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This article underlines and underscores a point that I have made time and time again. Which is that the United States isn’t a democracy, and every single item and shred of evidence points to something quite bad, and very sinister. We can parse one item such as the first Amendment being “blown out of the water” by the government funding narratives that it wants….
Like all things USA, good news out of China is suppressed, while bad news is promoted with loud megaphones. Video 7MB
Such activity is banned under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted on December 16, 1966, by UN General Assembly Resolution 2200A (XXI). The first paragraph in Article 20 stipulates: “Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law.”
What could be clearer? Still, maintaining a free hand has always been the main guiding principle for Washington and London.
While agreeing to be bound by the Covenant, the United States adopted the following reservation:
“Article 20 does not authorise or require legislation or other action by the United States that would restrict the right of free speech and association protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States.”
What role does the American government play in providing for the civilian population?
… to every evidence that the issues that are important to the civilian population has near zero influence on the elected officials voting records.
In this article we will look at the purposeful dilution of voting-power of the citizenry. For after all, the vast bulk of amendments to the United States constitution has been wholly devoted to watering down the power each individual vote has.
For after all, when the United States came into being, only the male head of households, who were land owners could vote. And they played an active role in governance.
Not so today.
I argue that the voting power has been diluted to such an extend that it is nonexistent. And without voting power direct to the government, democracy does not exist.
Such is the United States today.
Anyways, this here is a great article by Fred. Love his writing style, and his points are poignant.
The Care and Feeding of the Rabble: Democracy its Own Self
Listening to Biden prattling about democracy, democracy, democracy, and how we must save American democracy from swarming threats to democracy, with the insistence and urgency of a starveling aluminum-siding salesman, I am filled with wonder. Convincing people that they live in a democracy is a lot of work, like pumping air into an inner tube with a leak. America is no more a democracy than it is a potted plant.
Functional illiterates cannot fill out a job application, manage a checkbook, read a simple story in a newspaper, or use the social media. Those who can’t read don’t, and another large number who can barely read don’t either. At a low estimate they must amount to a quarter of the population. They vote.
Democracy is best suited to towns of a few hundred people who, however dim of wit in many cases, may understand such questions as should we build a new school which will cost me so many dollars in higher taxes. Even here the more crafty and avaricious will likely prevail.
A problem in democracies—“democracies”—is of course that the dim, the inattentive, and those who are both dim and inattentive, will always outnumber the bright and informed. However, the syndrome worsens as the domain upon which the electorate is to make judgement expands from town to state to country to world. The number of unintelligent is constant. The number who are insufficiently attentive rises with the complexity of things needing attention. A cardiac surgeon is no fool, but has work, medical literature he needs to read, family, and a hobby or two. Little time is left to worry about semiconductor sanctions against China or Washington’s desire for Russia to invade the Ukraine.
“Take your pick from this bouillabaisse of ignorance:
* More than one in three people (37%) could not name a single right protected by the First Amendment. THE FIRST AMENDMENT.
* Only one in four (26%) can name all three branches of the government. (In 2011, 38% could name all three branches.)
* One in three (33%) can’t name any branch of government.“
People so innocent of political grasp can have only the most vaporous notions of pressing political questions. They are either fools with minds best suited for working as gardeners or so little engaged with the surrounding society as to achieve the effect of being fools while still able to find their way home at night. Still others are not unintelligent but not interested. None of these should vote.
“A quarter of Americans surveyed could not correctly answer that the Earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around, according to a report out Friday from the National Science Foundation.”
This is so astonishing that one might suspect it of coming from some crackpot blogger with no girlfriend living in his parents’ basement. But no. The National Science Foundation is about as respectable as they come. A quarter of the population are at the level of an undiscovered tribe living in the rain forests of the Amazon Basin and eating grubs fished from rotting logs. Little prospect exists that people in such darkness know much of anything else. Yet we encourage them to vote.
“Six Baltimore City schools — five high schools and one middle school — were found to have not a single student who scored proficient in math or reading in 2016, Fox News reports.”
Others schools had only a handful of literate students. Math results were as grim. These “students “will be around for another fifty years if they are not shot, virtually unemployable. Yet they can vote.
The schools mentioned are all black, and similar figures would come out of similarly black schools in many other cities. What does this say about “democracy “in America?
Gallup: Forty-six Percent of Americans Believe in Creationism
The distribution of intelligence being symmetric, half of the population are below average. A man with an IQ of 90 is not actually stupid, doesn’t mumble or bump into things, and can successfully raise a family and drive a truck. Yet he is unlikely to grasp the foreign policy of the United States or, really, to have heard of it. If he has any knowledge at all of public affairs, it will be at the level of The Russians are bad, wherever exactly Russia is, so we need to spend more on Our Boys in Uniform.
A lot of people get their news from television, the medium of the illiterate and semiliterate. Obviously, not everybody who watches television is illiterate, but everybody who is illiterate watches television. Many don’t watch the news at all, it being complicated and mysterious and talking about the inexplicable and unknown, such as Kazakhstan and Nordstream Two. The consequence is that if MSNBC and CNN say over and over that the Chinese are doing something terrible, most will believe it. Judging by the intellectual level of much of television, a sentence with a dependent clause will exceed the capacities of many. They vote.
Lincoln famously said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” You don’t have to. Being a politician, he didn’t add that you can fool enough of the people enough of the time, and that is enough. This is the basis of American democracy.
77% Of Students At One Baltimore High School Read at Elementary, Kindergarten Level
”In reading, 628 Patterson High School students took the test. Out of those students, 484 of them, or 77%, tested at an elementary school reading level. That includes 71 high school students who were reading at a kindergarten level and 88 students reading at a first-grade level. Another 45 are reading at a second-grade level. Just 12 students tested at Patterson High School, were reading at grade level, which comes out to just 1.9%.”
Democracy? A democracy of fools is no democracy. It allows the very smart, concentrated in New York and Washington, the governing suites of major corporations and, nowadays, the distributed wunderkind of the tech firms, to run the country from behind the scenes. Whether intended or not, the drive to lower the voting age and enfranchise the ghetto populations serve only to further diminish the pitiable competence of the electorate and allow the elites to keep these untermenschen out of the hair of their betters.
“I myself have always been for lowering the voting age to 16,” Pelosi said. “I think it’s really important to capture kids when they’re in high school, when they’re interested in all of this, when they’re learning about government, to be able to vote.”
The less bright, less informed, and less experienced of life are easier to mold and manipulate. Who could be better than children?
If America wanted a functional democracy, which it doesn’t, it would, first, raise the voting age to 25 or 30. The idea that adolescents of eighteen with no experience of life beyond libidinous frat parties, much less sixteen-year-olds, can vote intelligently is silly. (Not that I have anything against libidinous frat parties. They just aren’t qualification for voting)
This would require a recognition that voting should be a privilege, not an entitlement and that government should be done by people able to do it.
Second, a demanding version of the old literacy test would serve wonderfully. This should demonstrate at a minimum a reading fluency of political ideas express in standard English. A reasonable grasp of world geography and American government might profitably be required. Perhaps a measured IQ of 120 or better should be in the mix.
This would make the bamboozlement and competitive shooing of the puzzled much, much harder, which is why it will never fly with the elites who find an electorate of the easily led congenial.
These measures would also screen out various minorities disproportionately. They would also ignite the resentment against the bright and cultivated that forms the bedrock of American society.
Comprehensive ignorance extends to groups many of whom are presumably well educated. Consider the following:
“According to the Washington Post database, regarded by Nature magazine as the “most complete database,” 13 unarmed black men were fatally shot by police in 2019. According to a second database called “Mapping Police Violence”, compiled by data scientists and activists, 27 unarmed black men were killedbypolice (by any means) in 2019.”
This shows that forty-four percent of liberals are incompetent to vote. If the misestimate is reduced to five hundred, many more believe it. Similar numbers could probably be compiled for conservatives on other questions, conspiracy theories being promising candidates.
Race is the most dangerous, destructive, and intractable problem facing America, yet these people are too stupid, lazy, inattentive, emotional, or worm-eaten by ideology to have even a faint grasp of what is happening. But they vote.
If liberals, a category including academia, the media, and a great many of the highly educated believe such wildly erroneous numbers, it is likely that blacks, a group in large part poorly educated, believe these things at a higher rate. Do you suppose convincing them that they are being slaughtered en masse improves race relations?
The very bright will always rule, though not always obviously. An IQ of 140 is said to be entry level for Wall Street. This excludes well over ninety-nine percent of the population. Mike Pompeo, while a wretched human being, was first in class at West Point and editor of the Harvard Law Review, Hillary a National Merit Fninalist, putting her in the upper .5 percent of test-takers in Illinois. Bill was a Rhodes scholar.
Intellectual mediocrities will often be in prominent positions, Joe and Kamala being examples, in Congress and the White House, these being storefronts for the very smart. The brains, and the power, are in the shadows. But, methinks, a genuinely bright electorate would be less likely to anoint freaks and rogues.
Interesting question: What would be the effect of requiring an IQ of 130, the cutoff for Mensa, to vote? The idea will arouse shrieks from an American public famously resentful of excellence except in football. (I am reminded of a fellow fourteen-year-old in Athens, Alabama who, seeing me reading a book on biology, said angrily, “You ain’t no gooder’n me.”) A test for voting of course runs against the current policy of enfranchising the mentally lame and halt. Would the upper two percent of the population do a better job of electing leaders? They would certainly be much more difficult to con.
I will now go to the American Legion in Chapala, which makes really good huevos rancheros, which I will accompany with a double bourbon, and pretend that things aren’t as they are. Sometimes, it works.
Conclusions and some thoughts
Guys, it’s obvious that the United States is a Military Empire.
I mean you have to be a fucking idiot not to know this, and anyone who runs around saying “America has freedom”, and “democracy is the best” really needs their head examined. They are ignorant fools, and thus deserve the life that a military empire will provide for them; serf-servitude or slavery. Take you pick.
Now, I could insert a movie and video that clarifies this point. but I won’t it’s really very obvious.
The point of this article is that the United States is not at all what it claims to be. And that it relies on media and ignorance to maintain.
Media. Tell American how great, special and exceptional they are, while filling their minds with fear.
Ignorance. Dumb down the educational system. Ban all sources of information, and provide only sources that the government controls.
But the world is changing, and this kind of Military Empire is going the way of the Dodo bird. It’s not sustainable, and not practical, and once Asia implement global alternative for SWIFT, will become economically unfeasible.
To understand what Americ is today, we should not look at the tanks, the military aircraft and the people living in tents in the big American cities, but rather see what America used to be like. When there was still hope for a brighter and better future, and where jobs were plentiful, rights still existed, and it was affordable jsut to be alive.
At the time of my parents, one person could work in a job. They would be guranetted never to be laid-off, and obtain reasonable benefits to include free health care for thei family, month off for vacations, bonuses, and holiday parties at least two times a year.
Families could buy and afford a house that would be apid off in ten years, and brand new cars in cash.
Oldsmobile, 1958
They could relax and drink at work, at home, at the restrurants. There were no bans in anything. In fact, an America could even buy tanks, military aircraft and cannons without anyone blinking an eyelash.
The military was a place of honor. It was what you joined to defend your liberty and your freedom, and in those days, American really did have freedom. Americans didn’t need to wear seat belts, speed limits on roads were a rarity, school caferteris served generous helps of foods that included meats, and vegitables, where nothing was instant, pre-processed, or frozen.
USAF, Florida, 1953
While America has it’s own taboos, and traditions, people still were able to enjoy life and buildcompanies, magazines, and other venues without being crushed by the government, and other mega-corporations.
Like the Playboy empire.
Decorating the still furnished wall of the new Playboy Club in New York City are the shapely hostesses. The girls dressed in “Bunnie” costumes, (left to right), Elaine Gallo, Lynn Smith, Bette West, Laura Addams, Virginia Hebel and Morta Andersen had been trained to serve as waitress’ in the key club which had recently opened, ca 1970s.
Try opening a similiar venue today.
Do you think that it would be easy?
Consider what America was like when Playboy started to publish and started prenting “the girl next door” soft-core semi-nudes in it’s pages. Consider what America was like. Yet, still the Playboy empire was able to manifest.
Three young ladies prepare to have their pictures taken in Manhattan photo booths in April 1954.
Different times, and different social norms. Yes. That’s for certain.
But it’s more than just fashion and society. It is the very nature of the fabric of that society has changed. No longer run by talent, and patriots, the United States (as a nation) has been taken over completely by psychopathic personalities and sociopathic individuals who themselves have small armies of revenue-sucking toadies that combined siphon off money from the serf-slave electorate.
Sure, then as now, people are people. They live, and love. They eat food, and they work in various capacities.
Love on the balcony.
But it’s the entire government strucutre has changed.
In the 1950’s America was a “democracy”.
Today, America is a Military Empire, and the actions and behaviors of the citizenry has been absolutely reflected by that change. If you look at history; from the lens of history, you will see that in every case, all military empires develop a strange collection of civilian behaviors domestically, and that is reflected in the laws that that society manifests for it’s people to live by.
Thus it should be no surprise that the American government is so pro-LGBT and so obscessed with everything progressive and novel.
But that was not the case when the American government was healthy, and was an actual functioning democracy.
Boy and his duck, 1953
So what can you do about it?
Well, historically these kinds of government eventually die off. They historical ways are well documented…
Internal revolt.
Defeat in a war.
Or collapse in stages to a much smaller entity.
Most people have very little say in the three above mechanisms. So I advise fleeing to “greener patures” and safer havens.
But…
In any event, the best thing that a person can do is to be a Rufus.
Rufus gives a guy a break. The poor guy cannot pay. So he give him all his food. The Rufus, while upset, puts the food back, and let’s the guy go.
Just say hi. You know, life will pass you buy. So smile more, and don’t over think. Most adults (not so much for teenagers and young people) will appreciate you talkign to them. SO say hi. Thell them what you think. Don’t do it for any other reason than to be nice.
Maybe good things will come out of it. Be the Rufus. Video. 98MB
When I first came to China back in the 1980’s, China was a poor land. The roads were dirt, and the cities looked very disorganized, dirty, and poor. it was very primitive. Public restrooms were horrible, the people were rural, even in the cities, and the police looked like some cross between Mad Max and a Mongolian mountain guide. And as I traveled back and forth from the USA to China and back, I saw first hand how it developed, changed and improved. It has been amazing.
Today China is simply amazing. It really is. This is true on oh, so many levels. And today we are going to talk about one of those things that no one ever addresses in a visceral way; the deep blue skies of China.
What? You might ask.
According to all the “experts”, China is a polluted wasteland of child workers, trash, poor unsanitary facilities, and gloom. Well it is not. It’s a merit-driven nation of hard workers, a harmonious culture, and society, and an enormous land with a deep and impressive culture and history.
But that doesn’t stop the Western media from continuing to bash it so relentlessly.
Do a Google search on China pollution, and you get millions of articles (all out of America and the UK) about how terrible and polluted China is. So, judging from the great magnitude of articles, it must be true. Right?
Image search “skies of China”.
CNN takes a picture of a dust storm in Beijing and claims that it’s pollution. FOX takes a picture of China in the early 1990’s and provides the impression that it is contemporaneous. Yahoo “news” bans any comments out of China to their China-hate articles. The BBC takes clips from an expat blog, uses photoshop to colorize it into greys and dark hues to give the illusion of a dirty, oily, filthy place.
And then they make all these graphs, and maps to show pollution quality. Giving the reader the perspective that the air must just be fucking awful.
China air pollution from the American company “Listverse”.
Western “news” is simply manipulated propaganda for the domestic audience. Those of us who know better shouldn’t read it. It provides zero benefit to us.
Today, we are going to compare apples with other apples. We are going to compare orange with other oranges. And we are going to compare pizza with other pizza. These days of deception, half truths and manipulation are OVER.
Well, here we are going to chat about something that had to be pointed out to me. I have grown so accustomed to the blue skies here, that I take them for granted, when I shouldn’t. And with that as an introductory lead in, I will [1] address the fact that Chinese skies tend to be pristine, and then [2] how this all came about.
China has tamed air pollution in all of it’s forms, and China today has absolutely stunning skies.
Background
It all began when I posted this article HEREabout a factory business trip that I took.I went to an industrial area, and visited some hard manufacturing factories.
People couldn’t get over how pristine blue the sky was, as that was not at all the impression that they had of China. They asked “where’s all the pollution”, “where’s the smog”, the “plumes of industrial clouds, and the forever white eye-burning skies? They asked where are the vapor plumes of the airline flights that create a network of white lines in the skies?
And that got me thinking.
As many times that I have mentioned over and over, and over that China has “cracked down” severely on pollution and enforces it with a very special of police known as the “corruption police”, people don’t get it. They don’t understand.
There are results as a consequence of these actions.
China does things, and then there are measurable and visceral results.
So when I take a drive up to visit a factory, I am used to the pristine blue skies, the brilliant and fresh green trees, the clear colors and razor sharp images. But others, who do not live inside of China aren’t.
In the following videos, please check out these embedded videos or their associated links to get the “full” experience. It’s almost as good as sitting in the car with MM getting there. video 46MB
All of rural China looks like this. It’s an entire nation of skyscrapers. This, believe it or not, is just a tiny, tiny village. video. 69 MB.
And this is what it is like. The factory sits on the edge of the tiny village, and so we just pulled in and went up to the front gate. Video. 32MB
But you know, it’s not just a trip to a factory. It’s not confined to the rural sections of China. It’s everywhere.
And I do live in Zhuhai
I know it is nice here. But I am not talking about only my city. I am talking about all of China. Video of Zhuhai. 1MB
But Zhuhai isn’t unusual. We are right outside of Hong Kong. Shenzhen is right across the bay. Combined, over 20 million people live within ten miles of my house. Which is a lot. New York City is only 6 million people! Yet, look at the skies here….
There’s rain, cloudy days, snow, squalls, fog, dust storms and other weather events that will turn the sky different than the pristine blue skies that I seem to encounter most of the time. video 16.7MB
Shanghai, and Hong Kong see a lot of fog. Overcast skies and fog seem to be the norm there. Shenzhen gets a lot of the overcast from the geographical wedging from the fog of Hong Kong and the mountains inland.
Beijing deals with dust storms.
And so on and so forth.
Some examples
Examples of blue skies, free of smog, pollution or aircraft vapor trails are everywhere. Just go onto the Chinese social media and watch the videos. Blue skies are everywhere. Seriously.
It’s like those High Speed Trains. They are common and everyday events. No one notices them.
It’s like those police drones in the sky, they are everywhere and no one notices them.
It’s like those thermal scans at all the entrance ways. No one cares or gives them any notice any longer.
It’s like paying using WeChat. It’s common and no one thinks about it at all.
But you know, we do need to take notice, and pay attention. The rest of the world do not have these kind of skies. Their cities have a dome of haze. Their suburbs are criss-crossed by airplane vapor trails. Their industrial areas have eye stinging smog and glare.
And I, for one, am going to point it out and celebrate it.
Here’s someone else driving in Hunan, China. video. 2MB
Here’s a cute BABY girl in the front of her house. Video 6MB
Here’s a ride taken yesterday from my house. I just filmed the ride as we pulled out of the building complex. video. 53MB
Here’s a nice girl being filmed at dusk video. 3MB
This looks like the mountains near Longgong, North of Shenzhen, China. video 4MB
Here’s a nice video showing the first graders getting their red scarves as part of the Pioneers. Everyone in China gets mandatory military trainings, and it all starts in first grade. video. 5MB
Here’s the Hong Kong, Macao and Zhuhai bridge. Video. 4MB
This girl is posing all over the city. I love these compilations with a pretty girl showing what China is like. Video. 10MB
Here’s another nice girl. Notice the sky and clarity of the air all around her. video. 4MB
Here’s a movie taken in front of my office. Video 14MB
The Chinese are so patriotic too. All of them trust their government, and the government really has earned their respect. Here’s a Pioneer. You can tell with the red scarve. video. 2MB
Yeah, it’s a non-stop hate fest against China, and while China changes, cleans up and moves forward the lies just keep a running. And the West, already ignorant, is really completely uneducated on the true and real state of things.
The crack down on pollution
China has made enormous strides in cracking down on pollution. Though you would NEVER read about that in the Western “news”. It’s all the continuing non-stop fantasy of China being the world’s polluter. If so, then why are Chinese skies so blue? Eh?
Here’s some articles about the Chinese efforts to stop, contain and eliminate pollution of all types.
Yeah, you probably saw these articles, but didn’t think too much about them. Maybe you should have read them, eh?
Yeah.
Pay some attention to the world around you and note who is doing all the complaining, and who is actually physically doing things; taking corrective measures, and actually making the world a better place. Eh?
When China says that it is going to do something, well you should take note. They actually do things. And when they say they are going to clean up China, and make it a healthy and clean place they do so.
China is very beautiful
YaoYao showing how beautiful Hunan, China is. Video 3MB
Video taken at a busy intersection waiting on our DD. Video. 12MB
Chinese first graders going through their military training exam. Everyone in China MUST take military training through their entire education system. It starts at first grade. Here’ is the first “final exam” where they are rate in their ability to compete an obstacle course. These kids are 6 years old. video. 9MB
Here’s a nice girl walking in one of the many, many parks here in China. She is wearing black. video. 3MB
Airplane vapor trails
AirPollutionControlAirpollution is arguably the most egregious environmental problem plaguing China.Thecentralgovernmenthasplaced improving air quality as a priority on itsagenda for the next several years, withChina’s Premier Xi Peng pledging in March 2017 to “bringback blue skies” and work faster to address air pollution.
But why no vapor trails in the sky above? Well it appears that the Chinese government has placed pollution controls on all the domestic airlines, and this has really caused a great deal of consternation on the international airlines that want to operate inside of China domestically.
It costs too much money, they say, and they can’t earn the kinds of profits that they need to please their shareholders. They argue that they MUST make a profit because they must answer to their owners who demand profits.
Meanwhile, China reports that the role of the government is to provide affordable, food, clothing, shelter transportation and a comfortable standard of living to it’s people. The government should not be a for-profit enterprise.
Because the foreign airlines cannot meet the tough environmental, and pricing requirements that China provides for it’s citizenry, the airlines had a fit. They then worked with the United States to “crowbar” and “strong arm” China to change it’s polices so that foreign companies can profit off the Chinese citizenry inside of China.
This girl is skateboarding near my house. The building in the background is the Zhuhai Opera House. Video. 10MB
You can actually see the Opera House from my living room. Here’s a video that I took not too long ago. Video. 26MB
Here’s one of our photoshoots. This one took place at around 5:00 in one of the parks down the street. Video. 21MB
Conclusions
96 percent of Chinese people owned their own residence. More than 50 percent of the Chinese people grow their own food and produce. They do not need to pay any property tax and any insurance.
They do not need a car in their lives. They do not pay homeowners' association fees, the fire department fees, the police protections and so on and on. Of the fifty percent of the Chinese rural population, they do not use cash that much.
Three of my sisters in China have been laid off workers of state owned enterprises for the last thirty years. Their income is only a couple thousand yuan from the state pensions every. But they all have their own houses, and have savings over one million Chinese yuan.
They eat better than I do in the USA as a professor struggling to pay for my mortgage. I have to pay out of my pocket medical care, dental insurance, home insurance, property taxes, home owners association fees, all of which the Chinese do not have.
My sisters all grow their own vegetables in their own yard. I have to buy everything from the supermarkets.
There are too much loose holes in the calculation of GDP, which is simply meaningless.
When I was growing up during the Mao era, we grew everything we ate organically, and everything was fresh. We did not have much cash income, but we had everything we needed. By comparison, how many people in the world could have organically grown fresh produce everyday in the world free of all kinds pollutants.
The Chinese people's per capita income was very low during the Mao era, about a hundred dolar a year. But Chinese people life expectancy grew from 32 years in 1949 to 69 years in 1976, more than doubled in less than thirty years.
GDP as a measurement of well being is simply a trick created by the capitalist west to cover up their management failure, with a high GDP but many homeless and hungry people.
-Dongpin
After all this, it should be clear that China is really doing things and making things happen. There’s so much bullshit and lies about China, but I will tell you what, if you come to China, you WILL SEE the blues skies. You will see the HIGH TECHNOLOGY. You will see the flower and the trees, and the relaxed pace of life. And you will see that it’s because it is a nation government by merit and people who care.
China treats those who want to change things for “democracy”, and “rule by the wealthy”, and the greedy as evil and dangerous people. They are locked up and kept away from the levers of power.
China is doing things RIGHT.
A billion Chinese have applied for membership in the Communist Party of China since 2001. 907 million of them were rejected, mostly on moral grounds. It seems that most Chinese adults would take the Party oath, to endure the people’s ordeals first and enjoy their fruits last, subject themselves to constant scrutiny, and be held to higher ethical and legal standards than non-members. Adultery is cause for dismissal. Rape is cause for execution. Nonetheless, ninety-four million members are honoring their oath pretty well.
And here’s a great image of a roadside rest area. Check it out.
A highway rest area. This one is in Inner Mongolia, Northern China. 41.5MB Video
Other possible reasons
There are a host of other possible contributors for the blue skies. May I suggest that other things can add to the overall effect experienced within China today…
A decline in domestic air flights because of the enormous network of high speed trains.
A decline in international air flights to and from China.
A severe curtailing of all factories that do not have, or plan to add, air scrubbing pollution control equipment.
A movement of the simple, labor intensive, and crude manufacturing out of China to South East Asia.
Intentional power rationing to selected geographical regions and specific targeted regions.
All in all, while China has indeed set forth impressive air pollution standards, and have implemented such, a number of other effects contributed synergistically to make the air of China noteworthy and pristine.
Oh, and a note to all the people who just stumble on MM and this article and want to shit on it…
Yes. And I do actually mean “to shit” on it.
Keep in mind that this information is going to go against your Western media brainwashing. It’s comfortable to believe the lies that face the TRUTH.
So don’t give me the normal bullshit, I delete those comments. If I wanted to read a regurgitation of FOX “news”, or the BBC, I’d read them directly myself. Though I do keep a few prize examples of stupidity for use in other articles.
Like these two comments (that I deleted from other articles that made China look better than the non-stop hate-China narrative spewing forth from the media megaphones)…
...the lies and propaganda concocted by CCP. For example, the title claims China has democracy at bottom, which is fabricated by CCP to fool people. In fact, CCP uses all of its power to crush any thing associated with democracy as it cruelly did in Hong Kong last year. CCP made it very clear that it will destroy any buds of democracy movement in China mercilessly as it did 32 year ago in Tiananmen massacre in which thousands of pro-democracy students and Beijing residents were killed by machine gun fires and crushed by army's main battle tanks.
And…
This is essentially a person staying up all night, and fantasizing about how China might be if all the consultative channels that China has erected were ACTUALLY HOW CHINA WAS GOVERNED. But they are not. Modest consultative measures might indeed help an authoritarian regime operate better, and that it probably part of China's success. But that doesn't mean, as the author seems to think, that a group of ordinary citizens makes the final decision about China's laws. It's laughable. Don't waste you time on this, and ask yourself why it is being heavily promoted.
I’m telling you what it is like.
You can absorb it in, or you can believe the nonsense being spewed at you by billions of dollars in manipulation and funding. Your choice.
But here, is the REAL deal. It’s what is going on right now. Soak it in.
And finally…
Be the Rufus
Are you making the place a little bit nicer when you leave it? Do you pick up after yourself? Do you make people smile when you are in public? Do free-ranging dogs and cats welcome you?
Are those around you comfortable that you are nearby in case anything goes wrong?
Do not be ashamed of who you are, or what you do. You are NOT your job. You are NOT what others say you are. You are unique and very, very special. Stand up for who you are and serve justice, and help those in your society. It’s your highest calling. video. 2MB
Please, be the Rufus. Not for personal profit. Not for fame, or glory. Just do it because you are a decent person and you want to make your tiny part of the world a better place to live in.
And after the explosion, the Rufus runs back into the flames to rescue others trapped inside. Video. 2MB
The world is not a bad terrible place. Spread the love around. Be a Rufus. Just be nice, give things away for free just to make people feel happy, wanted and included. It won’t cost you that much, and you will really help make the world a much better place. Be the Rufus. Like this guy does… video 5MB
Or this. Use your talents and make the world a better place. Video. 6MB
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this in my China index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Every now and then, you come across an article that resonates. Not from some unknown blogger who writes about his opinions after reading the “news”, but a thoughtful article by an experienced professional discussing a subject that he knows well. And so when I came across this work, I just had to reproduce it here on MM..Granted, his title sucks. But the content is gold. All credit to him and the source found HERE..
By Byron King
“It Failed Miserably” – What If the US Lost a War and Nobody Noticed?
I have a friend who teaches at the university level — at a U.S. service academy, no less.
The other day he was running a class and posed a short (but profound) question to a group of students. Namely, what was the most recent strategic disaster suffered by the U.S. military?
“Blank expressions,” noted my friend.
After a period of time, one student offered an answer… “Afghanistan?” (And yes, the student’s answer was in the form of a question.)
Dutifully, my professor-friend led the students in a discussion of what happened in a war that began before they were born and whose outcomes will affect them for the rest of their lives.
There’s a Whiskey tale to tell just based on this anecdote alone.
But wait, there’s more!
Because America’s loss in Afghanistan has already been overshadowed.
Indeed, the U.S. military has suffered an even greater strategic disaster than Afghanistan: an epic military defeat that already occurred, and you likely don’t know a thing about it.
I’ll skip to the takeaway here.
The U.S. should refrain from fighting the next war because we’ve already lost, long before even one shot has been fired.
The source for this ultra-defeatist news is not just a teacher at a sailor’s college, sited on a salty bay. No, the source is no less than a serving, 4-star general whose job title is Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Let’s dig in…
Here’s the long and short. The U.S. military conducted a major wargame last fall and “it failed miserably,” said U.S. Air Force Gen. John Hyten earlier this week.
Hyten spoke at a conference sponsored by the Emerging Technologies Institute. It’s a think tank run by the National Defense Industrial Association, an industry group focused on military modernization. (You can watch it on YouTube here, about an hour and 18 minutes.)
“An aggressive red team that had been studying the United States for the last 20 years just ran rings around us,” he said. “They knew exactly what we’re going to do before we did it.”
According to a Pentagon spokesperson, one key scenario of this wargame involved U.S. forces battling with China over Taiwan. From Hyten’s summary, U.S. forces became sitting ducks and were destroyed piecemeal and systematically.
The overarching problem was, basically, everything.
It’s all fucked
That is, the problem for the U.S. was far beyond the shortcomings of any particular piece of equipment, or ship or airplane, let alone the willingness of U.S. and allied troops to fight. No, the issue was the very essence of how the U.S. military forms strategic concepts and conducts operations.
In other words, the problem was the entire belief system, architecture and construction of the Pentagon way of doing things — and certainly of waging war. By extension, it’s a political problem too, as we’ll address below.
“We always aggregate to fight, and aggregate to survive,” said Hyten.
That is, the U.S. military is built around massing people, equipment and munitions. Build up a huge complex of firepower. Then add massive levels of intelligence information, command and control, and targeting data to, as the saying goes, “take it downrange.”
This has been the U.S. approach to warfighting since World War II, with many of the roots extending back to the Civil War.
The war game fiasco
Per Hyten, in last fall’s war game, “We basically attempted an information-dominance structure, where information was ubiquitous to our forces. Just like it was in the first Gulf War, just like it has been for the last 20 years, just like everybody in the world, including China and Russia, have watched us do for the last 30 years.”
But the so-called “blue team” (meaning U.S. and allied forces) lost access to communications and data networks almost immediately. Satellites went away. Seafloor cables were cut. Bandwidth died. In general, it was impossible to utilize the electromagnetic environment, and within moments nobody could talk with anybody.
And “what happens if right from the beginning that information is not available?” asked Hyten, rhetorically. “That’s the big problem that we faced.”
According to Hyten, “in today’s world, with hypersonic missiles, with significant long-range fires coming at us from all domains, if you’re aggregated and everybody knows where you are, you’re vulnerable.”
And with an entire concept of operations poked in the proverbial eyes, red team easily defeated the blue side.
Not just a yearly exercise. It’s the planning run-on for something BIG…
Based on Hyten’s description, this wargame was not just another table-top exercise. No, this was a test of the all-up game plan for the “next” conflict, largely based on concepts of operations that have guided the American military process for three decades or more. And the outcome was a total disaster.
U.S. doctrine focuses on creating what is called a “kill box” for the opponent. But in this particular expedition, from the outset U.S. and allied forces walked into their own zones of destruction. They laid down in their own coffins, so to speak.
Opposing forces wrecked the entire complex of U.S. logistics. Rear bases came under fire, while aircraft and ships at sea were targeted by long-range missiles. There’s just no hiding anymore from people with sufficient technology to find you.
Even worse, most U.S. weapons were outranged by new systems recently deployed by China, much of it based on advanced Russian designs. It’s a long-term U.S. failure in research, development and procurement.
When the balloon went up, most U.S. forces near-immediately lost the ability to coordinate attacks and/or return fire. Much of the targeting data was worthless in any event, while systems used for aiming and guiding munitions also failed.
To the extent that communications worked at all, much of the data were corrupted or hacked.
It’s not overstating to say that, in this one wargame, far from home the U.S. lost vast numbers of people and equipment. In real world terms, think of casualty numbers in the tens of thousands. Of entire bases obliterated. Of hundreds of airplanes lost. Of dozens of ships sunk. And that’s just in the first few days.
The wargame ended with American forces defeated and devastated. U.S. allies were similarly shredded. And U.S. interests in the Western Pacific and Asia were annihilated.
Analysis
To mix a couple of metaphors, the U.S. suffered defeats in a nature that mirror a modern version of Pearl Harbor, the fall of Singapore and a saltwater Stalingrad.
And it gets worse. Because the devil is in the details, many of which have little or nothing to do with purely military matters. The downfall of American power begins at home, not far overseas.
Return to Gen. Hyten’s comment that potential adversaries have spent 30 years watching and learning from U.S. operations. Well, yes. Obviously.
Any reasonably intelligent counterparty — anyone, any country, anywhere on the face of this planet — would pay attention to what the U.S. has been doing and then figure out what to expect and how to deal with it.
Over three decades, people everywhere watched, learned, and totally went to school on the U.S. military. And it’s all because the America made a foolish political and economic choice, namely, to engage in so-called “long wars.”
And that has never been a good idea, going back to the days of Sun Tzu and before.
“Wars cost much silver,” wrote Sun Tzu in his classic book, “On War.” And of course, he meant money. But the subtleties of Sun Tzu’s writing also delve into how war affects both people and culture. Wars drive a certain negative ethic within a political system, and the longer any war lasts, the more negative is the tendency.
Meanwhile, it’s not as if America’s 30 years of war were battles of necessity. Certainly, it’s not as if the country was being invaded and overrun.
No, the three decades of war (Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama-Trump-Biden) were an era of forward presence coupled with routine military belligerence, oft to the ring of political trumpets at home.
The named wars (Afghanistan and Iraq) speak for themselves. Then there are other levels of warfare, like with Serbia, Libya and Syria, where the gunslinging showed up in a different manner, but still as destructive to entire societies.
In this sense — that sense of reaching out to bomb people far from U.S. shores — America’s long wars are not just a military issue, easily dismissed by civilians as some sort of niche problem for the Pentagon.
No, because closer to home, the long wars reveal seismic flaws in the very nature and character of U.S. governance. The long wars reveal a deep weakness in the American form of government itself.
Indeed, we’re a long way from the sage advice of President John Quincy Adams, that “Americans should not go abroad to slay dragons they do not understand in the name of spreading democracy.”
And look at it this way. It’s not as if the U.S. ever had a series of national referenda on 30 years of continuous warfare. In fact, the past three decades of war overseas were based on the geopolitical ideas of a relatively small, self-perpetuating cabal of elite elected players and policy wonks, in Washington and various brain-tanks. Many familiar names, to be sure.
Abysmal strategic ignorance and lack of conscience.
Through it all, as well, Congress (and the courts too) showed abysmal strategic ignorance and lack of conscience. Because evidently, the country’s voters place many truly wrong people into important positions.
Consider one key episode, the 9/11 attacks and attendant national outrage.
No doubt, for America 9/11 was the source of a widespread, limbic-level sense of wanting to go somewhere and totally smash things up. That’s entirely understandable. And in that sense, America’s attacks on Afghanistan in late 2001 should have been, at most, a punitive expedition concerning Osama bin Laden.
Instead, Afghanistan alone morphed and mission-crept into a foolish effort of so-called “nation building.” And not even the Chinese method of Belt-and-Road nation-building, with highways and power lines, etc.
No, America in Afghanistan was more of a Vietnam-redux. The idea was somehow to pacify people who didn’t want us to be there, and if that didn’t work then destroy the place in order to rebuild it. Meanwhile, one can almost hear the echoes of at least one old bromide from the 1960s, that, “If we don’t fight ‘em over there, we’ll have to fight ‘em here.”
Through it all, and again in a Vietnam-like manner, Afghanistan was not so much a 20-year war for America, as a one-year war fought 20 times by a corps of officers, senior non-commissioned officers and civilian government personnel and contractors who made careers out of it.
At the end of the day, is anyone really surprised that smart, well-resourced adversaries paid attention and came up with an entire spectrum of methods to confront U.S. warfighting?
The Next War…
Come the next real war, U.S. forces won’t own space or the skies. Won’t run the electromagnetic spectrum. Won’t have unfettered communications. Won’t control logistics. Won’t have good targeting data. Won’t have air supremacy, let alone sea supremacy or undersea dominance. And many of the expensive weapon systems simply won’t work in the degraded environment.
Apparently though, it took an internal wargame in the Department of Defense to drive home the point.
Or at least, to illustrate the problem such that no less than one of the most senior generals in the military came out of the closet to admit that America’s super-expensive military complex can’t win the next big war.
On the bright side, perhaps it’s a true wakeup call that translates to progress.
On that note, I rest my case.
That’s all for now… Thank you for subscribing and reading.
This article is saying what I have been saying for years now. America is not going to just lose a battle here, or a battle there. The entire military excursion will be a Waterloo event.
It will be the Stalingrad of all Pacific military forces.
And then, it will move to America.
China will not act alone. Russia will assist.
Then with total dominance of the air by the victorious Asian combined forces will turn all of America into a modern-day Syria. While I do not expect that China will give any mercy, they however, will realistically set up conditions where starving, armed Americans, will kill each other for moldy turnip rinds.
DF-41
And that’s only with conventional weapons.
Right now we are watching as the Pentagon experts and generals are telling the evil neocons in Washington DC to shut up.
Now, I don’t know if they will be successful…
…after all those evil psychopaths in Washington are crafty, deluded, and living in some kind of insanity (possibly drug induced) that gives this illusion of unaccountability.
Xu Guangyu, a retired major general and now a strategy researcher, said that DF-16 has a strike range of more than 1,000 kilometers, filling the gap that previously existed with the absence of a medium-range ballistic missile in the PLA’s arsenal. He said the missile also is able to reach Okinawa, a Japanese island about 400 km from China’s Diaoyu Islands. Shi Hong, executive editor of Shipborne Weapons, said the DF-16 was developed by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp based on the DF-11 short-range ballistic missile and can carry a warhead of at least 500 kg. The missile has a strike accuracy as good as that of a cruise missile, Shi said. It is also able to maneuver in its final stage to penetrate enemy defensive firepower, he said.
Regardless to what those evil psychopathic war-monsters want, I can well imagine that a repeat of what happened last year in 2020.
This was when Trump ordered the Naval Armada to the South China Sea. Eight assault carrier steamed to China. They were intended to seize some outlying Chinese held islands in the inner island defensive chain.
But you know, nothing happened.
The commanders refused. They steamed home, and President Trump fired the leadership.
Again, we can expect, that reasonable leadership will refuse to engage either China or Russia or both.
They will refuse.
Just like late Summer 2020. And the sitting American President will fire his military staff for refusing to die.
The Chinese are subtle.
They speak softly and kindly and carefully.
