90% of demand.

    U.S. sanctions have forced China to come up with its own self-siufficient semiconductor indiustry.

    If the average Chinese person supports 1 party rule and the average American supports democracy, how can we determine who is correct?

    Chinese don’t necessarily support single party rule; they support a strong central government to maintain order.

    Whether it is single party or not is secondary.

    In today’s China, it is led by a single party, but it is much more than any western political party because it has 100M members who meet monthly to discuss local, provincial and central government issues, and how to solve them.

    Do the Republican and Democratic parties ask their members to meet monthly to discuss how to solve social issues? I think not.

    My point is not that one system is better than another, but they are very different, and talking about the ruling party in China being the same as the political parties in the US is silly and ridiculous, because China developed according to its historical conditions, and the US developed according to its historical conditions.

    As Everyone’s Lοοking At Ιsrael, Something Τruly Unbelievable Has Begun Ιn America

    Very interesting.

    He’s saying that (it’s official) World War III is on-line.

    https://youtu.be/DA3aRJrAyOo

    Why is it NOT a good idea for an American White woman to marry a Middle Eastern Muslim man?

    I did it. I regretted it.

    People are imbued with cultural and religious ideas they don’t even recognize and simply take for granted.

    I, an American, was imbued with the idea “I am my husband’s equal. In marriage we will have the same freedoms and similar expectations of each other. I would never shout at him for wearing shorts, so of course he will not do that to me. I don’t consider cooking his job, so I am sure he won’t consider it my job. I would always discuss a big purchase with him – and naturally he will give me the same respect.”

    That sense of equality and “Don’t treat your spouse in a way you don’t want to be treated yourself” was my cultural norm.

    I found that my husband had absolutely no cultural or religious norm of equality. He absolutely was willing to treat me in ways he would hate to be treated himself. He did not think a woman deserved what a man deserves.

    He found it absolutely normal to expect control over me, and be resentful thst I didn’t make his life as comfortable as he believed a man’s life should be. He was constantly looking at the very unequal marriages of his (Muslim Arab) friends and resenting me for not being a submissive woman who cooked and cleaned and expected nothing but money from him.

    My husband and I are in the same profession. I worked longer hours than him. I was also the one who was sometimes pregnant or recovering from childbirth.

    But he could not appreciate me. He had a cultural and religious idea in his head : a man should come home from work and be catered to. Clean house, good food, obedient wife who wears certain clothes and lets her husband forbid her from certain activities or friends that do not please him. The man should be comfortable, should be served, should have things his way. (It is similar to the relationship between a dog owner and his dog. They love each other – but the owner does not think the dog should share in decisions or come and go as it pleases. A dog is expected to be happy being owned and trained and played with.)

    My husband started off claiming he would love me forever.

    It did not last.

    But his cultural ideas of what a man is owed and how a wife must serve — those ideas will last in him forever.

    What is wrong with American politicians’ fascination with Huawei?

    Let’s answer this question using 5 Low IQ positions that the US politicians are taking –

    Low IQ action 1 – Raimondo threatens Huawei before her China trip. She is simply arrogant and lacks intelligence. Who in the right mind threatens someone’s kid before visiting their home?

    Low IQ action 2 – It is simply embarrassing to see a country using full state resources to bring down a private company. You brought an army to a fist fight and didn’t knock your much smaller opponent out!

    Low IQ action 3 – The Western chips companies are making large profits selling products to China. And you stopped the sales and force your biggest customer to make their own?

    Low IQ action 4 – You give billions of dollars of subsidies to your own chip companies to build factories. But you stop the demand from your top customer. So where are US companies gonna sell their excess chips to?

    Low IQ action 5 – You take away Huawei’s access to Google and they went to develop their own operating system to threaten Google’s and Microsoft’s future dominance. You like shooting your own foot?

    Irish Girl Watches MISTER ROGERS For The First Time

    Oh nostalgia tv, except I don’t know who Mister Rogers is. I’ve always heard the name Mister Rogers as a reference in American tv and films but this Irish Girl had no idea who that was. Join me on a very emotional journey as I watch Fred Rogers first through last tv appearance, see him sing “I like you just as you are” and “ it’s a wonderful day in the neighbourhood” Mister Rogers Neighbourhood. Couldn’t we all do with some nice insight from a Fred Rogers right now.

    What was your experience like when you realized that life outside of the United States was better than inside it?

    I was in the US Army stationed in Germany for 3 and half years… Just turned 18. During this time I never took leave and went back. Travelled all over Europe! In Germany, I drunk my first beer, had my first kiss, and my first Girlfriend, was amazed by the people, the culture, the infrastructure, the cuisine, almost everything. I even took German courses and was proficient at least with speaking German. Anyway the day came, when i was being discharged ( I never really liked the army, andjoined for the Gi Bill) Back in the rural midwest, working at Walmart while going to community collage, I realized how much I missed Germany, the lifestyle, the urban vibe and so many things ( missed having a GF too, in the US I wasnt rich enough or cool enough to date anyone, in Germany this was never a thing at all, about money and all that. I decided if I was going to have a dull dead end life with no future, why not go back to Germany? At least have an adventure of some kind, i could always come back to the US.. 7 months after I ETSed ( left the army) I got a passport, got a cheap one way ticket and reconnected with some German civilians I knew.. I ended up staying in germany, has been 30 plus years now. I remember when the plane landed and I was disembarking, and set foot on the ground, I felt like,, this is it..the place you are meant to be.

    Will the US dollar lose its global power in the next 5 years?

    Yes it absolutely will.

    I takes longer than that but slowly and surely it will.there is not even a speck of doubt. Tell me which nation wants to save in U.S. dollar reserve if can be confiscated away from you at the whims or fancies of the U.S? Do you want to keep your savings in a bank using a currency that the US can take it all away anytime it wants?