During the “heat” of the anti Uighur Muslim “issue”, China responded with a video. It is below. Pay attention to the array of messages that are subtly embedded within it.
The video below is an Army unit located in Xingjiang to defend against insurgency movements by the United States to block the BRI.
If you note, those are not SCUD missiles. Aside from a host of Medium Range ballistic missiles (DF-21 and DF-26), and if you look carefully, the DF-5C, additionally there are also DF-31A and DF-41 weapons presented as part of the defensive force.
What is China trying to say?
Along with the destruction of nearby military bases, will be the simultaneous destruction of major American cities. These missiles are long range city-flatteners.
Look at the MESSAGE that China is telegraphing.
Those are nuclear (and neutron bomb) MIRV, hyper-velocity, (with artificial intelligence), long-range, ICBMs. the DF-31A is capable of hitting every major American city on the West Coast. These are latest generation, decades ahead of America, nuclear missiles that America has no defense against.
If you start moving military against China, China will devastate the American heartland. Any surviving leadership will have to hide in the impoverished American ghettos to avoid the nuclear carpet bombing that will result.
The Chinese do not play.
A final comment
Chinese media has announced (last month), ever since the US pulled that aircraft landing stunt in Taiwan, that not only are military units fully armed with real munitions, and everything (EVERYTHING!) is out of storage, but they fly and run “HOT”.
There’s a high probably the next US / UK provocation will result in “accidental” deaths.
Nothing quite ruins your day like global thermonuclear war. Especially when you are on the losing side.
In America, it’s no longer an issue of “one day the common many will rise up against the evil leadership”.
Ai! It has become something else.
It has become “we need to hang these Washington DC bastards before they get everyone killed.”
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
If you read any of the Western press (most UK or American) you will get a really distorted view about Hong Kong, and China. You will read things, so many things, that you will just “take in” as truth, and without a secondary source of information, you will start to believe it. And that’s how the “West” works. You keep people stupid and ignorant, and manipulate them in such a way that they “dance” to whatever tune you play.
I have been (by chance) reading some articles out of Hong Kong ( I mean, after all, I live next door to it.) and they (the articles) are very interesting in how illustrative they are to the amazing levels of disinformation pumped out of America and Britain over the last few decades.
All lies. All disinformation. All manipulation.
All the time.
We start with Billionaire Tycoon Jimmy Lai. And if you read the American (and British press) you might picture him as a freedom lover for democracy, and a fighter for justice and the “American way of life”.
Not even remotely true. He’s actually sort of like a Chinese version of Larry Flint, with the behavior of Harvey Weinstein , and the scruples of Hillary Clinton.
Here is a great article. Found HERE. It discusses Jimmy Lai’s “operation” in Hong Kong…
Fun fact:
For a newspaper with only 86,000 subscribers. He was mysteriously making HK$95 million every month (12.23 million US Dollars).
Every time the HK government tried to audit him, a massive onslaught of anti-HK government protests, media, and assaults from both the USA and the UK stopped the effort. On numerous occasions, the UK and US government "stepped in" and put pressure on HK to free him and stop the investigations.
But when HK passed the insurrection law in 2020, his "operations" were investigated and it turns out that he was laundering enormous sums of cash directly out of the United States government for undisclosed purposes.
FIRST, LET’S LOOK AT the numbers which are being omitted in reports about the closure of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper.
NOT BREAKFAST READING
1) Apple Daily printed 86,000 copies a day, which meant that 98.5 PER CENT of Hong Kong’s 6,500,000 adults did NOT buy it with their breakfast noodles.
SIMPLE DECEPTION
2) The Western media is reporting that it was “Hong Kong’s biggest newspaper”. No. Not remotely true. Hong Kong’s most popular newspaper is free tabloid Headline Daily (1,012,000 a day, or more than ten times Apple’s circulation), and in the paid broadsheet category, leaders include Oriental Daily News (530,000 a day), and Sing Tao Daily (253,000 a day).
Hong Kong has always had a hunger for newspapers, and the mainstream voice has always been far, far more popular than Jimmy Lai’s one. That was true in the British era, and is true today, with the same newspaper groups at the top of the pile.
THE BIG STORY IN MEDIA
3) Maybe Jimmy Lai’s paper was top of the web charts? No. Alexa rankings for Hong Kong show HK01.com, Bastillepost and other online media far ahead of Apple Daily (and the fact that Hong Kongers visit mainland China shopping site Taobao significantly more than any local media site should tell us something).
HK01, in particular, has come from nowhere to dominate the local media scene. Lively, up-to-the-minute and often critical of the government, its existence and popularity gives the lie to the “press freedom is dead” trope of the Western media, and is the big story in media that foreign correspondents have all missed.
WHO CLOSED APPLE?
4) Apple Daily was not closed down by the Hong Kong government, but by its own board, comprising local people hostile to China, plus Americans.
The HK$18 million that the government froze was a small sum for a paper for a company with HK$95 million in revenues every month, financial analysts say. The paper itself boasted of having cash accounts of HK$531 million, enough to last 18 months.
In fact, the entire financial picture of the media group is an under-reported, under-studied mystery.
THE INFAMOUS NARRATIVE
5) So why did they close their own paper? As a PR coup, because they were absolutely confident that the international media, which means the Western media, would not tell the real story, but one which fits their anti-China narrative.
Oh, and also, it saves them money.
Apple Daily’s stunning lack of popularity among the good, honest, people of Hong Kong, was only eclipsed by its stunning lack of popularity among advertisers. The group has been losing more than HK$1 million a day, yes, A DAY, (which is more than US$1 million a week), amounting to several billion Hong Kong dollars over the past few years.
The paper clearly did not function commercially as a media company, so any healthily skeptical person would ask themselves: what was it for?
PRO-DEMOCRACY?
Oh, and another thing. Apple Daily wasn’t “pro-democracy” either.
But more about that later. Let’s start from the very beginning, a very good place to start, as the great poet Oscar Hammerstein II said.
This headline from a UK newspaper called ‘i’ (for “Independent”) shows the typically false reporting characteristic of coverage of this story
CHAPTER 1) BRUNCH AND PORNOGRAPHY
I FIRST MET Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, founder of Apple Daily, at a politician-packed brunch party in 1995. It was at the luxurious Hong Kong apartment of L. Gordon Crovitz, a senior executive for the Wall Street Journal group. His wife Minky was the perfect hostess.
Garment tycoon Lai wasn’t how I expected him to be, but I liked him. Behind his sad puppy eyes was toughness. He was in the process of launching an oppositional, China-baiting newspaper.
We all congratulated him for taking a step that was clearly brave and very likely foolhardy: he would inevitably get into trouble.
It was only after I had left that brunch party that something occurred to me: the hosts were all right wing United States people, and the invited politicians were all from the Hong Kong opposition. It was like a convention of people who didn’t like China.
MISOGYNY RULES
Over the next few years, Apple Daily carved its place in the city’s media scene over the next few years, and this reporter, like most Hong Kong people, were shocked and horrified.
Lai’s publications made a niche for themselves by taking the lowest of the low paths. There was sex and sensationalism, outrage and scandal, allegations and celebrity gossip of the tawdriest kind, and worse, pornographic stories and reviews/ critiques of sex workers and massage parlours.
This headline from a UK newspaper called ‘i’ (for “Independent”) shows the typically false reporting characteristic of coverage of this story
The Hong Kong community is a rather gentle, low-crime, conservative, majority female society, and the present portrayal of Apple Daily as the natural voice of the community was and is deeply misleading.
The paper, crude, brutal and sexist, was for men. Jimmy Lai, in a 1995 interview with the South China Morning Post, said: “Our porn page is not very well done, but we have to have it because man has basic needs.”
LOWERED STANDARDS
Other publications lowered their standards to compete, and the Hong Kong newsstands became embarrassing to walk past. Remember the “downblouse” photo of schoolgirl Alice Patten on the front page with the headline: “The peaches are ripening”?
The misogyny and cruelty to women and children were shocking, with people being hurt constantly – and discovering that the newspaper simply didn’t care.
After a few years, it felt like most people knew individuals who had been hurt by Apple Daily. The Hong Kong public preferred its traditional newspaper voice, and Jimmy Lai’s newspaper could never rise above being a minority interest, thank God.
Another Western media group gets it wrong: the information above was distributed by AFP, one of the biggest news agencies in the world.
One 1998 story, sadly typical of the paper, stuck in my mind: Apple Daily published a feature about an unbelievably crass man who apparently sought out prostitutes soon after his wife had thrown their children out of a window to their deaths before jumping after them.
The paper later admitted paying the man to pose in bed with the sex workers for the photographs, knowing that it would be the most talked-about story of the week.
The paper was in trouble with the law, usually because of contravening the rules against obscene publications, every two or three months.
FLOUTED ETHICS
It also flouted basic journalistic ethics. Chequebook journalism was the norm. In 2000, an Apple reporter received a 10-month jail sentence for bribing police officers to reveal information. In 2019, the paper was widely reported to have given HK$1.5 million to a taxi driver for video footage of a married celebrity canoodling with a woman who wasn’t his wife.
Next Digital’s Taiwan operation has been a financial disaster: picture by Solomon203/ Wikicommons
Yes, it also did some positive work, like attacking civil servants for doing their jobs badly, but those few tales became over-politicized to an extent that they were not journalism, but political campaigning for its endless pro-America, anti-China message.
Then one day, I got a call. Apple Daily senior executive Mark Simon wanted to meet me and would like to me to give them some help.
CHAPTER TWO) THE MONEY PIT
MARK SIMON, now there’s an interesting character. People were already wondering if Jimmy Lai’s right-hand man was a CIA agent, given the newspaper’s anti-China stance.
I found the notion unlikely, and not just because we were friends. He was enormous and unhealthy looking, and would be unlikely to pass the most basic fitness tests. Also, he liked the limelight too much to be an agent, although there is a sub-group of agents who do their work in the spotlight.
In a discussion on that topic, someone asked me a related question: If not an agent, was Mark Simon a CIA asset, witting or unwitting?
I gave her a reply that my father’s experiences taught me: “Sweetheart, almost every journalist in the world is a CIA asset, witting or unwitting. That’s how the Western press works.”
Another Western media group gets it wrong: the information above was distributed by AFP, one of the biggest news agencies in the world.
ANIMATED NEWS
I met Mark at a coffee shop in Kowloon’s Ho Man Tin district where he introduced me to Marina Shifrin, an American woman who had been hired to write scripts for a new “3D animated news” venture for Next Digital, the parent company of the newspaper. The operation was based in Taiwan, where the group was doing very badly.
The animations were unfunny, getting few hits and were not being widely shared. Mark wanted me to give her the key storytelling points to creating viral media. It was hard to boil down decades of experience into a short lecture, but to sum up, I told her to be authentic, funny, detached and offbeat. We swapped contact details.
I left the meeting pondering how long a principled American woman could stay at such an unprincipled company.
BIGOTRY
For Hong Kong’s majority population a significant problem was Apple Daily’s undisguised bigotry. Apple popularized the term “locusts” for people from mainland China coming to Hong Kong.
This was a horrific mistake in the eyes of this community, where many people had mainland cousins, and recognized that the city’s businesses were reliant on mainland Chinese customers.
But here was the puzzle. Despite the repulsive content, there was a rock-solid partnership between the Apple Daily crowd and American media people—and on particular, the most hawkish and right wing of people in that country.
Gordon Crovitz remained closely in the loop. Crovitz’s wife, Minky Worden, was “media advisor” to the Hong Kong opposition for several years. Mark Simon had a US Naval Intelligence background and became president of Republicans Abroad in Hong Kong.
Other media highlighted the fact that Apple-style muckraking made ordinary people feel unsafe
Other media highlighted the fact that Apple-style muckraking made ordinary people feel unsafe
HK PEOPLE GENEROUS
To combat its bad reputation for bigotry, Apple sometimes accused others of the same thing. In 2013, it ran a front-page anti-government “scoop” reporting that Executive Council member Franklin Lam, said: “I utterly discriminate against new immigrants.”
Unfortunately for the reporters, the meeting had been recorded and the tape showed that what he actually said was: “I utterly do not discriminate against new immigrants. On arrival in Hong Kong, they are legally Hong Kong citizens. They are also first-class citizens.”
The truth is that Hong Kong people are generous, and the city has an extensive program to help mainland immigrants settle in.
Jimmy Lai meets Mike Pence: picture from Mike Pence’s office
Jimmy Lai meets Mike Pence: picture from Mike Pence’s office
CHAPTER 3) UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE
The world is being told that Apple Daily is a pro-democracy paper. Let’s talk about that. In 2013 and 2014, Hong Kong civil servants announced the results of a years-long process to introduce a one-person-one-vote system to this city.
A Chinese University survey of the public showed that some 55 percent of people were in favor of proceeding with the government’s universal suffrage plan, providing that satisfaction could be achieved on the composition of the “broadly representative nominating committee”.
But Apple Daily and the more strident members of the opposition called for the whole universal suffrage package to be jettisoned, as not being sufficiently close to Western liberal democracy. (In fact, the Hong Kong system allowed direct voting for the leader, unlike UK and US systems, where you vote for parties, and the party or the electoral college appoint a leader.)
FAUX OUTRAGE
The Western media, including this reporter, who was writing op-eds for the New York Times at the time, got caught up in the faux outrage, and the path to democratic self-government that Hong Kong civil servants had taken literally years to build was demolished in a single day.
Many academics and journalists (including the present writer), later realized that we’d made a huge error, denying Hong Kong people an important chance to take the first steps towards a more democratic system.
GETTING IT RIGHT AT LAST
In Taiwan, Marina Shifrin worked until 3 o’clock in the morning and then made a video of herself holding an “I quit” sign and dancing at multiple locations in the Next Media offices.
It went viral on the internet, winning her 19 million views, plus a job offer of working in televison in the United States. She left Taiwan as fast as she could.
REVOLUTION CONSULTANTS
In late 2014, Western “revolution consultants” revealed that they had been working with Hong Kong anti-China campaigners for almost two years before the “Occupy Central” campaign shut down much of the business center.
Leaked documents revealed that Jimmy Lai was secretly handling the finances for those protests: more than HK$40 million (US$5.2 million) came from unknown sources and went to hostile groups in Hong Kong.
In one of the emails, Lai spoke scathingly about the protest leaders, saying they “could accomplish nothing if there was no help”.
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS
Hong Kong was swept by rumors, later confirmed, that the US State Department had a budget of millions to destabilize China by poisoning minds against the country in its outlying areas – Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet and Mongolia.
Piece by piece, stories of unexplained payments popped up. It became clear that the cash coming through the National Endowment for Democracy was peanuts compared to money from other American sources. But it was hard to find the links between the odd bits of news that popped up.
For example, in May 2016 the Independent Commission Against Corruption highlighted an undeclared payment of HK$250,000 from Mark Simon to an opposition politician. It was not clear where the cash originated.
But by that time, observers of the Hong Kong scene noted that we very often saw the same factors coming together: Americans, mystery money, Jimmy Lai, and anti-China politicians.
AIMLESS VIOLENCE
In 2019, civil unrest again broke out and Apple Daily strongly backed the pro-independence protesters calling for Hong Kong to be “freed” from China, despite the fact that between 80 and 93 percent of Hong Kong people strongly oppose independence.
The protesters wanted Donald Trump to take Hong Kong from China, possibly the worst idea in history.
Bizarrely, Apple Daily gave the biggest encouragement to the aimlessly violent people who had no plan other than to destroy Hong Kong’s economy, close the airport, and generally cause mayhem. There was no conceivable way that the endless destruction of public facilities would lead to more democracy, as Hong Kong people pointed out repeatedly in talk shows and on social media.
Indeed, it was obvious that the process Apple Daily was encouraging could have no possible outcome except to cause Beijing to intervene – which was, of course, the whole point. Accusations that this city was just a pawn in a bigger game in which Jimmy Lai was serving the United States became impossible to dismiss.
THE US RIGHT WING
Also clear was that Jimmy Lai strongly favored the right wing of the United States, since they were more actively anti-China. In May, 2020, Jimmy Lai launched a #TrumpSavesHK campaign on its front page. “Trump is a statesman,” Lai wrote in the newspaper in October.
Throughout this period, the paper called for international sanctions on Hong Kong, even though the city was being hammered for reasons mired in disinformation. I don’t think anyone taking a genuinely detached look at the paper’s actions over the past few years could possibly call it pro-democracy, or even pro-Hong Kong. It worked instead to actively harm this community.
Behind the scenes, Apple Daily dug into its coffers to commission a fake report “revealing” that Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden had secret dealings with China. Managed by Mark Simon, the project was a direct bid to interfere in the US elections, and ensure a Trump win.
Again, we saw creative, out-of-the-box thinking, but also an appetite for deliberate deception of the public – the journalist credited with writing the dossier didn’t exist, but was a fake name with a computer-generated face.
Throughout this period, the paper called for international sanctions on Hong Kong, even though the city was being hammered for reasons mired in disinformation. I don’t think anyone taking a genuinely detached look at the paper’s actions over the past few years could possibly call it pro-democracy, or even pro-Hong Kong. It worked instead to actively harm this community.
Oh, and the misogynistic harm to women and children has continued. Earlier this month, Hong Kong saw the end of a court case involving Apple Daily staff pretending to be related to a female celebrity in order to get a birth certificate for her child, which they then published.
ON BOARD
This month, the board of Apple Daily, not the Hong Kong government, closed the newspaper.
Who is on the board? There’s American journalist Mark Clifford. There’s L. Gordon Crovitz, the charming but staunchly right wing former publisher of the Wall Street Journal, who invited me to that brunch party at his home 26 years ago.
His wife Minky Worden has become a key voice in the US campaign against the 2022 Winter Olympics in China.
Ms Worden is a senior staff member at Human Rights Watch, a group which has been criticized by more than 100 cultural figures, including Nobel Peace Laureates, for its “close ties to the government of the United States”.
Since Olympic activities in mainland China always involve Hong Kong city too, the success of her campaign would further harm the long-suffering people of this city.
LEFT SUDDENLY
Meanwhile, Mark Simon, who told journalists he was in Hong Kong to stay, left the city suddenly to move to Taiwan shortly before the promulgation of a US-style security law, which among other things, targets people who take overseas money to interfere in local politics.
But of course none of this will be covered in the international media. It doesn’t fit the narrative.
The Western media will repeatedly report that Beijing is to blame for Apple Daily’s problems in Hong Kong, hoping and praying that no one will point out the key fact that demolishes the argument: The newspaper group has been even more of a disaster in Taiwan, where it has stopped all its print publications, despite the island allegedly having glorious USA-Style True Democracy. USA! USA!
TALK TO HONG KONG PEOPLE
If you want the real story of this newspaper, perhaps speak to the 98.5 per cent of Hong Kong adults who did not buy a copy of Apple Daily with their breakfast every day.
And perhaps spend a moment reflecting on Jimmy Lai’s connections with the right wing of the United States, and what the jailed publisher thinks of Hong Kong’s anti-China movement – that they “could accomplish nothing if there was no help”.
[2] And now to Cuba
Here’s what the Hong Kong folk feel about Cuba. After all, America now has it’s sights on invading it, or starting a war there… oh, you know… for the usual reasons.
Destabilization process is now farcically predictable
THE WORLD’S WEALTHIEST, most militaristic country (The United States) wants to deliver “freedom” to Cuba, a tiny community which has committed the unforgivable sin of doing things in a more socialist way. But whatever your politics, the extraordinary re-purposing of the word “freedom” as a tool to amplify unrest and distort discussions should concern us all.
Hong Kong people, in particular, have seen this entire process before. In fact, we could pretty much write the script for what’s happening in Cuba ourselves. Ten things to consider:
1.) Turn on the anti-Cuba social media
Yes, there are social and economic problems in Cuba. That’s how it works. The destabilization process ALWAYS piggybacks itself on genuine grievances. These are amplified with a disinformation campaign.
At least 1,500 of the social media accounts that participated in the #SOSCuba operation were created in a 48-hour period: July 10 and 11, said Julian Macias Tovar, social media analyst.
2.) Turn on the fake tweets.
Cuban internet investigators found the majority of the fake tweets came from the United States.
The tweets focused on the narrative key word “freedom” and pointedly instructed readers to dismiss any suggestion that the US embargo had any relevance to what was happening.
One of the main pro-US social media voices talking to Cubans was a notorious anti-government source called Yusnaby.
Yusnaby, Cubans wryly noted, is pronounced like “U.S. Navy” said with an accent.
3.) Engage the ‘Bots.
Many of the messages came from random “pretty” faces and were bot-signed up so quickly that they didn’t have time to delete the automatically generated numbers after their fake names.
So “Rachel” (see below), who looks like a supermodel, apparently likes to be known as Rachel76039947.
4.) Fire-hose of messages floods the internet.
The entire, huge torrent of messages took a pro-US and anti-government stance, and many said the exact same thing in the exact same words. They were clearly fake but Twitter did not delete them.
Many of the pro-US, anti-government voices on social media joined recently, have no friends or followers, and somewhat unusual names!
5.) Heavy coverage of tiny protests.
The early Cuban protests were small (a few hundred people) but received far more coverage than much, much larger events elsewhere. Independent media outlet BT News noted that more than 100,000 people marched for Palestine, such as in the demonstration pictured below, at the same time, but got far less coverage.
6.) Freedom™ and democracy™
When Hong Kongers see something like this happening, we wait. We wait for the mainstream media to give the protesters/ pro-US side full ownership of words like “freedom” and “democracy”. At the same time, they will unfairly label the home team/ government as the enemies of freedom and democracy.
Here’s the New York Times doing precisely that in a hilariously blatant manner: “Shouting ‘freedom’ and other anti-government slogans. . . ”!
7.) Lie using fake photos
The small size of many of the Cuba demonstrations was a problem for the pro-NATO narrative.
CNN misleading people into thinking the picture it is using comes from Cuba when it’s actually from Miami, as the street sign shows. TYT repeatedly did the same thing.
8.) American President reads THE script.
By Sunday night, some Hong Kongers watching the process were already waiting for US President Joseph Biden to perform his part in the script, saying something that associates one side with “freedom” and the other with the words “authoritarian regime.”
On Monday, he did just that.
9.) Switch and confuse the videos and images
Below is a widely reprinted NYT report which misled countless millions of readers into thinking this AP picture of a reasonably well-attended gathering was of a pro-US, anti-govt protest, when it was actually a pro-government rally.
Fox News and the Financial Times did the same thing with the same picture. This picture actually showed a pro-government rally. (Spotter: Alan MacLeod)
10.) Amnesty International performs their role
By Tuesday, newswatchers in Hong Kong were waiting for the next standard element in the destabilization script — which would be for the comically biased Amnesty International to do its normal trick.
Amnesty works hard to produce reports making the home team look like faceless killing machines, and the pro-US, anti-govt side look like young, cool human beings with glorious US flags calling for, yes, “freedom” (libertad).
On Wednesday Amnesty International did precisely that, as you can see from the lead elements on the front page of the UK organization’s Cuba report, below.
Amnesty International is “comically biased”
NEXT IN THE SCRIPT
In fact, the Cuba protests have been so predictable that Hong Kong people can even tell you the next steps coming up.
There will be demands for US troops to come and “solve” the problem.
There will be complaints of police brutality.
The UK and the US will say they “stand with” one side, as if they know for a fact that group of protesters represents everyone.
And we’ll all see the same words repeated over and over again — “freedom” on the pro-US side and “authoritarian regime” on the other.
IGNORING THE WORLD
By claiming “freedom” as a sacred principle it owns, the United States has given itself license to ignore the global community.
Just last month, the United Nations overwhelmingly voted in favor of a resolution to demand the end of the US economic blockade on Cuba, for the 29th year in a row.
The United States ignored it, as did the media.
NO SELF-AWARENESS
This week, a US politician used the word “freedom” four times in a single tweet about Cuba. “America stands for freedom,” said the unintentionally hilarious declamation by Val Demings of Florida.
I’m assuming that staff at the New York Times have enough self-awareness to know that the word “freedom” used in the American way is seen by people outside the US as a joke – but I may be wrong.
Perhaps some US citizens have a more sophisticated understanding of the situation than journalists: the humorous meme at the top of this post is widely shared in various forms and appears to originate in the United States. Here’s another version:
But some journalists don’t get the joke. One of the New York Times write-ups about the Cuba protests included a starry-eye quote from a protester: “What I saw today was people seeing freedom for the first time.”
HOWEVER VIOLENT
For more than 40 years, the world has watched the CIA travelling the globe to rebrand pro-US groups, however violent they are, as the voices of “freedom”, and home teams as the enemies of freedom, however well they feed and serve their populace.
Few people know this better than the Hong Kong people. During the US-backed riots of 2019, a Hong Kong friend posted terrifying images of black-clad thugs, radicalized by endless Apple Daily reports, storming into a spotless train station and using iron rods to terrorize staff and smash everything in sight.
His caption: “Freedom is coming.”
And the reason why I started to read some of the HK news…
yeah. I wanted to do a follow up on who these jackasses were who was attacking my videos of bus rides, sizzling Hunan beer, and cheap wine. I wanted to know!
[3] Rich outlet tries to savage citizen journalists
IN A HILARIOUS BOTCH-UP, the BBC yesterday inserted numerous links to anti-China features into an article defending itself from claims that it was anti-China.Here’s what happened.BBC journalists wrote an article attacking China-based “citizen journalists”. The bloggers defended themselves by saying the BBC and other Western media had a clearly biased, negative attitude to the Asian developing nation.The BBC’s editors yesterday printed the article (above) — but sprinkled it with links (see picture below) which powerfully proved the critics’ point that the BBC is biased against China.In effect, the BBC said “we’re not anti-China — by the way, here’s a link to an article showing how China is a dystopian hellscape! And another one. And another one. And another one. And . . “.It’s hard not to laugh.
It gets better. In fact, yesterday’s BBC article should go down in history as a textbook example of self-defeating journalism for at least four reasons.
First, you cannot argue against the allegation that you present a strongly one-sided view by including a list of article links that prove conclusively that you present a one-sided view.
Lee and Oli Barrett, residents of China, have become popular bloggers
SENSE OF IRONY
Second, the article attacks ordinary individual bloggers in China (like those in the picture above) by implying, with no hard evidence, that they receive government cash to do what they do, which is to show China in a positive light.
Yet we all know for a fact that the BBC journalists making the accusation receive government cash month after month to do what they do, which is to present China in a negative light.
(The BBC’s annual budget is GBP3.5 billion.)
Staff in the BBC newsroom appear to have had their senses of irony surgically removed.
Outrageous! A government sponsored media outlet in China offers money to stringers, the BBC said
THEY PAY STRINGERS
Third, the BBC report reveals, shock horror, that CGTN, a government-financed news outlet, now offers CASH PAYMENTS to STRINGERS!
OMG!
The BBC writers mysteriously forgot to mention that the BBC, also a government-financed news outlet, also offers cash payments to stringers (much larger sums). They’ve been doing this for decades.
I know this for a fact because I was a stringer for the BBC for years.
At this point, I became seriously worried about the toddler-level lack of self-awareness in the BBC newsroom.
Jason Lightfoot is another independent blogger attacked for giving another side of the story
MOTIVATION MYSTERY
Fourth, the BBC writers say: “It’s unclear what drives the foreign vloggers – whether they believe in China’s messaging or are motivated by the lure of local fame and fortune instead.”
It’s only unclear what motivates them if you haven’t watched a single one of their videos. If you do, you can see they are ordinary people doing their best to provide desperately needed balance to the reports put out by dedicated Sinophobes like, well, BBC Newsroom staff, to pick a random example out of the air.
LET’S TALK ABOUT MONEY
Actually, let’s talk about money, something BBC journalists HATE to discuss.
The BBC’s hatchet job presents no evidence whatsoever that the Barretts, Barrie Jones, or Jason Lightfoot are paid a single yuan for having the opinions they have, or for choosing to show the positive side of life in China.
In contrast, BBC journalists have very good salaries for showing the negative side of life in China. I hope the bloggers attacked by BBC journalists Kerrie Allen and Sophie Williams realize they have the moral right to ask them how much the BBC pays them.
OVERPAID JOURNALISTS
I’ve worked at the BBC on and off for decades and I can tell you that some BBC journalists get paid A LOT. When BBC newsroom head James Harding left in 2018, his salary was GBP340,000 a year. Election specialist Jeremy Vine gets more than GBP600,000 a year.
Of course most people in the newsrooms get less than that, but at least 40 BBC journalists are paid more than the British Prime Minister’s GBP150,000 salary, a Press Gazette study showed in 2017. Political editor Laura Kuenssberg gets GBP200,000 to GBP250,000 a year, for example.
Barrie Jones upsets Western journalists by refusing the parrot the US State Department narrative.
FACTUAL INACCURACIES
The ultimate irony is that the unpaid amateurs in China regularly do a better job of covering China than the salaried professionals.
The same BBC article gives a good example of how history changes when that all-important nuance goes missing.
The BBC reporters say “Citizen journalist Zhang Zhan was jailed for four years after making a number of vlogs during Wuhan’s coronavirus outbreak.”
That’s not what really happened. Zhang Zhan was an anti-lockdown campaigner jailed for repeatedly trying to disrupt anti-covid measures. She herself said that she was not a journalist. Her own videos show clearly that she was the Chinese equivalent of the US anti-vaxxer brigade, refusing to follow health guidelines and creating deliberate public confrontations with people trying to follow the rules.
But that’s a nuanced version of her case, which you can only get if you live in this country and talk to people here — rather than attack from the other side of the planet.
THE 50-CENT ARMY
The BBC reporters also dredge up the old chestnut about the “50-cent army”, apparently unaware that most Chinese government clickers have been retired, simply because they are no longer needed. They’ve been replaced by real voices who speak out without pay.
An SCMP report about the rise of young people in China defending their community by commenting on social media, making the civil service pro-China “wumao” unnecessary
The so-called “wumao” are no longer necessary now that young people who are sick and tired of their community being misrepresented (groups like the Diba and the fangirls) are providing a robust defense of the country, far more creatively and without the need for payment.
They even create quite stylish memes (see below).
Above is a Diba meme from Weibo
The BBC report also omits the fact that it’s actually US intelligence groups such as the SR (military intelligence) and the CIA which flood social media columns with politically charged fake comments, often easy to spot.
There’s something creepy in the article too.
The “expert” quoted at length in the BBC report is Robert Potter, described as a “cybersecurity researcher”. The BBC omits a key fact that commentator Daniel Dumbrill yesterday highlighted. The top two names on Potter’s organization’s funding list are the State Department of the United States and the United States Department of Defence.
Yes. Exactly.
Think Mike Pompeo, CIA, Anthony Blinken.
The US State Department
So, to sum it up, honest, ordinary people who spend their own time and money offering useful additional views of life in China, from within China, are accused of receiving government cash by distant people who actually ARE receiving government salaries working for a government news outlet and showcasing the views of people paid by the US government.
NEED FOR INTEGRITY
This is why we need UNBIASED journalists covering China and it doesn’t matter if you have qualifications or not — what matters is that you have enough moral integrity to tell the truth: which is that the community we call China is really not that different from the other major communities around the world.
One last thing: From a professional journalistic point of view, there’s another issue with the BBC article.
Very similar articles have already appeared in other British news outlets. Here is an example below from the Times of London.
Same victims, same news angle, similar headlines, similar allegations, similar quotes.
Copying? Or co-ordination? Journalists don’t normally regurgitate their rivals’ old stories in this way.
There’s something very wrong going on here.
This reporter’s father was one of the first investigative journalists in Asia. He had a saying: “Everything is about something else.”
[4]Switching China for the US is a huge mistake
Australia has put itself at a stark disadvantage by casting its lot with the US instead of the trading partner that has underwritten its growth over decadesUS WRITER AND FORMER military analyst Daniel Ellsberg recently revealed that the Pentagon Papers, most of which were released in 1971, also confirmed that the United States contemplated using nuclear weapons against the Chinese mainland in 1958, to “defend” Jinmen, also known as Kinmen, an island about 10 kilometers from the mainland city of Xiamen, on behalf of the Kuomintang in Taiwan.We need to recall that China had no nuclear weapons at that time－only the US and the Soviet Union did.Ellsberg also said the administration of former US president Lyndon B. Johnson had covertly engaged in a range of extremely destructive attacks against the North Vietnamese forces and their supporters during the Vietnam War.‘NUKING’ A DEVELOPING COUNTRYSo the US, at least from a planning point of view, saw nothing fundamentally immoral about launching a nuclear attack on a huge developing country that possessed no such arms.This was a little over 10 years after seeing the horrific nuclear devastation in Japan. Fortunately, the plan was not implemented.
Manly Beach, Sydney, Australia: picture by Simon Rae/ Unsplash
AUSTRALIA AS COURIER
Even more startling, from an Australian point of view, is the recent disclosure that Australia, was, in 1964, given an extraordinary US-courier task.
Gregory Clark, a former Australian diplomat, has just revealed that in that year, Australian foreign minister Paul Hasluck demanded that the Australian Embassy in Moscow (where Clark worked) arrange a meeting with the new Soviet leadership.
In a meeting with premier Alexei Kosygin at which Clark was present, Hasluck carried a message from Washington, requesting that the USSR join the US in Vietnam to stop the “bad communists” in Beijing and North Vietnam to expand southwards.
Kosygin’s response was blunt. Moscow would do all it could to support the Vietnamese people in their struggle against US imperialism – and he wished the Chinese would do more to help.
After the commencement of China’s reform and opening-up policy in 1978, however, the US generally welcomed the rise of China.
‘a popular, genial understanding of China as a vast, poor, peasant-based country’
The US relationship with China has gone through a striking transformation over the past century.
Once, compassion was dominant. The Nobel Prize-winning novelist Pearl S. Buck wrote The Good Earth over 90 years ago while living in Nanjing. The book helped shape a popular, genial understanding of China as a vast, poor, peasant-based country with a remarkable history.
TRADE BOOMED
During the period when the US welcomed the rise of China, immense business opportunities were recognized and trade boomed, generating academic, intellectual and general interest in China.
Now that China’s economy is around 70 percent of the size of the US economy in raw US dollar GDP terms, the US has made clear its huge vested interest in seeing the rise of China strikingly reduced and contained.
Thus the US mood has gone from being sorry for China, then helpful to China, to being stridently hostile to China.
‘China does not purposefully threaten Australia in any serious way’
Examined rationally, the strategic position for Australia is clear. It has a huge vested interest in seeing the rise of China maintained and enhanced.
China is now Australia’s largest trading partner. Before the recent intense downturn in the Australia-China relationship, trade figures show that Australia’s annual trade surplus with China had topped A$50 billion (US$36.9 billion).
From 1991 until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Australia maintained the longest period of sustained economic growth ever seen within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. China, above all, has underwritten this outcome.
China does not (viewed outside of hawklike think tanks) purposefully threaten Australia in any serious way.
GUSTO AND NAIVETE
The US, on the other hand, does threaten Australia at a more menacing level: first, by encouraging intensified antipathy toward the trading partner who has done more to remake Australia in the last several decades than any other; and second, due to the serious hazard of being drawn into yet more US military adventures－possibly involving certain levels of forceful confrontation with China.
Australia’s relationship with China is very different from that of the US. The acute difficulty for Australia, however, is that Washington has been highly insistent that Australia join in the US-led Sino-containment project. Australia has taken up this damaging new brief with uncommon gusto and naivete.
Collaboration has been beneficial to both sides: Picture by Mimi Thian/ Unsplash
DEEP, LONG-TERM COST
Research by the Perth US-Asia Centre recently listed major income drops in trade with China, to Australia’s stark disadvantage, in areas including travel, education, coal, beef, wine, cotton and barley. In a number of cases, US exports to China have replaced those from Australia.
In 1964, Australia carried messages, like a tributary State, for the US. Then the dark clouds lifted from Sino-US relations for several decades and Australia prospered, independently, like never before.
The dark clouds had lifted from Sino-US relations for several decades, and Australia prospered, independently, like never before. Now those angry clouds are back, and Australia is once again being told, by its best geopolitical friend, what it must do. It must stand up for US interests, which are called shared values, and never mind the deep, long-term cost to Australia’s national interest.
It is an extraordinary state of affairs that calls for deep reflection and review.
MY DAUGHTER ONCE asked me if we were “pro-China”.“Sweetheart,” I replied. “We’re pro-everyone. We’re pro-China, pro-Hong Kong, pro-West, pro-East, pro-South and pro-space aliens, especially the latter.”Why would you be not pro any community or nationality? This is the age of diversity.My immediate family includes Americans, Chinese, Brits, and South Asians, and I have several friends whose bizarre behaviour strongly suggests off-planet origins—and the same surely goes for you too, dear reader.This is the age of diversity; picture by Naassom Azevedo/ UnsplashAt this point, someone will always lean into this type of conversation and say: “Ah, but are you pro-Beijing?”To realize how ridiculous this is, look a Swede in the eye and ask: “Are you pro-Stockholm?” Ask a Honduran: “What do you think of Tegucigalpa?” Or grab a passing Bolivian and ask: “Are youin favor of La Paz?”People around the world don’t generally ask that question.
What the pro-Beijing question really means is: “Do you support the Western media’s demonization of China?”
Now THAT I can instantly answer. Actually, no, I don’t. Criticising others can be okay, if done sensitively and with positive intentions. Demonizing people is not.
Many Hong Kong people are stunned at how so much of the world’s media has ended up like US Republican lawyer Gordon C. Chang, following a Western-penned hyper-critical narrative of China, and blithely dismissing any criticism of his constant de-humanizing of Chinese people. “Demons just hate being demonized,” he explains.
(Chang authored the 2001 book “The Coming Collapse of China”, possibly the worst-timed publication in literary history, coming on the eve of China’s steepest rise into accelerated development and increased community pride.)
But Chang’s hostile angle permeates too much of the international coverage of Hong Kong and mainland China today.
I’ve lost count of the number of Hong Kong people who have looked at the ultra-hostile BBC coverage of Hong Kong and said to me: “What happened to the BBC?” (I usually reply: “Maybe Gordon C. Chang is now chief news editor” and they sadly nod, finding it totally believable.)
Journalists shape their stories to reinforce a narrative: picture by Jorge Maya/ UnsplashMaybe it’s not the journalists’ fault. Andrew Cline, a professor who studies this subject, once said: “Once a master narrative has been set, it is very difficult to get journalists to see that their narrative is simply one way, and not necessarily the correct or best way, of viewing people and events.”
Cline is right. We need to break free from that the narrow groupthink and let a little diversity into discussions.
People are thinking for themselves; picture by Jimmy Chan/ Pexels
What if. . . China wasn’t a giant gulag at all, but a low-crime society which is thriving at astonishing rates?
What if. . . Hong Kong’s security laws were demonstrably less draconian than those of the countries criticizing them?
What if. . . the hundreds of millions of dollars that America spends to try to impose its system of governance on Asia is actually money that would be better spent on other things?
What if. . . China was communist in name, but actually demonstrated a really interesting mixture of good bits of capitalism and socialism in practice?
I have discovered, to my delight, that the vast majority of ordinary people are completely open to such notions. But Western journalists less so. How can a tiny group of Hong Kong people battle global media behemoths?
Clearly we can’t. But I’m not sure we have to fight them. Journalists are not bad people. There are many good ones among us. I expect. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully. Surely!
And those of us who live in China can gently, perhaps, encourage them to see the other side of the story, by sharing stories of Chinese culture, Chinese business and just personal stories of Chinese people being human.
…
In directly related news, the Friday project has been running for a couple of weeks and response has been fantastic. More than a million people tuned into our conference, and the vast majority of people who responded to our articles have been positive. Only a small portion made a response which can be summed up in four words: “Run! Get the Labels!”
To people who throw the label “pro-China” at us as if it was an accusation, I’ll simply give the same answer I gave my daughter.
Yes, we are pro-China. We are pro-humans, sweetheart. And the people of China are humans too, whatever Gordon C. Chang says.
* * *
Conclusion
Just five stories out of Hong Kong. While you might not be getting any daily news reports about this regions except for the “evil communists of China”, the tone of the articles and the over all attitude of their views of America, the UK and Australia should tell you volumes. Please keep this in mind was the next six months advance and “play out”.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Traffic on Interstate 95 is diverted in the area of an hours long standoff with a group of armed men that partially shut down the highway, Saturday, July 3, 2021, in Wakefield, Mass. Massachusetts state police say nine suspects have been taken into custody. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
It’s one day after the fourth of July, 2021.
I woke up this morning and scanned my news feeds. I often just look at the titles. Taking the time to read the content is useless, as most have zero content of worth.
And when I read the content, it was clear that they were avoiding the fact that these were all urban African-american militants who are traipsing in the Massachusetts countryside far from their homes. In fact, they were “practicing maneuvers” around white-dominated communities and villages.
I wonder why?
Why would they do that?
When interviewed and interrogated by the police, they claimed that they were “Moors”.
At least some of the suspects were clad in military-style gear with long guns and pistols, Mass State Police Col. Christopher Mason said. He added that they were headed to Maine from Rhode Island for “training.”
“You can imagine 11 armed individuals standing with long guns slung on an interstate highway at 2 in the morning certainly raises concerns and is not consistent with the firearms laws that we have in Massachusetts,” Mason said.
In a video posted to social media Saturday morning, a man who did not give his name, but said he was from a group called Rise of the Moors, broadcast from Interstate 95 in Wakefield near exit 57.
“We are not anti-government. We are not anti-police, we are not sovereign citizens, we’re not Black identity extremists,” said the man who appeared to be wearing military-style equipment. “As specified multiple times to the police that we are abiding by the peaceful journey laws of the United States.”
The website for the group says they are “Moorish Americans dedicated to educating new Moors and influencing our Elders.”
Police work on in the area of an hours long standoff with a group of armed men that partially shut down interstate 95, Saturday, July 3, 2021, in Wakefield, Mass. Massachusetts state police say nine suspects have been taken into custody. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
The interesting aspects about this entire event are what is not well reported…
These ethnic individuals are not from the region that they were found.
The region where they targeted was disarmed by very strict anti-gun and anti-weapon legislation, thus leaving most residents unable to defend themselves.
The “long arms” were (what would otherwise be reported as) “assault weapons”.
Everyone wore either camouflage clothing, military attire, or black colored garb.
Curious.
I wonder what this means…
…hum?
What were these people doing outside of the quiet rural community of Wakefield, Massachusetts?
Well,
We know that this is not a “new” event.
Coming to rural America.
Meanwhile, let’s see what some of the more learned people on the planet has to say about the current state of American politics and the changes going on in America. And this is a pretty good write up…
Silicon Valley has a monopoly of social capital now. Every call, every text message, and every email is theirs to use as they see fit. This allows them to derive information about the public and use it for financial and political advantage. Tucker Carlson worries about the NSA when he volunteers to carry around a tracking device that records his every movement for the benefit of the Silicon Valley oligarchs.
The great class struggle among white people has also stopped making sense. The old left-right conflict of the prior era manifested itself as a battle between the working and upper classes. The white middle class in America, for example, operated as a ballast and referee. Both sides of the political class courted them in elections, while making promises to their base in the other classes.
The great divide in this age is demographics. America is increasingly nonwhite and headed for majority-minority status. The politics reflected the old demographics, which was 80% white. Fretting over minority rights, for example, makes no sense in a world where everyone is a minority. It makes even less sense when a unique minority is the ruling elite and has total control of the institutions.
The ruling elite has evolved a colonial mentality in response to the crisis, but white people are increasingly embracing demographic reality. The uproar over critical race theory is an omen of what is to come. This intermediate conflict is between a ruling class that thinks it can keep feeding the alligator, hoping to be eaten last, and a public that has no desire to be erased from the book of life. Demographic reality is the new class struggle.
This July 4th, America finds itself in the middle of a great interregnum, a transition period between the old order and the new order. The reason the buildings that symbolize the political institutions of America remain behind layers of razor-wire fencing and armed guards is not a fear of insurrectionist soccer moms. Those barriers exist as a bulwark against the inevitable, protecting an ossified and obsolete political elite along with the political system that maintains them.
Predicting the future is always a mug’s game. Just as our frozen lefty would be stunned to see how history unfolded, we will be shocked to see what comes after this great interregnum. Therein lies the reason to celebrate. The current crisis environment is a transitory state. It cannot last and everything that cannot last eventually comes to an end, usually sooner than anyone expects.
Well everyone is trying to understand
The USA is in a mess, and everyone is trying to grasp aspects of it in handfuls that they can understand. All the time they failure to see the big picture. Things do not happen in isolation. An event here, or an event there, are aspects of a much larger plan. Whether intended or not.
Intellectuals try to intellectualize it. Patriots try to look at it from a revolutionary angle, and socialists try to analysis the functional vectors of group behaviors.
Hey!
Wake up folks. The dinner is almost ready. The bridge is wobbling and the cables are about to snap. The cattle are restless and the fence is about to go down.
An easily ignored aspect of the Tucker Carlson spying story is just how ham-fisted this caper was executed, regardless of the reason. Carlson is a relentless critic of the regime, but his audience is relative tiny. His average total audience is roughly 3 million people per night. Even if every night is a new crowd, that is an audience of 15 million in a country of 330 million people. He may be the biggest name in cable news, but the reality is, cable news is a low impact medium.
This was always the lesson of the Trump phenomenon. The entirety of the mass media, including the so-called conservatives, aligned against Trump but he was able to win the nomination and the general election. These are people who were sure they were the king makers in national politics. This TV carny comes along and walks right through their lines as if they were not there. Then he turned them into objects of ridicule and mockery by calling them childish names.
If the intelligence agencies were what they imagine themselves to be, they would see that Tucker is never going to be much of a problem. They could just ignore him, like most everyone does, or they could use him. Carlson is one of the few serious people on television, but he is still on TV. He wants ratings, so a shrewd intel operative could feed him some juicy tidbits that serve the interests of the regime. Instead, they are in a petty spat and making him the sympathetic victim.
These sorts of thumbless capers raise an important issue. Our managerial elite is rapidly getting dumber. This is plainly obvious in the military side. Sure, rural peasants armed with Russian surplus were able to defeat the US army in the 1960’s, but that theater negated the primary American advantage at the time. Armor and advanced transport are useless in a jungle. Air dominance is not terribly effective against guerilla tactics in urban and jungle conditions.
In Afghanistan and Iraq, the US military could exploit every technological advantage against a poorly equipped and trained opponent. In Afghanistan, the US faced off against a Bronze Age opponent. After two decades the white flag has gone up and the Taliban will take over this autumn. In Iraq, a ragtag force of insurgents led by a cleric came close to defeating the US army. The final peace looked more like a concession by the US, as Iraq is now an Iranian client.
The gross incompetency of the military is not unique. The entire managerial class is suffering from a rapid decline in intelligence. The truth is the system evolved for an adult population of the last century. It reflected the demographics of the population as a whole, but also the demographics of the ruling class. Over the last couple of generations, the people taking up positions in the system are significantly dumber, reflecting the changing demographics of the country.
This IQ decline will only become more acute in the next decade. The great Baby Boomer retirement will hit the civil service harder than the dreaded private sector, because the civil service is much older. The average age of the private workforce is roughly 35, depending upon who is doing the measuring. Similarly, the average age of the government workforce is 50. The leadership class is even older. In other words, the people running the system are geezers, not long for the world.
This is most stark in politics. Joe Biden is so old he has been in office longer than most people have been alive. The leadership of both parties is close behind. Pelosi, Schumer, McCarthy, Hoyer and McConnel reflect the sensibilities and the mating decisions of the disappearing past. Their replacements, Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Tim Scott, and so on, reflect the rapidly approaching future. Repeat this throughout the civil service and you can see the problem. The kakistocracy is real.
This decline in IQ is evident in the current upheaval. The great Progressive awakening of the 1950’s and 1960’s was driven by idealism. They really thought they were going to create a better world. It was also driven by the big change in the ruling class. Jews had taken up positions in the post-war ruling elite. They were making their mark by leading many of the cultural revolutions, like civil rights. Self-interest played a role, but social justice has always been a part of the Jewish cultural outlook.
Today, the revolts we see look like a cargo cult. They are reenactors playing parts they heard about in school. They think if they can replay the events of the past, the past will come alive and the great do-over begins. They are led by a carnival of simpletons and lunatics who mostly like smashing things and making noise. Antifa and BLM are the short bus passengers in the story of street activism. None of what we are seeing makes any sense or has any point. It is just mayhem for the sake of it.
The institutions of a society are the tools of the people running the society, designed for their use over the course of time. The institutions of America were made for people a full standard deviation smarter than today’s rulers. Those tools were also created with certain cultural assumptions missing from the current class. The next generation of rulers are the opening scenes of 2001: A Space Odyssey compared to the men who created the tools used to run the empire.
It will not end well.
Conclusion
Obviously some “Moors” are emboldened to reconnoiter the defenselessness communities of wealthy Massachusetts, while the intellectual class are busy trying to intellectualize the turmoil inside of the United States fiasco.
Why?
What gave them the idea that they could do this?
What the FUCK is going on?
I can tell you all ONE THING. This kind of activity would NEVER be tolerated in China, and it would be taken cared of immediately and absolutely. The fact that the United States is unable to do anything… shows exactly what a huge, colossal, and absolute failure the nation it; the leadership is; and the system is. There is only one solution remaining…
Allow it to collapse.
Let the rot fester, then purge it completely.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
The Russians are an interesting people. They are hardy, tough, rough-around-the-edges, and a hoot! to be around.
The Chinese consider them to be similar to Chinese, only a bit rough-and-tumble. You know, like your drunk crazy uncle, when he was caught having sex with the milk-maid inside the outhouse.
Russians are a tough hardy folk.
Here’s an interesting article that I pulled from a Russian resource.
On the internet is a lot of bullshit. many of State sponsored, and much of it just biases and opinions that you read and either agree to, or are repelled by.
What I want to do is throw this article out to the MM readership. And knowing that the likelihood of the article being false, or misleading is high, let’s consider instead the audience reactions to the article. Because this article is very, very anti-American.
Yet, this is a very popular article in both Russia and (apparently now) in China. Remember and keep in mind that Russia is a land of hardy and tough people. They do not tolerate weakness.
Russian women are a force to be reckoned with.
Perhaps we can learn something from the audience reactions to it.
Key points
Congress would never permit American government agencies outside of the State Department to collaborate with China in any way. This is codified into law. Not just one law, but a host of laws, and executive orders. So this article is just wishful thinking from our Russian friends.
Bilateralcooperation between NASA and Chinese organizations is currently restrictedbytheso-called Wolf Amendment, a provision first added to a NASAspendingbillin 2011 by then-U. S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) that requires NASA to seek congressional approval for any bilateral collaboration with Chineseentities.NASA’s China exclusion could mean missed opportunity for Mars InSight
Well, that being said, there is a chance.
So maybe, just maybe, there is some truth to this article.
Interested American scientists and State Department officials might want to be able to get up front and close to the Chinese to observe what they are doing first hand. What better way to do this then to participate jointly in scientific activities.
While collaboration with China is not entirely prohibited, NASA would need to notify Congress in advance and provide certification that there are no risks for a specific engagement. NASA and China were able to discuss the potential for the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to monitor the landing of China’s Chang’e-4on the lunar far side in early 2019. The two sides also occasionally meet for the U.S.-China Civil Space Dialogue. A third and most recent such meeting washeld in Beijing in 2017 while a fourth was delayed partly by the COVID-19 outbreak. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is involved in Tianwen-1 science payloads and spacecraft integration, had not responded by press time to a request for comment on the possibility of coordination or release of information.
The effective ban of bilateral activities applies only to NASA, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Space Council. Scientists at other U.S. institutions can, for example, request access to China’s newly acquired lunar samples by following procedures announced in January by the China National Space Administration, a month after Chang’e-5 delivered the goods to Earth. There is no platform yet for sharing Tianwen-1 mission data, but conversations between Chinese and non-NASA scientists could take place, though passing along sensitive information relating to missions may not be straightforward.
NASA’s China exclusion could mean missed opportunity for Mars InSight
Do these Russians look like they are open to new trans-gender policies?
Found here, and all credit to the author, and the same usual disclaimers. Translated from Russian. If you can read Cyrillicscriptyou might be best served to read the article in it’s original form.
If it is true…
.
The Chinese didn’t let the Yankees into their space station? Not a fact. But-the truth
The Chinese have declared Americans undesirable elements on board their orbiting space station. But this news is too … juicy to give her complete confidence. What’s the real deal?
Now, if only you could also read it, so to speak, in the original source…
Unfortunately, my mother did not say to me as a child: “Learn Chinese, my son.” And that’s why I can’t check out the great news that ran all over the Internet today.
But the news is worth posting without checking it.
A hieroglyphic print on a yankee’s ass
Here’s the news. An American application to participate in scientific work on board the new Chinese Tiangong space station was rejected by the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA).
The core module.
A special flavor of this information is given by the addition that
"invitations to scientific cooperation on the Chinese orbital station were received by 17 countries, including Russia," and "an official request from the United States was refused due to non-compliance with standards in terms of scientific value and technology."
If there is not enough color, then the kind authors of the message added more:
"[Russia] has been granted the right to occupy a separate compartment or attach its own module to the Chinese station."
Cool, classic work!
If everything is not so in life, then it is still the same in the current information war as launching an Iskander missile at an enemy military airfield. You can still see the classic caricature of a Yankee, wiry as a crane, falling screaming out of the open hatch of the Tiangong station. And on the most elongated part of his uniform trousers of olive color – a print of the sole with the inscription开开开.
Why do you doubt that the news is consistent with the facts? First of all, it’s too pretty to be true. The truth is usually angular and unfriendly, like a subway passenger at 6 am. So you always have to fight for it. And here it appears in this form, even if you cancel the war – you will not force anyone to go to a military trick.
The Chinese Space Station.
Secondly, the Chinese resource Baijiahao published this information. And this is not some traditional media with traditional ideas about the limits of what is allowed in the handling of information, but just a free Internet platform. Something like the Chinese Yandex.Zen. Because we know that our Yandex.Zen is charming for its variety of topics and their freedom, but at the same time for the freedom of their interpretation by the authors, and in the Chinese version it would be worth going deeper into the links.
But my mother sent me to a German school…
No confirmations…
Life is usually more cruel than our mothers, so at her behest, the minted perfection of German had to be supplemented with the sour porridge of English. And the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) just have a website in English.
But even here, an ambush was waiting: the last message mentioning the American aerospace agency NASA was dated there on November 14, 2014. And it said only that Director Wang Zhaoyao had a conversation with NASA Chief Charles Bolden.
A search for the word USA gave generally mocking results: the second space power of the planet was last mentioned in 2011, and the latest news, where these three letters would stand, fell on January 2020. And then there it was said about the thousand-year dream of the Chinese people about flying into space – thousand-year, etc.
The US agency NASA also did not post anything fresh about its Chinese colleagues on its website. Well, they’re shy, maybe…
I went through the websites of news agencies around the world. The most reliable – TASS-about the described demarche of the Chinese was silent. RIA Novosti published the news that China plans to launch a probe in 2030 to collect samples from Mars. That’s all.
Omniscient English Reuters as top news issues a howl that
Russian forces reportedly fire warning shots at British destroyer in Black Sea.
Well, of course: a peaceful British destroyer (aka fighter, aka, politely, destroyer) entered Russian waters in the Black Sea, and then it was preemptively fired at by evil Russians from a warship, and the plane dropped four high-explosive fragmentation bombs as a warning on the path of the British Royal Navy destroyer. And what right did they have? – after all, the West still insists that the Crimean Peninsula is Ukrainian territory.
The Americans are also silent about their fiasco with the Chinese, as if it’s not written on their trousers in fiery letters: 离开开.
The Chinese really don’t need Americans
So what? Let’s assume that nothing happened? Someone posted unverified information, or even joked at all, threw a fake on the Network-and the province went to write! Our province. Because it’s nice?
It’s not that simple.
The Chinese really don’t expect Americans as partners in space exploration. First, because the Yankees are too much for them, and the Han Chinese can’t give them anything more than what Russia has already given them. Secondly, because the Americans still do not know how to build space stations, and the entire ISS, including the American segment, is still a cast of Russian modules. The ISS, we recall, began with the Russian module, which was bought by the Americans and called its own.
The competencies of manned cosmonautics are much more complex than the technologies of automatic cosmonautics. And if in the latter the Americans still have no equal (although the same Chinese are catching up with them at a gallop), then in the first only three countries were able to achieve something on their own equipment-Russia (in the incarnation of the USSR and in the current one), the United States (orbital ships) and China. Which builds its space technology on the platform of Russian space technology. Sometimes on a platform so close that tears of emotion drop by themselves.
The Chinese Space Station.
And third, the Chinese don’t need the Americans in space because China (thank Confucius) has enough money for its own space programs.
And they don’t need to” give ” the Yankees their modules and their technologies, their medical developments and even bathrooms to finance their projects and their research.
They don’t even need to take Americans to the ISS to use this two-kopeck cab to pay for a place on the station for their cosmonaut.
So the Chinese can afford to leave the тав开开 brand on the American ass. But the Russian letters WENT OVER there do not have to wait…
A typical Russian party.
Some thoughts
The worst kind of propaganda, or the worst kind of echo chamber, are those that reference what we want to believe. Certainly America is hated all over the world, and if you thought that the nation was despised after eight years under the Bush Military Campaigns, you haven’t seen anything yet. Obama started to change that perception, and then Trump drove the perception right into the ground.
Pretty much, the rest of the world considers the United States to be a “laughing stock”.
So, I don’t want anyone reading this to believe it. I don’t. I think that it is a “wet dream” by some folk in Russia.
The Russians have ZERO respect for Americans, and most certainly what American culture is. Maybe I’ll go as far to say that they consider it to be evil. And you can see this disrespect in their responses to news articles. Much like this one.
Yet, both China and Russia have similar cultures.
Both China and Russia have a “bride price” if you want to marry a girl. Bride price, also known as bride wealth, bride token, is an amount of money or property or wealth paid by the groom or his family to the parents of a woman upon the marriage of their daughter to the groom. This tradition is followed by many cultures.
This is a very interesting subject.
Though I must admit that “Bride Price” varies from region to region in China. In Wenzhou, where I met my wife, the bride price was to buy a house for her parents. Most others throw in a high-end luxury automobile, and a full set of furniture as well. But since I am a foreigner, they pretty much accepted the fact that I was an outsider that did not understand the rules. (Phew!)
There are regions, such as Guangzhou that has no bride price at all. Lucky them. But there are also other tradeoffs that you have to contend with.
Russian “Bride Prices” are much more reasonable. As this lady here suggests…
Gilyana Bugurova, 23 years old. Presently a student of the Academy of Law, Ketchenery village, Kalmykia. She comes from a rural village, and a modest family.Bride wealth: six boxes of vodka, one box of cognac, two pieces of chintz, a set of headscarves, a box of sweets, a box of cookies, a box of sweet pastry, a boiled sheep, a living sheep with a ribbon.
Comparisons
Both Russia and China are very similar to each other. America and the West seem to be the outliers.
Just by looking at the most basic and crude comparison above, you can see the Resentment and disgust that the Russians must have for the new progressive America. China, on the other hand, is like the little boy (or girl) who discovers that the Easter Bunny was a made up fantasy.
Russia is a tough land. A cold land. A rugged land, and the people show it.
Russians having fun.
China is a land full of hard working folk that study hard. They, work hard, play hard and strive, and strive to become better and better.
The Chinese work insanely hard, but when it is all done and finished, they party like it’s 1999!
America is a land, that has grown fat and dumb. The leaders have become so isolated from the “rabble” that they no longer resemble humans, but have become something else entirely.
America is an affluent nation. Most Americans do not need to work. So they can pursue what ever lifestyle they desire.
And so the Russians tend to make fun of Americans.
But back to the Space Station…
Even if the American government gave the “A-Ok” to work with the Chinese Space Exploration Agencies, it’s unlikely that China would consider it. They consider America to be a very bad, spoiled child, very unreliable, dangerous, and simply not within the core desires, or needs for the Chinese people.
Keep in mind what I stated earlier…
Congress would never permit American government agencies outside of the State Department to collaborate with China in any way. This is codified into law. Not just one law, but a host of laws, and executive orders. So this article is just wishful thinking from our Russian friends.
I love space, and space exploration, and all sorts of things related to extraterrestrials and so on and so forth. But the entire United States today is just a massive, colossal fuck-up that’s it’s really not worth bothering commenting on.
Consider this…
NASA shifts goal from space exploration to space diversity
NASA has been a driving force of scientific innovation and advancement ever since its creation in the 1950s.
After more than six decades of space exploration, you’d think NASA would be an organization free of petty politics and idiotic logic.
As an agency dedicated to the future, for example, one might imagine that NASA’s top priority would be hiring the brightest, most talented people they can find, irrespective of irrelevant characteristics like skin color, gender, or sexual orientation.
Sadly this is not the case.
Science is once again taking a back seat with the agency’s “Artemis Project,” whose goal is “to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.”
Again, it seems like NASA wouldn’t notice or care what’s swinging (or not swinging) between someone’s legs.
If the entire crew of the next voyage happens to consist exclusively of people who identify as seedless watermelons, because those are the most qualified individuals for the mission, then it shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t even make the news.
But instead they’re going to spend $86 billion of taxpayer money to show the world how woke they are.
Click here to read the full story.
And somehow, I am supposed to believe that America is serious about space, technology and space exploration?
Now, couple that with the on-going “any day now the American government is going to release the truth about UFO’s”. Oh, brother!
Well…
The narrative began, and then got hijacked by the neocon military-industrial mafia and got twisted to “the Chinese have advanced military technology! We need billions of dollars to catch up!”.
Well, let’s just kind of sit back and turn off the “news”. Both from the USA, and from Russia.
America is Bat-Shit Crazy!
I am absolutely convinced that the United States today is bat-shit crazy and I really don’t need any further confirmation of it. They are, and while there are many, many, MANY good and decent folk in the United States, the entire system si so broken and such a mess that it’s just a useless pursuit trying to sort it all out. It’s like trying to clean an apartment occupied by a slob.
Notice the lack of ashtrays, the amazing dependence on soda pop, and the poor computer monitor discipline.
Messy Apartment 3
Yuuuuck! This bathroom is horrid.
But at least they have a cat.
But the poor thing doesn’t have a place to go when it needs to take a litter-box break. Ugh!
Living room.
A tenant in a north Houston apartment complex has an overdue payment for more than a month.
No one can get in touch with her.
Eventually the bookkeeper goes inside to leave a note. And finds . . .
Mistreatment of the computer.
The photographer wrote:
We cannot get ahold of her, there is still 20% of the residents out from the hurricane. My manager is FREAKING out.
The pictures don’t show the amount of FLEAS inside I’m STILL scratching
Terrible keyboard discipline.
The tenant’s two cats have been found, safe with a neighbor.
Living room sofa. Why no ashtrays?
Is it just a horrible mess?
Or something . . . more?
Lou Minatti decides:
I am so proud that a Houstonian has created such a masterpiece! The way the cigarette butts are arranged… it’s almost like performance art.
Hey! Well at least the gal used one of my products. Yup! MM designed that clothes iron. Right there on the ironing board. Designed in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and manufactured in the tiny Town of Coushatta – Louisiana.
Anyways…
You get the idea.
In my mind, I think that this person who lives in this apartment, or who did. I would imagine that they were evicted, were representative of the kinds of people (citizens) that the United States government nurtures.
And thus…
…they are the true and real face of the United States today.
And boy, oh, boy. In my mind this snapshot of a Houston, Texas apartment is what the United States government has honestly become. I just wish that Americans can see what I see, and what the rest of the world sees. I almost wish that there was a set of eyeglasses that you could put on and where you could see the American oligarchy for what it actually is.
They Live.
And while they might appear on the surface to resemble polished, handsome and attractive people, with sensible demeanor, polite mannerisms, and a calm wisdom, they are truthfully, anything but that.
They are not what they appear to be.
The real leadership behind the smiles and masks; they are humans who have evolved into something else. And their actual appearance is recognizable to anyone WHO IS NOT READING THE AMERICAN MEDIA.
I need a drink.
Do you want proof?
This just came on my desk.
Congressman: Can we alter the moon’s orbit for climate change?
In a recent webcam Congressional hearing, Texas Rep Louie Gohmert asked an associate deputy chief of the Forest Service if her agency could alter the moon’s orbit to address climate change.
Gohmert said:
"I was informed by the immediate past director of NASA that they've found that the moon's orbit is changing slightly and so is the Earth's orbit around the sun... [I]s there anything that the National Forest Service or [Bureau of Land Management] can do to change the course of the moon's orbit or the Earth's orbit around the sun?"
She smiled and politely said, “I would have to follow up with you on that one Mr. Gohmert.”
She was holding back laughter, but Gohmert was dead serious. He responded, “Well, if you figure out a way that you in the Forest Service could make that change, I'd like to know.”
Click here to see the video.
Like I said.
“Bat-shit crazy”.
Here he is.
Texas Rep Louie Gohmert.
Conclusion
The future of the world will not be determined by America, the West, or the G7 nations. They are “has beens”, and are incapable of reason. It will be determined by Asia.
The only way that American can alter this vector is to engage in a full-scale nuclear war against Asia, and perhaps that’s exactly what they are trying to do. But it will not succeed.
So do not worry about it.
The future is becoming more and more clear with each passing day. Continue to protect your personal life. Make sure that you run your affirmation prayers, and make sure that they protect you and your loved ones from any strange behaviors on the part of the out of control American empire.
There’s a future ahead. By being aware of what’s going on the the rest of the world we can determine what our part in that world will be.
Keep focused.
Be the Rufus.
Our relationships with others will make our affirmations manifest. Nurture them. Protect them. become a meaningful person in your small group of friends and family.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
One of the things that I have been musing about lately is blueberry muffins. You see, muffins just aren’t all that common in China, and when you find them, they are really over priced and part of a dessert menu that is part of a Starbucks franchise, or similar venue. I miss them. I miss the hot piping interior, the explosion of blueberry flavor when you bit into them, and that nice pad of salted butter that melts on the top of them.
They used to be quite common in diners. Almost as common as pies.
Blueberry muffins in automats
But my best memories about muffins come from those automats that my family used to frequent when I was a boy. (Of course in those world-lines automats were much more common than what you find here. Apparently, on this world-line path, automats died out in the 1940’s.) Anyways, my father would give me a quarter and I would get up from the table and go to the little window with a muffin in it. I’d plop the quarter in the slot, and the door would spring open, and out I would take the muffin on the heavy white ceramic plate.
My memories of this are all very clear. And I well remember us eating as a family at the tables. Of course my father would be having a coffee and reading a newspaper. My mother was always fussing over us kids, and generally attending to my younger brother and sisters. I, being the oldest, was supposed to be more mature and more responsible.
Meh.
Blueberry muffins in Salem, Massachusetts
And while those memories are true treasures for me, they are a little dated in that my best muffin experience that I ever had did not occur in an automat. It occurred in a wharf coffee house in Salem, Massachusetts. It was a dark and stormy night and I was riding my motorcycle with a girl, and we pulled into the complex. It was the late 1970’s, and I was still in university.
The world outside was but sheets of rain, dull blues and greys, a howling wind and drops of rain that stung when they hit you.
But through the windows of the coffee house was inviting warmth, a pleasant and cozy atmosphere, and a calming shelter against the storm. When the waitress brought out the blueberry muffin, it was fresh, hot and toasty, and had two pads of butter on the plate that I dutifully added on top. You could see the whiffs of steam rising up off the muffin, and they formed strings next to the the hot steamy fragrant coffee that sat besides it.
A blueberry muffin and a cup of coffee.
Personally, I don’t think that many people appreciate blueberry muffins. It’s sort of the “bad boy” of the muffin family, and is great overshadowed by it’s more popular cousins; the chocolate and the cranberry muffins.
But the point behind this is the little coffee house was a unique moment, a unique place, in a unique time, while a raging storm crashed and banged outside. And while we, my girlfriend and myself, were grateful for the shelter from the storm, the workers were oblivious to it. They had spent all day inside. Sure they knew that there was a storm outside, but they were detached from it. It was remote from their direct and personal experience. They knew about it, but they didn’t appreciate the environment like we outsiders did.
It was almost like they were in their own little protective bubble; a safe world, where they could live, work and exist free of the tumult outside.
Like a hot house.
Hot Houses
A hot house is a conservatory where flowers and plants are grown under controlled conditions. The plants live their entire lives inside that environment. They are comfortable there and there is no reason to be concerned about what happens outside of the walls of the conservatory.
I once visited the oldest conservatory in Connecticut, and it was awesome. It was over 200 years old and had many common plants that we consider to be weeds and plants of no consequence in it. But those “weeds” once they turn 200 years old become these amazing tangled plants with thick and interesting trunks, cool branches, and amazing clusters of leaves.
It was awesome. Absolutely awesome.
There’s a conservatory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that is enormous and beautiful as well. But it isn’t nearly as old. And so while it is a pleasure to go from room to room and experience the different kinds of plants and flowers, it’s really the very ancient hot houses that are amazing. It’s really something else to see what happens when plants live within these stable and sheltered environments for really long periods of time.
Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens …
What I remember the most about my trip to the conservatory in Connecticut, was not simply the cool plants, and the nooks and crannies filled with the most curious of antiquated Bric-a-brac. But it was the very cool diner that we visited on the trip back home.
A very cool diner
Long time MM readers will appreciate my love of diners and local regional stories.
I will never forget that diner. Though I have forgotten it’s name, and location. They had a “blue plate special”. And you know, I am always one for a good “blue plate special”. You know, is it just me, or I’ve never had a “blue plate special” on a blue plate. It’s one of those head scratchers.
Anyways, I had a “blue plate special”. It was a hot pastrami sandwich with cheese, fully “dressed” with a side of coleslaw and a side of “longhorn” fires covered (smothered) in beef gravy. Now, I don’t know why they called the fries “longhorn fries. Basically, they were huge thick french fries. Perhaps three times the width of a regular french fry. Oh, with a iced tea or Coke.
And I, of course enjoyed every morsel of it.
It looked a little bit like this…
A thickly piled sandwich of meat (whether beef or pastrami) with fries all slathered in gravy.
I do believe that one of the lest appreciated characteristics of America is it’s diners. A diner is the lunch counter for the American work force. And in the days when American worked in factories, often they would get a “home cooked” (style) of meal at a diner. This was always preferable to the latest in fast food fare.
Diners are great.
A typical diner interior.
And while I was a munching on my meal, I contemplated the conservatory; the “hot house” that I had just visited. For the plants were unlike anything outside. These plants were not only gorgeous, but huge.
Without the need to deal with weather changes, the encroachment of man, pesticides, and strip mining, they were able to thrive and grow in ways that was impossible in the real, actual environment.
Echo Chambers
We often talk about people being in an “echo chamber”. That is that they surround themselves with like-minded people who echo each other’s points of view. And then, over time, without getting any new ideas, their points of view become stale and more outlandish over time. To a person outside that “echo chamber” they seem crazy, odd, distorted, and mentally deranged.
Indiscussions of news media, an echo chamber refers to situations in which beliefs are amplified or reinforced by communication and repetition inside a closed system and insulated from rebuttal.
By participating in an echo chamber, people are able to seek out information that reinforces their existing views without encountering opposing views, potentially resulting in an unintended exercise in confirmation bias.
Echo chambers may increase social and political polarization and extremism.
The term is a metaphor based on an acoustic echo chamber, in which sounds reverberate in a hollow enclosure.
Another emerging term for this echoing and homogenizing effect within social media communities on the Internet is cultural tribalism.
Many scholars note the effects that echo chambers can have on citizens' stances and viewpoints, and specifically implications has for politics.
-Echo Chamber Wikipedia
I would imagine that were the plants to chat with each other inside the “Hot House”, that they would be unaware that they were within an “echo chamber”. And as long as the walls of the conservatory were solid and maintained, they were safe, secure, and could live their lives and prosper. They would grow to become huge, beautiful and magnificent.
The following is a reasonably decent article.
Of course all credit to the author, note that it was reprinted as found, but with slight editing to fit this venue.
While you are reading it, maybe you might want to fix yourself a “Dagwood sandwich” and munch while absorbing the content.
The sales pitch for the American political system is that it is a robust debate between two distinct political parties. The Republicans and Democrats are coalitions of interests opposed to one another. The groups that make up each party are held together by a shared ideological outlook. The Republicans are the conservative party, and the Democrats are the liberal party. The political process adjudicates the disputes between the parties over public policy and the result is a compromise.
In reality, America is a one party system.
It has been since Gettysburg.
The differences between the two parties are miniscule. This is why public policy never changes when the party in charge changes.
The mild reforms of the Reagan years were followed by a consensus that remains in place to this day. There is some tinkering around the edges to keep up appearances, but otherwise the results of each election have no impact on public policy or the priorities of government.
As for those two ideologies, they are just two faces of a single ruling class ideology that is something like a religion now.
There is left-liberalism and there is right-liberalism held together by a common moral framework.
Like the old Bolsheviks, the left side of the American ideology is maximalist and radical. It wants to usher in the promises of the revolution right now.
The right side is more cautious, preferring an evolutionary approach to ushering in the promised utopia.
Unlike the old communists, the American ideology has always existed in a popular political system, so it is built to sell itself to the public.
The main role of the right-liberals is to protect the left-liberals from themselves. They function as barrier between the tenets of the one true faith and any questioning of the faith. The left side is the heart of the beast, driving the agenda and pushing society along from one fad to the next, always chasing the avatar of egalitarian paradise.
This arrangement has worked amazingly well.
Perhaps too well.
It has been over a century since there has been a threat to the system. Anarchists and communists at the start of the last century started to get some traction, but they were never really a threat to the basic arrangements. Otherwise, it has been smooth sailing for the uniparty system for generations.
The left-liberals are free to dream up new social innovations without being disturbed and the right stands quietly at guard.
The trouble is the party is looking like a freak show inside a hot house.
For example, the Air Force now has drag shows to boost morale. To normal people, this is completely nuts (pun intended), but to the people in charge it is perfectly normal. In fact, they think it is bizarre that anyone would question it. They are not entirely wrong, as the people who arranged it will never be pressed on it. The politicians all agree that drag queens are who we are now, and the press echoes the sentiment.
Where the ruling orthodoxy finds itself is in a place where there is never a need to explain themselves and defend their positions.
The right-liberals never challenge the left-liberals on orthodoxy.
Both sides just put on shows where they pretend to disagree, but then kick back together after the show to laugh about it. The right-liberals have insulated themselves from defending their position. They tell themselves that they are simply too good to discuss these things with their critics.
The folks at the Daily Wire are supposed to be the smart kids of conservatism, but they spend their days making sure the hothouse is airtight.
Ben Shapiro’s one venture outside the tightly controlled environment of his life ended in disaster. Ever since that public relations debacle his people have made sure that no one can utter a discouraging word in his presence. In fact, that whole scene has become a closed shop, never interacting with anyone outside their hive.
It is not just the pundits who have become hot house flowers.
Look at what happens to the military leaders when they go before Congress. This guy went before Congress and told one whopper after another. To outsiders, he looks like a complete fool, but inside that room he is just par for the course. Anyone reading this could have wrecked him with a few simple questions, but no one in the room has the intelligence or the temperament to question anything.
This is the motivation behind the mass censorship and de-platforming.
The people inside the political system are incapable of defending or even discussing their positions and they live in fear of having to do it. It is not so much that the critics have great arguments or have superior debating skills. That is a silly conceit. It is simply that the people outside the system, the dissidents, are comfortable defending their positions and discussing them in public. They can take a punch.
This underlying sense of weakness is probably what lies behind the persecution of the January protestors. January 6th, from the perspective of the ruling class, was an emperor has no clothes moment. The torture and torment of the protestors is as much about reassuring themselves that they are tough and in charge as it is about sending a message to the Dirt People. The ruling class revealed themselves to be cowards and now they are lashing out in a fit of petty spite.
All ruling elites have an abundance of sissies and ridiculous people.
They are the entertainment and decoration for the serious men who run things. Those serious men are made serious by regular contact with reality. Remove that contact and those serious men become as silly and ridiculous as their retainers.
That is where the empire finds itself now, ruled by fops and popinjays living in a hothouse. They live in fear of someone opening the door and letting in reality.
Conclusion
And it was well stated.
The American Empire is being ruled by people who have been in the “hot house” for way too long. They have grown large, powerful, and (even) beautiful in a way. We look at them in amazement. We watch their brazen actions, and their odd statements like we would a monkey in a zoo. Curious. Mischievous. Maybe even a little dangerous.
But not one of us.
They, like their ilk in Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, in the Soviet Union, in the Palace of Versailles, the leadership behind their tall walls are slowly losing their collective minds. They are no longer part of society. And some may even question if they are part of the human race.
Such as MM here.
All empires fall, but the rot crumbles from within the top tiers of the leadership.
We are watching this today, in real time. And it’s slow. Really slow. Like a sloooow motion train wreck.
We need not worry too much about their madness, that is unless they start making crazed laws, rules, pronouncements or engage in wars that can affect you. Because that is the great concern.
Truthfully, most Americans realize that everything in America today is a farce. Elections are a farce. Political parties are a farce. American “greatness” is a farce, and “freedom, liberty, and justice for all” is a sad, sad farce.
That instead, America is a out-of-control military empire, and the the much touted “democracy” model is a complete and abject failure.
But you know, that shouldn’t, and needn’t be your concern.
What should be your concern is how you, and your community will be able to weather out their madness.
And yes. It is frustrating, angering, and frightening.
But it is beyond your control. You can either leave the United States of Insanity, or you an stay. Both choices have their good and bad points. I left. But my situation was intolerable and I manufactured a ratty-old tattered “parachute”. No “golden parachute” for MM.
You make the best with what you have.
You make the best with what you have available.
So, guys and gals, enjoy the ride.
It will eventually settle out and over. One way or the other.
In the meantime, make sure that [1] your larder is well stocked, and that [2] you are surrounded by a community that appreciates and likes you. [3] Perform your prayer affirmations. This is the MOST important thing that you can do. By FAR.
Make sure that you are [4] healthy; mentally, emotionally, socially, physically, and in every other way possible. These times are taking it’s toll. Focus on your well being.
Lay out a “spread”. Invite some friends. If you have no friends, then invite some strangers. Just start.
With the basics taken cared for, then enjoy some time in quiet relaxation. That means companionship (whether it is the opposite sex, friends, family or pets) and enjoy some food.
Everyone loves food.
Well, almost everyone. I once met a fellow in a mental institution that hated food. But then again, he hated everything.
This is June moving towards July.
That could very well mean watermelon, corn on the cob, hotdogs, hamburgers, and all manner of fruits and vegetables.
All that calls for a major smunch!
A delicious Cuban sandwich.
Have a beer.
Call a friend.
Share a beer with a friend.
Make up a spread of cold cuts, vegetables, some potato salad, chips, and plan on some chatting. Even if you have nothing to talk about. Come up with an excuse. Have fun.
You make the best with what you have available.
You are never too old for fun.
Make up a sandwich, Or two. Or heck, a whole bunch of them. Put some beer in a chest full of ice. Or, make up some sangria. Or heck! Just have a bar and everyone can make their own cocktails.
Don’t let life pass your by simply because your government is run by idiots.
Make a sandwich. You make the best with what you have available.
Make it fun.
Maybe use some sweet grandmother pickles. Or, use turkey, ham, pickle loaf, and all sorts of deli cheeses on your “spread”. Allow everyone to experiment.
Like this…
Sorry about the “activate windows 10” overlay in the lower right corner. Windows crowbar opened up and updated without permission and now demands that I activate it by providing my personal information on their servers. Not going to happen. So I will need to endure this overlaid message until HarmonyOS is available.
Ah.
Life is too short not to eat good food. Drink good beverages. Spend good time with friends. Whether they are family, animals, associates, or members of the opposite sex.
Just have a good time.