    No one do, no want does, no one will ever want to. The fact that the US and the west can even phantom that by stealing gold from Venezuela and US dollar reserves from Russia is an acceptable behaviour tell how little the west thinks of the rest of the world.

    Every nation on earth, even the US allies are figuring how to hedge against the US dollar. Direct Currency swap arrangement is very popular and it must have have grown several fold in the last year alone! Some agree on a basket of currencies, Others revert back to barter.

    JEFFREY SACHS ON A HISTORIC DEBT

    Israel Attacks Damascus Airport as IRAN Foreign Minister Plane Coming-in; Plane Forced to Divert

    World Hal Turner 12 October 2023

    The Israeli Air Force fired missiles at Damascus Airport and Aleppo Airport this morning, just before a plane carrying the Iran Foreign Minister was approaching Damascus for an official state visit.  The Iran Minister’s plane was forced to divert from the area to avoid conflict.

    Attacking Syria was an illegal act of aggression by Israel.   Conducting that attack while a Diplomat was approaching for a state visit is arguably an Act of War.

    Damascus Airport is now damaged and closed. Aleppo Airport is also reported to be damaged and closed.

    The Iran Foreign Minister plane appears to be returning to Iran.

    Syrian Defense Ministry: “At approximately 1:50 pm this afternoon, the Israeli enemy simultaneously carried out an air aggression with bursts of missiles, targeting the international airports of Aleppo and Damascus, which led to damage to the airports’ landing strips and them being out of service.

    This aggression is a desperate attempt by the criminal Israeli enemy to divert attention from the crimes it is committing in Gaza, and the great losses it is suffering at the hands of the Palestinian resistance.” 

    ( HT Remark: Nothing like escalating the already bad situation with Gaza into an international incident with a foreign Diplomat.   Unschooled, these Israelis.  Totally devoid of class.)

    How does the cost of Whoosh, Indonesia’s first high-speed railway, compare to other high-speed railway projects around the world?

    According to our Singapore media reports, the cost of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail is approximately US$7.3 billion. We tentatively believe that this number is real.

    So this figure exceeds the budget given by China when bidding for the project eight years ago by US$1.2 billion. The project completion time was delayed by 4 years than originally planned.

    This doesn’t seem like a good number.

    But compared to current plans in other countries around the world to build high-speed rail, these are two very good figures.

    1. Cost per kilometer

    Even calculated based on all costs after overruns (including land costs), the cost per kilometer of Indonesia’s high-speed rail is only US$58 million. The high-speed rail in the United Kingdom is US$300 million per kilometer, and the high-speed rail in California is US$200 million per kilometer.

    India’s high-speed rail was originally planned to cost US$35 million per kilometer. However, it has not actually been completed yet. Only ten kilometers have been built. The cost has been doubled and the final cost cannot be estimated. Due to serious delays in construction, some experts predict that there is a high probability that the cost per kilometer will exceed US$80 million when completed.

    2. Time spent

    The Indian high-speed railway started construction one year earlier than the Indonesian high-speed railway and is scheduled to open in 2023. According to media reports some time ago, only 10 kilometers have been built so far.
    The completion date has been changed to 2028, but many experts believe that the actual completion time may be after 2032.

    The first phase of the British high-speed railway is planned to build 160 kilometers. Construction will start in 2020 and is scheduled to be completed in 2029. It has now been changed to 2033. The real completion date cannot be determined.

    Therefore, although the Indonesian high-speed railway experienced a 16% cost overrun and a 4-year construction delay.
    But this is mainly due to the virus problem over the past 3 years.

    Judging from similar large-scale projects around the world, Indonesians have reached the top level in terms of project time and budget control.

    I believe that for many years to come, no country will be able to surpass Indonesia’s level.

    This is due to the efficient work of the Indonesian government, the unity and support of the Indonesian people, and the technology and efficiency of the Chinese. Their achievements deserve congratulations.

    Star Trek – Fire On the Forcefield

    America Can’t Stop China’s Rise — Foreign Policy

    There’s little doubt that the American government has decided to slow China’s economic rise, most notably in the fields of technological development. To be sure, the Biden administration denies that these are its goals. Janet Yellen said on April 20, “China’s economic growth need not be incompatible with U.S. economic leadership. The United States remains the most dynamic and prosperous economy in the world. We have no reason to fear healthy economic competition with any country.” And Jake Sullivan said on April 27, “Our export controls will remain narrowly focused on technology that could tilt the military balance. We are simply ensuring that U.S. and allied technology is not used against us.”

    Yet, in its deeds, the Biden administration has shown that its vision extends beyond those modest goals. It has not reversed the trade tariffs Donald Trump imposed in 2018 on China, even though presidential candidate Joe Biden criticized them in July 2019, saying: “President Trump may think he’s being tough on China. All that he’s delivered as a consequence of that is American farmers, manufacturers and consumers losing and paying more.” Instead, the Biden administration has tried to increase the pressure on China by banning the export of chips, semiconductor equipment, and selected software. It has also persuaded its allies, like the Netherlands and Japan, to follow suit. More recently, on Aug. 9, the Biden administration issued an executive order prohibiting American investments in China involving “sensitive technologies and products in the semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies, and artificial intelligence sectors” which “pose a particularly acute national security threat because of their potential to significantly advance the military, intelligence, surveillance, or cyber-enabled capabilities” of China.

    All these actions confirm that the American government is trying to stop China’s growth. Yet, the big question is whether America can succeed in this campaign—and the answer is probably not. Fortunately, it is not too late for the United States to reorient its China policy toward an approach that would better serve Americans—and the rest of the world.