Maybe take a trip to explore a museum, a state park, a pool, a historical society, a small town restaurant, an animal shelter, a fishing hole, or a walk on a trail. Dust off your old bicycle sitting in the garage and give it a spin.
Do something fun.
Ignore the madness in the hothouse.
You make the best with what you have available.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Lately, there has been all this talk and speculation about how the USA is going to “counter” China. All made with the best of intentions by nationalists with little experience, poor or fraudulent Intel, and a lack of awareness at how incompetent the United States actually is today. Yet they own the MSM; the media mouthpiece and everyone desires to go ahead and pick a fight for “freedom™” and “democracy™”.
I have argued over and over and over again that America is very, very fragile. It is more than balkanized, it is tottering on the edge of chaos. And all it would take to send it over the side is China or Russia doing what the US Military is vocally planning to do.
One strike on a city.
It doesn’t even need to be a nuclear strike.
This strike completely collapse “the house of cards”, and all the people in the city will be forced to deal with a very bad situation. Will they come together? Will they work together? Will they [1] obey the advisement’s on the Emergency Broadcast System? Or will they [2] all go their own way, do their own thing, and take advantage of the situation for their own personal benefit?
The answer should be obvious to all Americans.
But somehow, and it’s unfathomable to me, that Americans separate a “war with China over Taiwan”, from “America urban enclaves erupting in an orgy of hate, rapes and killings”.
Because both will happen simultaneously.
China and Russia will make sure that it occurs.
Fifteen years ago we were able to watch what happens when a local disaster hits a city. And it isn’t pretty. I argue that this will become commonplace throughout the United States once the tipping point has been reached.
Are you ready?
The following is titled “Africa in our midst“. It reports on what happened in an American city New Orleans when a natural disaster struck. It is absolutely horrifying. All credit to the MM influencer that turned me on to it. Reprinted as found, all credit to the author, edited to fit this venue.
Africa in our Midst
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which blasted the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005 the entire world saw images that left no doubt that what is repeatedly called the sole remaining superpower can be reduced to squalor and chaos nearly as gruesome as anything found in the Third World. The weather — a Category 4 hurricane — certainly had something to do with it, but the most serious damage was done not by nature but by man.
Much has been and will be written about why the levees that are supposed to keep the water out of below-sea-level New Orleans failed. There will be bitter recrimination about whether the federal rescue effort could have been launched sooner. Commissions will ask questions and lessons will be learned. But there was another human failing that was far more ominous. No commission will study it, and official America will refuse to learn from it. In the orgy of finger-pointing it will be all but forgotten. That human failing — vastly more significant than the ones the commissions will investigate — is the barbaric behavior of the people of New Orleans.
New Orleans is 67 percent black, and about half the blacks are poor. Of the city’s 480,000 people, all but an estimated 80 to 100 thousand left before the hurricane struck. This meant that aside from patients in hospitals and eccentrics in the French Quarter, most of the people who stayed behind were not just blacks, but lower-class blacks without the means or foresight to leave.
Katrina hit on the morning of Monday, Aug. 29. The levees broke on Tuesday and the city began to flood. Before long, 80 percent of New Orleans was under as much as 20 feet of water.
The city’s 70,000-seat football stadium, known as the Superdome, had been officially designated as a public shelter before the hurricane, and several thousand people were already there the night before the storm. It had some food and medical supplies, but when the waters began to rise, people poured in from all directions, swelling its numbers to an estimated 25,000.
People came because their houses were under water, but also because New Orleans very quickly collapsed into banditry. Looting began even while the storm was still blowing. At first there was sympathetic clucking about the need for food and medicine, but news clips of blacks wading happily through waist-deep water with television sets over their heads dispelled that view.
The day after the hurricane, a reporter caught the atmosphere of high-spirited chaos at a Wal-Mart in the Lower Garden District. People were grabbing things as quickly as they could, smashing open jewelry cabinets and scooping up double-handfuls. One man packed his van so full of electronic equipment he could not close the rear doors. A teenage girl passed out, face down, and people stepped on her. A man stopped to roll her onto her back, and she vomited pink liquid. “This is f***ed up,” he said, and rolled her back on her stomach. An NBC correspondent filmed black, uniformed police officers strolling through the aisles, filling shopping carts.
At one store, a policeman broke the glass on the DVD case so civilians would not cut themselves trying to break it, but one man was ungrateful. “The police got all the best stuff,” he said. “They’re crookeder than us.” One woman stocking up on makeup was glad to see the officers. “It must be legal,” she said. “The police are here taking stuff, too.”
Violence of all kinds quickly spread through the paralyzed city, where robbery, rape, and even murder became routine. There were still thousands of people trapped on rooftops and in attics, but on Sept. 1, Mayor Ray Nagin called the entire police force off of rescue work and ordered it to secure the city. The response from the force? An estimated 200 officers just walked off the job. “They indicated that they had lost everything and didn’t feel that it was worth them going back to take fire from looters and losing their lives,” explained Henry Whitehorn, chief of the Louisiana State Police. Many disappeared without a word. Sheriff Harry Lee of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans also said his men were deserting. “They want to be with their families,” he said. “Well, I want to be with my family too, but you don’t quit in the middle of a crisis.”
Two police officers, including the department’s official spokesman Paul Accardo, committed suicide by shooting themselves in the head. The London Times estimated that one in five officers refused to work, and some of those who stayed on the job were useless. When Debbie Durso, a tourist from Washington, Michigan, asked a policeman for help he told her, “Go to hell — it’s every man for himself.”
Ged Scott, 36, of Liverpool, told BBC News what happened when a group of stranded British women shouted to police for help from the rooftop of a flooded hotel: “They [the officers] said to them, ‘Well, show us what you’ve got’ — doing signs for them to lift their T-shirts up. The girls said no, and they said ‘well fine,’ and motored off down the road in their motorboat. That’s the sort of help we had from the authorities.”
“No one anticipated the disintegration or the erosion of the civilian police force in New Orleans,” explained Lieutenant General Steven Blum of the National Guard. He said the city was operating on only one third of its pre-storm strength of 1,500 officers, and that the guard suddenly had to switch from rescue to law enforcement: “And that’s when we started flowing military police into the theater.”
New Orleans has had only black mayors since 1978, and has spent decades making the police force as black as possible. It established a city-residency requirement for officers to keep suburban whites from applying for jobs, and lowered recruitment standards so blacks could pass them. Katrina blew away any pretence that the force was competent.
(On September 5, exactly a week after the hurricane, Mayor Ray Nagin offered to pay for the entire police force, firefighters, and city emergency workers to go on five-day vacations — with their families — to Las Vegas or some other destination. He said there were enough National Guard in the city to maintain order, and that his men “have been through a lot.” He brushed off suggestions that this was dereliction of duty. He even asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to pay for the vacations, but FEMA refused. “We haven’t turned over control of the city,” a city spokesman explained. “We’re going to leave a skeleton force — about 20 percent of the department — for leadership and liaison with the troops while we get some rest.”)
New Orleans has a high crime rate at the best of times — it is usually in top contention for the American city with the highest murder rate — and looted firearms spilled into the street. Some blacks fired on any symbol of authority, blazing away at rescue helicopters and Coast Guard vessels. Several days after the hurricane, with desperate people still huddled on rooftops, FEMA said it was too dangerous to attempt rescues.
On Wednesday, along one stretch of Highway 10, hundreds of volunteer firefighters, auxiliary coastguardmsmen and citizens with small boats were eager to reach people, but could not set out because of sniper fire. “We are trying to do our job here but we can’t if they are shooting at us,” explained Major Joey Broussard of the Louisiana State Fisheries and Wildlife Division. “We don’t know who and we don’t know why, but we don’t want to get in a situation of having to return fire out there,” he said.
Perhaps the most chilling accounts were from hospitals, where staff desperately tried to move patients up stairs as the water rose, while blacks looted the floors below. Most hospitals had emergency generators, but these began to give out. Two days after the hurricane, the city had no running water, and as food ran out, doctors and nurses gave themselves intravenous feedings to keep going.
Just outside New Orleans, gunmen held up a supply truck carrying food, water, and medical supplies that were on their way to a 203-bed hospital. Patients all across the city eventually had to be taken out, but rescuers met resistance. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesan told reporters at an emergency headquarters: “Hospitals are trying to evacuate. At every one of them, there are reports that as the helicopters come in people are shooting at them, saying, ‘You better come get my family.’” An effort to evacuate patients and staff from Charity Hospital in downtown New Orleans was stopped by sniper fire. Other hospitals reported gangs of looters attacking and overturning ambulances.
Chris Lawrence, a reporter with CNN, filed a report from the roof of a police station: “Right now it’s the only safe place to be in the city. We were on the street earlier but the police said under no circumstances would you be safe on the street. They said anybody walking in the streets of New Orleans is basically taking their life in their hands. . . . They directed some of the young women to get off the street immediately.”
What may have been the most shocking headline of the entire crisis was in the September 2 issue of Army Times: “Troops Begin Combat Operations in New Orleans.” The article was about the Louisiana National Guard massing near the Superdome in preparation for a citywide security mission. “This place is going to look like Little Somalia,” Brig. Gen. Gary Jones explained. “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.” The amphibious assault ship Bataan was in the area, but kept its helicopters on board after pilots reported sniper fire.
Many soldiers came under gunfire from civilians. “I never thought that as a National Guardsman I would be shot at by other Americans,” said Philip Baccus of the 527th Engineer Battalion. “And I never thought I’d have to carry a rifle when on a hurricane relief mission. This is a disgrace.” Cliff Ferguson of the same battalion added: “You have to think about whether it is worth risking your neck for someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didn’t come here to fight a war. We came here to help.”
Michael Brown, head of FEMA, said: “We are working under conditions of urban warfare.” General Blum of the National Guard said half of the 7,000 guardsmen under his command had just returned from overseas assignments and were “highly proficient in the use of lethal force.” He promised to deal with thugs “in a quick and efficient manner.”
Shoot-to-kill orders were supposed to have gone out, and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco boasted that battle-hardened veterans would put down the violence in no time. However, there were few accounts of soldiers firing their weapons. The London Times reported that a New Orleans policeman explained through tears that he had seen bodies riddled with bullets, and one man with the top of his head shot off. He said looters were armed with stolen AK-47 rifles, and that the police were outgunned just like in Somalia. “It’s a war-zone, and they’re [the federal government] not treating it like one,” he said.
We will never know the full extent of the mayhem blacks loosed on their own city. Many victims will not be found for weeks or even months, rotted beyond recognition, their killers never found. Drowned or murdered, the bloated, stinking bodies that turn up by the hundreds will look much the same. In their haste to get cadavers off the streets, the authorities may not worry much about cause of death.
From Hurricane to Jungle
In the two main refugee centers, however — the Superdome and the Convention Center — too many people witnessed the degeneracy for it to be ignored. The first refugees had arrived at the Superdome the day before the hurricane, on Sunday, August 28. The last finally left the stadium on Saturday, Sept, 3, so some people may have spent nearly a week in what, after the toilets began to overflow, became known as the “Sewerdome.”
Preparation for refugees was pitifully inadequate. By day, as many as 25,000 people sweltered in temperatures that rose into the 100s. Whatever order had been established soon melted away, and the stadium reverted to the jungle. Young men robbed and raped with impunity. Occasional gunshots panicked the crowd. At least one man committed suicide by throwing himself off a high deck and splattering onto the playing field. Bodies of the murdered, and of infants and the elderly who died of heat exhaustion began to accumulate. Six babies were born in the stadium. Charles Womack, a 30-year-old roofer, said he saw one man beaten to death, and was, himself beaten with a pipe. Crack addicts — who had brought their most valuable possession with them — smoked openly and fought over drugs.
A group of about 30 British students were among the very small number of whites in the stadium, where they spent four harrowing days. Jamie Trout, 22, an economics major, wrote that the scene “was like something out of Lord of the Flies,” with “people shouting racial abuse about us being white.” One night, word came that the power was failing, and that there was only ten minutes’ worth of gas for the generators. Zoe Smith, 21, from Hull, said they all feared for their lives: “All us girls sat in the middle while the boys sat on the outside, with chairs as protection,” she said. “We were absolutely terrified, the situation had descended into chaos, people were very hostile and the living conditions were horrendous.” She said that even during the day, “when we offered to help with the cleaning, the locals gave us abuse.”
Mr. Trout said the National Guard finally recognized how dangerous the threat was from blacks, and moved the British under guard to the basketball area, which was safer. “The army warned us to keep our bags close to us and to grip them tight,” he said, as they were escorted out. Twenty-year-old Jane Wheeldon credited one man in particular, Sgt. Garland Ogden, with getting the Britons safely out. “He went against a lot of rules to get us moved,” she said.
Australian tourists stuck in the Superdome had the same experience. Bud Hopes, a 32-year-old man from Kangaroo Point, Brisbane, took control and may have saved many lives. As the stadium reverted to anarchy, he realized whites were in danger, and gathered tourists together for safety. “There were 65 of us altogether so we were able to look after each other, especially the girls who were being grabbed and threatened,” said Mr. Hopes. They organized escorts for women who had to go to the toilet or for food, and set up a roster of men to stand guard while others slept. “We sat through the night just watching each other, not knowing if we would be alive in the morning,” Mr. Hopes said. “Ninety-eight percent of the people around the world are good,” he said; “in that place 98 per cent of the people were bad.”
John McNeil of Coorparoo in Brisbane tells what happened when their group, too, heard the lights were about to go out: “I looked at Bud [Hopes] and said, ‘That will be the end of us.’ The gangs had already eyed us off. If the lights had gone out we would have been in deep trouble. We were sitting there praying for a miracle and the lights stayed on.” Mr. Hopes said the Australians owed their lives to a National Guardsman who broke the rules and got whites out to a medical center past seething crowds of blacks.
Peter McNeil of Brisbane told the Australian AP that his son John was one of the 65 who managed to get out. The blacks were reportedly so hostile “they would stab you as soon as look at you.” “He’s never been so scared in his life,” explained Mr. McNeil. “He just said they had to get out of the dark. Otherwise, another night, he said, they would have been gone.” No American newspaper wrote about what these white tourists went through.
When guardsmen began to show up in force on Sept. 1 and take control, some blacks met them with cheers, but others shouted obscenities. Capt. John Pollard of the Texas Air National Guard said 20,000 people were in the dome when the evacuation began, but thousands more appeared from surrounding areas when word got out that there were buses leaving town. Soldiers held their M-16s and grenade-launchers at the ready, and kept a sharp eye out for snipers.
That same day, when it was time to board buses for Houston, soldiers had trouble controlling the crowd. People at the back of the mob crushed the people in front against barricades soldiers put up to control the flow. Many people continued to yell obscenities whenever a patrol went by. Some were afraid of losing their place in line and defecated where they stood. The Army Times reported that Sgt. 1st Class Ron Dixon of the Oklahoma National Guard, who had recently come home from Afghanistan, said he was struck by the fact Afghanis wanted to help themselves, but that the people of New Orleans only wanted others to help them.
By the evening of Sept. 3, the Superdome was finally evacuated, but the state-of-the-art stadium was a reeking cavern of filth, human waste, and an unknown number of corpses. It, too, had been looted of everything not bolted down. Janice Singleton was working at the stadium when the storm hit. She said she was robbed of everything, even her shoes. As for the building: “They tore that dome apart,” she said sadly. “They tore it down. They taking everything out of there they can take.”
Only afterwards did the public learn there were 50 police officers assigned to the Superdome, but they appear to have been completely ineffectual. Toni Blanco, a 24-year veteran, said police could not arrest anyone because there was no place to hold suspects, and they were afraid to use their guns for fear of the crowd. “You felt helpless in the sense there was absolutely nothing we could do for the city,” she said. What did she do at night, when conditions were worst? She and another officer, Alecia Wright, would slip out to a patrol car and have a good cry. “Many times we laid in the car and tears just rolled,” said Miss Blanco. Some officers simply abandoned their posts and fled the Superdome.
Conditions were even worse at the Convention Center. Although on high ground not far from the stadium, it had not been designated as a shelter. It was, however, beyond reach of the high water, and soon some 20,000 people were huddled in its cavernous halls. There were no supplies or staff, and for several days neither FEMA nor the National Guard seems to have known anyone was there.
Armed gangs took control, and occasional gunshots caused panic. There was no power, and at night the center was plunged into complete darkness. Degeneracy struck almost immediately, with rapes, robbery, and murder. Terrible shrieking tore through the night, but no one could see, or dared to move. When Police Chief Eddie Compass heard what was happening, he sent a squad of 88 officers to investigate. They were overwhelmed by superior forces and retreated, leaving thousands to the mercy of criminals.
It was not until Sept. 2 — four days after the hurricane — that a force of 1,000 National Guardsmen finally took over from the armed gangs. “Had we gone in with a lesser force we may have been challenged, [and] innocents may have been caught in a fight,” explained Gen. Blum.
Sitting with her daughter and other relatives, Trolkyn Joseph, 37, told a reporter that men had wandered the center at night raping and murdering children. She said she found a dead 14-year old girl at 5 a.m. on Friday morning, four hours after the girl went missing. “She was raped for four hours until she was dead,” Miss Joseph said through tears. “Another child, a seven-year old boy, was found raped and murdered in the kitchen freezer last night.”
Africa Brumfield, 32, explained that women were in particular fear: “There is rapes going on here. Women cannot go to the bathroom without men. They are raping them and slitting their throats.” Donald Anderson, 43, was at the convention center with his wife, who was six months pregnant: “We circled the chairs like wagons because at night there are stampedes,” he said. “We had to survive.”
The very few whites in the crowd were terrified. Eighty-year-old Selma Valenti, who was with her husband, said blacks threatened to kill them on Thursday, Sept. 1. “They hated us. Four young black men told us the buses were going to come last night and pick up the elderly so they were going to kill us,” she said, sobbing. Presumably, the blacks wanted to take their places on the buses.
The center was not entirely without a form of rough justice. A National Guardsman reported that a man who had raped and killed a young girl in the bathroom was caught by the crowd — which beat him to death.
At one time there were as many as seven or eight corpses in front of the center, some of them with blood streaming from bullet wounds. Inside, there was an emergency morgue, but a National Guardsman refused to let a Reuters photographer take pictures. “We’re not letting anyone in there anymore,” he said. “If you want to take pictures of dead bodies, go to Iraq.” By Saturday, Sept. 3, the center was mostly cleared of the living. Refugees pulled shirts over their noses trying to block out the smell as they walked past rotting bodies.
Later it would be learned there were 30 to 40 bodies piled into the convention center’s freezer, almost all of them murder victims. Arkansas National Guardsman Mikel Brooks showed a reporter the charnel house: “I ain’t got the stomach for it, even after what I saw in Iraq. In Iraq, it’s one-on-one. It’s war. It’s fair. Here, it’s just crazy. It’s anarchy. . . . And this is America. This is just 300 miles south of where I live.”
For the city as a whole, not even 50,000 soldiers and federal rescue workers could bring calm. On Sunday, Sept. 4, contractors working for the US Army Corps of Engineers came under fire. Their police escort returned fire and killed four attackers.
On Monday, Sept, 5, a week after the hurricane and after virtually everyone who wanted to get out was gone, there was still widespread banditry. “We’re having some pretty intense gun battles breaking out around the city,” said Capt. Jeff Winn of the New Orleans SWAT team. “Armed gangs of from eight to 15 young men are riding around in pickup trucks, looting and raping.”
Brian McKay was one of 300 Arkansas guardsmen just back from Iraq. He was in full battle gear, including body armor, putting down insurgents. “It’s like Baghdad on a bad day,” he said. Another Arkansan veteran under fire agreed: “It’s just so much like Iraq, it’s not funny, except for all the water, and they speak English.”
Since the old jail was flooded, police set up a holding pen at the Greyhound bus terminal. State Attorney General Charles Foti said there were plans for a temporary court system, but no one knew how they were going to assemble juries or call witnesses. The grim business began of combing the drowning city for corpses and the remaining survivors.
Reactions
The world reacted with astonishment to sights it never expected to see in America. “Anarchy in the USA,” read the headline in Britain’s best-selling newspaper, The Sun. “Apocalypse Now,” said Handelsblatt in Germany. Mario de Carvalho, a veteran Portuguese cameraman, who covers the world’s trouble spots, said he saw the bodies of babies and old people along the highways leading out of New Orleans. “It’s a chaotic situation. It’s terrible. It’s a situation we generally see in other countries, in the Third World,” he said.
Some Third-Worlders would have been insulted. “I am absolutely disgusted,” said Sajeewa Chinthaka, 36, of the looters. The Sri Lanka native added: “After the tsunami our people, even the ones who lost everything, wanted to help the others who were suffering. Not a single tourist caught in the tsunami was mugged. Now with all this happening in the U.S. we can easily see where the civilized part of the world’s population is.”
In the United States, the stark contrast between endless scenes of appalling behavior by blacks and rescue personnel who were almost all white was greeted with the standard foolishness. Some people accused the “biased” media of suppressing footage of rampaging whites and heroic black helicopter pilots.
Many blacks made excuses for looters. “Desperate people do desperate things,” said US Rep. Diane Watson of California. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. from Illinois, said we must not judge harshly: “Who are we to say what law and order should be in this unspeakable environment?” Rep. Melvin Watt, North Carolina Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, was perhaps the greatest ass of all: “Whatever is being taken could not be used by anyone else anyway,” he said.
Many blacks took it for granted that federal relief was slow because the victims were black. Rep. Elijah Cummings said “poverty, age and skin color” determined who lived and who died. Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington bureau, blasted “disparate treatment” of Katrina victims. “Many black people feel that their race, their property conditions and their voting patterns have been a factor in the response,” explained Jesse Jackson, Sr. He said the rubbish outside the Convention Center made the place look “like the hull of a slave ship.” Black activist and reparations-booster Randall Robinson said the relief effort was the “defining watershed moment in America’s racial history.” He said he had “finally come to see my country for what it really is. A monstrous fraud.”
Democratic Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick of Michigan said she was “ashamed of America and . . . of our government.” The mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin — the man who gave city workers a vacation when the feds arrived — shouted and wept on local radio, demanding of federal officials: “Get off your asses, and let’s do something.” There was an undercurrent of fury at a meeting of black leaders in Detroit. One audience member wanted to know whether the slow federal response was “black genocide.” Another shouted, “African Americans built this nation. Descendants of slaves are being allowed to die.”
One black man, observing the chaos from abroad, took a different view. Leighton Levy wrote in the Sept. 2 Jamaica Star: “I am beginning to believe that black people, no matter where in the world they are, are cursed with a genetic predisposition to steal, murder, and create mayhem.” He wanted to know why there was no footage of white looters: “Is it that the media are not showing pictures of them looting and robbing? Or is it that they are too busy trying to stay alive, waiting to be rescued, and hiding from the blacks?”
Most blacks and many whites fell into the usual assumptions about omnipotent white government and helpless Negroes. If black people were suffering it was because whites had not done enough for them. It did not occur to them that it was the responsibility of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana — not the federal government — to prepare for hurricanes. Before the storm, Mayor Nagin issued a mandatory evacuation only under pressure from the Bush administration. The mayor then did nothing to enforce the order, leaving hundreds of city buses and school buses to drown, rather than use them to offer transportation to people without cars.
Something of the mood of black New Orleans was caught by Fox News film crews as late as Sunday, Sept. 4. White volunteers were trying to persuade a black woman and her small children to leave her flooded house. “You’ve got to get out,” they explained. “The water isn’t going away.” A black man at the top of a multi-story building told a helicopter crew he didn’t need to leave. All he needed was some supplies.
These people could not understand something that was obvious to the whole world: New Orleans had no electricity, no plumbing, no transport, and no food. Blacks refused to leave their flooded homes, even though to stay meant near-certain death.
Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff noted how crazy it was to stay in the wreckage. “That is not a reasonable alternative,” he said. “We are not going to be able to have people sitting in houses in the city of New Orleans for weeks and months while we de-water and clean this city.”
FEMA reported that it had pulled three Carnival Cruise Lines ships from commercial duty to shelter the blacks of New Orleans. Maybe the chance of berth on the Ecstasy, the Sensation or the Holiday would be enough to drag them out of the muck.
Lessons
Ninety-nine percent of the white people left New Orleans when the evacuation order went out. Some 80,000 blacks could not or would not leave. Whites did not “leave them behind,” as the editorial writers keep telling us. No one could have gotten some of them to leave — a number of men cheerfully admitted they stayed in town to loot — but if it was anyone’s job to give them the option, it was that of the black-run city government. Of the blacks who stayed, probably only a minority committed crimes, but they were enough to turn the city into a hell hole. Some did unspeakable things: loot hospitals, fire on rescue teams, destroy ambulances. No amount of excuse-making and finger-pointing can paper over degeneracy like that. Black people — and only black people — did these things.
The Superdome and the Convention Center were certainly unpleasant places to spend three or four days, but 50,000 whites would have behaved completely differently. They would have established rules, organized supplies, cared for the sick and dying. They would have organized games for children. The papers would be full of stories of selflessness and community spirit.
Natural disasters usually bring out the best in people, who help neighbors and strangers alike. For blacks — at least the lower-class blacks of New Orleans — disaster was an excuse to loot, rob, rape and kill.
Our rulers and media executives will try to turn the story of Hurricane Katrina into yet another morality tale of downtrodden blacks and heartless whites, but pandering of this kind fools fewer and fewer people.
Many whites will realize — some for the first time — that we have Africa in our midst, that utterly alien Africa of road-side corpses, cruelty, and anarchy that they thought could never wash up on these shores.
To be sure, the story of Hurricane Katrina does have a moral for anyone not deliberately blind. The races are different. Blacks and whites are different. When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western Civilization — any kind of civilization — disappears.
And in a crisis, Western Civilization disappears overnight.
Conclusion
America is fragile.
What happens when an EMP wipes out all communication, vehicular traffic, internet, and batteries? Who will come out of the balkanized enclaves? And what will they do?
The writing has been on the wall for some time, and now hate has been institutionalized, and the social structure is gone. It is in tatters. America is a wreck, and the ruling oligarchy really isn’t aware at the actual fragility of America.
If they were (aware) they would be conducting emergency domestic rebuilding, and hiring.
They would NOT be constructing trillion-dollar spending campaigns on the military “to counter” anyone.
And they most certainly wouldn’t be giving away trillion-dollars to any other nations for a counter program for the BRI.
Instead, they would be spending money and time dealing with the festering problems that exists right now. That means all sorts of restructuring of local and state and federal governments, wholesale readjustments of federal agencies, and many, many rebuilding programs at the LOCAL LEVEL. Not throwing away money at the FEDERAL LEVEL.
But they are not.
Instead we see the nation gearing up for a major war with either China or Russia. And trust me, it will be against both simultaneously.
What will happen after the missiles fly is anyone’s guess. But I am leaning strongly on a short-war, with both Russia and China being victorious. And America absolutely, completely and utterly, devastated; broken and destroyed in every single conceivable way.
Are you all ready for a devastated America?
Do you have any idea what that means? Do you have any idea what it will be like for the people inside of America? A balkanized racist America?
Guess.
Coming to your neighborhood soon.
Now, a word about whether this might come about…
I wrote this back over a year ago. And the events of the last few months put everything in a stunning new light…
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
A lot of interesting articles out lately concerning Geo-Politics. Most of which are unavailable on Google or in the states. As they are “shadow banned”. I want to chat about some of the stuff that’s “out there”. And in this post I am going to throw a lot of the banned stuff out for you all to absorb.
But first, let me take a sip of tea.
You know, I have come to enjoy Earl Grey Tea. It’s got this lovely aroma, a nice soothing feel, and is wholly enjoyable to drink. But I do not drink it every day. Sometimes I drink roasted Oolong tea. And I have become a fan of green tea. It’s healthier for you, don’t you know.
Earl Grey Tea.
With the Earl Grey Tea, I like to drink it UK / Australian style. Nicely seeped in a pot, poured into a a nice cup sitting on a saucer, and I add some sugar and milk. Though it’s not all that proper. I do enjoy it that way.
This is how a “real” (an authentic) British person (man, or woman, or “thing”) makes a cup of tea.
How to Make a “Proper” Cup of Tea (British Tea, that is)
Tea is an institution in the UK. Its fibers are woven into the British culture in such a way that it is difficult to describe to a “non-Brit.” I came across this video a while ago and was so awed by the impact a beverage can have on a country.
FYI to Americans, Eastenders is a popular soap-opera type show in the UK. When the show finishes, most viewers turn the kettle on for a cup of tea resulting in a huge surge for electricity! Who’d figure?
The British love their tea. I wonder if people in Singapore drink tea properly like the British do?
I put “proper” in quotation marks because this is my version of how to make a proper cup of tea. It’s not the “proper-proper” tea made with loose leaf tea, of course. That’s more for a leisurely afternoon tea, but this is an everyday process with tea bags which is less time consuming.
In the UK they say to put one teabag per person and “one for the pot.” However, in my opinion that’s too strong for most people in the US and Canada who are used to a weaker tea.
If you are using a British brand of tea, which is already much stronger and has a lot more flavor than most US tea brands, you might just want to use a teabag per person.
Three teabags for a 32 ounce pot, not completely filled to the rim (about 4 cups of tea) is perfect for a fine British family, but you can just adjust accordingly.
First of all, a proper-proper cup of tea is made with loose leaf tea, but most of us don’t have time for that on a daily basis, two or three times a day.
So this is mostly aimed at US households who are used to a Lipton teabag in hot water in a mug. This will be a big change in flavor for those of you.
1.Boil the water.
First, bring water to a boil, but do not let it keep boiling. Remove it as soon as it comes to a boil. This is critical. This is important.
As soon as the tea comes to a boil, remove it from the stove.
Hot water will not do.
We want the tea leaves to infuse the flavor of the tea into the water, and tepid or hot water will not do this nearly as well as boiling water. I use an electric kettle because we use it all the time.
You will also need a good teapot, preferably one made in the UK (they know their tea there).
2.Warm the teapot for the perfect cup of tea.
So, when the kettle is almost boiling, put some water in the pot, just to warm up the teapot. Return the kettle to its base (or stovetop) to make it come to a full boil. Swirl the hot water around the teapot and then drain it out. Make sure to have your teabags ready.
A proper teapot.
3.Add the teabags and water to the pot.
When the water just comes to a boil, put the teabags in the teapot and immediately pour the water into the pot.
You do not place them in the cup.
You place the teabags in the kettle. That is it’s purpose.
4.Use a tea cosy (if you have one).
Next, if you have a tea cosy, cover the pot. If not, use a heavy tea towel or something to keep the pot warm. You’ll discover that this also makes a big difference in the outcome of the flavor of the tea.
A tea cosy.
5.Steep the tea.
Let the tea steep for about 3 to 5 minutes; the longer you leave it, the stronger it will be. (Three minutes in a tea pot is pretty weak.)
6.Pour the tea and add the milk (and sugar, if desired).
Now it’s time to pour the perfectly steeped tea.
If you’re going to add sugar, add it before the milk so that it has a chance to start melting before adding the cold milk. Regarding the whole “milk, or tea first” debate, it used to be that milk went in first to protect the china from cracking, so that’s no longer a reason.
I think it’s a personal preference. I like to add the milk after so I can better control the ratio of milk to tea, and you may think I’m crazy, but I say it tastes better, too. I also prefer whole milk. 2% milk is passable, but don’t offer me 1% or even talk to me about skim milk. Although you should NEVER add cream to a cup of tea, the natural cream that’s in whole milk adds a lot to the flavor of a proper cup of tea.
Now enjoy with a crumpet or a biscuit.
British (or Hong Kong) style crumpet. Toasted with well-salted butter.
Now…
With a cup of tea in one hand, and a fine hot buttered crumpet nearby. Let’s adjust our monocle to look at the editorial sections of the paper. Shall we?
Ah. A fine Rugby match. It’s all Crickets, don’t you know.
Oh, here’s something from the colonies…
It seems that President Biden is trying to incentivize Russia to stop dealing with China. It’s what he has been doing with the G7 folk in Europe. But, you know, Russia is “not biting”.
MOSCOW (Xinhua): Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced actions aimed at driving a wedge between Moscow and Beijing, stressing that China is a strategic partner, not a threat.
"We can see attempts to destroy the relationship between Russia and China. We can see that those attempts are being made in practical policies,"
Putin said in an interview with US television network NBC published on Monday (June 14).
"We are pleased with the unprecedentedly high level of our relationship as it has evolved over the last few decades. We cherish it just like our Chinese friends do, which we can see,"
He said.
Putin praised…
"a high level of trust and cooperation in all areas"
…between the two countries, from politics and economy to technology and military.
"We do not believe that China is a threat to us. China is a friendly nation. It has not declared us an enemy as the United States has done,"
He said.
A huge and powerful country, China has been developing with its great economy and a tremendous volume of foreign trade,
He added.
"We have been working and will continue to work with China, which applies to all kinds of programs, including exploring deep space,"
The Russian leader concluded.
Meanwhile, exactly what’s up with the Western G7 nations?
Popular WhatsApp forwarded message:
I never saw this until now. But that’s probably because I don’t have WhatsApp. I don’t want it, and there’s a bunch of chicks that want to hook up with me because they see my LinkedIN account and mistakenly believe that I have lots of money that they can somehow extract via their sultry means…
LOL.
Anyways I got this jammed in my proton mail account from a reliable source, and it makes for a great read. I enjoyed it. Maybe you will too.
*A Lesson In History…*
1. Which countries invaded and occupied Indonesia?
*Netherlands for 350 years and Japan for 3.5 years*.
2. Which country was once the colony master of Malaya & India?
*Britain*.
3. Which countries invaded and occupied Vietnam?
*France 1857-1940 & 1946-1954, Japan 1940-1945 and USA (in Southern Vietnam) 1955-1975*.
4. Which countries were responsible for colonization of the African continent?
*Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Italy*.
5. Which 8 countries were responsible for the occupation of China in early 20th century?
*Britain, US, Germany, France, Russia, Japan, Italy & Austria-Hungary*.
6. Which countries are responsible for colonizing and almost annihilating the Red Indians in northern America?
*France & Britain*.
7. Which country colonized and almost annihilated Aborigines in Australia and New Zealand?
*Britain* .
8. Which are the member countries of G7?
*United Kingdom/Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan & USA*.
And now the million dollar question…
9. Why are the G7 members see China as a threat even though China is the only major nation on earth that has never invaded or occupied another country?
*Ego or fear of retribution* ?
America today is so many ways from being Right, that it’s easy to pick it’s imperfections. Here’s another article by a Pentagon worker who is alarmed at what is going on inside of the Washington DC beltway for war (with either or Russia and / or China)…
Horrified by the actual discussions going on inside of the Pentagon today.
Merriam Webster dictionary defines the word "othering" as an act wherein a race or culture is made to appear as "a large, uniform mass, rather than a diverse group of individuals… treating people from another group as less human than one's own group."
Historically, "othering" has served as a conditioning mechanism to dehumanize US adversaries, preparing normally empathetic men and women to act with less discrimination and greater brutality in war.
During WWII, US othering of the Japanese involved weaponizing disinformation and propagating racist stereotypes. It was considered as effective at setting the necessary psychological conditions for the controversial internment of Japanese Americans, firebombing of Tokyo, and dropping of atomic bombs on Japanese cities merely to deter the Soviet Union. Conceivably, left unmodified, a soldier's empathy for non-combatant human beings otherwise could have placed those ruthless American operations and their objectives at risk.
Othering of the Chinese people is evident in recent US news media in the form of a mix of unverified rumors, disinformation, and selective exclusion of contradictory facts. It has been reported that China-averse special interests have even paid US journalists to publish stories biased against China's policies, to include encouraging a US-China confrontation. Meanwhile, the island of Taiwan's secession champions in the US Congress have nurtured the absurd public perception that the US-emulating people aboard the island of Taiwan are "non-Chinese" in ethnic identity.
The apparent sophistication and coordination of Chinese othering are indications that some in the US are working to desensitize Americans to the certain horrors of a war with China over Taiwan. Its effects are already being witnessed in American society. Despite a presidential-level denouncement, racially motivated assaults on Chinese and Asians generally are sharply increasing. The dehumanization of our future foe is in full swing to the delight of China-averse special interests.
Some argue that a US war with China over Taiwan would be a just war, claiming the "non-Chinese" island citizenry deserves our protection, not just ideological support. Others will go further and assert that the US nuclear umbrella needs to be extended to encompass the island. They try to make the desperate case that the island of Taiwan is the last bastion of American values in Southeast Asia, and the final barricade that contains China.
The nuclear weapons theme deserves a closer look. Senior US military leaders at different times in the 20th century glibly suggested the employment of nuclear weapons to regain initiative in conventional conflicts with non-nuclear Asian nations. In addition to the island of Taiwan, these included conflicts in and with Vietnam, Korea, and China. Similarly, the employment of firebombing and nuclear weapons against a densely populated Japan was rationalized without significant opposition.
This was not so in the European theater. The firebombings of Dresden, Hamburg and elsewhere were emotionally contested even at the time of their planning, although the fanaticism and atrocious behavior of Imperial Japan was on a par with that of Nazi Germany. In fact, Winston Churchill went so far as to write: the destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing. Tokyo, Nagasaki and Hiroshima did not benefit from such a distinguished Western advocate, and evidently neither does China.
Today hawkish members of Congress, most of whom have not served their country in uniform, casually resurrect such options as it pertains to supporting the island of Taiwan's split from China. It is easy for them to talk tough on the matter as most don't know the sacrifices of Service, and perhaps because of lacking ethnic identification with Chinese and other Asian races and cultures. This thoughtless devaluation of Asian casualties to mere nuclear attrition statistics results from the same sort of American othering seen in the 20th century.
In a war, the small island of Taiwan would erupt into a battleground with an intensity unknown since the world wars. All parties have known that the island's citizenry would be devastated far beyond the value of attempting to secede from China. Since this is known by the US Congress in advance, it illuminates the reality that the Chinese aboard the island of Taiwan are expendable. The issue of the island province is not and never was about protecting its people. Instead, it is all about the US striving to maintain its hegemonic reach during a period of decline in global influence.
This difference in the US perspectives on Asian and European lives is nothing new to any overseas or indigenous Asian citizen. To contort the present American devaluation and othering into a dubious justification for violating China's internal affairs and sovereignty is futile and transparent. It also portends that a fight over the island of Taiwan will rapidly devolve into a primitive, brutal, unrestricted war that has every appearance of, and is at its core an imperial US expedition.
As an American, my priority is US national interest. Attempting to support the renegade island of Taiwan's secession is directly contrary to the US national interest as we know in advance we will lose. Even in defeat many politicians, conservative ideologues, financially incentivized journalists, and special interests such as the US defense industry would benefit, just as a similar cabal did after Vietnam. But Taiwan secession is a transparently shallow cause with no path to victory. In fact, historical precedent shows that the US will lose primarily because the American public will see through the fraudulent deadly farce, but only after the unspeakable tragedy unfolds.
In the end, China' Province of Taiwan will always mean more to the physically proximate, ethnically identical, and nationalistically fueled China of over 1.4 billion, than it will to the distant, over-extended, and above all falsely incentivized US of 350 million. The heaviest burden of the tragedy of war will fall on the young, patriotic men and women who volunteered to serve in the US military in the faith that an assigned cause is legitimate and worthy of their sacrifice. Unfortunately, a war between the US and China over the island of Taiwan would be a complete betrayal of their good faith.
The author is a retired Marine Corps infantry officer who now serves as a US civil servant in the Pentagon. Opinions are of the author and do not represent the US government obviously.
So when a Pentagon insider is seeing things starting to turn in one direction and is willing to risk his life and his career over it, maybe we all should shit up and take notice.
This all makes me hungry because it reminds me of Po-Boy sandwiches
Well it does.
You see, this near religious fervor towards war reminds me of the “Bible thumping” ministers of the deep, deep American South. Like Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. As much as I love Louisiana, and I do love it in so many, many ways, the “Bible Thumpers” are just plain obnoxious.
They really are.
Louisiana and Mississippi are just beautiful, and I consider my days in Hattiesburgh and Pervis to be very special ones.
This picture reminds me of my home in Hattiesburgh Mississippi. This is sort of what the front yard looked like. I can tell you that my cats just loved the place. Behind my house was a wooded bog / swamp and they would spend all the time exploring it and doing cat things.
Anyways…
This reminds me of Louisiana because of the assholes pushing for war. They are of the same type; a belief that they have been issued by GOD to be the “cleansers of the world” to remove all impurities that does not embrace the righteous nature of “democracy’!
Now getting to my point.
They remind me of food.
Why?
I do not know.
Girls remind me of food too. But I know why. I always picture myself eating with them and chatting with them, and telling stories, and drinking wine over delicious food. So it’s really understandable that I would associate women with food.
But sicko egomaniacs?
Let me continue….
…and try to explain. First, let’s discuss what a “Po’boy” is…
A Po-Boy is a traditional sandwich from Louisiana. It almost always consists of meat, which is usually roast beef or fried seafood, often shrimp, crawfish, fish, oysters or crab. The meat is served on New Orleans French bread, known for its crisp crust and fluffy center.
Fried catfish po’boy sandwich.
When I read about how America is going to “save the Taiwanese” for “democracy” and “freedom” I am reminded of the Southern Baptist minister in the deep South of Louisiana. The local folk were all pretty darn decent, and I served some time with them in prison, but the local government was so very corrupt, and the Baptist Ministers were the worst kind of “fire and brimstone” evangelicals.
You know like Tom Cotton is. Yeah, I know he’s from Arkansas. But it’s not that far away from Louisiana. Maybe one or two inches.
One inch.
Tom Cotton.
What a fella.
He’s (you know) one of the jack-asses pushing for World War III.
I associate him with his environment. As we should all associate people so that we can best understand them, their motivations, and why they do the crazy things that they do.
So it makes me think of what it was like, and how can I omit the wonderful Po’boy sandwiches and fine CajunCooking?
Cajun Cooking. Um um good em’ yah. You betya.
Well…
There are no easy answers.
Corrupt people in America push to become leaders and live in the enclave of the psychopaths; Washington DC. And he is one of them.
Personally, I cannot imagine him eating delicious food.
Instead, I picture him (somehow) eating food like this…
Here’s a pretty decent article by another ex-military working inside the Pentagon who is, justifiably horrified at all the talk about war, war, war! He wrote this and subsequently had his secret clearances revoked. He was then fired.
It would seem to some that a US war with China over the island of Taiwan appears imminent.
Considering the congestion of hostile forces in, above, and below the Taiwan Straits and South China Sea, conflict could explode by accident or design. Once blood is drawn, the US will have few options. If the US elects to fight China over the island of Taiwan, then it will lose.
Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) independence hubris is fueled by US cabinet-level China hawks and Congress' bipartisan, bicameral Taiwan Caucus. The DPP has rejected political reunification in one China and dismissed the "one country, two systems" model under which both Taiwan and Hong Kong have gotten rich. Encouraged by US trivialization of the three joint communiqués, the DPP parades a sense of entitlement, taking for granted an umbrella of protection with full knowledge of the dire consequences for the US
The Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) may not have been intended to give birth to Taiwan's renegade secessionists, but it has done exactly that.
The DPP's champions in the US Congress dismiss omens of fanatical China grit on the topic of Taiwan. China-bashing and Taiwan-coveting rhetoric forms an echo chamber reminiscent of the groupthink-led American Friends of Vietnam (AFV) lobby that pressured the US to commit to the Vietnam War killing 60,000 American patriots before the US disgracefully abandoned its ally.
But the Chinese are different.
China's history of the whole-of-society commitment to core national security priorities is legendary. The rebellions and unrests in the 19th century cost millions of Chinese lives. Twentieth century Chinese civil war losses ranged between 5 and 8 million, and 360,000 Chinese died in Korea, while routing and humiliating US and UN forces. In each case, the dynasties emerged stronger.
The US Congress' interests in Taiwan are deeply conflicted, better said corrupt.
The reciprocal relationship between defense lobbyists, industry contributions, and a Caucus Member's reelectability is well documented. The bipartisan support for increasing arms sales to Taiwan and even larger defense expenditures on the US Indo-Pacific Command are logical and transparent as all parties profit from the tension and war.
Many Americans assume China's citizenry longs for a liberal democracy like that on the island of Taiwan, and that war will trigger popular revolt.
But the Taiwan question is not an ideological dispute.
Rather it is a raw and painful open wound in China's civilizational identity. Today, US othering of Chinese only fuels a fierce nationalism in its 1.4 billion citizens. China has a traditional self-narrative wherein the preservation of face and enforcement of sovereignty are inseparable.
All the while the balance of power has shifted fundamentally. The US would be wise to regard China as a peer superpower, if only due to her casualty-tolerance - China's decisive advantage in any fight with the US. China also shares a binding mutual defense treaty with North Korea, and the depths of its friendship and security bonds with Russia should never be underestimated.
The US can think whatever it wants about China's ideology, culture, Xinjiang and Hong Kong policies, and sovereign claims to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and surrounding seas. But, whether the US likes it or not, those are ultimately China's internal affairs.
As for DPP claims of the Province of Taiwan's non-Chinese identity, they are historical fiction.
Fate made them Chinese just as fate made us Americans. We also know that the free will choice to carve out a territory and people from an existing nation incurs a steep price, one the Confederacy paid not long ago.
The US has never paid an existential price for violating another nation's sovereignty, leading to our smug sense of military invincibility.
However, with Taiwan being a core Chinese priority, that would be a fatal miscalculation.
Still, the US counts on regional allies to share the pain. Yet some will have blood debts to pay if they engage in China's civil war. For example, India was bloodied badly in the 1960s for testing China's territorial resolve. Japan's humiliating 50-year occupation of Taiwan and the Rape of Nanjing also remain fresh, unforgettable wounds for China. The US allies will definitely think twice before militarily intervening in China's unresolved civil war and internal affairs.
The US could advise Taiwan's secessionists to peaceably accept "one country, two systems" and cease its "independence" ambitions. If they don't stop their rhetoric, the US president could rescind the TRA, as baiting China to force reunification is of the DPP's own choosing. If Congress obstructs TRA recension, the US president could order all national security agencies to stand down in cross-Straits conflicts, keeping our powder dry for actual existential threats in the future.
In the end, the prosperous Taiwan people will make every effort to wag the American dog. But Taiwan's fate poses no existential threat to the US, and the US should not fall into the trap of paying for their hubris with American blood. However, in view of the violent political polarization of the US at home, an ill-advised foreign war with no path to victory would only serve to accelerate America's decline.
But he’s right. Don’t you know.
But the United States is absolutely out-of-control right now and no one wants to hear that “the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes”.
About as important as any band playing Jazz Fest is a bowl of Crawfish Monica, best enjoyed while festin’. Creamy, rich pasta (usually corkscrew rotini) is blended with lump crawfish meat and plenty of butter, heavy cream and spices. It’s kind of like mac and cheese took a wrong turn and ended up in Cajun country. The creators of Crawfish Monica, the folks at Kajun Kettle Foods, have crazy lines each year at Jazz Fest, and unfortunately they aren’t restaurateurs, so they don’t have a location you can visit. Could there be a better excuse to book your Jazz Fest tickets today?
The story “the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes”
Is everyone, or anyone, aware of this children’s story written by Hans Christian Anderson. You know the one. It was first published in April of 1873?
Well, then, here is a short summary.
The story is about a vain emperor whose favorite thing was buying and wearing the latest style of clothes. The story points out how the emperor cared nothing about reviewing his troops, going to the theater or going for carriage rides (Unless the rides were to show off his newest clothes). “He had a different coat for every hour of the day,” the story continues. When the emperor was late for a meeting or other event the excuse was usually, “The emperor is in his dressing room.”
The kingdom is described as a festive place with many visitors.
The story continues that on one day two “swindlers” came to the emperor’s town. The swindlers claimed to be weavers and bragged to anyone who would listen how they, “Could weave the most magnificent of clothes.” The swindler’s story continued that, “Not only were the colors uncommonly fine, but clothes made of this cloth had a wonderful way of becoming invisible to anyone who was unfit for his office, or who was unusually stupid.”
Word of the “weavers” reached the emperor and he thought this was great, he felt it would be the ideal product for him so he could determine who was not worthy of their position!
“He paid a large sum of money to the swindlers to start at once.” “They set up two looms and pretended to weave, though there was nothing on the looms. All the finest silk and purest old thread which they demanded went into their travel bags, while they worked the empty looms well into the night.”
The emperor was anxious to check on the progress and, while he was a very confident person, he was concerned that he might not see the material and asked a trusted old minister to check on the progress.
The swindlers, pretending to be weaving the material, greeted the minister when he arrived and said, “Don’t hesitate a moment to tell us what you think.” The minister was embarrassed and did not want anyone to suspect he was not worthy of his post, or stupid. “It’s beautiful.” was his reply.
The swindlers thanked him and then recited a list of all the colors and explained the intricacies of the weave. The minister listened intently as he feared everyone else would see the clothes. The swindlers then asked the emperor for more money, silk and thread.
The Emperor asked another trusted advisor to check on the progress. That advisor looked at the empty looms and said to himself, “Well I know that I am not stupid, so I must be unfit for my position. I can’t let anyone know.” He reported that the material was coming along splendidly.
When the emperor then viewed his new clothes, with all of his noblemen present, the swindlers pretended to hold up the finished product. The emperor did not see anything, but pretended he did because all of the noblemen said they saw it, and he did not want them to think that he was not fit for his position. The noblemen suggested the emperor wear his new clothes to the procession later that day. All in attendance agreed, afraid to be the only one to admit they could not see the clothes.
The swindlers then “dressed” the emperor in his new outfit and the entourage went off to the procession.
At the procession the townspeople, all aware of the special quality of the material, pretended the emperor was dressed magnificently until a child said, “He has no clothes!” The crowd started to repeat what had been said and finally cried out as one, “He has no clothes on.”
The story ends saying, “The emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, ‘This procession has to go on.’ So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn’t there at all.”
Another French word picked up by the Cajuns, étouffée means “smothered,” and it’s the smothering technique that gives this stewlike dish its thick, near-gravy texture. For locals, etouffee is one of those dishes where there’s no definitive recipe. Some folks make it with a dark roux, and others with a lighter roux; some use tomato, and others don’t. Sometimes crawfish is used, and sometimes shrimp is: It all depends on what’s in season. Bon Ton Cafe in New Orleans serves a solid plate of both crawfish and shrimp etouffee, to suit both tastes.
That’s America today
And isn’t it though?
It’s pretty bat-shit crazy. Like the UK is.
When I was growing up as a boy, we had this magazine called “MAD Magazine” that we all used to read. We would read it cover to cover. It was filled with just off-the-wall interpretations of life, and we all loved it.
Today, it seems, America is just one big old MAD Magazine.
I'm sure everyone remembers their first issue of Mad Magazine. It was odd, uproariously funny, and immature enough for everyone. My first issue was when I was about twelves, when my mom bought me an issue to read at the orthopedic surgeon's office (I had broken my arm about a week prior). However, I'm no kid anymore (or so the judge tells me). I'm a college student, looking to become a professional teacher, and I'm a respected reviewer for this website. How can I like something as immature as Mad?
Simply put, Mad is the most dead-on entertainment magazine available. Through a combination of peurile humor, self-deprication, excellent art, and witty writing, Mad has seperated itself from the pack of low-end satire mags (like Cracked) and made itself a true piece of American culture. Stop groaning out there.
First, Mad brings itself to attention primarily for its spoofs of popular movies and television shows. I think this results in the "Weird Al" syndrome - you pay more attention to the obvious mockeries than the subtle ones. As time has gone on, Mad's style has cleaned up considerably - which means that now, you can catch marginal jokes even better than before, and the magazine fits more in. While occasionally lewd, Mad also recognizes that sometimes, humor is best left suggested, and many jokes are subtle innuendos, much beyond what people would initially give the mag credit for.
Mad's jokes work so well because they first did what Mystery Science Theater 3000 became famous for - finding what everyone makes fun of about in a given piece of entertainment and finding the perfect gag to make about it. For a classic example, in their parody of "Big Daddy," "Big Bladder," they have someone go up to the kid and complain about his wooden delivery. Who would be such an expert on bad childhood acting? The block of wood that played Anakin in "Phantom Menace."
I couldn't have come up with a better gag myself, and generally, Mad gives this kind of performance consistently. While it does occasionally foul up - I found some of their Pokemon parodies lacking the punch of other shots - Mad creates gags much better than, say, your average night of NBC's "Must See TV."
However, Mad also has a rabid following because of their regular gags that appear often. Of course, despite the passing of its creator, "Spy vs. Spy" is going on as strong as ever, with a new airbrushed style that doesn't detract from "the famous duo of double-cross and deceit." Dave Berg still puts in regular duty with his clever "The Lighter Side Of..." which has modern lampoonings of everyday situations. Newer additions to this mix are sure to become classics - "Jenkins and Melvin," an answer to Highlight's "Goofus and Gallant," brings me to tears laughing every time. While Jenkins is even more of a proper gentleman than Gallant, Melvin is sure to provide a situation even more ridiculous than Goofus ever could. Almost frighteningly educational.
However, nothing showcases Mad's continued tradition of excellence like one new feature and one classic. Al Jaffee is still around, and he still makes a new, highly entertaining "Mad Fold-In" for the back cover of every issue. There is sure to be an off-beat answer to the fold-in, and the art is rather cleverly done - I still wish I knew how Jaffee does it. On the opposite page from the fold-in is a new regular feature which has quickly become a favorite of mine - the Celebrity Odds of Death listing. When I first saw it, it listed the various odds of the Spice Girls dying in various ways - "Terminal Giggling" had a 1:1 chance, while "Choking on a chicken bone during a dinner celebrating their 5th year in the music business" had over a billion to one shot. I enjoy this feature so much, I start with it first whenever I pick up a new issue.
One thing about Mad, though, is that the humor is aimed for all levels - I wonder if the writers had a steady diet of "Rocky and Bullwinkle" when they were younger.
While there are plenty of obvious jokes for all ages, there is plenty of subtle humor, especially political humor, in each issue. Looking back on older issues I have, I'm surprised at how many jokes I didn't get because I didn't know much about politics then. If Mad felt like trying a bit harder, they could probably make a sister magazine that concentrated on politics. Of course, that would just scare people afraid of the magazine multiplying.
Mad isn't totally perfect. There are still occasional rough spots in the art, and sometimes, a whole section will just lack laughs, such as the first parody of Pokemon that Mad put together. Also, a new feature, "Monroe," usually lacks the punch and humor of the other segments - you can generally skip it. Also, Mad sometimes skimps over parts you wish were mocked, due to the limited amount of space the magazine has. I sometimes wish the magazine would expand and maybe carry a few ads (from Archie McPhee and other such companies) to pack in more sufficiently wickedly barbed jokes.
But in all honesty, this doesn't detract from the magazine as a whole. It consistently gives you more laughs than anything since Monty Python. Moreover, unlike most topical humor, it ages like wine, getting better with the passing years. And with the new humorous monthly features, the magazine is insuring that it will have a healthy continued existence. From 61 Man Squamish to Superduperman, from Spy vs. Spy to the Fold-In, Mad has helped define itself as a prominent piece of our culture. Find out why - while America may be going somewhere in a handbasket, Mad is here to save our sanity.
-MAGSConnect
I like that. “…while America may be going somewhere in a handbasket, Mad is here to save our sanity.”
But is America really going bat-shit crazy? Does it really resemble the movie “Idiocracity”?
A well-informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny,” noted Thomas Jefferson. It follows from this that if you want to visit tyranny upon a people, you can start by dumbing them down.
Ergo, 21st-century America.
So laments commentator Andrea Widburg. Writing Monday in a piece titled “There is no bottom to the ignorance of supposedly educated Americans,” she reminds us that the American system, “going all the way back to the Founding Fathers,” was predicated on having an educated population. “People weren’t expected to be scholars,” she pointed out, but the Founders did emphasize that their government couldn’t work without “a literate and moral population.”
“And that is what they got: most Americans were literate before public schooling,” Widburg continued. “Colonial Americans could also read at a very sophisticated level. The colonists would not have known what to make of the abysmally educated people this scary, funny video shows.”
They wouldn’t have known what to make of much that’s going on today. But the video in question, posted Sunday on YouTube, and showing supposedly average Americans trying to answer simple questions, and failing, is striking.
The question: “Who was the first person to land on the sun?” was taken seriously by the interviewees shown. Another highlight (lowlight) was when the questioner asked, “What country is Venice, Italy, located in?” The young woman queried responded, “Gosh, I’m gonna’ be a teacher, so I should know this.”
You can just see what is going on in the USA by the opinions of Americans on the outside looking in. Here's an article written by a Washington DC insider back on 2019 right before Coronavirus hit, and Donald Trump was getting ready for reelection...
One commenter under the video remarked “This can’t be legit” or “we are doomed.” But not only does it seem authentic, it simply reflects a multitude of “man on the street” interviews conducted over the years by comedian Jay Leno, shock jock Howard Stern, and others.
Knowing this, it’s not surprising to me that the referenced young woman would be a prospective teacher. It’s not just that studies have shown how little many educators know; it’s also that the people educating the educators — the pseudo-elites — are in their own way no better.
Shocked by her experiences at “prestigious” Columbia University, North Korean defector Yeonmi Park recently remarked about the state of America that even “North Korea is not this nuts.” Park was referring to the anti-Western sentiment and intense political correctness prevalent today, and she wasn’t joking.
Yet while our “wokeness” is called many things, nuts and dangerous among them, it’s also something else: profoundly stupid.
It can be said without exaggeration that America has become “Idiocracy.” This term is the title of a 2006 film portraying a dystopian, future United States in which IQs have dropped precipitously. People are obsessed with sex (sound familiar?), the president is a former professional wrestler and porn star who still dresses as befitting his former vocation (the one requiring clothes), vulgarity is everywhere, and entertainment has become über-simplistic and crude.
Of course, IQs are still high enough in the United States today, though some studies do show that they’ve been dropping for decades now. But the real issue is a moral corruption which infects everything else.
While real threats (e.g., China, the aforementioned moral crisis) are largely ignored, our pseudo-elites concern themselves with stupid things. Wholly contrary to science/evidence, they claim a boy can be a girl by willing it, we should be concerned about new “pronouns,” “diversity” is a strength, children should be vaccinated against a disease that doesn’t imperil them, a nation that has allowed 85 to 90 percent of its post-1967 immigrants to be from the Third World is “white supremacist,” and more.
It’s no wonder, either, that pseudo-elites want to “cancel” people who dispute the above. Their assertions are literally too stupid to be debated successfully; all they can do is make sure the debates never happen.
Then consider whom we now elevate to prominence. Curricula nationwide have been influenced by the 1619 Project, a deceit-filled, propagandistic portrayal of American history created by one Nikole Hannah-Jones. With red-dyed hair, Jones wouldn’t be out of place in Idiocracy, and she’s not out of place in ours: She was given a professorship by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Also fitting in is New York City-based psychoanalyst Dr. Donald Moss, who penned a recent paper in which he called “whiteness” a “malignant, parasitic like condition” that lacks a “permanent cure.”
His work was published in a medical journal.
And Jones and Moss are just two of a multitude of idiocrats.
The skids for their nonsensical thinking have long been well greased with philoso-babble. Years ago, the idiocrats labeled logic “white, male, and linear,” as if it’s a cultural oddity. Then there’s Critical Race Theory, whose proponents have claimed that “rugged individualism,” “a can-do attitude,” “hard work,” and “striving towards success” reflect “white male culture” and that planning for the future and punctuality are “white norms.”
The idiocrats have also bemoaned the teaching of “facts” — even though facts, as little snippets of Truth, are how we piece together life’s jigsaw puzzle. But it’s no surprise pseudo-elites deemphasize facts: They want to replace them with fiction.
They’ve succeeded, too, which is why “the most recent generations of school graduates will bore you to tears talking about gender, racism, class victimization, America’s wrongdoing over the centuries, etc.,” writes Widburg. As Ronald Reagan put it, they “know so much that isn’t so.”
The solution to this, of course and as I’m wont to emphasize, is a return to virtue (objectively good moral habits). Virtue neutralizes moral corruption. In this regard, one entity doing good work, and helping to mold children’s minds properly, is the Freedom Project Academy, a fully accredited, online school offering classical education to students in kindergarten through high school.
But lacking this, it’s unsurprising that a senile man was elevated to the presidency. Joe Biden is the perfect leader and metaphor for a nation that’s forgotten its history, its virtue, its faith, and its reason for being.
OK. So America is senile.
But when did this all happen? Last year? What was going on and what turned America to the shit-storm that it is today?
“At first we thought they were just another snake cult, but now their towers are everywhere.” —Conan the Barbarian 1982
At the dawn of my congressional career, after some of us staffers endured a particularly egregious dose of idiocy, one of my colleagues was moved to compare our office to Saint Elizabeth’s, then still functioning as a mental hospital in DC (and now, fittingly, as headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security). “Not quite,” I responded. “Here the lunatics are in charge.”
That exchange, alas, has become a prophecy for the nation at large. It begins, as we are made aware by each daily tweet-storm, at the very top, but this insanity could not persist without broad and intense public support. It has become commonplace to characterize such supporters as haters, but while it would be dangerous to underestimate the role of sheer malice, Trumpism could only sustain itself with tens of millions of people who might not fit the profile of a hater, but are assuredly either borderline imbeciles or not-quite-certifiably insane. Examples there are in profusion; but rather than ringing the changes on every single winner of the Darwin Awards, let us examine three cases that have wider policy implications.
Item. Measles, an infectious disease that each year once killed several hundred people and caused about a thousand cases of encephalitis in America, was declared eradicated in the United States in 2000. But thanks to a kind of misbegotten Hitler-Stalin alliance between right-wing religious nuts and New Age-Hollywood Hills types, the disease has come roaring back.
What other topic could unite such a disparate gaggle of characters as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., trading on his father’s martyr credibility to whisk us back to pre-Enlightenment times, and Texas Republican State Rep. Jonathan Stickland, (apparently such an extreme Neanderthal that even Texas’ own hardline Freedom Caucus was too liberal for him) who has called vaccinations “sorcery?”
Mimicking the measles that their evangelism spreads, American anti-vaxxers are also some of the most industrious Internet pests known to science, even if their trolling is supplemented by bots from a certain foreign country.
Item. One of the “noble lies” undergirding modern society is the myth of the rational actor. So-called enlightened self-interest suffuses economics (although corporations know better, which explains their lavish expenditures on advertising); as well as game theory, which supposedly prevents nuclear war from breaking out; and politics.
Political scientists (and some psychologists) are fond of proving that people “vote their interests” by the simple, circular expedient of defining a subject’s true interests as whatever they opt for. It is time for a sweeping reevaluation of this canard.
In 2016, American farmers voted by a margin of between 3 and 4 to 1 in favor of Donald Trump over the Democrat. This happened in spite of the fact that he told them in clear and unmistakable terms that he would, if elected, ignite a trade war with their most lucrative export market. Further, he would cut off their supply of the low cost, often undocumented labor needed for fruit and vegetable picking as well as beef, pork, and poultry processing.
As a result, farm income is down, even though the income calculation includes the Market Facilitation Program, money extorted from the rest of us to reward Trump’s political base. Farm bankruptcies have soared. There is alleged evidence (not quantified by polling) that “farmers are losing their patience” amid mealy-mouthed equivocating from farm belt, GOP-elected officials over Trump’s latest tariff threats.
For now, though, it appears that farmers are sticking with Trump. If his electoral margin among them should even fall to 2½ to 1 in 2020, Democrats will think of it as a miraculous breakthrough. The bulk of farmers would likely prefer to go down in whatever fate decides will be America’s functional equivalent of the rubble of Berlin.
Item. For decades, American religious fundamentalists have ceaselessly worked to poison whole departments of knowledge – from geology to history to herpetology – with ignorance and disinformation. All of this in the service of a project to turn the country into a living tableau of The Handmaid’s Tale.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the Apocalypse. They seem to have dropped Jesus altogether as the ostensible object of their adoration and instead became a cult of the Antichrist. Every single sin they claimed to revile—adultery, fornication, false witness, the Mephistophelean sin of overweening pride—is now embodied in their new god incarnate, Donald Trump.
Like Lucifer, he led them to the mountaintop and offered them the world if they would but bow down to him. And they obediently dropped like ninepins.
Ecclesiastical dervishes like Jerry Falwell, Jr., Franklin Graham, and Robert Jeffress seem to be working out the theology to replace Jesus in the holy trinity with Donald Trump. And the faithful lap it all up like bulimics at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
* * *
How in the world did we get here? Journalist Kurt Andersen, writing in his abundantly detailed Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire, believes craziness was baked into the American cake from the moment the Mayflower hove to at Plymouth Rock. Whether the holy man was Cotton Mather, P.T. Barnum, or Deepak Chopra, Americans have been primed to believe with the faith of a five-year-old in Santa Claus. That said, he posits that there were cycles of remission, when rationality was apparently on top, and then outbreaks of fever, when the passion burned with naked flame. The latter applies to an age like this.
My own pet theory is that American craziness, while always abundant, was relatively contained until 9/11, which opened a Pandora’s Box of hysterical fear, one of the basic ingredients of irrationality. It was quickly followed by the invasion of Iraq, which unloosed an avalanche of vaunting that we were endowed with special powers to remake the world. Note an essential component of stupidity: we retaliated for 9/11 by invading a country which had nothing to do with it.
On the heels of the mournful realization that remaking the Middle East wasn’t all it was cracked up to be came the financial crash of 2008, a folly of such greed and wishful thinking that it pushed a sizable portion of the public, already emotionally labile from the previous two shocks, right over the edge. Everything that followed, like the birther mania, was a signal flare that the Republican Party and its assorted hangers-on had devolved from merely being a pack of cynical crooks to full-dress nihilistic cultists.
All of this was supercharged by the Internet, right-wing talk radio, and Fox News – media nonexistent during previous bouts of mania. They acted as an electronic petri dish to purify and amplify the craziness.
We are now seeing the infection of lunacy on full display, like the alien monster in John Carpenter’s The Thing bursting out of its human hosts. Where exactly it will all end is anyone’s guess, but the odds are not good that it will end well.
Geopolitics
America is not a lone region full of “special” people like the American Nationalists want to believe. It is part of the mechanism that is humanity. And when the cog in the machine breaks, the machine stops working.
Geopolitics revolves around national economic might and during the historical era of Modernity economic might was always procured by capital and the products and services that it offers. These products and services generate the national income which allow a nation to spend on bettering its peoples’ lives and/or on military means to submit other nations or to defend from such submission.
One thing is clear. The West, over the last 200 years, has been selling the most advanced products and this gained it the largest national incomes.
But, you do know, that the West decided not to share the wealth with its citizens.
Instead, it decided to invest in military means to submit other nations.
Yah. And it worked.
The West was hegemonic for all this time.
America was the leader and the rest of the world bowed on bended knee to America. Most did not like it. Most did not care for it. Most actually despised it. But they were powerless to do anything about it.
But things have suddenly turned lately.
China is now at the core of the factory of the world. It is at the core of the East-Asian supply-chain. And no East-Asian country would dare detach itself from this chain because its national economy would immediately collapse.
I mean, at the exception of ideological bull-dogs like Australia’s Morrison, everyone recognizes the hard reality that dominates the Geopolitical scene of this 1st half of the 21th century.
Morrison and Trump; ideological brothers.
After it had lost the Yeltsin opportunity…
…of a near infinite supply of energy and resources…
…the West abruptly awoke to the shift of the center of gravity of the economy-world from its shores to East-Asia.
The Geo-Political world got enraged as Trump so well demonstrated for the whole world to see.
But the fact is that the American empire has lost its clothes :
American GDP
By all accounts America's GDP is largely inflated and the reality is that it could easily be half the size of what is announced officially (see hedonic adjustments)
Finance vs. Manufacturing
American production is no longer its core activity. Financial shenanigans are now what accounts for the bulk of its GDP.
Technology
Technologically the US has fallen from its pedestal and has now to reckon with the emergence of China as a technological leader. This explains why the US is now panicking and literally copying Chinese political economics while drafting new legislation ordering the state to invest 150 billion in the technological development of its national champions…
GDP Growth is an illusion
American GDP growth over the last 40 years was generated exclusively by the injection of new money in the form of new debts. During the last year US total debt increased by one third the size of GDP ! . This is not just unsustainable it is pushing the can down the road until a reckoning is imposed by the facts…
Destruction of the American workforce
The incomes of the 99% have been stagnating and even sinking for at least 50% of them and this explains the sheer social misery that litters the land of the free.
Balkanization
In the meantime the cohesion of the USA has been tanking and today US society is completely atomized as was so well demonstrated during its handling of Covid-19. Societal atomization means that the country is now unable to act as one unity. Each time it wants to undertake something the country shreds itself into multiple pieces going their own directions all at once. This is the best recipe to lose a war… the military knows that darn well and it wants to avoid that price !
So what we observe today is much noise and theater but very little really consequent actions.
But observers of the Geopolitical scene make a whole lot of this theater…
It will, without any doubt, take some time for the dust to settle but the outcome is now unavoidable for the following reasons :
1. Economic Shifts are in process. They cannot be stopped. By all accounts the shift of the economy world is irreversible and will further amplify going forward
2. The current global supply chain is fixed. The West does no longer have what it takes financially, nor societally, to set up an independent supply-chain. In other words it is forced to compose with East-Asia and more particularly with China.
3. China is gargantuan. By all accounts China’s economy is soon going to pass the size of the US economy in dollar terms and it will pass the combined West soon thereafter.
4. The world will continue without America. The internationalist wing, among Western big capital holders, wants to share in the profits generated by the Juggernaut China and by East-Asia. It is thus no longer going to sit passively when a Western political servant has a mental breakdown. Diplomacy will thus be forced to make a come-back soon.
In the meantime a last ditch propaganda effort is being made by the nationalist wing among big capital holders to try to cover China under a thick layer of dirt. But facts are necessarily going to emerge that will soon turn the tables on them.
5. China will grow to megalithic size and power. If it were not for “the Great Convergence of Late-Modernity” in the near future China’s economy should reach multiple times the size of the combined Western economies.
6. Convergences. The Great Convergence of Late-Modernity is the convergence of the following series of complex factors :
The multiple side-effects of Modernity are converging toward each other and starting to unleash all kinds of feed-back loops that are accelerating the die-off of life on earth. Many biologists, and complex-systems analysts, are warning that humanity’s activities are approaching a threshold after which the world natural systems will shift one after another outside of the bandwidth of life. Climate change is but one among this multitude of side-effects…
The present shift of the economy-world outside, of the realm of the Western civilization, is unleashing a mental breakdown on the West. And it will be extremely difficult for it to regain its composure and face the facts that are responsible for what is transforming into a real predicament for humanity.
The predicament of humanity is that to survive it has to abandon its present societal paradigm (the reason that is at work within capital) and adopt a new one (the reason that is at work within life).
. Grillades, pronounced “gree-ahds,” are little medallions of pounded-thin steak smothered in a tomato gravy. Typically served over a bed of grits, grillades are a popular brunch dish, but there are no rules saying you can’t eat them for dinner, too. Though Louisiana natives tend to make them at home, there’s a great version on the brunch menu at Café Adelaide in New Orleans.
Selections from Godfree Roberts’ extensive weekly newsletter: Here Comes China.
The expectation expressed by Russia and China is…
…that the US is no longer stable…
…and is becoming dysfunctional…
…and a bigger problem than what is worth to prop up.
A retreat, a crash, or a type of retrenchment from the world is imminent.
Russia and China. Top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev co-chaired the 16th round of strategic security consultations. This is a high-level meeting focusing on strategic cooperation in confronting both regional and global security and geopolitical threats. Or, in other words, “what to do about America and it’s war-loving-neocons”.
Quote:
China and Russia held a new round of strategic security consultations on Tuesday in Moscow, and during the frequent interactions between the two major powers in recent months.
The world has showed a dangerous trend of disorder or tensions in some regions, including the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Western Pacific.
All, and everyone, due to global strategic shifts made by the US,
Quote:
So Beijing and Moscow must keep close coordination to handle the upcoming situation.
Including how to establish a new order.
This new order will replace the US-dominated one.
This will occur once the latter gets totally dysfunctional.
Quote:
Chinese analysts said that the recent change has been generally caused by the decline of US hegemony.
Not only will the US pressure and hostility push China and Russia to stand closer...
... but the decline in Washington’s strength and influence (in some regions)...
... will also make Beijing and Moscow consider how (to figure out new regional order) to stabilize the situation and protect their interests after the US pullout.
The similar remarks made by China and Russia toward the US is a clear signal to the world that the US hegemony will no longer be tolerated.
The world order dominated by the US and its allies is unable to keep stability in many regions.
This failure of American order is causing more tensions and conflicts.
Weapons and nukes
We understand at the Saker Blog, that Russia has the weapons complexes and the ability to defend itself even in this climate of withdrawal from the many weapons treaties.
We also know that the US tried to force China to attend Nuclear Proliferation or Reduction talks with the US, up to the point of staging a meeting to pretend that China did not turn up.
The world has accepted that China had not done a major weapons build-out up to now, and if they did, it was muted. For decades, China only maintained the smallest nuclear weapons array.
This may be changing in front of our eyes.
After both Trump and Biden running all sorts of openly hostile efforts full-spectrum against China, a wise China, would ramp up production of MAD (Mutually Assured destruction) armories to counter any American aggressive action.
My post published on Chinese social media: As the US is crazily implementing containment strategy toward China, China must intensify building its nuclear deterrence. Here is the translation. pic.twitter.com/shJHXUJ5FX
— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) May 28, 2021
Those that follow China and its news closely understand that if Hu Xijin says something like this, or writes a column such as this, the build-out of a Chinese nuclear deterrence is in full swing.
In the midst of these happenings, Daniel Ellsberg, the leaker of the Pentagon papers leaked another top secret document. One that he had worked on, and kept secret for 50 years. Parts of it were obtainable but not the full document.
He drops a powerful warning of the present threat of nuclear war with Russia and China.
Here’s his thoughts…
Daniel Ellsberg: This Month We Must Discuss If We Should Go to Nuclear War Over Taiwan, Ukraine or Syria
The 1958 nuke China over Taiwan project was really quite amazing. The Pentagon wasn’t even ‘defending’ Taiwan, they wanted to do it over small islands held by the Chiang Kai-shek regime just 5 miles from mainland China. A classic bully move, ‘I have the right to punch you because you let your shadow touch me!’
——————————————————————————————————————
“Celebrated whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg, … now age 90…
… used the occasion of the April 30-May 1 commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his release of the Pentagon Papers…
…in an event organized by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst…
… to reveal that John Foster Dulles had proposed in 1958 that the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend to the President of the USA…
…that a nuclear exchange with China be launched in the Taiwan Straits.
Even though that would mean that Taiwan and its people would be wiped out completely.
The reason being for the sole geopolitical purpose of maintaining the United States “position” in the world.
I’m getting hungry
Right now I am drinking my favorite Shiraz wine from Australia and eating nuts, but still my stomach is a grumbling. I know that I can get some noodles, some rice, some dumplings, but really I am “hankering” (desiring) some delicious chicken. Whether it is BBQ or fully cooked.
You know, people in different areas cook chicken differently.
I grew up on Polish Hill in Pittsburgh that cooked the chicken in the oven with bacon on the top until the chicken was well done. A comparative cooking method in China is to cook it in mud, and the the chicken some out all moist and tender but well cooked. But here in the Southern section of China in the Guangzhou corridor, they like he chicken nearly raw with lots of exposed fat and grizzle. Not really to my liking.
I once had a Polish engineer visiting one of my factories and once he tasted the mud baked chicken, he devoured the entire bird. He sore that it reminded him of how his grandmother cooked chicken.
BBQ chicken.
Why have another world war?
“The 1958 Taiwan Straits Crisis, A Documented History,” Ellsberg quoted Dulles’s message to the meeting:
“Nothing seems worth a world war … until you looked at the effect of not standing up to its challenge.”
The RAND study explained that
“the issue then was, would we, as the joint chiefs, recommend the use of nuclear weapons to defend Quemoy, and Matsu, and Taiwan.
And possibly use seven- to ten-kiloton weapons with the expectation that … the Soviets would respond and would hit Taiwan.”
Why have a war?
Finally:
“Let them try to jail me for disclosing this still-top secret fact today,”
Ellsberg declared, adding that he was revealing the secret because,
“I have no doubt whatever, that that discussion is going on in the Pentagon right now…. This is the month we have to be discussing the issue, in public, of whether we should go to nuclear war over Taiwan, or Ukraine, or Syria.”
“Although the circumstances surrounding the U.S.-China conflict over Taiwan have changed dramatically since that stage of the Cold War, the 1958 Taiwan crisis provides a sobering lesson as the US military gears up for a new military confrontation with China.”
Of course the western and specifically the US provocative and unintelligent statements via their media containment complex continue. It is what Andrei Martyanov calls “a very acute case of a bipolar disorder .
When driving through Acadiana (aka Cajun country), you likely won’t be able to miss highway billboards advertising boudin at the next butcher shop or gas station — and you’d be foolish not to pull over. Handed to you still steamy, boudin is made from all those good, unctuous spare pork parts, which get mixed with rice and spices and stuffed into a casing. A local obsession, it’s best tried at Best Stop market in Scott, La. The casing can be thick and chewy, so you’re better off squeezing out the filling. While you’re at Best Stop, be sure to order a boudin ball — its fried-orb cousin — too.
Pentagon Special Forces nominee says US should ‘strongly consider’ training Taiwanese guerillas against ‘Chinese invasion’
Whether it is Taiwan, or Xinjiang or Hong Kong or any other area where propaganda can be manufactured, the US mighty Wurlitzer continues.
This is then the summary of the situation today:
Ellsberg warns that the same talks that happened 50 years ago to possibly strike China with nuclear weapons is no doubt happening in the Pentagon today.
Yang Jiechi and Nikolai Patrushev states that Russia and China must coordinate in order to establish a new order to replace the US-domination, once the latter gets totally dysfunctional.
China is mass producing hyper-velocity MIRV ICBM’s armed with massive warheads in a frantic pace.
Pentagon Insiders are horrified by the discussions and all warn that not only would America lose a war, but that could be destroyed and subjugated to an unfathomable degree.
Given the stature of Yang Jiechi and Nikolai Patrushev, I would consider the above some of the most significant moves in the world today. There are those who reason that as the US-dominated world order gets more dysfunctional, the urge for them to use nuclear weapons will become stronger. I will leave this here for you to make up your own mind and comment on what you see.
Moves around SARS–CoV-2 and its progeny Covid-19 and more leaks
There is also the major US accusation that Covid-19 was a lab leak and China is responsible. Yet China has no history of creating these kinds of bioweapons (if indeed it was created as such) but the US has a rich history of creating and using such weapons.
The acceleration of blaming China with respect to the virus is proportional to the financial and economic collapse of the west.
What west fails to understand is demonising China won't prevent its own collapse.
— The Sirius Report (@thesiriusreport) May 29, 2021
So why do we always say that Americans are effectively the most brainwashed people in the world?
Take a look at what happened to information similar to the Daniel Elsberg Pentagon Papers Leak…
…and his current leak of nuclear planning against China even to the point of demolishing and sacrificing Taiwan.
Godfree Roberts took a specific document and updated and annotated it for clarity. This is called The ISC (Needham) Report.
Published at the height of the Korean War, it validated claims by North Korea and China that the US had launched bacteriological warfare (biological warfare, BW) attacks against both troops and civilian targets in those two countries over a period of several months in 1952.
The cleaned up, updated and annotated version is available for Kindle on Amazon for a small amount here. , And a free copy (not very readable) is available here
If you wonder why the Americans have not seen this, or have not known about it, this will give you all the information…
The traditional Monday night meal of red (kidney) beans dates back to the 19th century, when the ladies of the house did laundry every Monday while the beans slow-cooked in a pot all day. It’s still a popular Monday night tradition, even if we stopped doing our laundry quite so regularly. The beans are served on a bed of rice and with the almost mandatory bottle of hot sauce. The best place to eat some is right at home, but the Creole Lunch House in Lafayette — open only for lunch — is also worth the trip.