    America’s decision to slow China’s technological development is akin to the folly revealed by the old cliché: closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. Modern China has shown many times that China’s technological development can’t be halted.

    Since the creation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, several efforts have been made to limit China’s access to or stop its development in various critical technologies, including nuclear weapons, space, satellite communication, GPS, semiconductors, supercomputers, and artificial intelligence. The United States has also tried to curb China’s market dominance in 5G, commercial drones, and electric vehicles (EVs). Throughout history, unilateral or extraterritorial enforcement efforts to curtail China’s technological rise have failed and, in the current context, are creating irreparable damage to long-standing U.S. geopolitical partnerships. In 1993 the Clinton administration tried to restrict China’s access to satellite technology. Today, China has some 540 satellites in space and is launching a competitor to Starlink.

    The same principle played out with GPS. When America restricted China’s access to its geospatial data system in 1999, China simply built its own parallel BeiDou Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) system in one of the first waves of major technological decoupling. In some measures, BeiDou is today better than GPS. It is the largest GNSS in the world, with 45 satellites to GPS’s 31, and is thus able to provide more signals in most global capitals. It is supported by 120 ground stations, resulting in greater accuracy, and has more advanced signal features, such as two-way messaging. Other nations have also previously tried and failed to block China’s technical rise. In the 1950s and 1960s, when the USSR withheld nuclear weapons technology from China, China launched its own “Manhattan Project” in the early 1960s and succeeded in testing its first nuclear weapon by 1964. Russian nuclear leverage over China ended that day.

    Many of the measures taken by the Biden administration against China were also executed without factoring in China’s capacity to retaliate. While China does not physically construct many truly irreplaceable components of the American technology stack, they are keenly aware of the importance of their raw materials inputs (rare earths) and demand (revenue generation) in fueling the American innovation ecosystem and are now using them as leverage. In the current tit-for-tat dynamic, China will start squeezing these two critical ends of the value chain in response to American technology and capital export restrictions. China’s July ban of the gallium and germanium exports was merely an opening shot across the bow to remind America (and its aligned allies) of China’s dominance in the rare earths and critical metals space. The country has a near monopoly in the processing of magnesium, bismuth, tungsten, graphite, silicon, vanadium, fluorspar, tellurium, indium, antimony, barite, zinc, and tin. China also dominates in midstream processing for materials essential to most of America’s current and future technology aspirations such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and copper, which are critical for the rapidly developing EV industry globally.

    While America and other neutral countries have mineral reserves of many of these materials, it would be naïve to believe that one can simply flip a switch on mining and production. It will take at least three to five years just to build the requisite extraction and processing infrastructure. This is to say nothing for recruiting and training skilled labor, or receiving requisite operational and environmental permits for such activities. Both could prove impossible. The processing of rare earths is a highly toxic and environmentally destructive endeavor. It’s unlikely such approvals will be granted. If Arizona is struggling to find qualified workers for its TSMC fabrication facility, and to address domestic union opposition to importing foreign skilled labor, it’s unlikely that America can develop similar capabilities for material processing. Along the way, China gets to play kingmaker in how it doles out access to its processed materials, likely restricting supply to American technology and defense giants. The failure to factor in China’s retaliatory capacities indicates that the United States doesn’t have a well-thought-out and comprehensive approach to dealing with China.


    American measures to deprive China access to the most advanced chips could even damage America’s large chip-making companies more than it hurts China. China is the largest consumer of semiconductors in the world. Over the past ten years, China has been importing massive amounts of chips from American companies. According to the US Chamber of Commerce, China-based firms imported $70.5 billion worth of semiconductors from American firms in 2019, representing approximately 37 percent of these companies’ global sales. Some American companies, like Qorvo, Texas Instruments, and Broadcom, derive about half of their revenues from China. 60 percent of Qualcomm’s revenues, a quarter of Intel’s revenues, and a fifth of Nvidia’s sales are from the Chinese market. It’s no wonder that the CEOs of these three companies recently went to Washington to warn that U.S. industry leadership could be harmed by the export controls. American firms will also be hurt by retaliatory actions from China, such as China’s May ban on chips from US-based Micron Technology. China accounts for over 25 percent of Micron’s sales.

    The massive revenue surpluses generated by these sales to China were ploughed into R&D efforts which, in turn, kept American chip companies ahead of the game. The Chamber of Commerce estimates that if the United States were to ban semiconductor sales to China completely, U.S. companies would lose $83 billion in annual revenues and would have to cut 124,000 jobs. They would also have to cut their annual R&D budgets by at least $12 billion, and their capital spending by $13 billion. This would make it even more difficult for them to remain competitive on the global scale in the long run. American semiconductor firms are painfully aware that U.S. actions against China in the chips arena will harm their interests more than Chinese interests. The U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association released a statement on July 17, saying that Washington’s repeated steps “to impose overly broad, ambiguous, and at times unilateral restrictions risk diminishing the U.S. semiconductor industry’s competitiveness, disrupting supply chains, causing significant market uncertainty, and prompting continued escalatory retaliation by China,” and called on the Biden administration not to implement further restrictions without more extensive engagement with semiconductor industry representatives and experts.

    The Chips Act cannot subsidize the American semiconductor industry indefinitely, and there is no other global demand base to replace China. Other chip producing nations will inevitably break ranks and sell to China (as they have historically) and the American actions will be for naught. And, in banning the export of chips and other core inputs to China, America handed China its war plan years ahead of the battle. China is being goaded into building self-sufficiency far earlier than they would have otherwise. Prior to the ZTE and Huawei components bans, China was content to continue purchasing American chips and focusing on the front-end hardware. Peter Wennink, the CEO of ASML, stated that China is already leading in key applications and demand for semiconductors. Wennink wrote, “The roll-out of the telecommunication infrastructure, battery technology, that’s the sweet spot of mid-critical and mature semiconductors, and that’s where China without any exception is leading.”


    Germany Just Warned Europe On “China’s Counterstrike Move” | Silent EV War Explodes

    Simple, like the UK with Brexit, Germany should leave the EU. This will solve the problem, as Germany will then be able to distance itself from investigations implemented by the EU parliament.

    What is the most dangerous thing you have done and why?

    I used to be a Tower Climber.

    Installing antennas and transmission lines on cellular towers.. Day in and day out we would climb 150, 200, 300feet and stay up there literally all day – often 10–12 hours.

    Those heights were the norm, but I also did 400ft a couple of times, and then 500ft once.

    And I did it because I needed a job and this paid really well. Plus I was a brand new divorcee and just starting over, so at the time working this tough, dangerous job with other guys was a very good thing for me. I made close friends, we partied and had fun, we laughed a lot, and it was just what the doctor ordered.

    The end of Evergrande.

    Bloomberg News has reported that billionaire founder and chairman Hui Ka Yan was taken away by police earlier this month and put under so-called residential surveillance , a type of police action that falls short of formal detention or arrest.

    The surveillance doesn’t necessarily mean that Hui will be charged with a crime, and the exact circumstances of his situation remain unclear. But it’s not looking good: Evergrande has halted trading and confirmed in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing that authorities have told the company that Hui has been subjected to “mandatory measures,” due to “suspicion of illegal crimes.

    The latest twist in an ongoing saga for the world’s most indebted developer has left creditors confused and concerned about what’s to become of their investments. The fate of the developer’s restructuring plans are now at risk, and the chances of a full-on liquidation have increased.

    There’s a long list of victims: the hundreds of thousands of homeowners who bought into some 706 residential projects that are still being built; people who bought into Evergrande’s wealth management products, worth 40 billion yuan ($5.5 billion) a few years ago; global investors who collectively own at least $30 billion of offshore debt; suppliers and banks who are among those owed some 2.39 trillion yuan in liabilities. The company is facing more than 2,000 lawsuits, too.

    I remember a time when Evergrande was still able to overcome its detractors. When a shortsellertargeted it for alleged financial mismanagement back in 2012, a Hong Kong tribunal provided vindication by saying the report was misleading and false.

    But so much has changed since then: Evergrande has become a harbinger of the nation’s real estate meltdown. Its fate seemed to be sealed back in 2020, when a liquidity scare fueled by its massive debt load triggered aggressive regulatory tightening. Compounded by pandemic-related woes, the company defaulted the following year.

    What happens after Evergrande? As we know, this property crisis is far from over. China’s property developers face a liquidity shortfall worth some 19 trillion yuan, or 15% of GDP, that could morph into a solvency crunch by year-end, Bloomberg analysts estimate.

    Property downturns are always painful. In China, that’s especially the case because of the outsized role that the sector plays in the economy: As much as 70% of household wealthis tied to the industry.

    The government has responded by relaxing property buying rules, since it doesn’t want the current distress among developers to trigger financial contagion — nor does it want to see social unrest.

    Dragging out the Evergrande saga, though, has wreaked havoc among homebuyers, construction workers, suppliers and investors. And as the government has shown no intention of bailing out developers, the only certainty we’re left with is the idea that this pain is far from finished.

    Asian point of view

    Have you ever tried to fire someone and it backfired?

    This happened to my ex.

    My ex was the CFO of one of the largest private construction companies in the world. His main role was to make sure the company stayed profitable. Simple really.

    The owners’ son, who recently graduated from college and was having trouble finding gainful employment, (seems nobody would hire him to get stoned) was parachuted into my ex’s job. My ex was quickly let go.

    He didn’t mind too much. Even though a little disappointed, he still was paid out fairly and started his own firm with the severance money.

    A tender came up for a new skyscraper in London. My ex’s former company put in its bid and came in ahead of everyone else by millions. Turned out months into construction that the new CFO had forgotten to add the cost of electrical wiring into the cost of construction. A mistake that sent his family bankrupt.

    Luckily there was one new firm with the creditor’s backing, experience and ability to jump in immediately. My ex hired a lot of the now redundant employees and bought a large chunk of his old company’s heavy equipment at a huge discount in a mortgagee sale.

    The lesson here is to never kill the golden goose!

    Elderly shelter cat had weeks to live. So this woman adopted him.

    This woman is a saint! What she does for these cats is beyond compassion!

    Capitalist and socialist modernisation

    The Sixteenth Forum of the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE) took place from 25 to 27 September 2023 in Fuzhou, China, co-organised by Fujian Normal University. The theme of the forum was Chinese modernisaton and the prospects of world modernisation. Although unable to attend in person, Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez was invited to submit a video presentation.

    Carlos’s presentation, entitled Capitalist and socialist modernisation, takes up a number of questions: What is modernisation? Is modernisation desirable? How has modernisation been achieved in the West? What is China’s modernisation plan? What are the unique characteristics of Chinese modernisation? How does socialist modernisation differ from capitalist modernisation? What effect does China’s modernisation on the global journey towards development and socialism?

    The video and the text of Carlos’s presentation are available below.

    What is modernisation, and is it necessary?

    Modernisation is a somewhat nebulous concept. It means different things to different societies at different times. By definition, its parameters are constantly changing.

    In the broadest sense, it means adapting to the latest, most advanced ideas and techniques for meeting humanity’s material and cultural needs.

    In sociology, there is more or less an equals sign between modernisation and industrialisation, and is generally held to begin with Britain’s Industrial Revolution. We can think of it essentially as the transition from ‘developing country’ status to ‘developed country’ status; from a predominantly rural society to a predominantly urban society; from a technologically backward society to a technologically advanced society.