Jeffrey Kaye says:
If you ask anyone in Cajun country, cochon de lait is French for “a pig still sucking on his mama.” (Outsiders know this creature as a suckling pig.) When cooked over a raging wood-fueled fire for hours, this pig becomes juicy, tender pulled pork. Many people have their first cochon de lait experience at Jazz Fest from Walker’s Southern Style BBQ, where the lines never die down. Thankfully, you can go to their smokehouse at any time of year for their Cochon de Lait Po’ Boy (and you should).
Secular vs. Traditional Values
An more than interesting visual for thoughts and reflection : the 2020 Inglehart–Welzel cultural map of the world by political scientists Ronald Inglehart (April, 2021) and Christian Welzel.
Some current geopolitical tensions can be seen through the distances on this map. One can imagine that this survey visual is significantly subject to change these days, through among others economic developments, political and media-psychological movements. Some triggered to find more distance towards corners while others moving towards centers and clusters.
My thought would be a map how much do different countries learn from each other in terms of values, followed by communication, society and governance. Might it not be that self-expression, traditional values have a harder time accepting other ways, even if it would be to the advantage of the actual practice and policy ??
It is noteworthy that today’s tensions are caused by differences in values, not by models such as capitalism or communism, not by economies.
Cross cultural awareness and mutual learnings with psycho-political projections/reflections is what counts for 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘 towards a better and fairer future.
Everything is going crazy in America today
Consider the collapse of the remaining American companies. A this article clearly demonstrates.
The world is in flux. If that sounds like another virus, it certainly feels like it on some days. Most of us have been pivoting so fast to adjust we are simply falling over from dizziness. Are we still resilient if we refuse to get back on a twirling carousel? Sometimes it feels like we are moving too fast to even see the brass ring, let alone grab it. Rubbing a Buddha belly is a calmer alternative. No pivoting needed. A friendly little rub, smile and breathe…
Peace is not a commodity for politicians. Despite past and current events, it’s not an item up for sale. Media rushes us from one regurgitated opinion to the next, parading it as news. Things to “like” or “follow” directed by Google algorithms and data mining. Our worlds narrowed through complex AI that doesn’t yet understand the randomness of human thought. The internet that previously opened the world, has become a political and marketing tool making our personal worlds smaller and smaller. The informational windows to other worlds, ideas, and ways of living get lost in advert hit scores.
Believing “our” world is the whole world is a slippery slide into the mud of bigotry and intolerance. And, rudeness! I for one, am missing Miss Manners. Poor thing crashed off stage faster than she could run out with her walker. Slander and Libel grabbed their wigs running for the exit without waiting for Justice to keep up. Nobody was holding the door open for anyone.
Maybe being our “true and transparent” selves needs a few hard check stops. A different kind of “wokeness” that embraces the idea of getting along for the benefit of everyone in society. Why do manners matter in our changing world? Nobody cares if the fork is different for salad or meat, when you’re hungry, it’s just a damn fork getting food in your mouth.
Manners and civility need a comeback. For all our sakes. If someone holds the door open, it doesn’t matter whether the door-holder is a man or, woman. I don’t feel my ability to open a door is in question. It’s just a nice gesture. Manners are a code of actions for consideration, respect and, grace. An acknowledgment of another, human. It is the foundation for a functioning society, of being -humane.
Why is the American leadership so against people living their lives and being happy ? It seems like they have a mental disorder and re surrounded by sycophants who also share the same disorder.
No need to spout false positive “thank-you’s” or to pretend you like something you don’t. We can still be transparent and true to ourselves while respecting the space and ideas of others.
Corporate America, is having a hard time in the pandemic as workers are quitting their jobs in droves. Walking resolutely away from environments that are now recognized as “toxic”. Previously “normal” work environments that lacked basic respect for employees. This attitude caused historical business losses of over $250 billion dollars per year. Which begs the question, how much can companies afford to lose, before it hurts enough to change? Giants like Amazon and TJX have been churning people for years without regard for basic human dignity or, respect. Dudes have no manners.
25 states have officially cut the extra $300 of Federal unemployment aid. In a sad display of very bad manners and name-calling, they claim a mere $300 is stopping people from working. With a Federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, people can’t afford to work. Not only is this 100% below what is needed today for a living wage, but in addition, employees are treated like disposable trash as companies rake in billions of dollars in clear profit.
Yes, corporate America, backed by an embedded political system, is screaming. They are furious that the pandemic has shown them with their pants down. The “you can’t live without us” myth has been broken. The truth is, corporate America can’t work without employees. And, workers are now “woke” and demanding what they deserve. Respect, a living wage, and more importantly, as 3 in 5 refuse to return to the “office”, an environment that is not toxic. Where humanity is not just displayed as a pretty mission statement but transparently practiced with good manners.
My Mexican mocha coffee at Kaflex Roasters came with heart layered in. This small business survived the 2020 pandemic devastation. Why? Customers and employees agreed; it’s a pleasure to be here. It feels “real”. Kindness and respect mix with the smell of ground coffee beans, people smile at each other. “Good morning” and “thank-you” are genuine, not HR-directed practices. Good manners spread, a virus of consideration and kindness toward the stranger next to you in line. Everything seems to work better and the day is a little brighter.
It’s time for corporate and political America to wake up and “smell the coffee”. We, The People want a Better America.
One based in good manners. Humane, inclusive and transparent practices for the good of everyone in our society. We want a clear agenda of change that includes workers’ rights and protections. A legal system that has equality and justice-directed enforcements. Affordable education. Respect.
America is barely 246 years old. Our version of democracy is an evolving experiment. It’s time for the system to pivot again. Time for both politicians and corporations to say “thank you” and hold the door open for their workers. It’s time. Make America Better.
But when and while the USA collapses, the rest of the world continues and are all ready to fill the vacuum that the USA leaves behind.
The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) conducted an exercise near the island of Taiwan on Monday with the largest number of warplanes ever recorded, which could be a rehearsal of a reunification-by-force operation, again sending a clear warning to Taiwan secessionists and the US that have been making provocative moves to escalate tensions in the region, Chinese mainland experts said on Tuesday.
A US aircraft carrier exited the South China Sea via waters south of the island of Taiwan also on Monday, a region close to the PLA warplane exercise. And analysts said the PLA displayed the capability of driving away foreign forces interfering in the Taiwan question.
Twenty-five PLA aircraft, namely two Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft, one KJ-500 early warning aircraft, four J-10 and 14 J-16 fighter jets, and four H-6K bombers, entered Taiwan's self-proclaimed southwest air defense identification zone on Monday, the island's defense authorities said late that day.
The number of PLA warplanes featured in the exercise was a record since Taiwan's defense authorities began to release information about PLA aircraft activities in the region on September 17, 2020, surpassing the previous record of 20 on March 26. The number of J-16s, a powerful fighter jet, was also the biggest of all exercises, media on the island said on Monday.
The exercise conducted by the PLA served as a warning to Taiwan secessionists and the US after the two had made a series of provocative moves, mainland analysts said.
On Saturday, the US Department of State announced new guidelines to encourage US government engagement with the island that reflects their "deepening unofficial relationship." Officials on the island recently also claimed that the island is drawing a line 30 nautical miles away from the island, attempting to deny PLA aircraft approaches.
Monday's exercise was characterized by the large number of aircraft, and as the PLA deepens its regular, combat-scenario drills near the island of Taiwan, the scale could continue to expand in the future. As this is normal, related parties should get used to it if they insist on provoking, Fu Qianshao, a Chinese mainland military aviation expert, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Taiwan's secessionist forces and the US must stop making provocations unless they hope to see further escalations in the region, mainland experts warned, noting that the PLA is taking pragmatic steps to make sure it can effectively reunify the island of Taiwan if it comes to that.
The exercise could be a rehearsal of its combat plan over the Taiwan island, and it could feature air superiority seizure, and attack on land and maritime targets, including warships of interfering foreign countries, Song Zhongping, a Chinese mainland military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
PLA's Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft target foreign submarines, the KJ-500 commands the battlefield, the H-6Ks attack maritime and land targets, the J-10s seize air superiority, while the J-16s plays a multirole of both aerial combat and attack, Song said.
Coinciding with the PLA's warplane exercise, the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, which held a series of drills in the South China Sea in the past week, left the South China Sea via south of the Taiwan island on the same day, according to the monitoring of the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI), a Beijing-based think tank, on Monday.
Overlying the flight paths of PLA warplanes released by Taiwan's defense authorities and the movement of the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier released by SCSPI, observers said they were not far away from each other.
Citing analysts on the island of Taiwan, Taipei-based Central News Agency reported on Monday that the PLA warplanes likely simulated attacks on the US aircraft carrier.
Fu said that the PLA has been conducting daily exercises in the region, and it is the US warships' presence that is irregular. "If they pose potential threats to China's national security, we will surely take countermeasures, including monitoring," he said.
The PLA is rightfully responsible to safeguard peace and stability in the region when foreign warships and warplanes stir up tensions and make provocations, Fu said.
Similar exercises demonstrated that the PLA is capable of cutting off foreign interventions in the Taiwan region if the situation arises, as it has a powerful aerial combat system to drive away foreign maritime forces, including aircraft carrier strike groups, a Beijing-based military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Tuesday.
China’s Artificial Sun Just Smashed a Fusion World Record
China’s “artificial sun” tokamak has sustained a plasma reaction for a whopping 101 seconds at 120 million degrees Celsius, setting new records in the field of nuclear fusion. The breakthrough could pave the way for a carbon-neutral energy future.
EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak), or HT-7U, is a custom-built fusion reactor that has operated in different phases since 2006. Like many of the world’s tokamak experiments, EAST has reached fusion before. As a refresher, inside the donut-shaped (or, sometimes, more spherical) containment of a tokamak, sun-hot plasma swirls in a circle that’s held in place by supercooled electromagnets.
This magnetic field is the only thing floating between 360-million-degree plasma and a bunch of human-made materials that obviously can’t sustain that temperature. The plasma results from smashing different nuclei together, fusing them rather than splitting them.
This requires a huge energy investment, which critics say means fusion will never really get off the ground. And so far, all tokamaks work for just a scant few seconds at lower temperatures before something goes wrong.
This is why EAST—which just properly “turned on” last December—running for 101 seconds at 120 million Celsius is such a huge deal. It’s a double whammy: a very long runtime at an extraordinarily high temperature. In 2018, the tokamak reached 180 million degrees Fahrenheit, or about 82 million degrees Celsius. But back then, EAST could only sustain the plasma for around 10 seconds.
That’s not hot enough or long enough, but 120 million degrees Celsius and 101 seconds, which EAST achieved in late May, certainly are. So, this is a record for both the required power-generating temperature and the duration for keeping the temperature at a stable level.
As for other high-profile reactors around the world, the U.K.’s MAST reactor recently made headlines with a new exhaust system that reduces heat 10 times better than its predecessor. In the meantime, the global International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is on track to build the hugest tokamak ever, with first plasma projected in 2030. Each experimental reactor has goals to help push technology forward to help all the others.
The future of EAST could involve lessons learned by ITER, Korea’s KSTAR reactor (which held the previous fusion record), MAST, and even private tokamak researchers that are chipping away at the major obstacles to fusion energy. All have the same goal: to sustain an extremely hot reaction and keep their equipment safely running for as long as possible.
Gosh! All of this stuff about society, and culture really makes me hunger for some fine Louisianian cooking!
Do you all have any idea what I am in the mood for? I am yearning for something like this…
Some fine Southern American food.
I’ll bet you that you don’t. I’ll bet that you are thinking something like steak, a find hamburger, or some pizza or lasagna. Nope. That’s not what I am yearning for.
I know that many Americans in the audience don’t “get it”. But that’s because everyone can get mashed potatoes, corn, and cheesy elbows. But not here. they are special treats. Not to mention deep fried catfish and chicken.
If you have the ability to eat this fine, but basic food, then do so. I think that it’s wonderful. It’s delicious and wonderful and the smells and the taste are wonderful.
Do you wonder why China is asking serious questions?
Beijing called on the US to explain a respiratory disease outbreak in northern Virginia in July, 2019 and a large-scale outbreak of e-cigarette disease in Wisconsin.
“When will the US release detailed data and information on relevant cases to the international community? The United States owes an explanation to the international community.”
Can you imagine what will happen if China is kinetically attacked?
A big part of the US industrial base is now in China.
The US would be attacking its own sources of food, commodities, and its own supply chain.
Looking at Elsberg’s ‘warning’ is this not a spectacular example of insane short-term thinking?
To end this section, taking the previous summary and adding one point, it looks like this:
Ellsberg warns that the same talks that happened 50 years ago to possibly strike China with nuclear weapons is no doubt happening in the Pentagon today. Is the Ellsberg warning more serious than what we think?
Yang Jiechi and Nikolai Patrushev states that Russia and China must coordinate in order to establish a new order to replace the US-dominated one, once the latter gets totally dysfunctional.
China is mass producing hyper-velocity MIRV ICBM’s armed with massive warheads in a frantic pace.
Pentagon Insiders are horrified by the discussions and all warn that not only would America lose a war, but that could be destroyed and subjugated to an unfathomable degree.
The US has clearly and unequivocally used bioweapons (even excluding Vietnam), in the past, and hidden this.
Conclusion: Unfortunately the mindset has not changed and the actions have not changed since the time described in both the Ellsberg report, or the reveals of the Needham report. This is currently the danger and is what we mean by doubling-down.
But I’m not done about Louisiana food…
Throughout the deep American South people eat this kind of food called BBQ. But you know, it must be the most misunderstood BBQ in America. In Boston, for instance a BBQ sandwich was nothing more than cold sliced ham and BBQ sauce. Ugh!
When in actuality, it’s really slow cooked brisket served on a hot toasty bun just dripping and oozing with delicious and tasty sauce.
I could use one right now.
Mississippi style BBQ.
Maybe with an icy beer.
Or two.
Another Cajun roadside specialty, cracklins, are Louisiana’s version of pork rinds. Fatty pork bits that puff up into something special, these savory morsels provide some crunchy bites, some chewy bites and some melty edges. It’s an altogether beautiful experience, especially when it happens at Don’s Specialty Meats in Scott, La. These are the ultimate road-trip snack.
I remember going on work related travel to different factories throughout the Southern American states. AN we would make a point to stop at the various BBQ place sand sample their food. The BBQ varied regionally from place to place. All were just great! Just simply great!
Following on from the last China Sitrep, we have banking news, a cute helicopter and drone soccer.
E-Hang’s electric VT-30 travels 300km in 100 minutes. With eight propellers, two fixed wings, and a propeller at the rear, it achieves a balance of hybrid lift and push, so needs no runway. Its tri-redundant, fly-by-wire controls can be flexibly altered for multiple modes, implying a much higher safety level for the aircraft. Read full article →
Chinese scientists set a new world record of achieving a plasma temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius for 101 seconds in the latest experiment on Friday, a key step toward the test running of a fusion reactor. Read full article →
China dominates consumer and commercial drones globally, and 369 exhibitors showcased 2,000 drone products in Shenzen this week. Mini drones the size of a wristwatch hovered next to cargo drones like four-seater planes. Kids played 3v3 drone soccer before a crowd of adoring parents. Read full article →
(They also say they need a million drone pilots!)
The Maglev trains are just running faster: A groundbreaking ceremony launched a 620 mph maglev test line. The train uses superconducting magnetic levitation to disengage from the ground to eliminate frictional drag and a near-vacuum internal duct lines to dramatically reduce air resistance to achieve its speed. Read full article →
European BRI Rail Freight rose 100% in 2020. Austria’s Rail Cargo Group (RCG) transported 70,000 TEUs across BRI routes and, compared to 2019, doubled its Eurasian volumes and reached an all-time high of 700 trains running on these routes, This year, the company aims to run 1,000 freight trains. Read full article →
Oh, gumbo. Served from a big ol’ pot, it’s the kind of food that warms your heart, your soul and your belly, all at the same time. It starts with a roux, the flavorful base of fat and flour, which gets added to the holy trinity (onions, bell peppers and celery). From there, gumbo can go in many directions, most popularly chicken and sausage or a seafood medley. Around Easter, there’s a special bowl of Gumbo Z’Herbes served at Dooky Chase’s in New Orleans, made with bright, verdant greens. The rest of the year, you can’t go wrong with the seafood rendition from Li’l Dizzy’s (also in New Orleans), which makes a regular appearance on the lunch buffet (along with killer fried chicken and mac and cheese).
But the USA has signed agreements with the G7 nations to construct an American BRI to go “head to head” with the Chinese BRI.
Show me the money, the G7’s B3W will have a hard time replacing China’s BRI.
Biden and the G7s Build Back Better for the World (B3W) program is going to have a hard time without money and so far no one will say where it will come from.
Finding the massive $40+ tn needed for infrastructure needed in the developing world won’t be easy. The US can’t agree on its own domestic infrastructure spending and how much money can it print for B3?
Comments that the private sector will pay are utter nonsense.
Say what you will China have already funded $4tn in projects. Most importantly, China saw the need in the developing world long before the West.
The real question is where was the G7 for the past decade?
Another major issue is that B3W funds will come with strings attached on democratic values, human rights, climate change, corruption, and the rule of law. Good luck.
In the end it comes down to “Show me the money.”
Cats and Louisiana BBQ.
I used to have cats when I lived in Mississippi and Louisiana, and Texas. But you know, they were always happy to nibble on a piece of sliced brisket or chicken. But over all, my cats were just as happy to eat fish or whatever I had on hand. For them, eating a slice of brisket or a McDonald’s creamer when I brought home a couple of cups of coffee were a real treat. I would drink my coffee, and they would have their creamers. Special times.
Cat eating a hamburger. I used to share my subway sandwiches with my cats. They loved the chicken and the meatball subs.
And this warning is being ignored in the Pentagon. Which is why there are people speaking out warning that the neocons inside of Washington are fucking bat-shit crazy nuts, and America will not survive their arrogance and idiocy.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said China will never allow the island of Taiwan to go independent as Beijing hit back at a US-Japan joint statement which for the first time in half a century mentioned China's Taiwan.
"National reunification of the island of Taiwan and China is a historical process. It will not be stopped by anyone or any force. We will never let Taiwan go independent," Le made the remarks on Friday in an interview with the Associated Press.
Asked if there was any timeline for the reunification and if the current situation could continue to exist for many years, Le stressed that "it's a process of history."
Le said China is firmly committed to safeguarding national sovereignty, security and promoting national reunification. "We are prepared to do everything we can for a peaceful reunification. That said, we don't pledge to give up other options. No option is excluded."
Le's remarks comes amidst the recent provocation from the US and Japan's joint statement.
The direct mentioning of Taiwan was regarded as a severe interference in China's domestic affairs and sends a signal that Japan and the US are attempting to challenge China's possible moves to reunification.
Chinese analysts said the US and Japan's move will only send the wrong signal to the Taiwan separatists and allow the DPP to go further down the wrong path.
Le stressed the one-China principle is China's red line and no one should try to cross it, whether low-level or high-level, official engagement is what China firmly opposes.
"The Taiwan question bears on China's core interests. There is simply no room for compromise," the Chinese vice foreign minister noted.
CIPS is proceeding without delay
Maybe SWIFT will collapse upon itself.
China ramped up its Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) and set up clearing banks at all major offshore yuan trading hubs, like Hong Kong, Singapore, London, and Frankfurt. The CIPS clearing system operates during work hours of financial markets in every time zone.
Russia does not expect impossible outcomes from the upcoming summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden in Geneva, and the two sides are unlikely to resolve important issues at the meeting, Russian Ambassador to China Andrey Denisov told the Global Times in an exclusive interview.
The ambassador noted that if the two leaders talk about issues related to China during their meeting, Russia will discuss them with the Chinese side. He stressed that Russia-China relations will not change no matter what attitude the US takes toward Russia.
Putin and Biden are set to meet in Geneva on June 16, the first meeting between the two leaders since Biden took office.
Some analysts believed that during their first bilateral meeting, Biden and Putin will discuss topics including strategic stability, disarmament, ecology, COVID-19 and conflicts in hot spots.
Denisov told the Global Times that Russia welcomes any measures that reduce tensions and competition, but they are also very cautious about what they can expect from Russian-American relations, especially in the context of the very tense relationship between the two countries.
He said Russia is a "realist" and does not expect impossible outcomes, and the summit is not likely to resolve important issues between the two countries. A better outcome is one that sets conditions for resolving problems in the future, said the diplomat.
Media reports showed that while the upcoming summit is seen by some analysts as an "ice-breaking" opportunity to reshape US-Russia relations, the two sides have been talking tough to each other and sending signals to lower external expectations ahead of the summit. Biden vowed to be tough with Russia and press it on human rights, while Putin has said he does not expect any breakthroughs from his meeting with US counterpart.
Some analysts pointed out that while it would be hard to break the ice in US-Russia relations, the US should stabilize relations and ease tensions with Russia so as to concentrate on dealing with China. As a result, the Geneva meeting may become an opportunity to lobby Russia.
In response to this view, Denisov told the Global Times that the idea that Russia would alienate China over the possibility of the US temporarily easing tensions with Russia is "very short-sighted."
"Russia is smarter than Americans think," he said.
The diplomat said that during the visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to China and the visit of Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, to Russia, both sides discussed US topics. If the US and Russia talk about issues related to China during the upcoming summit, the Russian side will also communicate and discuss it with China.
Idiocracy: Flawed comedy or terrifyingly prescient science fiction?
It should be no surprise to anyone that our culture is rapidly drowning in lowbrow media. The perception that as a race we are being worryingly dumbed-down is not something new. Is this gradual intellectual decline something we can stop? Or is it the inevitable trajectory of our current society? One film that has managed to stay relevant seven years after release is Idiocracy, Mike Judge’s satirical take on our dumbed-down future. But for a comedy that was a little low on laughs for my liking, why has it caused such controversy and managed to stay in the public consciousness so long? And should we be worried that this film is accurately predicting our future?
The funny side of idiocy
Idiocracy manages to have a sense of humour about the potential bleakness of our shared stupidity-induced future. Mike Judge’s 2006 comedy Idiocracy did just that, though was sadly overlooked at the time of its release. The film isn’t Judge’s best, with the comedy often falling a little flat. Idiocracy couldn’t possibly hold a torch to Judge’s Office Space (1999). The core idea behind Idiocracy is what makes it worthy of remembering: a satirical view of Earth’s future where everyone is incredibly stupid. Sounds simple enough, and not too hard to imagine (wait, there’s another reality TV show starting?!). All these years later, this small film is still causing a stir.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with this now cult film, the premise is fairly simple. Joe (Luke Wilson) is an average guy, put into stasis as part of a scientific experiment. When the experiment is cancelled, he is forgotten and left in stasis, waking up accidentally 500 years in the future. The future is a bleak one, where the average IQ of the world is worryingly low.
A misunderstood sentiment
According to Matt Novak on Gizmodo’s Paleofuture, the film is an affront for suggesting eugenics is the answer to this potentially dire future, and anyone who enjoys the film should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
Does anyone else think he’s missing the point a little bit? Sorry to disagree with you Matt, but I actually always thought Judge was being satirical. I don’t believe that he ever wanted to argue for eugenics. The rich vs poor set-up is again a deliberate choice, highlighting the prejudiced views of both ends of the economical spectrum. Not, as Novak argues, a simple boiling down of the situation to ‘the intelligent people are wealthy, while the uneducated people are poor.’ I would say that cheating husbands with a dozen kids is just as stereotypical as a frigid, unpleasant, career-driven, rich couple.
Novak claims that the film makes an unhealthy link between wealth and intelligence, but like many satirical films, it uses stereotypes to highlight the issues with that kind of thinking. In other words, Judge is using those precise stereotypes to make a point. Novak’s disgust at the stereotypes being used is entirely missing the point.
Nature vs nurture
The real premise of the film, in my opinion, is an argument for respecting nurture over and above nature. As such, it is in direct opposition to an argument of eugenics. The ‘stupidity’ that has taken hold of the country results in a great wealth of knowledge being lost. It is not the genius scientists, but the more menial labourers and their work that is missed most. Judge’s futuristic world needs mechanics to fix their robotic helpers, bin men and janitors to clean the country, gardeners, builders, etc. Is Judge really bemoaning the loss of the highly intelligent or asking us to look back at the basic pillars that keep our society going?
If you look at the main character’s story arc, the argument for nurture over nature is overtly apparent: you see an average man who was looked down on and not treated with much respect in his own time. When he is re-awakened in the future and found to be more intelligent, the nurturing atmosphere helps him to rise up and do more than he ever could have in the negative environment he was in before. The film is asking us to remember that everyone has potential, and that we need to be supportive of that no matter what their economic circumstances, who their families were, where they came form, etc.
While Idiocracy had a tiny limited release at the cinema back in 2006. Since then, it has found its place as a cultural yardstick for the dumbing down of society. When people bemoan the intellectual lows to which our society has sunk, referencing Idiocracy, I don’t believe that anyone is implying we should employ the use of the discredited science of eugenics. If anything, the film encourages us to always nurture potential, both intellectual and artistic.
A Historical piece from the 2nd World War
The secret deportations: how Britain betrayed the Chinese men who served the country in the war
During the second world war, Chinese merchant seamen helped keep Britain fed, fuelled and safe – and many gave their lives doing so. But from late 1945, hundreds of them who had settled in Liverpool suddenly disappeared. Now their children are piecing together the truth
I like to believe that every problem in the world can be resolved with generous quantities of alcohol, fine delicious food, smiling and happy people, and dogs and cats scurrying about.
Taste of New Orleans : Creole Food.
The world decoupling from the horrible U.S. economy
Well, just how does the world break its dollar habit?
The most clear explanation I ever heard as to why the dollar maintains its global status is really quite straightforward, the U.S. trade deficit. USD’s are constantly filling everyone’s foreign exchange reserve, so almost everyone has these extra dollars to use for trading between themselves.
Sow how does one get rid of this gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe?
Buying treasuries – no, that is investing directly in the USD.
Buying assets in the U.S. – no, same problem as 1, you have assets valued in USD and something the U.S. govt can seize from you.
Buying assets in other countries – dang, you just gave them a boatload of dollars, that stuff is like dark matter.
Buy hard assets in the U.S. and ship it back to China – this is your best bet, buy gold, silver, platinum, or any hard asset and ship it to your vaults, now does the U.S. let you do that?
An article published by Foreign Policy on Tuesday, entitled "China and Russia Turn Deeper Ties into a Military Challenge for Biden," quoted an former US politician as saying the US faces "a two-front war where we don't have a two-front military." This seems to be an emerging possible scenario that is puzzling some American analysts.
On April 14, Reuters published a similar commentary headlined "US faces test on Taiwan, Ukraine," which articulated the concern.
Yet the test is caused by the US itself, thanks to its recklessness in handling major global issues. It is Washington itself which has been stirring up troubles worldwide, rather than resolving crises. Now the tactic is backfiring - Western media are becoming concerned that "rising tension over both Ukraine and Taiwan is putting the Biden administration in a bind," or worse, lead to "a two-front war."
The Taiwan question is China's domestic affair, where the US is not supposed to interfere at all. The Ukraine crisis involves the issue that should be decided by the Ukrainian people. But the US won't cease creating tensions over it.
US political elites have shown little interest in self reflection. More importantly, they attach too much significance to major power geopolitical games. In their eyes, if the US makes concessions over the Ukraine issue, it could result in Russia returning to Europe. In that case, everything Washington has been struggling for over the past 30 years since the end of the Cold War will crumble to dust.
When it comes to Taiwan, the US regards the island, from the military perspective, as a crucial link in its first island chain to contain China. Diplomatically, the US is utilizing the island as leverage to boost secessionist forces in China, in an attempt to split the latter, or launch a "peaceful revolution."
Suppressing Russia and China has been a long tradition in US politics. Apart from former US president Donald Trump, who once attempted to cozy up to Russia, yet failed due to opposition from the Democratic Party, most US presidents tend to pile pressure on both countries. Yet the problem is that the US has found it increasingly difficult to do so.
The US' biggest challenge is at home, not so-called threats from China or Russia. If the US hastily engages in, or creates more external geopolitical tests, while not having resolved its own domestic problems, it will only have its nose rubbed in the dust both at home and abroad, not to mention winning the "battle" on either side.
The US has its own calculations. It is hoping to push the EU to the forefront of the Ukraine crisis, letting the EU invest in more resources while the US could just play a commanding role. In addition, although the US reiterated its support for Ukraine, the latter's top diplomat has been stressing that Ukraine "is looking for more than words," Politico reported on April 13. It means the US' capability is very limited. It is just like the way Washington is dealing with Beijing - trying to establish an anti-China camp with as many allies as possible. If the US believes it can handle the Taiwan question and Ukraine crisis as it wishes, or in other words, China and Russia, at the same time, it has overestimated its strength and wisdom.
The truth is, the US is not confronting two tests, but three. The biggest crisis is from its home affairs. The biggest battlefield for US policymakers is on US soil. The best solution for elites in Washington is to put more energy in focusing on their country's domestic puzzles and stop creating troubles abroad.
Why is the American leadership so out of touch? Are the suck?
And Taiwan…
American neocons are pushing, pushing, pushing for a war regarding Taiwan.
... China remained the top issue on her mind, and on the minds of her fellow Republicans in the room. Haley hammered home that China remained an existential threat to the U.S. and democracies around the world and that government officials there should never be trusted.
Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, building bridges, tunnels and other infrastructure projects in dozens of nations, is nothing more than a ploy to gain influence and power around the world, Haley said.
"What they're doing is they're running out the deck for such a time as this and then waiting for times like COVID. And they say, 'You can't pay it? Now give me your power grid. Now give me your military installation. We want your port.' Now you look at that map - it will send a chill up your spine at what they're trying to do."
Haley also painted a haunting portrait of the war China is waging in cyberspace. Beijing, she said, just adopted a data-security measure that states that all private data is now a national asset.
"Think about the health data they have. Think about the financial data they have. Think about the surveillance actions they have on all of us," Haley said. "Now think that that's in the hands of the Chinese military. The way President Xi sees it is, whoever owns the data rules the world."
Haley was asked by one GOP lawmaker how the U.S. could respond to China when it sells pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and so many cheap goods to America.
"Don't lead with fear. Don't be scared of China. Go after them strong. Go after them aggressively," the former ambassador said.
-Nikki Haley warns Republicans on China: 'If they take Taiwan, it's all over'
American generals say otherwise…
While acknowledging that uniting with Taiwan is a "core interest" for China, Milley signaled that he thought Beijing will pursue such ambitions through peaceful means.
"The internal politics of China are up to China, as long as whatever is done is done peacefully and doesn't destabilize the region nor the world," Milley said.
Milley appeared in front of the committee to discuss the Pentagon's Fiscal 2022 budget request, alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Rachel Esplin Odell, a research fellow in the East Asia Program at the Quincy Institute, said Milley's comments "basically reaffirmed the longstanding U.S. One China Policy, which includes the understanding that the United States supports any peaceful, uncoerced resolution of cross-Strait differences."
"However, a somewhat more accurate statement of longstanding policy would have been that cross-Strait differences are up to both China and Taiwan to resolve peacefully through mutual agreement,"
"Nonetheless, Gen. Milley's comments are, on the whole, a welcome corrective to dangerous rhetoric from some analysts and politicians in Washington that portrays Taiwan as a strategic asset for the United States that must be kept separate from China. It is encouraging that Gen. Milley recognizes that danger," she said.
-Nikkei
What is the USA doing?
All of this isn’t secret information. It’s obvious and only the most deluded sheeple can’t see the build up towards war that the United States is marching towards. Knowing what is spread out before you all, as above. And noting that China and Russia are not fools.
What do you think they are going to do? Wait until the USA does something stupid? Or are they going to take proactive steps to castrate the “mad dog” before it infects the entire world with it’s madness?
I tire of this insanity.
It makes me want to gather up all the lunatics, lock them up in cages and bury them deep deep down in a place that they cannot harm themselves, or anyone around them.
But on the bright side there is China.
And China is doing well, they know what is going on. They are strong and formidable. And no matter what crazy-assed plans the Idiocracity world of America might think up, China is there to deal with them promptly.
American leadership in Washington DC as depicted in the movie Idiocracity.
I hope you enjoyed this visit in news that is unavailable to Americans. I’m tired and hungry. You probably didn’t notice. So I am going to go and eat some food. Have a great day you all!
I’ll leave you with this…
Why do people want to believe in lies about China when they know those lies come from their machinery of lies (politicians and MSM) which people already know do nothing but lie? Answer: They’re racist hypocrites. Turns out it’s not just a hunch.
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Well, aside from being thrown into a Thai jail for a couple of weeks, that is.
Anyways, here is a piece that I found on the UNZ site. It’s worth a read, not so much for the content (which is good) but for the comments that it attracted. You end up seeing a nice group of American society in the disparagement column, and some thoughtful analysis in the Brit and Aussie columns.
I like to read what other expats have to say about their experiences. As, well you should all know, everyone has a story and often those of expats tend to be the most colorful. This particular story revolves around a fellow in Thailand who made the mistake of fighting back when he was being scammed by locals. That’s a big no-no.
We have a saying in America. It goes like this… “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”.
The phrase ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do’ means that ‘when you are living in, or visiting, a community of people, you should follow the laws and customs of that community’. Literally, the proverb means that when you are in Rome, you should act like the Romans.
-'When in Rome, do as the Romans do'
Well, he didn’t follow this very simple advice, and ended up paying for that mistake. This is his story. And the comments are really interesting.
As with all reprints, the usual disclaimer apply.
For young guys, yes… rise up and abandon the creeping meatball. I don’t care if it’s the UK meatball, the US meatball…. just get out while you can. There is serious talk of raising exit fees!
-Franz
As an expat myself, I am both charmed and repelled by the experiences of other Americans as the peek outside of the gulag that the inhabit.
Some comments are gold. Some remind me of bad experience I have had with Jerk-offs, and others remind me of just why I left. I really enjoy the more thoughtful and productive comments, and dialogs. they point to some interesting trends.
The ‘least developed’ European countries have the most interesting long-term prospects, at least as places I like to live."
Yeah, and they know it.
I worked steel, plus allied fabrications. These countries are buying up razor wire faster than anyone can make it! Trust me, in a few years, countries that are not yet holes will be off limits to wanderers.
-Franz
While you are reading it, please keep in mind that one person’s happiness is meaningless to another. We all live within our very own realities.
One person’s happiness is meaningless to another. We all live within our very own realities.
Here is the article with comments embedded within.
gotmituns says:
The only ones “escaping” from our wonderful and proud American nation are the cowards and shirkers who wouldn’t do either side any good when the shit hits the fan in this country. Nobody needs such people in their midst.
With my Escape from America series, I’ve interviewed American ex-pats who have settled in Mexico, the Philippines, Hungary, Costa Rica, Brazil or England, etc., but you’re constantly escaping from one country to the next, with the goal of experiencing all 180 of them! What made you choose such an unusual lifestyle, and how did you prepare yourself for it?
No preparation whatsoever and, in fact, no plan.
I’d had what’s called a ‘liquidity event’ back in NYC. Two, actually: a startup sale and then an IPO. Which just means I don’t have to work again if I don’t want to.
I was burnt out. 15 years of 10 hour days, grinding towards some pointless goal of accumulation. When I cashed-out I wasn’t sure what to do next.
I looked around and decided it was time to leave NYC and the US in general.
The path the country was heading down was pretty obvious to anyone willing to look.
So I threw a bunch of stuff in storage. Locked up the apartment. And left.
That was 2017 and I’ve only returned now and then: for weddings or near-deaths.
I hope to never have to return permanently.
Radicalcenter says:
... mere permanent residency in another country never requires giving up US citizenship, so why renounce US citizenship if mere permanent residency in the other country suits one’s purposes?
(Permanent residents often have the right to use the public healthcare system the same as citizens. Some countries, like Russia, give them the right to vote in local elections.)
US citizens who reside abroad full-time do indeed have to file a US income tax return even on income earned abroad.
But in 2021, a married couple can exclude the first $217,400 per year from US federal taxation:
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/figuring-the-foreign-earned-income-exclusion
In 2022 the exclusion rises with inflation, probably to $224-225,000.
The system is unfair, grasping, and should be abolished.
But American worldwide taxation shouldn’t be a deterrent for most Americans who would seriously consider residing abroad. Seriously, what percentage of older American couples moving abroad will have more than $225,000 in income per year while they are retired?
Not many.
In Tirana, I ran into a folk singer who performed in Turkish, but was actually an American! In his early 40’s, “Dandelion Lakewood” left the States nearly 6 years ago, and has been in Europe ever since, mostly in the Balkans. Busking, he needs just $12 a day to survive.
In Tirana, Dandy was paying $8 daily to share a room with another American. Dandy has slept outside, it’s not a problem.
Different people have different requirements. You’re obviously in a different category, but most Americans with cash would not have made your choice. You told me you once drove from Atlanta to Juarez to sample an interesting Chinese buffet. Do you think you’ll ever get tired of traveling? If so, where might you settle down, and why?
Right.
And I don’t make the money point to brag or anything. I just got lucky. Right place, right time.
The bigger point I wanted to make is that guys like me are leaving the US in droves. Even before the pandemic.
We are not better or smarter than those that didn’t get lucky.
But I think some of us realized that the “juice wasn’t worth the squeeze”. So we bailed.
I feel a kinship with anyone that has left America, regardless of their situation.
PJ London says:
You sound like 99.9% of Americans, totally anal and caring only about their bank balance.
The rest of the world (and yes I have lived in 8 countries) have a far better life, as they do not rank existence on the thickness of their wallet.
Given a free choice and some income I would live in a Muslim country or eastern European. I would move to Abkhazia tomorrow if I could. Unfortunately, in my 70s, my travel and choices have become limited.
In terms of traveling and settling down.
I don’t know.
I have a reckless streak. I always have. Going to Juarez to eat Chinese food, or moving a bunch of gold over the Burmese border, or spending weeks in a Thai jail, or designing the interior of some Chechen billionaire’s yacht. I just can’t stop collecting experiences.
That, to me, is real wealth.
I’ve been to around 90 countries at this point.
There are a handful of places I could see myself staying long-term. For me, they have the right combination of cost of living/quality of life. Decent infrastructure. Nice people. Low-ish inequality coefficient.
They’re usually Muslim/Asian countries.
I think that was the biggest surprise.
I want to avoid the forced degeneracy of the West.
This is weird as, in my youth, I was the biggest champion of orgies and drugs and personal freedom and all that faux-liberal youth-culture decadent bullshit.
Alfred says:The issuance of a second valid passport should therefore be considered an exception to the one passport policy and will be issued at the discretion of the Consular Officer. If issued it will be valid for a maximum of two years.
U.S. Embassy and Consulate in the Netherlands – Second Passports
I like being around happy, multi-generational families.
People eating together as a family or flying kites in a park or a group of old-timers nursing a 3-hour conversation over a cup of coffee.
They still do that!
I am not ready to stop.
Perhaps that is the recklessness I was referring to earlier.
In German, real estate is ‘Immobilen’. It’s ‘immobiliere’ in French. Even without knowing Kraut or French, I bet you can deduce the meaning… purchasing a home renders one immobile.
A lease is a landlock.
You’re stuck in one place, one culture, one point of view.
To stay in the same place still seems like death to me.
Or perhaps a series of small compromises, small deaths, that add up to a more prolonged expiation.
Disclaimer says:
The introduction of Nassim Talebs book “Black Swan” has a interesting paragraph about growing up in Lebanon in the 1960s. It is worth revisiting...
"Increasingly, Celebrities and the upper 10% of US society have been getting second passports for themselves and their families for quite some time. After the financial crisis of 2007-08 it seems this trend accelerated. Its also illuminating how many of the upper 10% also have real estate overseas. These people are not doing these measures for fun. And they sure as heck keep their Plan B quiet."