    Is this desirable? Beauty is of course in the eye of the beholder, but most people consider modernisation to be desirable, because it enables higher living standards for the masses of the people.

    With modernised industry, production techniques, communication methods, transport systems, energy systems and healthcare strategies, there exists the possibility of providing a healthy, meaningful and dignified life to all, such that each individual has reliable access to a healthy diet, to decent housing, to clothing, to education, to healthcare, to a vibrant cultural, social and intellectual life, and to fulfilling work. In short, modernisation makes it possible to attend to people’s basic human rights.

    The fruits of modernisation have thus far been divided extremely unequally: the process of industrialisation in North America, Europe and Japan has created previously unimaginable wealth for a few, but this has been accompanied by desperate poverty and alienation for significant numbers. However, modernisation creates a material basis for common prosperity, far beyond what a pre-modern economy can offer.

    Specifically in the case of China, the government has set a goal of “basically realising socialist modernisation by 2035”, and has defined some parameters for this:

    • Reaching a per-capita GDP on a par with that of the mid-level developed countries such as Spain or the Czech Republic
    • Joining the ranks of the world’s most innovative countries in the realm of science and technology
    • Becoming a global leader in education, public health, culture and sport
    • Substantially growing the middle-income group as a proportion of the population
    • Guaranteeing equitable access to basic public services
    • Ensuring modern standards of living in rural areas
    • Steadily lowering greenhouse gas emissions and protecting biodiversity, so as to restore a healthy balance between humans and the natural environment

    If achieved, these aims will constitute a significant – indeed world-historic – improvement in the living standards of the Chinese people, and will blaze a trail for other developing countries.

    How did the West modernise?

    But is China doing anything new? After all, it won’t be the first country to achieve modernisation.

    In mainstream modernisation theory in the West, the dominant narrative is that the countries of Western Europe, North America and Japan achieved their advances via a combination of good governance, liberal democracy, free-market economics, scientific genius, geographical serendipity and a dash of entrepreneurial spirit.

    Historical investigation reveals a considerably different story.

    The most important precursors of the West’s modernisation are colonialism, slavery and genocide. The conquest of the Americas, the settlement of Australia, the transatlantic slave trade, the colonisation of India, the rape of Africa, the Opium Wars, the theft of Hong Kong, and more. The profits of colonialism and the slave trade were essential for propelling the West’s industrialisation, as was so eloquently uncovered in Eric Williams’ classic 1944 work, Capitalism and Slavery.

    As Karl Marx famously wrote in Volume 1 of Capital: “The discovery of gold and silver in America, the enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins, signalled the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production.”

    Such is the ugly truth of European modernisation. And the story is not so different in the United States. Many of the so-called founding fathers of that country were slave-owners, and they established a slave-owners’ society. They went to war against the indigenous peoples and against Mexico in order to expand their territory.

    In the 20th century, having established their domination over the Americas, they constructed a neocolonial global system that is still in place to a significant degree, imposing American hegemony on the world.

    A network of 800 foreign military bases. NATO. An enormous nuclear arsenal. Genocidal wars waged on Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. Systems of economic coercion and unilateral sanctions.

    Proxy wars, coups, regime change projects, destabilisation.

    This is the global system of violence that has facilitated and accompanied North American modernisation.

    Japan’s rapid rise was facilitated first by its brutal expansionist project in East Asia, particularly Korea and China, and then through adaptation to and integration with the US-led imperialist system, the much-vaunted ‘rules-based international order’.

    South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan Province constitute the small handful of non-imperialist territories that have been able to achieve modernisation, but these are special cases. Their shared proximity to China and the DPRK is no coincidence; they have been inducted into the imperialist club by the US, to play a dual role as regional policemen and living advertisements for capitalism on the frontline of its confrontation with socialism. Both roles rely on at least a certain degree of prosperity for a section of the population.

    There is no shortage of countries of the Global South which have attempted to apply the “liberal democracy plus free market capitalism” formula, but none have been successful in modernising. Indeed the West’s prescriptions for (and interference in) developing countries have largely led to chaos and disaster.

    The contrast between the West’s success in modernising and the Global South’s failure has fed into a largely unspoken but widespread and pernicious racism: an assumption that white people are somehow inherently more advanced than everyone else.

    This supremacism is allowed to fester, because in addition to dividing working class and oppressed communities, it provides convenient cover for the reality that capitalist modernisation is built on the foundations of colonialism, imperialism and hegemonism.

    As Kwame Nkrumah commented, “in the era of neocolonialism, under-development is still attributed not to exploitation but to inferiority, and racial undertones remain closely interwoven with the class struggle.”

    How is China modernising?

    China’s journey towards modernisation starts in 1949 with the founding of the People’s Republic, the early construction of socialist industry, land reform and the extirpation of feudalism and the landowning class, and the provision of at least basic levels of education and healthcare services to the whole population.

    In 1963, Premier Zhou Enlai, supported by Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun, first raised the question of the Four Modernisations: of agriculture, industry, national defence, and science and technology. Despite a complex political environment this goal was revived in the early 1970s, and, with the launch of reform and opening up in 1978, China accelerated its pursuit of those goals, and ushered in an era of rapid development of the productive forces and improvement in the people’s living standards.

    China’s journey of modernisation has evolved again in recent years with the pursuit of the second centenary goal: of building a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful by 2049.

    China is on a fast track to becoming an advanced, developed country, and this process stands in stark contrast to the West’s modernisation process:

    First, China’s modernisation is built on the efforts of the Chinese people rather than on war, colonialism and slavery.

    Second, its fruits are to be shared by everybody, not dominated by the wealthy. As General Secretary Xi Jinping said in his work report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China’s modernisation is “the modernisation of common prosperity for all.”

    Even today, not everyone in the West is able to enjoy the fruits of modernisation. Consider for example the US, where tens of millions lack access to healthcare; where over half a million people are homeless; where life expectancy for African Americans is six years less than for their white counterparts; where – according to the US Department of Education – over half of adults read below a sixth-grade level.

    Third, China’s modernisation is becoming a green modernisation, fuelled by clean energy, careful not to destroy the planet that sustains us. Again quoting Xi Jinping’s work report, “it is the modernisation of harmony between humanity and nature.”

    Capitalist modernisation has had a disastrous impact on the environment. With 4 percent of the global population, the US alone is responsible for 25 percent of historic greenhouse gas emissions. The simple fact is that humanity literally cannot afford for China’s modernisation to follow this pattern.

    Socialist modernisation will become the ‘new normal’

    The West’s modernisation path is not open to the countries of the Global South, and it wouldn’t be desirable even if it were. Today, the road of capitalist modernisation is closed, so how is China able to modernise?

    China does not have an empire, formal or informal, but it does have a particular advantage of being a socialist state, a “people’s democratic dictatorship based on the alliance of workers and peasants”, to use Mao Zedong’s expression. Such a state can use its power to direct economic activity towards the goals of the social classes it represents.

    Thus the specificities of China’s modernisation – the commitment to common prosperity, to ending poverty and underdevelopment, to preventing climate collapse and to peaceful development – are a function of China’s political system, its revolutionary history, and the leadership of the CPC.

    At a meeting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2016, Xi Jinping made this point very succinctly: “Our greatest strength lies in our socialist system, which enables us to pool resources in a major mission. This is the key to our success.”

    Or as Deng Xiaoping famously commented in 1984: “the superiority of the socialist system is demonstrated, in the final analysis, by faster and greater development of the productive forces than under the capitalist system.”

    In a world still largely dominated by capitalism – and an intellectual world still dominated by bourgeois ideology – it’s easy to forget this system’s fundamental and irreconcilable contradictions, which Marx identified with such clarity and profundity 150 years ago; contradictions which lead inexorably to inefficiency, stagnation and crisis. A political economy directed at the production of exchange values rather than use values can never result in common prosperity.

    In China, the capitalist class is not the ruling class and is therefore not able to direct the country’s resources according to its own prerogatives. At the top level, resources are allocated by the state, in accordance with long-term planning carried out by, and in the interests of, the people.

    This is what is enabling a new type of modernisation, which is blazing a trail for socialist and developing countries the world over.

    The fruits of this process are being shared with the world, via mechanisms such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative, which are creating a path for the countries of the Global South to break out of underdevelopment, even where they lack China’s resources and political advantages.

    As such, China’s evolving modernisation has great historic significance, and offers valuable lessons for the world. It is an embodiment of historical materialism in the current era: capitalism has long since exhausted its ability to fundamentally drive human progress, and therefore the future lies with socialism.

    What were the most ‘badass’ moments of history?

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    image 72

    Galvarino was a legendary warrior of the Mapuche people who rebelled against the Spanish Conquers who had invaded their land.

    The Mapuche people were natives of the Araucana region of Chile who fought against the Spanish conquest of South America. The Arauco War was the bloodiest and longest-running battle in the history of the New World.

    In what became known as the Battle of Lagunillias, Galvarino led his people in a fight against the Spanish invaders who were trying to force them into servitude.

    During the battle, Galvarino and his men were captured by the Spanish. As punishment for defying the Spanish, Galvarino had both his hands amputated at the wrists and sent him home as a message to the other Mapuche tribes.

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    image 107

    He returned home defeated and severely wounded. He showed the war council his wounds and begged them to let him lead an army against their oppressors. For his bravery, he was named commander of a squadron of men in a fight against Governor Mendoza.

    With long Sharp knives fastened to his mutilated stumps, he led his army into battle against Governor Mendoza and his men. The Brutal battle lasted for an hour, with Galvarino striking and killing Mendoza’s number two in command with his modified stumps.

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    image 73

    Although Galvarino and his men fought a brave battle, they were soon overwhelmed and captured. All the remaining captured warriors including Galvarino, were executed on the orders of Governor Mendoza.

    Has Huawei successfully challenged the dominance of American tech giants and truly democratized the tech industry?

    Huawei has established the third truly COMMERCIAL Asian Tech Ecosystem from China and the eighth in Asia after Toyota, Nikon, Canon ,Samsung , BYD, Trina and Xinyi

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    image 106

    The Huawei Ecosystem now has

    • The Chip
    • The OS
    • The 5G Modem
    • The GPU
    • The Networks

    Yet Huawei Ecosystem is fragile because SMIC the manufacturer of the 7 nm Node depends on Advanced DUV equipment from ASML

    Now SMIC has stockpiled massive orders from ASML and that will keep SMIC going till maybe 2026

    However that’s still dependence, a lot of dependence on the West

    So i would say HUAWEI has made a start

    Meanwhile people forget the REAL WINNERS of the three companies that have established it’s own dominant ecosystem on which the West is entirely dependent on :-

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    image 105

    BYD

    BYD has:-

    • The Chip – The Mature 28nm Chip that only China can today manufacture cost effectively and in huge volumes
    • The Software
    • The Satellite Navigation System
    • The Battery
    • The Dynamic Unit

    It’s completely and entirely Independent from Western Technology

    Trina and Xinyi who have :-

    • The Intelligent Chip
    • The Micrograde Wafer Panel (That to this day no nation can produce except France but at 87% higher cost)
    • The Carbide micro layering etching equipment (Chinas equivalent of the EUV Lithography Machine)
    • The Silicon extraction process into Mono, Poly Crystalline Silicon with infusions