The goal of travel is to court and embrace discomfort.
Otherwise, you’re just a fat Boomer on a cruise!
What did you do to spend weeks in a Thai jail?! And how were you treated by the other inmates?
To many white nationalists, Muslims are just low IQ losers, and Orientals are just conformists with disgusting culinary habits, yet both groups have managed to maintain their heritage, and hence dignity, better than the degenerate West. Is there any hope for white people, or are they condemned to rage impotently online as their societies unravel? Is Europe better off than America? And which European countries do you think have the best prospects?
The Thailand story is sad–and typical.
I’ll tell it here as a warning to anyone reading.
This stuff happens and, in retrospect, you should not handle the situation in the way I did. Linh, you can chop this if you don’t think it’s relevant.
I was in one of those seedy beach resort towns filled with decaying, SPAM-tinted Anglo men and their 21-year-old Isaan wives.
I was talking to as many of the men as I could, as they figure fairly prominently in a book I am working on.
A few of the blokes had warned me of a scam going on in that particular town.
The locals would wait until you rented a scooter and had a few beers at some local bar. Then, when you scooted off home, they’d put three teenagers on a shittier scooter than yours and drive full speed into you. The cops would conveniently be nearby to handle the proceedings.
I ignored this warning as typical ‘falang’ fearmongering.
But sure enough, a week into my stay this happened to me.
I’d had a big Chang beer and puttered off home.
Three kids on a crappy Vespa (motor scooter) hit me out of nowhere. Cops come out. from behind a nearby building: ‘You drunk Mister! You come to station and make right!’ They sounded like some Hollywood-stereotype from the 80s. But they were real and extremely angry.
I was terrified.
I had had a beer and driven my scooter (like everyone else in that town) but I had no idea what my ‘rights’ were.
Ha!
We went to the station and the officer demanded 40,000 baht to make it go away, plus some money for each of the three teenagers that were on the scooter.
In the meantime, they had already gone to the hospital after the accident and returned, bandaged up, with hospital bills ready to go.
They’d done this under an hour.
All three presented the hospital bills to me meekly.
I think they were another 60,000 baht.
Conveniently, 100,000 baht is the maximum you can withdraw from a Thai bank branch in one day.
Around $3k.
I told them this was absurd.
I ‘knew my rights’. Typical American arrogance.
After two hours of yelling at each other via Google Translate in their sweaty little station, they made me go back to my apartment and give them my passport, told me they’d be in touch and that I was not to leave Thailand.
Jeff Stryker says:
Michigan Native & Long-term South East Asia (SEA) Expat Here
I cannot say I would prefer a Thai jail but I would live on Thai beach in a fishing hut & let lizards crawl up my anus before I would return to the low-cost housing of Greater Detroit Washtenaw county.
I spent 30 K building my estate here & the irony is that my grandmother’s condo in Washtenaw County was worth $400 K in 1986 & after it was sold 20 years later it was worth 50 K-and my brother told me that whoever bought it was a fool. That is property value in Michigan for you.
Not long ago on FB I got ahold of a Polish kid who shared my dorm room at Central. The poor fool is still stuck in Flint. His formerly tidy if modest Polish-Catholic neighborhood is one great big crack house.
So that is one expat’s response.
As for Canukistan, well, they may export our leaders but try immigrating there. They don’t want us.
Americans that travel a lot can legally have two passports.
Not a lot of people know this.
It’s the same passport number but you can usually bank on the fact that if you get into trouble somewhere, it will take time for the various government departments to communicate with each other, and you have a window to clear the country.
I’d talked with a nice local lawyer girl after this happened and her advice was to get the hell out of Thailand. So that’s what I did.
I was gone within 48 hours, this time via a land border, which I assumed was insecure.
I crossed into Cambodia, made my way to Phnom Penh, and then flew to Bali for a few weeks.
Stupidly, I returned to Thailand a month later.
I thought somehow the problem would have ‘gone away’, as it was all a scam.
Ha!
They grabbed me at the airport, after clearing customs. That’s always the shitty part. They let you clear customs and grab your bag, thinking you are free. And then they grab you.
My passport number had been communicated to Border Police.
They were as surprised as I was that I had returned!
The charges were now serious.
In addition to injuring others on a scooter, I had tried to flee the country.
A few other minor charges.
Worst case: I was facing up to 3 years in a Thai prison.
I would now be remanded until I had a chance to appear before a judge. There were a series of holidays going on, related to the new King’s ascension, so the whole country was closed for at least a week. Bad timing on my part.
I spent around two weeks in a Thai jail back in the town where the crime had been committed.
Mulga Mumblebrain says:
It is very hard to contemplate leaving your homeland. Just leaving Sydney, that I knew like the back of my hand, but was unaffordable, was a dreadful break.
Unfortunately, Australia, that from c.1970 to 1990 was making good progress in creating a decent society, has since fallen into the Pit of Hell, led by the Right, monsters like Howard, Abbott, Morrison et al, and the complicity of the zombie remnants of the ALP, now the Another Liberal Party.
All driven by the Murdoch cancer.
Now the place is locked in a suicidal frenzy of treacherous and deeply racist Sinophobia, after decades when China did us NOTHING but good. Such duplicity is bound to get its just desserts-and soon.
The Thai jail is not a place I’d want to return to.
I was new so I had to sleep with my head directly next to the open toilet in the corner, my head getting kicked every time someone went to shit in the middle of the night.
I did meet a lot of nice Burmese guys in there, who insisted on sharing every single meal they had with me.
They taught me how to sleep with a water bottle under your neck, as it helps your posture on the concrete floor.
There was a Dutch man who’d killed his Thai wife.
A few Americans and Australians recently nabbed on drug charges. Lots of Iranian guys. They were the most aggressive towards Americans.
The common theme from everyone was, ‘I was set up’. I began to doubt my own story.
Fast forward a few weeks later.
I am out on some sort of conditional release.
They have both passports this time. I have to check in every week to a ‘parole’ office and wait for my official trial date which is set 4 or 5 months in the future.
I can’t leave Thailand.
Radicalcenter says:
Sweet numbers, brah. But that works only if you can avoid spending all the profit on the next, also wildly appreciated house, right?
One can do this by moving to a house that is smaller, older, or in a less desirable climate or location, of course. That isn’t a good option for everyone, though, especially families. We have a number of children, so we need to move someplace bigger, not smaller.
Once past that stage of life, yeah, it’s usually feasible to downsize and come out ahead that way on housing costs and equity: i.e., sell a big house and buy a smaller house. That way you come ahead even if you stay in the same locale, saving/investing some of the proceeds and/or having a lower monthly mortgage payment.
Also, those inland “flight” / retirement areas aren’t so cheap anymore.
One used to profit from expensive coastal and/or big-city home sales and buy really cheap inland. But this is changing fast. Primarily due to the acceleration of decent people fleeing even mid-sized cities (not just NY, LA, Chicago, Houston), and millions working mostly online for the first time.
Home prices continue to rise far faster than our salaries/wages in booming country & exurban counties across Utah, Nevada, Texas, Florida, eastern OR and WA, Montana, Wyoming, etc.
My mother is selling her house in a fairly expensive part of NJ and buying out West. The prices for the newer houses far from any city in Utah or Nevada, are shockingly higher than when we started looking in earnest less than two hears ago. We thought we were savvy and sufficiently apprised of costs in these boom-towns, but nope.
In the two inland flight areas we’re looking at, newer-home prices are going up maybe 4x faster than my Mom’s house. Houses we thought might cost $300,000 are surging to $400,000 and $500,000. If we thought she might pick up a house with a certain amount of property for $400,000, it’s now $600,000 to $800,000.
As for California real estate, man, you killed it!
I’m happy for you. I too would have bought when you did if we had lived in Cali then. We’d try to buy in SoCal even now, as overpriced and overcrowded as it is, if we weren’t raising children. But we won’t subject our kids to the California curriculum much longer — it’s getting more extreme by the month. Nor will we live in a jurisdiction with “vaccine” “passports”, which may be on their way here. In the new lockdown America, even the prospect of real estate profits isn’t enough to keep families in certain places long-term, like California.
Also, how are young Americans to buy real estate to raise their own families? The artificially low interest rates won’t last. And even rock-bottom rates don’t help if you can’t come up with a down-payment. A 20% down-payment could easily be $70-80,000 or more in many areas with good jobs. Many, probably most, Americans don’t inherit a house. Given the number of children we have, ours won’t each inherit a house either. How do they ever get on this absurd merry-go-round?
When home prices consistently riser faster than salaries and wages, this cannot serve most people well in the long run. You made out very well, and we may do alright, but this system already hurts more people than it helps, and it cannot go on forever.
And before you ask, no, the embassy does nothing.
You’ve watched too many television dramas. They only intervene in capital crimes or a crime that makes the US look bad.
While I was in the jail, they told me to hang tight and let them know if I was being mistreated.
When I got out they gave me a list of lawyers.
I picked the one who bragged to me that ‘Her husband was a high up police officer’. In any other country, this would have been a warning sign, but I figured in Thailand, it was a golden ticket.
I hang out in Thailand for a while.
Avoiding scooters and bars. freaking out, obviously, but pretty powerless.
No amount of American money could help me at that point. The government didn’t care.
The “trial” was bizarre.
No visitors are allowed. The courtroom I was in was underground. You’re brought to a jail before the trial where you have to take off your shoes and belt and then stand in a cage inside the trial room.
I was with three other guys in the cage.
There’s no one in the courtroom aside from some grim-looking guard with a rifle.
Jeff Stryker says:
An Expert Speaks
[1] You can stagger around drunk & be puking on yourself in Siam & nobody will care a whit.
[2] However, you can stone cold sober & drive & if you get into an accident…you are in trouble.
[3] Generally, you can buy yourself out of any reasonable situation for a few grand. You really should not be traveling in SEA if you don’t have $3000 spare cash in the event of a serious situation.
[4] It would be typical of an American new comer to believe that Americans are not detested overseas & that being American will mean jack in SEA. Canadian? Maybe a little respect. British? Okay. American? Zero. The USA is regarded as the worst Superpower that ever existed & the average white American is regarded as a loudmouthed hick & ignorant too boot. However, in Siam, generally Thais don’t care.
[5] If you get locked in jail its the other American-hating nationals like Iranians, of whom there are a considerable number, or even Pakistanis who will threaten you for political reasons. Thais do not care. For that matter, even some Aussies or Brits are anti-American to come at you in an Immigration jail.
[6] Doing drugs is a tricky business. If you have to do drugs, score from ladyboys or from hotel staff of a younger hipper variety who themselves smoke weed. You can buy your way out of a weed bust, but Ya Ba & Meth are going to get you time. If you deal drugs or try to smuggle them in Pattaya or Bangkok, you are so stupid you should commit suicide when you get busted. Which you will be. Scoring drugs randomly on the street will always be a set up. With Tuk Tuk drivers or taxi drivers who ask you if you want to purchase drugs it will be a set up. You can score in Sukhumivit around Soi 4 from the Africans but they are periodically hit for raids.
[7] Many bar girls or hookers are meth addicts.
[8] An American married to Issan girl who does not know these ropes is not very bright.
[9] Make one or two semi-important friends.
[10] Remember the property laws. They are not in your favor. Property belongs to your wife.
Many posters here are naive hicks who have no business being outside the small city or town they were born. Some hicks are scammed in SEA.
After an hour of waiting, a prim little woman walks in, sits down at a table facing the cage.
She calls out your name and you walk to the front of the cage.
She reads your file out loud: the charges, I guess. It’s all in Thai.
My lawyer is then allowed to enter the room.
They talk quietly for a few minutes in Thai.
She’s very deferential, not making eye contact with the judge.
The lawyer then approaches the cage and asks if I am sorry.
I’m ready: I know this is my cue to turn on the histrionics.
I bow and wai repeatedly at the judge, the guards, the other Thais in the cage.
My lawyer had prepared me.
I repeat the Thai phrase I had prepared, over and over again and again. “I am so sorry and ashamed. I am so sorry and ashamed.” Likely mangling the pronunciation.
I cry. I plead.
The judge looks at the lawyer. Laughs.
Scribbles something on the file and then proclaims something in Thai. Before the lawyer has a chance to translate, I’m taken by a guard from the cage back to the primary jail in the courthouse.
I sit there for two hours.
Eventually, they call my name and my lawyer is at the jail door.
She’s smiling.
If you’re interested, my total penalty was…wait for it…a 100,000 baht fine paid to the court and an agreement to ‘not do anything bad in Thailand’ for one full year.
Emslander says:
Your experience with the Thai legal system is fairly typical of experiences with any legal system anywhere. I have drilled it into my sons’ heads from birth to NEVER get involved with the police other than to say “Yes, sir” or “No, sir.” I told them that, if they wanted bad attention or to be punished, to just come home and I’d accommodate. They mostly complied. The deeper you get into any sort of trouble, the more it will cost you in time, money and degradation.
I pay my lawyer another 100,000 baht, wait to get my 100,000 baht bond back from the courthouse (which has to be fronted by a Thai…in this case, my lawyer), and I am on my way.
I fly to KL that night.
I bear no ill will towards the Thai people.
I made a stupid mistake and, in retrospect, should have paid the fine upfront. Scam or no scam.
The normal Thai people live in a shitty, corrupt system. They’re just trying to get by. At least they have the comforts of family, community, culture, and tradition to return to after a long day of sentencing Americans to prison.
Disclaimer says:
In response to a comment by @obwandiyag who said
“…Wait till he needs a doctor…”
The medical care in most of the world is far better than in the US. Its not even close. US is ranked 37th (and dropping) on quality of medical care which is basically dead last in the first world.
US medical care was the best in the world until around 1975 or so since then its been steadily downhill.
To answer your earlier question, I think most of the white nationalists are the disgusting pigs. Potato-shaped genetic-mutt trash dropping rancor and CheezeIt crumbs all over their cum-stained keyboards.
There is no hope for the United States if these guys are the vanguards of “our” future. I’ll take the “Orientals” or the Muslims any day of the week.
Europe is a weird case.
As a political or economic union it’s toast, but the individual states will still have a lot of interesting possibilities. In many ways, Europe’s inevitable dissolution is good for guys like me.
It will be easier to get in and purchase citizenship, or property, or whatever. The fragmentation of Europe will be a boon for those fleeing the West.
The ‘least developed’ European countries have the most interesting long-term prospects, at least as places I like to live. I’d look for those that are food-secure and have good access to clean water.
john cronk says:
I find the guy’s life as described to be mis-spent, randomly purposeless and morally bankrupt. He may as well have been an ant or a fly. However, the subject of escaping the deteriorating West is a salient one and I’m interested in how it can be done in a sensible, considered, and productive way.
There are some nice towns in Bulgaria (mostly in the Rhodope foothills) and Albania that I’d consider long-term. Portugal was great until the Golden Visa, and will now be flooded with Brits heading back to Spain or Chinese opportunists.
I’ve always been a fan of Poland, of Polish cities and people. Georgia and Abkhazia are gorgeous and ripe for sustainable development–whatever that means.
Northern Spain, west of Basque country, towards Galacia, is gorgeous and peaceful. There are some great small towns in Slovakia but you have to be ready to handle Gypsies. Northwestern Greece, in the mountains, has a great climate and food culture. No one will bug you there.
There’s also East Asia, but that’s a whole other article.
Reading about your adventures everywhere, some readers might think you’re just an anchorless hedonist, but you’re actually happily married, and your wife does travel with you. Since it’s nearly impossible to synchronize wishes or demands on the road, this is very rare. You’re very lucky. To wrap up, do you have advice for Americans who might want to get out?
Yes, for much of the past 5 years of non-stop travel my wife has been by my side. It’s been pretty amazing and I am incredibly fortunate to have someone so willing to be ‘unsettled’ throughout the world.
It’s always fun to travel alone but having someone to wake up and make breakfast for–no matter the weird city we’re in–is pure pleasure.
For those looking to escape, my advice would be to have a plan but not to commit to it too firmly.
Too many people over-utilize the Internet to the detriment of on-the-ground intelligence.
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met who’ve ‘sold everything’ back in the States and then bought a one-way ticket to Fethiye or Chiang Mai without ever visiting these places once! All based on some Youtuber’s drone videos.
It’s ridiculous.
These are, unsurprisingly, the people that go back to Michigan in a few years.
Once travel opens back up, get your money right in the US first. Don’t burn bridges.
Then, pick a region.
Pack minimally.
I recommend warmer countries first simply because there’s less to pack. Don’t worry about booking an apartment for a month. Book a few days on Airbnb. Move around to a different neighborhood. In a city like Jakarta or Yangon or even Milan, you can have a dramatically different experience based on your neighborhood.
Keep in mind, no matter where you travel, you’ll always bring yourself along. If you aren’t happy in your own head, in your own body, then no amount of wandering will change that.
Jonathan (41-years-old)
cohen says:
Linh
You are doing a good job to some degree in telling the audience the real interesting and historical stuff about counties you travel to.. unlike you, when I travel I don't talk to “intellectuals”.
I to go to small cafes and talk to locals who don't speak a word of English but somehow there is always a one eyed men among blinds, one who wants to speak and brush up his English with in the crowd. To me that is fun.
The most common bonding is the sense of humor and bonding through jokes. That is something so common among people of various background. Try that experience next time.
Your stories about Serbia, and Lebanon did lack information. For instance, in Belgrade the American bombing or missiles attack were incredibly precise and ironically US got away bombing the Chinese Embassy by claiming an error. No way Jose. The defense ministry building destroyed were among big building and in front of each. There was no damage to any neighboring buildings.
Philip Morris bought the Serbian Cigarette company for one dollar? and the Yugo (bad or good beside the point) car company was sold to an American car company for 1 dollar. There are three KPMG offices in Belgrade. Why an American company needs 3 offices in the same city. Privatization my man.
You are hung up on Albania. Did you see the digging of an old gladiator arena by the sea? Or their political parties. People like me care less about the nice pictures of food from a restaurant menu. At least I for one.
Go to Jakarta, or Casablanca and see Muslim women with their Hijab driving taxi without fear of any physical harm. You can not imagine that happening in America, This is information and not pictures of food which is very subjective. Try to go to Tangier in Morocco and get a taste of Europe and Africa in one place. And the weather one has to experience it oneself. Daniel Craig has a house in Tangier on the Atlantic side (lot of French artists, mostly fags).
Talk to a native Jews of Casablanca and learn why on earth they don't want to go to their “promised homeland”. The answer would surprise you. I was amused when one of them in a synagogue said “Then what the hell we will be doing there once we get to Israel”.
Try some volcanic islands in Indonesia where Comodo dragons still roam. Or Lake Biakal. Very different than the food information with prices.
Put some information in your writing that would be worth reading. Food? Who gives a sh… We have the tendency to talk about foreign foods and feel cultured and well informed.
Or at least that HIS opinion.
I liked the story. Seems like this fellow was in the right place, at the right time, and husbanded his money well. Good for him. My life has been one scramble after the other, with no time to take a breather.
Americans have a lot of issues they need to sort out before they go elsewhere. One of which is the hooks and claws that “Uncle Sam” has in just about everything you do. And another thing is the bad Intel that you have. You are better off living under a mattress for the last forty years than listen to anything available off the internet.
The Ugly American
All of this reminds me of an old movie titled “The Ugly American”.
An intelligent, articulate scholar, Harrison MacWhite, survives a hostile Senate confirmation hearing at the hands of conservatives to become ambassador to Sarkan. Sarkan is a southeast Asian country where civil war threatens a tense peace.
Despite his knowledge, once he’s there, MacWhite sees only a dichotomy between the U.S. and Communism.
He can’t accept that anti-American sentiment might be a longing for self-determination and nationalism.
Imagine that!
This 1963 MARLON BRANDO film ' The UGLY AMERICAN ' is an all too often overlooked effort from such a truly talented actor as was Mr. Brando. Relevant upon release 53 years ago, it is relevant today. The AIRPORT ARRIVAL scenes as Ambassador MacWhite speeds off in his 1957 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine are a CINEMATIC TRIUMPH alone !
-Robert D.
Over the years, the term “the ugly American” has come to describe a pompus know-it all attitude that is dismissive of others, and that basks in the tattered remains of American patriotism.
The big problem with expatriation is the IRS. If you renounce your citizenship you are treated as though you have sold all your assets at fair market value, and must pay tax accordingly. If you don’t do that, you can simply live abroad and keep your US citizenship (and hopefully your new country allows dual citizenship). You will still have to file US tax returns and pay US taxes, although you will get a credit against it for any foreign taxes paid.
-Hapalong Cassidy
I found this review of the movie enlightening.
Viet Nam 1963
I was in Viet Nam from June 1963 to March 1964. We saw “The Ugly American” at the American movie theatre in Saigon, the Capitol Kinh Do.
There were many Americans and their dependents in Saigon and in Viet Nam at this time–most were isolated with cocktail parties, teas, and American activities. Most American children went to the American Community School outside of Tan Son Nhut Air Base. Their parents belonged to the exclusive Cercle Sportiff, hobnobbing with the Vietnamese elite who monetarily benefited from the war. There were opportunities for American civilians to teach the Vietnamese English, but I never knew of any opportunities for Americans to learn Vietnamese or national customs.
Many of the children of the diplomatic corps were instructed that if their shirt tails hung out or if they ate with their fingers when eating implements were available, they would be considered “ugly Americans.” Nothing was said about the teenage boys drinking, whoring, and racing their motorcycles through the darkened Saigon streets in the early morning hours. Nothing was said about how we knew the way to “win” the war against the popular nationalist freedom fighter known as Ho Chi Minh who organized the successful campaigns against the Japanese and French occupiers.
Perhaps if we had listened a little more, learned the language and customs, and understood that the desire for national freedom is not communism, we wouldn’t still be trying to “win” the Vietnam War.
…
I’m an American myself. So what is the deal?
Hum.
Not nearly good enough.
What is “it” with Americans?
I’m an American. So what’s the deal, eh?
America soon.
Why do we want to leave the “home of the free”, and “the shining house on the hill”, where the entire world wants to move to? Are we stupid? Are we too full of ourselves?
The U.S. government doesn’t formally track how many Americans leave the U.S. but the most recent estimate puts the figure at nearly nine million. This figure represents a doubling of the 1999 figure, placed at 4.1 million. The number of expats has more than doubled in the last fifteen years — a number growing faster than the rate of the U.S. population itself.
Juan jwayne says:
I live in Nicaragua/ Costa Rica. My $ goes much farther. The people are poor but happy,happier than Americans.You must have an income, me, union pension. My Atm card works here,so no worries.Takes a lil while to get used to it, different culture, but you’re easy going about things, it’ll work out. Good Luck
steinbergfeldwitzcohen says:
I would think that a smart guy would have learned something about the culture of THAILAND before he went there! You can go to jail for being disrespectful to their Royals.
Never, ever show anger.
Never: it is disrespectful and shows weakness (an inability to control emotions or to be properly afraid of those with the power of life and death, ie. 3rd world cops).
In fact, treat every cop and govt official as a long missed uncle you deeply love and respect. If you do that you cannot lose in the game.
You could have walked out of that station in 1 hr or less by being respectful and calm, wishing to pay while indicating a recent family hardship of a medical nature or, even better, allude to a recent family death that you had to cover the funeral costs for as you are the eldest.
The cops and robbers would have settled for 50% and you would have left happy.
After fifteen months of travel, I returned to the United States ready to give American life another try. After a few months at home with my family, I moved back to San Francisco, the city I lived and worked in before traveling. I started looking for a job, looking for apartments, looking for new friends. I felt eager to re-enter American society, and pick up somewhat where I left off.
Within four months, I had changed my mind.
After struggling with so many aspects of United States society and culture, I ended up finding a pretty great life in Cape Town, South Africa (along with a pretty great American boyfriend who had moved here years ago and found the same). I spent much of last year, hopping back and forth between the two countries, allowing me to distinctly see the differences between them. I moved here officially this past July.
A new survey shows I’m not alone: according to a TransferWise national survey of over 2000 adults, around one in three Americans say they’d consider leaving the United States for another country.
For us millennials, it’s even worse: 55% of Americans between the ages of 18-34 say they’d consider it.
What scares me most is that I won’t be able to enjoy life as I do here if I were to move back to the United States. Though life in South Africa comes with its own unique set of struggles, my life here in many ways became far easier than what I experienced in the States.
Here’s how:
1. I don’t have to worry about getting sick.
In the Transferwise Survey, “more affordable healthcare” was the number one improvement respondents said would make living in the US more appealing.
For years, the US has had the most expensive yet least effective healthcare system in the world. The recent drug price-hike scandal reminded us that unlike Canada, Australia, and many countries in Europe, our country does not regulate drug prices in the same way we regulate other basic needs, like water and electricity. Instead, we are the only developed nation that allows drug makers to set their own prices, regardless of whether average Americans can afford it.
America today.
As a freelancer, healthcare became one of my top priorities when deciding where to live. Individual plans in New York city can go up to a grand a month. And in my homestate of Florida, the limited access to affordable women’s health needs like pap smears, yearly gynocologist visits, and affordable birth control became a large part of why I left. Planned Parenthood was few and far between in Florida, and charged comparatively high rates after losing funding from the state government. The St. Petersburg Times reported that in 2001, presidential candidate Jeb Bush cut over $300,000 for family planning services through Planned Parenthood. The result? In 2014, an evaluation of health data found that Florida was tied with Oklahoma and Arkansas for the worst state for women’s health.
2. “Work-life balance” actually seems possible.
In the Transferwise survey, “a better quality of life” was the most popular reason people chose to consider leaving the country. It was top on my list too.
I enjoy living in places that prioritize joy instead of only productivity.
In South Africa, I saw people both engaging in meaningful work, and enjoying their weekends. I saw workers consider their loved ones and their overall well-being in their work decisions, without feeling guilty or selfish.
And, I’ve seen people with the most opportunity for financial gain simply choose not to capitalize on it. My boyfriend once asked the owner of a coffee shop we often visited why she closed on Saturdays and Sundays, and so early during the week. He explained to her she could make a killing with brunches on Saturday.
She shrugged her shoulders and told him she already knew that.
But she said she’d rather be with her family on Saturdays than have to worry about work. Similarly, I’ve seen some wine bars close Friday at 10pm, at the time they’d perhaps be most profitable.
I prefer this kind of prioritizing.
3. As a person of color, being an “expat” instead of a “minority” is kind of relieving.
Many articles have discussed how a person of color from the US can often receive more privileges abroad than in the United States.
In his New York Times article “The Next Great Migration” Thomas Chatterton Williams describes the story of his friend who moved from New York to London:
“He confessed, ‘The race situation back home occupies so much space in your mind, even just safety-wise, I actually never fully understood what it meant to be American, and all the advantages that come with it, until now…
You immediately remove that affirmative action target from your back.
A work visa gives you the validation that you’re good at what you do.”
In South Africa, I’ve had similar experiences. Instead of being the “affirmative action kid” I was often labeled at college, here my achievements are never tied to my racial background. People care far more about my US college degree and work experience than how I racially identify.
And because my racial background doesn’t matter nearly as much, race no longer has to matter as much in my life.
My primary identity in South Africa is “American” in a way it never was back in the States. After years of trying to figure out my how my Latino identity fits among my life, it’s kind of relieving for once to live in a place where frankly, no one gives a shit.
4. My values as a global citizen are affirmed.
Life in the United States is generally only about the United States. This is reflected in everything from American travel habits to American media to American curriculum in schools.
But life in other countries is about the world.
For example, Business Insider ran a story that illustrated the differences between US media and media internationally. They put side-to-side the cover stories for Time magazine’s US edition versus its editions abroad.
One month, the cover in the US had the headline “Chore Wars”, while the rest of the world got “Travels Through Islam.” Another month, while the rest of the world had a front page story on rebellion in the Middle East, the US got “Why Anxiety is Good For You.”
Statistics back up this apparent lack of interest in the rest of the world: a State of the Media survey found that in 2008, news agencies in the US devoted only 10.3% to foreign coverage.
While watching the news in South Africa, I also noticed that how we present international coverage also makes a difference. When watching coverage of developments in Iraq and Syria, newscasters actually interviewed Iraqis and Syrians.
I realized that this was perhaps the first time I had ever seen an Iraqi or Syrian civilian given substantial time on television to tell their story. In the US, though civilians from these areas were covered briefly in video footage, I never saw them personally asked for their opinion.
In some ways you could argue that our media is just catering to what Americans truly want to know– which unfortunately, seems to be only about ourselves. People from the US generally don’t have an interest in what happens internationally.
In 2013, The Daily Mail reported that in a survey of over 2,000 Americans, almost half of respondents who had never been abroad said that the only things worth seeing were in our own country. Almost a third answered that even if they had the money, they’d prefer to travel to local areas.
I know I want to live in a place where citizens and institutions care about the world around them and have a natural curiosity for learning about others. Unfortunately, it seems more difficult to find that in the States.
I’m not sure if I’ll live abroad forever, or if these four priorities will be my same priorities in the future. But for now, the US will have to put up a far better show to convince me it’s worth going “home.”
The Alarmist says:
When I was still military, in a so-called “friendly” country, one of my buddies decided our cab fare to town was too much … it was about $1 too much … BFD or Biloxi Fire Department, as we used to say … anyway, buddy decides to pay what he thinks is fair and walk away, so cabbie says, “No good… we go to police!” So buddy says, “Ok, we go to police.” I say, “You know the police beat people in this country, right?” and hand the cabbie the rest of the fare, figuring I was feeding one of his rugrats. When you are an American abroad, you have far fewer friends than you think, and they certainly don’t include the authorities … their and ours.
America soon.
So I am going to kind of throw some shit to America right now…
6 Uncomfortable truths about life in the United States
1. The only country that incarcerates a higher percentage of its population than the U.S. is North Korea.
The International Centre for Prison Studies estimates that we have more than 2.2 million people behind bars, or around 716 people per 100,000 citizens, which is far higher than Russia, China, and Iran. To put this in even more perspective, the number per 100,000 citizens in European countries: 78 in Germany, 103 in France, and 99 in Italy. Even worse, 60% of U.S. prisoners are non-violent offenders. The numbers demonstrate how the United States contributes a completely disproportional amount of prisoners to the global environment: we are responsible for around 22% of the total amount of inmates in the world, even though we only account for 4.4% of the world population.
2. Though we spend more money on health care than any other country in the world, our life expectancy in some areas of the South is lower than the life expectancy in Nicaragua, Algeria and Bangladesh.
Though our life expectancy overall has improved (Americans live around eight years longer now than they did in 1970), our rate of improvement is far slower than other countries, and in some counties is on-par with countries far less developed than we are. We also rank last among rich countries in overall health performance, according to a 2014 survey by the Commonwealth Fund that looked at measures like equity of care and efficiency.
This suggests that Americans overspend on technology, without achieving higher results. For example, Americans have the highest rate of MRI exams. And yet in Austria, where the MRI exam rate is around half of ours, the life expectancy is still two years longer than ours.
We also rank low among developed nations for the amount of doctors we have: only 2.5 per 1,000 people (in 2005). In most of Europe, that number is far above three. In Cuba it was 6.7 in 2010. A 2015 report suggested that by 2025 our country would need between 46,000 and 90,000 more physicians than we have today.
3. Out of all developed nations, we have the highest teen pregnancy rate.
The Guttmacher Institute found that the pregnancy rate for American girls is 57 out of every 1,000 girls, far higher than most developed countries. Many argue that this derives from the failure of our abstinence-only education programs. The majority of European countries use comprehensive sex-ed. The result? A teen pregnancy rate of 5.3 per 1,000 in the Netherlands, 4.3 per 1,000 in Switzerland and 9.8 per 1,000 in Germany.
…one-third of the world’s paper and around a quarter of the world’s oil, coal and aluminum.
5. We are the only developed country that still executes prisoners.
111 UN member nations have expressed their agreement with a moratorium on the death penalty. And yet the US stands alone among developing countries in continuing the practice.
We can’t argue that we’ve kept the death penalty because it works: several articles have shown how capital punishment in the U.S. has been significantly racist, economically costly, and ultimately inefffective in deterring future crime.
6. We are one of only three nations in the world that does not guarantee paid maternal leave.
Though 70 percent of children live in families where both adults work, the United States still has made little effort to provide paid maternal leave for American families.
The small company we keep? Papua New Guinea and Swaziland.
A 2010 survey found that 76 of registered voters supported some form of paid leave.
Other studies also show that when maternity leaves are short and unpaid, immunization and health visit rates go down and infant mortality rates go up. An OECD study on nineteen countries from 1979 to 2003 also found that paid parental led to significantly greater productivity.
So what is the point in all of this?
Life is what you make of it.
Do not live your life in fear.
Just because you were born in the United States, and was raised as an American with all the baggage and advantages that comes with it, you can change the script.
Forest Gump says that “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get”. I argue that you can change the box.
And who cares why?
Really!
If you want to be a hedonistic slime-ball or, a forever-back-packer, or settle down with a family somewhere else. It is no one else’s business. It’s only yours.
So when I read the comments here, I see the arrogance of self-righteous American calling others out for doing things that they themselves are far too afraid to do.
It is really quite simple, really.
You migrate to where your happiness can manifest and become reality. That chick that I mentioned above was far happier in South Africa than in the States. And I am not doubting her. the things that matter to her are important. You just don’t brush them off to the side and call her a “coward” or a “traitor”. Do you?
If you are happy were you are now, then stay there.
I do miss many things about the United States, but for me personally it is literally a prison as a third-rate citizen.No matter what aspects that I miss, that I long for, and what fond memories that I have, I know that they are just that; memories.
We have to look at what is important to us all, and use faith, prayer and affirmation campaigns to make it manifest.
With a plan, backed up with action, understanding and wisdom, you will be able to manifest your desires
May your life become the source for your greatest happiness.
May your life become the source for your greatest happiness.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my index about Escape! (from America)
All through our lives we have been told that “news” provides us with a “window to the world”, and that we need to keep abreast of the events of the day. The argument is that this is how we grow, learn and understand our place in society.
This, now more than ever, is absolutely false.
And as I have repeatedly tried to explain this to you all, you all still don’t FUCKING GET IT!
(Sorry for being so brash and in your face, but Jeeze! Louise!)
All, yes all and every, item of “news” that comes out of the United States is manipulative propaganda. That’s what it is, that’s all it is, and if you respond that you have something that you read from this alternative news source… I will have to shake my head in sadness and disbelief.
There is no longer any free, independent “news” out of the United States today. It is all a very well-honed network of manipulation and deceit.
This means ALL OF IT.
Key Points
Point One. All “news” manipulates.
If you want to get a full perspective on something then you need to get a wide selection of information from many sources. And NO I DO NOT MEAN AMERICAN SOURCES. I mean international sources.
This is key point Two.
Oh, Mr. So-and-so wrote a "well researched" book on China. Great.
Did he write on his experiences inside of China?
No.
Why not?
He used many well documented sources.
Well, what were his sources?
Oh! All American publications, written in English, by people who have never been to China regurgitating what they have read.
And how is the opinion, of a person, who forms his opinions, by other opinionated people who know absolutely nothing about China going to improve your life?
It isn’t.
Instead, you should use that money and you buy a plane ticket and you look around yourself.
That’s key point Three. See what is important with your own two eyes, using your ears, on the ground and touching things with your hands. Books and periodicals and articles are so deceptive these days that they are more of a hindrance to the truth than information.
Now, the world has many many, MANY people pretending to be journalists.
Thus, you have to take each and every “report” and “news article” cautiously (in America we call this “with a grain of salt“). You can read it as most articles are really nothing more than opinions, NOT reporting, and some of those opinions have some value.
I think the most important key point is four. There is no longer any actual reporting inside of America today.
Zero.
Reporting of events in America has been replaced by carefully constructed narratives used to manipulate American citizens to follow herd behaviors.
One of the most important things that we must understand is that America has constructed the most powerful and elaborate propaganda network in history.
The American (levers of government) owns, through proxy, all of the major media, and all of the alternative media.
Yes, please read that again.
The American government owned Rush Limbaugh. The American government owns Free Republic. The American government supports GAB, the American government promotes Salon, the American government is the voice of the Huffington Post. The American government injects Zero Hedge. The American government controls the narratives on LinkedIN.
Those beloved Conservatives, and those funny progressives are all tools for the government. ALL OF THEM.
Thus key point five; actual events (and truths) are hidden from Americans.
So what is the purpose of “news” manipulation?
The actual purpose brings us to key Six. It is more than just a distraction. It’s a “snipe hunt”. The purpose of American news is to keep the American people ignorant.
It is to keep Americans away from the truths.
It is to keep Americans ignorant of the real situations.
This is because if they realized what they were, they would be extremely angry; angry to a point of killing everyone on sight in rolling fits of rage.
That’s why.
SNIPE HUNT
A snipe huntisa type of practical joke or fool's errand, in existence in North America as early as the 1840s, in which an unsuspecting newcomeris duped into trying to catch a nonexistent animal called a snipe. Although snipe are an actual family of birds, a snipehunt is a quest for an imaginarycreaturewhosedescriptionvaries.
-Wikipedia
Those of us “in the know” only have clarity on small tidbits of Intel. However, when we start linking up with others (such as through MM, here) who also have their information and we start putting the information together a very… very… VERY disturbing picture comes to light.
Which is point Seven. The actual reality of how Americans are, the lives they live, and the operation of the government is so far distanced from that which is promoted by the media that it resembles something completely different.
Indeed, the true reality of what America is really resembles the movie the Matrix where young Neo is exposed to the truth of what the world actually looks like.
Central to the philosophical edge of The Matrix is the red and blue pill scene. Morpheus, a human awakened to mankind’s reality, offers the same enlightenment to Neo, who is still plugged into an illusion. Alas, the choice must be Neo’s alone and to this end, Morpheus presents him with a metaphorical choice between two brightly colored pills. Take the red variety, and Neo will be unplugged, finally capable of seeing the world for what it really is. Swallow the blue pill, however, and Neo will not only go back to his digital, make-believe existence, but he’ll also forget ever having questioned what is real and what could be a lie.
Thus point eight. America is not a “shining city on the hill” with “democracy” and “freedom”, with a nation ruled by “justice”.
America is instead, an [1] oligarchy-owned Corporatocracy.
It is one that [2] operates as a military empire, and budgets it appropriately.
America [3] treats it’s people as disposable debit-serfs for profit, with a million tiny “hands in the wallet” with thousands (no longer hundreds) of taxes, fees, rules, and requirements that siphon money away from the citizenry in every shape, and in every form.
And America [4] engages on the international scene as a war-mongering bully, and is [5] presently a serious threat to the future of mankind.
Like a cancer the sicknesses that the leadership has permitted to grow has festered until now, the cancer has metastasized. America has become a dangerous monster that is thrashing around angerly, and trying to maintain it’s respect, it’s authority, and it’s world position. It cannot do that, and of which, it is quite dangerous.
But we are not going to talk about that.
Instead we are going to get back to the point that American “news” is a SNIPE HUNT of misdirection to keep Americans going around and around, and around, and around in circles.
American “news” as a “snipe hunt”
To illustrate how Americans are manipulated to go after “snipes” on a “snipe hunt” we will use the 2009 movie “Push” to illustrate this point.
What is real and what is an illusion when someone else controls your eyes and your memories?
Really.
What if everything that you know is an artificial construct that you now believe and that the truth was erased and false memories were implanted in your brain? Could you tell the difference?
I argue you cannot.
And just like many Americans “had a bad experience with Huawei”, who never owned a Huawei phone…
Who swear that they are never going “to use 5G”…
And now “will not get their RNA vaccination”…
… is no different than you remembering a brother that never existed.
The movie “Push” 2009
As that was one of the scenes in this movie. I am going to use this movie as the basis of discussion on the idea that other forces are so powerful that they can change what you think, what you believe, what you remember, and thus control how you act.
Push 2009.
This movie is sort of a “sleeper” movie about people with super-powers. But unlike that same-old nonsense about being bitten by radioactive spiders and the like, this one discusses …
These days you can't throw a half-brick in the air without it landing on someone who can fly, or was bitten by a radioactive spider (and that's assuming that the 'half-brick' in question doesn't GIVE the person it lands on the power to fly or climb walls!).