    Yes Huawei deserves all the admiration for its clawback and fighting

    Yet BYD, Trina and Xinyi actually get Proprietary License Fees from the West which is unique for a Nation that to thia day didn’t kowtow to the West unlike Japan, Israel and South Korea


    Huawei to win, needs SMIC to become another BYD or Xinyi or Trina

    If SMIC can achieve that, then China truly begins the challenge to the established Semiconductor industry

    Lego just hit a climate BRICK wall

    Lego says that it cannot make bricks from recycled material. They tried and they simply cannot do it without increasing carbon emissions. That’s a refreshing admission. Most companies take on “green initiatives” anyway, even if they prove to make the problem worse. In a similar vein, the CEO of Lufthansa admitted that“going green” would require the airline to use up HALF of Germany’s electricity. So not green at all then. Meanwhile, Ford says that it will pause construction of a $3.5 billion plant to build EV batteries in Michigan. They aren’t saying why. It just goes to show: It ain’t easy being green.

    Is the Belt and Road Initiative losing steam?

    You’ve probably heard of China’s ambitious plan to connect the world with its Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI for short. It’s a massive project that involves building roads, railways, ports, pipelines, and other infrastructure across Asia, Africa, Europe, and beyond. China says it’s a win-win situation for everyone, a way to boost trade, development, and cooperation among more than 140 countries that have signed up for it.

    But not everyone is buying it. Some critics in the West say that the BRI is a trap, a scheme, or a tool for China to expand its power and influence at the expense of other countries. They say that the BRI is saddling poor countries with unsustainable debt, damaging the environment and human rights, and undermining the international order. They also say that the BRI is losing steam due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the backlash from some host countries, and the changing global dynamics.

    So what’s the real story? Well, if you listen to what China has to say on its official websites, you’ll get a very different picture. According to them, the BRI is not losing steam at all. In fact, it’s gaining momentum and achieving positive results in various aspects.

    First of all, they say that the BRI has shown strong resilience and vitality amid the COVID-19 pandemic. China has actively cooperated with other BRI partners to fight against the virus, provide medical supplies and vaccines, share prevention and treatment experiences, and support economic recovery. The BRI has also contributed to the global efforts to build a community of health for all.

    Secondly, they say that the BRI has promoted high-quality development and green cooperation. China has adhered to the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, and has followed the international rules and standards in implementing BRI projects. China has also attached great importance to environmental protection, social responsibility, and debt sustainability, and has encouraged green investment and financing under the BRI framework.

    Thirdly, they say that the BRI has enhanced mutual trust and friendship among different countries and peoples. The BRI has fostered dialogue and exchange among different civilizations, cultures, and religions, and has supported education, culture, tourism, sports, media, and other fields of people-to-people cooperation. The BRI has also created opportunities for poverty alleviation, job creation, livelihood improvement, and social development for millions of people in the participating countries.

    So there you have it. The BRI is not losing steam but rather advancing steadily and fruitfully. The BRI is not a solo show by China but a chorus by all participants. The BRI is not a challenge or threat to anyone but a benefit and opportunity for everyone. The BRI is not a zero-sum game but a win-win cooperation for common development. That’s what China wants you to believe. And if you don’t believe it, well, too bad for you. Because China is not going to stop or change its course anytime soon. It’s going to keep pushing forward with its vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind.

    Why Australia’s Housing Crisis Is a Warning for the World

    My goodness!

    What is something that needs to be said that nobody wants to hear?

    Trump supporters have a point.

    They weren’t misled by Russian trolls. They weren’t ignorant. They weren’t racist or sexist or xenophobic or homophobic. They were mad… they felt left behind and ignored by the media and the federal government… and they had a point.

    They were left behind, and ignored.

    For many of them, the America their parents and grandparents grew up in was a lot better. And no, that’s not because other groups were oppressed. It was because the economy was better for working-class people back then.

    If your grandparents raised a large family on a single income, while the media and politicians cared about what your grandparents cared about, and now, 50 years later, you and your wife can’t get by on your dual incomes, and the media and politicians spend more time talking about transgender bathroom usage than the fact that families like yours are falling further behind each year… then yes, you have a point, and Make America Great Again makes sense.

    Blueberry Grunt

    2023 10 14 11 57
    2023 10 14 11 57

    Ingredients

    • 4 cups fresh blueberries
    • 1 cup granulated sugar
    • 1 cup water
    • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
    • 2 teaspoons baking powder
    • 2 tablespoons grated orange peel
    • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
    • 1/4 teaspoon salt
    • 3/4 cup milk

    Instructions

    1. In a skillet, combine blueberries, sugar and water; bring to a boil. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes.
    2. In a bowl, combine the next 6 ingredients; stir in milk just until moistened (dough will be stiff).
    3. Drop by tablespoonsful over blueberries.
    4. Cover and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until dumplings are puffed and test done.
    5. Serve warm.

    Should secondary sanctions be imposed on China and Russia for their complicity with genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Myanmar?

    All terrorism in the world is linked to the United States! It is no longer a secret that the United States Government supports terrorism in South-East Asia!

    US-backed Terrorism Targets Vietnam & Myanmar in Wider War on China

    • Two terrorist attacks this month (June 2023) in Southeast Asia have been carried out by groups backed by the United States government and its allies for decades;
    • This includes a singer murdered in Myanmar and a series of armed attacks carried out on police stations in Vietnam killing 9 including several civilians;
    • British state media, the BBC, and US government-funded media platform Radio Free Asia have attempted to spin and even justify this terrorism as part of a much wider pattern promoting and defending terrorism as a means to counter China’s rise and punish nations working closely with China;
    • The opposition in Myanmar has openly been backed by the US and UK for decades – fighting to reinstall Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy back into power;
    • In Vietnam, the ethnic Montagnards had fought alongside US invaders in the Vietnam War, and since then have worked closely with the US through the National Endowment for Democracy toward separatism;
    • Much of this context is omitted from Western state-media accounts of the terrorism;
    • Both Myanmar and Vietnam’s current governments have close relations with China. Vietnam, while depicted in the Western media as “anti-China,” has worked with China to build infrastructure within its borders and access Chinese rail projects to bring their products all the way to Europe;

    Why Companies That Go Woke Go Broke

    I saw the title and I instantly clicked to watch, really wanted to see a documentary about all these companies that went woke, then broke!

    What is the most amazing thing you overheard because people didn’t think you understood their language?

    Well one fairly amazing thing happened in Penang. I (white Australian) was speaking to my friend (Asian Australian) in English.

    An American tourist interrupted us and asked “excuse me, do you speak English?” We were both quite shocked and I said “a little.” I don’t know if she really couldn’t understand Australian English and didn’t realise what language I was speaking.

    She said “Can you direct me to XYZ hotel?”

    Now ordinarily two Aussies, neither of whom have ever been to Malaysia and speak no Malay wouldn’t be the best choice. But I pointed to the building we were standing in front of and said “walk about 10 yards that way.”

    She was WAY out of her depth and her next international holiday should probably be to Hawaii.

    However, I did the opposite in Austria. I speak no German, but if I look at a menu and plan out my sentence I can pretend to. So I asked in perfect German “Could I please have 2 hot chocolates; one with whipped cream and one with rum thanks.” She answered with something as simple as “that will be 8 euros” and I looked at her blankly and said in English “I’m sorry, I don’t speak German.” She laughed and did the transaction in English. She said I fooled her.

    Pretty much the same thing in Poland, back in the days before Schengen membership. Apparently I needed a visa. So they berated me in Polish for a while, and I said I didn’t speak Polish. They went to the lingua franca of Eastern Europe and said “something something Russky.” I replied with what I’m told is an excellent accent “nye poni mayu po Russkiy.”

    Here’s a guy in Lithuania, driving an Estonian-registered car, saying in perfect Russian in response to a question IN Russian “I don’t understand Russian.” I’m sure they weren’t thrilled and may not have believed me but I looked blankly at the rest of their diatribe. So eventually they wrote down my name, pointed me to Vilnius and said “visa.”’

    Why is Urumqi, Xinjiang cleaner, safer, civilized, and developed than New Delhi?

    Almost every Chinese City beats Indian Cities hollow in terms of Cleanliness, Safety and Development

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    image 114

    There are Primarily three reasons for this :-

    A. One Party Meritocracy & Funds

    In China, fund allocation for Cities and their overall Urban development is based on the Urban Development Index (UDI) plus between 15% upto 46% of the revenue generated by a City is used by the Local Government of that Province and the Administration of that City to develop the place

    There is no political rivalries or party based discrimination between Fund Allocation and Revenue sharing

    It’s all about How much the City develops and how well maintained the City is

    In India, funding is a nightmare because the State themselves have no claim over the money they generate as revenue. Everything is handed over to the Centre which then decides how much each State should get and then the State decides how much each City should get

    China has 20 times the provincial autonomy than an Indian State


    B. Continuous Development to prevent overcrowding

    India keeps on dumping on the same city again and again for year after year. Thus every such city attracts migrants like flies and that leads to overcrowding of the worst order

    China keeps developing and expanding new Cities regularly

    Chengdu, Chongqing etc were small towns a decade or so ago that are now bustling cities, brimming with Prosperity

    Urumqi was once a town , now it’s classified as a Tier 3 City

    Thus if you notice Shanghai and Beijing both lost 4% and 5.6% of the population due to migration between 2013–2023 whereas Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad netted between 7.6% and 12% SURPLUS population by migration between 2008–2023


    C. Chinas Housing Policy

    Everyone living with a proper Job in a City in China MUST have housing

    This is a law from the time of Chairman Mao and when it’s a Chairman Mao law, it’s enforcement is very strict

    Public Housing is thus available for every single resident of the city including the poorest of them

    Only Shanghai and Beijing has slums today , which existed before the 1998 law and thus can’t be torn down

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    image 112

    If you have a legitimate job in CQ City, you get a Public Apartment of 39–52 Square Meters with indoor plumbing, heating, air conditioning and gas and electricity and drinking water for a mere 78 RMB / month

    Of course many Chinese become prosperous enough to rent much nicer places and sub lease their public homes for which they pay rent of 78 RMB/ month for 400–500 RMB / month

    During Covid 19, many such people were discovered and fined very heavily (30, 000 RMB plus 60 months rent or 100 Days in Prison)


    A Fourth reason is the fact that Migration into Cities is heavily controlled

    You just can’t come to a City that easily without housing or a job unless you are a tourist there

    In India it’s the opposite

    You can flood into cities and sleep on the roads and everywhere else and even defecate

    It’s like a Zoo

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    image 111

    So it’s the Chinese System

    They may have their flaws but by God they have excellent City maintenance and keep themselves very clean

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    image 109

    Their Air Quality improvement in a mere decade is something every nation takes notes on


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    image 108

    Primarily another reason is the Chinese are proud of their country and love their country

    Not the bogus love that Indians show which translates into defending India for all it’s weaknesses, glorifying mediocrities as superheroes, forcing people to stand up for the National Anthem etcetera

    The genuine love that ensures they actively take pride in their development and their cities

    When stray cats see this man, they compete with each other to get a place on his lap.

    This is fun.