However, back in 2009, superhero movies (or those generally showing young, good-looking people with superpowers) weren't quite always guaranteed to make as much money as today's average Marvel Cinematic Universe film.
Therefore, 'Push' sort of flew below radar at the time.
I'd like to say that it's achieved a 'cult following' over time and it's a bit more of a 'sleeper hit,' however, it seems to have been completely forgotten. And, in my opinion, that's a shame - I really enjoyed it!
-bowmanblue
The movie start out with a narrator describing how those with “abilities” have been involved with the US government since 1945.
These abilities are various flavors of telekinetic powers. Some can push thoughts into other people’s brains, others can see into the future, and some can kill others by thoughts alone.
Two of the people with these special “abilities” or “powers”, are known as “movers”.
Movers
Movers are powerful telekinetics who are trained to identify the specific atomic frequency of a given material and alter the gravitational field around it, usually causing the nearby air to appear warped.
This allows them to move both animate and inanimate objects.
Advanced Movers can work at the molecular level, creating protective force fields in the air around them or to reinforce punches and other strikes to make them stronger.
A “mover” can move things with their mind.
Two “Movers”, Nick Gant and his father, are on the run from the “Division”. Which is a waved, unacknowledged special access program in the United States government W(U)-SAP.
Realizing that escape is impossible, Nick’s father tells him of a vision he received from a “Watcher”.
Watchers
Watchers have the ability to foresee the future to varying degrees.
As knowledge of the future invariably causes that future to change, Watchers' visions of the future in their direct sphere of influence are subject to frequent shifting.
This is another type of person who's telekinetic powers involve the power to see the future.
This, in this case, a girl will give him a flower and he is to do whatever she says in order to "save us all."
A “watcher” can see into the future.
Nick’s father throws Nick into an air vent as Agent Henry Carver of the Division arrives. Nick sees his father get killed before escaping.
A decade later, the American Division tests an augmentation drug on a “Pusher”, named Kira.
Pushers
Pushers have the ability to implant memories, thoughts and emotions into the minds of other people in order to manipulate them.
The skill level of the Pusher determines how many people the Pusher is able to control at one time, and how vivid the implanted memories are.
A powerful Pusher can push a large group of people at the same time, basically creating a personal army.
A Pusher is able to make a person do anything the Pusher desires, even commit suicide.
A Pusher's eyes indicate how powerful they are: their pupils will dilate to certain degrees depending on how powerful the push is (for example, Henry Carver's eyes are rendered completely black, signifying that he is an extremely able and effective Pusher).
A “pusher” can put thoughts in your head, and change your memories.
This drug either kills the host or greatly increases their powers exponentially.
The test works after many tries.
Rendering the doctor unconscious, Kira steals his security clearance card and an augmentation drug-filled syringe and escapes.
In Hong Kong, Nick (now older as a young man) is hiding from the Division as an expatriate.
He attempts to use his ability to make a living, but his poor skills at “moving” at a dice game leave him indebted to a local Triad. Which for you all who do not know, is the name of a Chinese criminal organization.
This particular Triad is controlled by “Bleeders”, bred by the now-defunct Chinese Division.
In the movie, the Chinese tried to make their own version of the American “division” but failed. The remnants were either absorbed by the American organization or went “underground” and became criminal syndicates.
Bleeder
Bleeders have the ability to emit high-pitched sonic vibrations that cause ruptures in a target's blood vessels.
While using this ability, their eyes turn into slits because of synthetic materials implanted in them to protect the blood vessels from the effects of their own ability.
They are also sometimes known as Joe Mama.
Bleeders can kill you.
A young girl named Cassie Holmes arrives at Nick’s apartment.
She explains to him that she is a “Watcher”.
Watchers
Watchers have the ability to foresee the future to varying degrees.
As knowledge of the future invariably causes that future to change, Watchers' visions of the future in their direct sphere of influence are subject to frequent shifting.
She further explains that they are going to find a case containing 6 million dollars. But shortly afterwards, they are attacked by Triad Bleeders but escape.
All of the reviews I've read of this movie have savaged it and, personally, I didn't think it was nearly bad as bad as all that.
There were some interesting characters (the guy they enlist to help them hide themselves from the bad guys comes to mind here), and it put a new and interesting spin on the whole "people with super powers" genre.
BUT...what really makes me love this film is the depictions of Hong Kong.
See, I have been living in Hong Kong for almost 5 years now and I've told all my friends and family that if they want to get a good look at the many sides of the city (other than the touristy facade is typically presented), watch this movie.
The film makers really did a great job of capturing what it's like to wander around Hong Kong, and the cinematography is like eye candy.
-srvblooze
Problems arise.
And Nick is nearly killed by the Triads. To recover, Cassie uses the help of a “stitch” to heal him.
Stitch
Stitches are psychic surgeons trained to quickly reconstruct cells to their previous or healthy state.
Using only their hands, they can heal and even "unheal" whatever they have done. For more detailed work, Stitches use a silver based cream on their hands which acts as a conductor for their ability.
Once healed up, Nick and Cassie go to a nightclub on a hint from Cassie’s predictions.
Nick sees an old friend, “Hook” Waters, who happens to be a “Shifter”.
Shifters
Shifters can temporarily alter the appearance of an object by manipulating the patterns of light interacting with it.
Once the illusion is established, it remains with the object for a short period of time.
For example, a Shifter could touch a one dollar bill and alter it to appear as a one hundred dollar bill until the effect expires.
The object shifted must have roughly the same dimensions as the object it is shifted into. The length of time that the effect will last is based on the Shifter's experience and ability.
Shifters can temporarily alter the appearance of an object by manipulating the patterns of light interacting with it.
The shifter uses his abilities to make a replica of the clue in Cassie’s drawing and tells them to go to Emily Hu, a highly skilled “Sniffer” who can help them find Kira.
Sniffer
Sniffs are highly developed psychometrics who can track the location of people or objects over varying distances.
Like bloodhounds, their ability is increased if they have tactile access to an object that has been in direct contact with the subject.
Sniffs receive information in the form of images, which is why identifiable landmarks help increase their effectiveness.
Nick and Cassie find Kira, who once had a romantic relationship with Nick.
They recruit a “Shadow” named “Pinky” Stein to hide Kira from the “Sniffers”.
Shadows
Shadows are trained to block the vision of other clairvoyants such as Sniffs, making any subject within their target radius appear "dark".
Experience will enhance the size of the area they can shadow and the intensity of their shielding effect.
Shadows need to be awake to manifest their ability, so it is common for a detail of two Shadows to operate in shifts while protecting a person or object for extended periods.
Most Shadows are effective only against Sniffs, but some extremely powerful Shadows are able to block even Watchers.
Cassie finds the key to a locker in which Kira hid a valuable case.
With the aid of Cassie’s visions, they piece together the events that led them to meet; Cassie’s mother used her visions to set a complex plan in motion that will destroy Division.
The plan to thwart the American Government
Nick comes up with a plan that involves seven envelopes in which he places instructions; each person in the group is entrusted with one red envelope, and none are to be opened until the right time.
Thus no one knows the content in the envelopes. That way, no one knows the plan except the person who made the envelopes.
While Kira and Pinky leave in a taxi, Nick and Cassie share a goodbye. Cassie tells him to “take an umbrella, it’s going to rain”, he replies with “you be careful too”.
Nick uses a “Wiper” to erase his memories of the plan, ensuring that Watchers from both Division and the Triads will no longer be able to interfere.
Wiper
Wipers are skilled at either temporarily or permanently erasing memory, an invaluable asset in espionage.
Experience will dictate the accuracy of their wipes, though there is always the danger that they will eliminate a desired memory.
Wipers are skilled at either temporarily or permanently erasing memory, an invaluable asset in espionage.
Hook retrieves the case (which does not have 6 million dollars, but instead has the syringe Kira stole) and brings it back to Cassie.
He shifts another case to match the case with the syringe.
Cassie takes the shifted case to Nick’s apartment and waits.
Nick regains consciousness: he has no memory of the envelopes or his plan.
He opens his envelope, which tells him to return home.
He finds the case in his room but Carver introduces himself to Kira as a friend, stating that her memories are false; she is a Division agent who volunteered to take the augmentation injection and suffered amnesia as a side-effect.
Agent Carver is the All-Powerful, all-controlling United States government.
Carver shows Kira her badge.
She believes him, because (after all) her memories and all the events confirm this narrative.
Nick goes to retrieve the augmentation drug and confronts Carver and Kira.
Carver tells Kira and Nick that the relationship they believe they had never happened and a special evening together at Coney Island was a “push” memory.
Kira reveals she has been using Nick the entire time and Nick takes the three to the building which contain the lockers and the case.
They are ambushed by the Triads.
In the midst of the fight, Carver injures Nick.
Nick grabs the case and jams the syringe into his arm, which “kills” him. This is because, after all, the injection is fatal to over 90% of the people so injected.
After the fights ends, Nick wakes up. He wasn’t killed.
Cassie appears with an umbrella and smiles at him, “I told you it was going to rain” she tells him, revealing that it was part of the plan.
Cassie retrieves the true case, revealing that Nick injected himself with soy sauce, as they planned.
Asked whether they will see Kira again, Cassie tells Nick that they will see “little miss trouble-maker soon enough”.
“Little miss trouble-maker”, a watcher for the Triad.
Flying back to America with a sleeping Agent Carver, Kira opens her purse, finding her red envelope.
She remembers Nick telling her to open it when “she started doubting the truth” and opens it.
She finds a photograph of herself and Nick, obviously in a relationship, at Coney Island and a message that says “Kill him, See you soon!”.
Kira “pushes” Carver, commanding him to put his gun in his mouth and pull the trigger.
The screen fades to black, followed by the sound of a gun shot.
…
Push is also, as I said, greatly artistical.
It has a lot of fantastic colors and utilizes lighting very well, it's set in very beautiful environments, and there are a lot of other great cinematic techniques being used.
I especially like the choice of soundtrack in this movie.
It reminds me a lot of the way they choose to use music in The Dark Knight. Instead of some really catchy, noticeable soundtrack there's been a very diligent work done with a subtle yet powerful soundtrack that emerges only when necessary and gives an indescribable force to the movie.
All in all, Push is a quite non-mainstream, entertaining, good movie worth watching.
-that-wierd-guy
Conclusion
For you to really understand what is going on in this reality, that you inhabit, you need to understand that (just like in the movie “Push”) that there are very powerful forces that want to control your mind. If they cannot have you, control you or profit from you, then they will kill you.
Just like in the movie.
They have unlimited resources, buckets of money, skilled and talented assistants, and experts in abilities equal or better than the best you can cobble together.
Just like in the movie.
They control what everyone around you does, plans, thinks, behaves and acts upon.
Just like in the movie.
And they are convinced at how everything will work out. They believe that they will be successful stamping out what tiny inconsequential opposition that still remains to their idea of a global utopia.
Just like in the movie.
But, like the movie, you need to realize that there are ways for you to counter their efforts and avoid becoming one of the mindless zombies that they control. And all of these techniques are spelled out in the movie.
[1] Look at what is NOT being presented as “news”.
For the origin of the Coronavirus, all the discussions boil down to two narratives, and only two narratives.
The Coronavirus is either a natural pandemic or a Chinese bio-weapon. Nothing else.
There is absolutely ZERO coverage on the idea that it was all part of the Donald Trump "hybrid war" against China and that John Bolton was the man in charge of the United States Bio-weapon program.
Which is amazing as that theory is the only one where ALL of the puzzle pieces come together.
[2] If the subject is being presented in a thousand different ways and details, then you are GUARANTEED that it is a United States government narrative. It is not independent and unique. It’s just another color of “Soylant Green”.
Notice that the same narrative is not present in other international publications. Of those, only the ones associated with the "five eyes" intelligence organizations will have similar articles. With some "bleed over" into the EU.
[3] You have to control your memories, as to what is real and what is not, to be fully independent.
We have all be preconditioned to act like Pavlov's Dog. We instinctively behave in certain ways reactively without thinking.
All the time we believe what was taught to us as being correct.
But that is false. Very few things that you accept as truth are really factual. They are all erroneous programming.
So you all are concerned about vaccinations. You are worried about the implications of “passports” and RNA, and unproven issues, and all this against a virus that is promoted as being nothing special nor dangerous. And I am telling you that all the “news” is bullshit. All of it.
The truth is hidden from you.
The dangers to you and your family are real, but NOT what is being described. The American RNA vaccinations are adaptable. They have abilities to adapt to a wide spectrum of viruses and biological weapons.
…a wide spectrum of biological weapons.
And it is critical that people be vaccinated right NOW.
So please ignore all the noise. Be careful and judicious in the selection of the vaccine that you take, and realize that the West has opted for a very unlikely candidate to fight an apparently “harmless” virus.
That makes my, and all of my hidden friends*, hair stand on end.
"Hidden friends" and idiom that refers to non-public MM members who have prior experience in American Black Programs and who understandably do not want any public association with MM, but communicate with me through back channels.
I do not trust anything out of America. But that is just me.
The Sinopham vaccine is based on long-duration, tried and proven technology, but is limited to the Coronavirus.
The American vaccines seem to have a for-profit motive, does involve unproven technology, and is adaptable (with some other injection boosters) to be able to combat a spectrum of other viruses. All this points to the construction of a new type of vaccination market that would require boosters from everything from the common cold to smallpox.
…with some additional boosters (at a price)…
…with annual or semi-annual inoculations (also at a price)…
…can enable the human host to combat new viruses…
…that can vary from the common cold to Smallpox.
The evil American empire has some nefarious plans ahead. I do not know what they are. But I do know that discussion of this, and what the plans could be are functionally being omitted or steered away from the public dialog.
If you read about it in the “news”…
…then you are being misdirected.
Any questions, please query in the comments.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Of course, I have covered the insane level of disinformation, lies, and distortions that are spewed from the American media. I have discussed why and how this has come about, and have provided quite an excessive number of examples. But what this article is about is what is NOT being reported.
If you would tell an American that they are ignorant of the “news” they would laugh in your face. They would respond that that idea is absurd. With the millions of articles being pumped out hourly from the vast American media, in all of it’s forms, of course Americans are “well informed”.
But nope. Americans are not.
Americans are subject to a fire-hose of outright lies, intentional distortions, eye-catching gossip, nonessential tidbits, and fear mongering. It is amazing in it’s size, scope, intensity and diversity.
If you exist within the by now almost hermetically sealed-off mindscape of Western mainstream media, and if you also happen to like knowing the truth, then life must seem increasingly unfair to you—because you can’t win.For decades now the modus operandi has been as follows. Regardless of which party has the majority in Congress or controls the presidency, the same unchanging national (and increasingly transnational) elite ensconced in Washington sets the agenda and pushes it through using any means necessary, whether legal, illegal or blatantly criminal (increasingly the latter as national bankruptcy looms and desperation sets in).Their operatives make sure that there is no real investigation of what happened. All Western media reports that contradict the official mendacious narrative are quashed. Any independent efforts to investigate and to find out the truth are denigrated as “conspiracy theories”—a derogatory term coined by the CIA for exactly this purpose.Any non-Western media sources that dare to contradict the official mendacious narrative are ignored, subjected to ad hominem attacks and all manner of false allegations and, if all else fails, banned outright (as is currently happening with the satellite TV channel Russia Today).
But do not be under the impression and “real and actual news” is somehow caught up in this flood of articles. The good stuff are all culled away before Americans ever get near the truth. Americans never see the REAL news.
Some recent examples of “withheld news” include…
The use of drones to spray swine flu over Chinese pig farms.
The content of John Bolton’s meetings when he was the head of the American military bio-weapons office.
The Chinese complaint about American involvement of COVID-19 to the UN.
And those are just right at the top of my head.
If you read foreign news, you will be well aware of these events, but Americans… nope. they would rather read other things.
This particular article is going to concentrate on the public messages that both Putin and Xi Peng have been making to the United States. They are not being (accurately) reported at all.
Any reports are of the content style of “Foreign clownish national leader says something insulting to America. They are just jealous.” And the same yada, yada, yada that you can expect from the Alt-Right and the American mainstream press.
If we swallow the official lies we are being told, knowing full well that they are lies, then we feel like fools.
If we refuse to swallow them, then we either have to accept some alternative interpretation...
... or narrative as real in spite of lacking all the facts we need to prove the case...
...because nobody is going to give them to us—and risk ostracism and marginalization...
... or we have to take an agnostic stance and declare that while we are not privy to the truth.
We know enough to declare that the official story is a tissue of lies.
The first two of these are both clearly losing moves while the last is a refusal to play and therefore a forfeit; thus, all three are defeats.There are no winning moves here.But it’s even worse than that; not only do we lack a winning strategy, but we also happen to be on a losing team that doesn’t know how to play and loves to be played.
If Americans would read what I am presenting here, maybe they would start placing calls to their Congressmen representatives urging them to tone-down the belligerent aggressive war-drums.
Ai.
Take the example of the ill-fated US invasion of Iraq: 4,801 servicemen dead, 1,455,590 dead Iraqis, a once prosperous country destroyed and turned into a terrorist playground with a weak central government that is aligned with Iran, buying weapons from Russia and increasingly hostile toward the US.The war was sold to the public in the US using a technique called “proof by juxtaposition” which works like this: keep showing a picture of Bob next to a giant pile of corpses and eventually everyone comes to believe that Bob is a mass murderer, never mind the fact that Bob only killed maybe half a dozen people, and all but one in self-defense or by accident.This is what was done with Saddam Hussein (who, by the way, was Osama bin Laden’s arch-enemy, who, in turn, had worked for the CIA). By 2003 70% of Americans had been made to believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the destruction of the World Trade Center.“Proof by juxtaposition” works well for the TV-addled zombies in the US, but for the rest of the world, as represented by the UN Security Council, a stronger tissue of lies had to be woven—using forged “intelligence” of Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction.” The world blinked and either voted for or failed to veto the resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq.The putative weapons were never found and the intelligence that was used to convince the world of their existence turned out to have been fabricated.
But since the American people (the “sheeple”) are so dumbed down and are unaware of what is going on, no one is sending up messages to Washington, and so they all believe what they want to believe.
“Foreign clownish national leader says something insulting to America. They are just jealous.”
First up is an article about what Putin had to say to America and it’s “allies”…
Putin to Western Elites: Playtime is Over
An excellent blogger about Russia distills Putin’s Sochi speech into 10 simple points
Dmitry Orlov Thu, Mar 17 2016 .A longer version of this article originally appeared at the ClubOrlov blog. All credit to the author.
Most people in the English-speaking parts of the world missed Putin’s speech at the Valdai conference in Sochi a few years ago, and, chances are, those who have heard of the speech didn’t get a chance to read it, and missed its importance.
Western media did their best to ignore it or to twist its meaning. Regardless of what you think or don’t think of Putin (like the sun and the moon, he does not exist for you to cultivate an opinion) this is probably the most important political speech since Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech of March 5, 1946.
In this speech, Putin abruptly changed the rules of the game. Previously, the game of international politics was played as follows: politicians made public pronouncements, for the sake of maintaining a pleasant fiction of national sovereignty, but they were strictly for show and had nothing to do with the substance of international politics; in the meantime, they engaged in secret back-room negotiations, in which the actual deals were hammered out.
Previously, Putin tried to play this game, expecting only that Russia be treated as an equal. But these hopes have been dashed, and at this conference he declared the game to be over, explicitly violating Western taboo by speaking directly to the people over the heads of elite clans and political leaders.
Here’s what he said…
1. The games are OVER.
Russia will no longer play games and engage in back-room negotiations over trifles. But Russia is prepared for serious conversations and agreements, if these are conducive to collective security, are based on fairness and take into account the interests of each side.
2. America cannot guarantee anything.
All systems of global collective security now lie in ruins. There are no longer any international security guarantees at all. And the entity that destroyed them has a name: The United States of America.
3. There is no New World Order as envisioned by America.
The builders of the New World Order have failed, having built a sand castle. Whether or not a new world order of any sort is to be built is not just Russia's decision, but it is a decision that will not be made without Russia.
The UN failed.
The NWO failed.
And so America launched the “Rules Based Order”, and it is…
…failing.
4. Russia prefers cautious and careful diplomacy.
Russia favors a conservative approach to introducing innovations into the social order, but is not opposed to investigating and discussing such innovations, to see if introducing any of them might be justified.
5. Russia will not play any games that America has created.
Russia has no intention of going fishing in the murky waters created by America's ever-expanding “empire of chaos,” and has no interest in building a new empire of her own (this is unnecessary; Russia's challenges lie in developing her already vast territory). Neither is Russia willing to act as a savior of the world, as she had in the past.
6. Russia does not want to lead the world.
Russia will not attempt to reformat the world in her own image, but neither will she allow anyone to reformat her in their image. Russia will not close herself off from the world, but anyone who tries to close her off from the world will be sure to reap a whirlwind.
And neither does China.
Which, of course, runs contrary to the K-street narrative out of Washington DC.
7. Russia does not want war, but sees America eyeing it as the next world war.
Russia does not wish for the chaos to spread, does not want war, and has no intention of starting one. However, today Russia sees the outbreak of global war as almost inevitable, is prepared for it, and is continuing to prepare for it. Russia does not war—nor does she fear it.
8. Russia will not interfere in the goals and objectives of other nations, just leave it alone.
Russia does not intend to take an active role in thwarting those who are still attempting to construct their New World Order—until their efforts start to impinge on Russia's key interests. Russia would prefer to stand by and watch them give themselves as many lumps as their poor heads can take. But those who manage to drag Russia into this process, through disregard for her interests, will be taught the true meaning of pain.
This is what China is doing as well. It’s a big night and day comparison to what the Untied Sates and it’s “allies” are doing.
9. Russia is about Russians. Nothing else.
In her external, and, even more so, internal politics, Russia's power will rely not on the elites and their back-room dealing, but on the will of the people.
Yes., And China is for the Chinese.
To these nine points I would like to add a tenth:
10. There can be no unilateral action.
There is still a chance to construct a new world order that will avoid a world war. This new world order must of necessity include the United States—but can only do so on the same terms as everyone else: subject to international law and international agreements; refraining from all unilateral action; in full respect of the sovereignty of other nations.
To sum it all up: play-time is over. Children, put away your toys. Now is the time for the adults to make decisions. Russia is ready for this; is the world?
But Americans just don’t “get it”
They are living in some kind of stupid haze, or just morons, or perhaps they have never seen the pain and suffering and despair that war brings. Maybe they view war as something that is done far away and that doesn’t affect them. they don’t see that when Putin and Xi Peng are making these statements that they are not talking about Russians and Chinese dying. They are talking about American dying in mass.
They just don’t “get it”.
So here is another article. This one is about the absolute frustration that Putin has with the fucking morons that run the West.
Putin LOSES IT, Warns Journalists of War: ‘I Don’t Know How to Get Through to You People’
‘How do you not understand that the world is being pulled in an irreversible direction?’
Enrico Braun Wed, Jul 6 2016 | 320 words 238,361 Comments This post first appeared on Russia Insider.
Vladimir Putin has finally taken the kid gloves off.
The Russian president was meeting with foreign journalists at the conclusion of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 17th, 2016 when he left no one in any doubt that the world is headed down a course which could lead to nuclear war.
This was in 2016, right before Trump was elected President of the United States.
Putin railed against the journalists for their “tall tales” in blindly repeating lies and misinformation provided to them by the United States on its anti-ballistic missile systems being constructed in Eastern Europe. He pointed out that since the Iran nuclear deal, the claim the system is to protect against Iranian missiles has been exposed as a lie.
The journalists were informed that within a few years, Russia predicted the US would be able to extend the range of the system to 1000 km. At that point, Russia’s nuclear potential, and thus the nuclear balance between the US and Russia, would be placed in jeopardy.
Putin completely lost patience with the journalists, berating them for lazily helping to accelerate a nuclear confrontation by repeating US propaganda.
He virtually pleaded with the western media, for the sake of the world, to change their line:
We know year by year what's going to happen, and they know that we know. It's only you that they tell tall tales to, and you buy it, and spread it to the citizens of your countries.
You people in turn do not feel a sense of the impending danger - this is what worries me.
How do you not understand that the world is being pulled in an irreversible direction?
While they pretend that nothing is going on.
I don't know how to get through to you anymore.
Does anyone in the reeking garbage heap that is the Western mainstream western media have a conscience? Do they even have enough intellect to get what Putin is saying – that they are helping to push the planet towards World War III?
That all was five years ago.
What about today?
Quite a bit has happened since Putin laid the line down with the West, and they repeatedly ignored his warnings. But you see trump started to focus on China instead, and that gave Russia a “breather” .
Of course the world has been turned upside down and no there is not a person alive who thinks that 2016 was an unstable time compared to the Biden / Trump years.
What has happened since then is a sequence of war events that were not reported in the Western press. And taken as a whole we can easily see what actually has transpired. And knowing this, and the results of the March 2021 Anchorage Alaska meeting, we know that after that meeting a significant shift occurred in Geo-political relations.
America told the world to accept it as their overlord or expect to be destroyed.
Russia, China and Iran formed a massive joint defense and economic block. Then laid out precise lines; “Red Lines” that will trigger World War III.
And sure, most certainly, the ambassadors have been quite clear on this.
And while I can well relate the various warnings over and over, and over to the moronic idiots who run Washington DC, let’s just keep things simple.
The stage has been set. Both China, and Russia are not going to pretend that America (and it’s cronies) are anything other than despotic-ruled military empire desirous of world conquest, and they WILL retaliate against the United States in a very substantive and spectacular way.
You all might as well ignore the “news”. None of this is being reported, and if you rely on the “news” for Intel, one day you will wake up in a reality that might not be to your liking.
No one is buying the mainstream media, or the same-old dialog any longer. It’s a new day. it’s a new beginning, and the old is sinking into the waters aflame. The only ones unable to see this are the rats scrambling on the deck of the collapsing ship.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Well China has unveiled a new operating system, and it is a BIG DEAL. And I am going to tell you why.
Why this is a big deal.
Presently America controls 99% of all operating systems in the world. America controls the vast number of computer operating systems (Microsoft, and Apple), and the vast number of cell phone operating systems (Microsoft, Google, and Android). The few remaining systems such and Linux and other odd-balls are hit and miss in regards to this control.
Now, I am not talking about American companies being in control of these operating systems.
Instead, I am discussing the American government controlling the operating systems themselves.
It is no secret that the United States government has offices in the development offices of Microsoft, Apple, and Google. And it is more than just “back doors” to operation access.
The Utah Data Collection Center.
To use any of these systems is to give the United States absolute control over your electronics,
As I can PERSONALLY affirm when the government burst into my home in 2006, seized my computer, plugged it into a machine and had full access effectively bypassing all of my passwords, biomedical fingerprint scanning mechanisms and folder locks. They (passwords, biometrics, etc.) are there to give you the illusion of security. The fact is, the US Government owns your computer and they can access it at will.
They can do it at any time. At any place, and there isn’t a fucking thing that you can do about it.
Enter China
This situation, where America has it’s fingers and hands on all communication and electronic communication, is dangerous. Not just for you as an individual who no longer has privacy in any form, but for governments who are exposed to electronic blackmail at the touch of a button.
Which pretty much explains the Morrison government in Australia.
Whether this is economic, such as what the Trump Administration was trying to do with Huawei, or domestically, such as the control of dams, pipelines, and military, the risk of a malevolent foreign actor… especially an out of control military empire such as the United States to have this ability is very, very dangerous.
And now China has it’s own OS.
And the entire “ballgame” has changed.
America must stop this from happening!
Thus we have an on-going war with everything Huawei.
After four years of anti-China disinformation, and anti-Huawei disinformation, most Americans will regurgitate the propaganda that they have been programmed.
All the sheeple feel “bad” about Huawei and have “bad experiences”. Not that they have any experiences, mind you, but they just regurgitate the narratives. And it’s like listening to a robot. Seriously.
I met a fellow who was like this just last week. We were in a Shaomi store, and we started chatting. He said that he didn’t like Huawei products. And so I naturally asked him why.
He said that he had a “bad experience” with it.
So, I wanted to know. What was it? Was it breaking down? Was it too expensive, did it remind him of a bad girl friend? What? Was he swindled? Did the screen fall off? Were there connection problems? What was it?
I asked him over and over.
All he would say for the umpteen time was that he had a “bad experience”. I was just about to give up when he admitted that he never really and actually owned a Huawei phone. It’s just that he read a lot of bad stuff about it.
Sheeple.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Harmony OS
After years of speculation and rumor, Chinese tech giant Huawei formally unveiled its Harmony OS operating system in 2019. It’s fair to say that more questions have been raised than answered. How does it work? What problems does it solve? And is it a product of the current feud between Huawei and the U.S. government?
Is Harmony OS Based on Linux?
No. Although both are free software products (or, more accurately, Huawei has pledged to release Harmony OS with an open-source license), Harmony OS is its own distinct product. Moreover, it uses a different design architecture to Linux, preferring a microkernel design over monolithic kernel.
But wait. Microkernel? Monolithic kernel? I’ve lost you.
Let’s try again. At the heart of every operating system is something called a kernel. Like the name implies, kernels are at the heart of every operating system, effectively serving as a foundation. They handle interactions with the underlying hardware, allocate resources, and define how programs are executed and operated.
All kernels have these fundamental responsibilities. However, they differ in how they work.
Let’s talk about memory. Modern operating systems try to segregate user applications (like Steam or Google Chrome) from the more sensitive parts of the operating system. Imagine an impenetrable line dividing the memory used by system-level services from your applications. There are two main good reasons for this: security and stability.
Microkernels, like the one used by Harmony OS, are extremely discerning about what runs in kernel mode, effectively limiting it to the basics.
Bluntly, monolithic kernels aren’t discerning. Linux, for example, allows many OS-level utilities and processes to run within this privileged space in memory.
At the time Linus Torvalds started work on the Linux kernel, microkernels were still something of an unknown quantity, with few real-world commercial uses. Microkernels also proved harder to develop, and tended to be slower.
Nearly 30 years later, things have changed. Computers are faster and cheaper. Microkernels have made the leap from academia into production.
The XNU kernel, which sits at the heart of macOS and iOS, lends much inspiration from earlier microkernel designs, namely the Mach kernel developed by Carnegie Mellon University. Meanwhile QNX, which forms the basis of the Blackberry 10 operating system, as well as many vehicular infotainment systems, uses a microkernel design.
It’s All About the Extensibility, Man
Because Microkernel designs are intentionally limited, they’re easy to extend. Adding a new system service, like a device driver, doesn’t require the developer to fundamentally alter or interfere with the kernel.
And that hints towards why Huawei chose this approach with Harmony OS. Although Huawei is perhaps best known for its phones, it’s a company involved in most sectors of the consumer technology market. Its lineup includes things like fitness wearables, routers, and televisions.
And let’s not even get into AI, robotics, infrastructure such as roads, trains and intelligent mining and farming initiatives.
And Huawei is an incredibly ambitious company. Taking a leaf from rival Xiaomi’s book, the firm has started selling IoT products through its youth-focused subsidiary Honor, including intelligent toothbrushes and smart desk lamps.
And while it’s not clear whether Harmony OS will run on every bit of consumer technology it ultimately sells, Huawei aspires to have an operating system that will run on as many devices as possible.
Part of the reason is compatibility. If you disregard hardware requirements, any application written for Harmony OS should work on any device running it. That’s an attractive proposition for developers. But it should also have benefits for consumers, too. As more and more devices become computerized, it makes sense for them to be able to easily work as part of a broader ecosystem.
But What About Phones?
It’s been nearly three years since the Trump administration’s Treasury Department placed Huawei on an “entity list,” thereby preventing American firms from trading with the company. While this has exerted pressure on all levels of Huawei’s business, the biggest pain has been felt in the company’s mobile division, preventing it from releasing new devices with Google Mobile Services (GMS) included.
Google Mobile Services is effectively the entire Google ecosystem for Android, including mundane apps like Google Maps and Gmail, as well as the Google Play Store. With Huawei’s latest phones lacking access to most apps, many have wondered whether the Chinese giant will abandon Android, instead moving to a homegrown operating system.
This seems unlikely. At least, in the short term.
For starters, Huawei’s leadership has reiterated its commitment to the Android platform. Instead, it’s focused on developing its own alternative to GMS called Huawei Mobile Services (HMS).
At the heart of this is the company’s app ecosystem, the Huawei AppGallery. Huawei states it’s spending $1 billion to close the “app gap” with the Google Play Store and has 3,000 software engineers working on it.
A new mobile operating system would be forced to start from scratch. Huawei would have to attract developers to port or redevelop their apps for Harmony OS. And, as we’ve learned from Windows Mobile, BlackBerry 10, and Samsung’s Tizen (and previously Bada), that’s not an easy proposition.
That said, Huawei is one of the most well-resourced tech firms in the world. And thus, it would be unwise to completely dismiss the prospect of a Harmony OS-powered phone.
Made in China 2025
There’s an interesting political angle to discuss here. For decades, China has acted as the world’s factory, building products designed overseas. But in recent years, China’s government and its own private sector has invested heavily in research and development. Increasingly, Chinese-designed products are making their way onto the international stage, offering new competition for Silicon Valley’s tech elite.
Amidst this, the Beijing government has an ambition it calls “Made in China 2025.” Effectively, it wants to end its reliance on imported high-tech products, such as semiconductors and airplanes, replacing them with their own homegrown alternatives. The motivation from this stems from economic and political security, as well as national prestige.
Harmony OS fits into this ambition perfectly. If it takes off, it’ll be the first globally successful operating system to emerge from China—with the exception of those used in niche markets, like cellular base stations. These homegrown credentials will come in particularly handy should the cold war between China and the United States continue to rage.
And as a result, I wouldn’t be surprised for Harmony OS to have some very enthusiastic supporters in the central government, as well as within the wider Chinese private sector. And it’s these supporters who will ultimately determine its success.
China Manufactures hardware for the world
99% of all hardware is made in China. What happens when China decides not to preload Windows 10, Apple OS, or Linux and only allows Harmony OS installed?
Sure you can write over the OS when you get the hardware. And that is probably what will happen. Certainly in the USA, American will be FORCED to use American OS.
It will begin as coercion. Where Americans will be warned about the dangers of Harmony OS.
Then it will be mandated by law.
Americans will be FORCED to use American computer operating systems. Just like they are forced to do other things, like pay taxes, buy health insurance, register guns, show identification to buy alcohol, and buy car insurance, etc.
Americans will be forced to use systems to allow their monitoring by the US government.
But that’s not the real concern. Actually. Americans lost their freedoms back hundreds of years ago.
What the real concern is that Microsoft will lose it’s substantial market share, as will google, and Apple. And without this dominance int he market will come a slowly eroding Intel collection ability for the American government.
And the folk at Langley are all in arms about it.
Keep in mind why the United States government wants you to hate Huawei.
Conclusion
The United States dominance on access to privacy, control of information, control of the media, and manipulation of thought are all being challenged by China. And the oligarchy inside of Washington DC do not like this one single bit.
They are flooding the media with warnings, fears and hype and doing everything within their power to assure complete dominance in the intelligence, and communication technologies.
The sheeple believe this.
That is because they have nothing else to compare it against. So they believe the one thousandth article on why Huawei is dangerous and how China is stealing from YOU!
Do not believe it.
If you all could only see things from my point of view, from me…
…standing outside…
…and looking in at the absolutely insanity inside of America today, you too would see what is going on and why.
And a nice little video that I took. I want all you you readers in MM land to start seeing what it is like living outside of America. So that you can see how God-awful America has become. You can watch it HERE. 180MB.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Can you believe that the morons in the American “news” media, the assholes in Washington DC, and the “talking heads” all still refer to America as a “democracy”. Really! Seriously!
It’s a De Facto Military Empire.
It’s the largest Military Empire in history. And it lives for war. The vast budget of America is devoted to…
…wait for it…
…war!
Ah…
Which goes to show you just how stupid and idiotic America is today. It’s no longer a matter of being delusional. It’s a matter of pure and utter insanity and stupidity.
The American government would look quite different if it was focused on serving the needs of it’s people. It would look something like this…
But you know, people are slowly waking up. It only took them all until the nation is teetering at the edge of the cliff to notice, but well, better late than never. Don’t you know.
I initially found this on MoA in the comment section. It’s pretty good and I expounded upon it. It was originally found on Zero Hedge alongside the rest of the COVID nonsense that is day-to-day fodder in the “alternative” media.
Ah. You know what I am talking about; that Coronavius is just an excuse for more government powers.
Yup. It’s a comfortable narrative.
Far easier to digest than the truth; that the Coronavirus was a part of a multi-stage bio-weapons attack against China on CNY that went “tits up”.
go tits up[1] rude slang To break or malfunction; to die, fall apart, or cease to work. (A play on the phrase "go belly up." "Tits up" is sometimes hyphenated.)
[2] rude slang By extension, to have a poor, undesired, or ruinous outcome; to fail completely or not come together at all.
Never the less, the obvious points that he had made are worthy of consideration, and at that, I have expounded upon that comment and added my very own “two cents”.
Here are Ten Things We Have Learned …. about American (and United States) government, democracy and the superiority of “the American way of life”, “freedom” and “liberty”…
1. The American political system is hopelessly corrupt.
It is irredeemably corrupt. Virtually all politicians are hopelessly corrupt. No political party can be trusted. They all can be, and have been, bought. They serve themselves, pretend to work in the interests of the nation while all the time acting as the "bag men" for the oligarchy.
2. Democracy is a sham.
It has been a sham for a very long time.
There will never be any real democracy when money and power amount to the same thing.
The Founding Fathers who wrote the Federalist Papers were absolutely correct. A Republic tends to turn into a Democracy. A Democracy tends to turn into an Oligarchy, and an Oligarchy tends to devolve into a Military Empire if left unchecked.
America is an oligarchy ruled military empire. It hasn't been a democracy for centuries.
3. The system will stop at nothing to hold on to its power and, if possible, increase its levels of control and exploitation.
It has no scruples. No lie is too outrageous, no hypocrisy too nauseating, no human sacrifice too great.
Those in power are psychopaths, surrounded by psychopathic toadies, and empowered by a corrupt well-established "good old boys" network.
4. So-called radical movements are usually nothing of the sort.
From whatever direction they claim to attack the system, they are just pretending to do so.
These "radical movements" are just useful tools of the oligarchy, and serve to channel discontent in directions which are harmless to the power clique and even useful to its agendas.
5. Any “dissident” voice you have ever heard of through corporate media is probably a fake.
The system does not hand out free publicity to its actual enemies.
The entire media machine is owned, run, funded (either directly or indirectly) by the government, or it's controlling interests; the oligarchy.
Real and actually dissident voices are silenced through technological means, or barring that, killed outright.
6. Most people in our society are cowards.
They will jettison all the fine values and principles which they have been loudly boasting about all their lives merely to avoid the slightest chance of public criticism, inconvenience or even minor financial loss.
Additionally, most American people have a price, and they will sell their soul, their businesses, their families and their futures for financial gain.
7. The mainstream media is nothing but a propaganda machine for the system…
...and those journalists who work for it have sold their sorry souls, placing their (often minimal) writing skills entirely at the disposition of Power.
There are no longer any true dissident voices, or real journalism.
Those that try to practice it must rely on social networks to get their messages heard, and the government, in one way or the other, controls all social media.
8. Police are not servants of the public…
...but servants of a powerful and extremely wealthy minority which seeks to control and exploit the public for its own narrow and greedy interests.
9. Scientists cannot be trusted.
They will use the hypnotic power of their white coats and authoritative status for the benefit of whoever funds their work and lifestyle.
He who pays the piper calls the tune. And they all live for government funding. Either direct, or though an NGO that is supervised through the government.
10. Progress is a misleading illusion.
The “progress” of increasing automation and industrialization does not go hand in hand with a progress in the quality of human life.
Rather, it is becoming increasingly evident, that it will tend to “progressively” reduce it to the point of complete extinction unless managed expertly and adroitly.
So… is “black”, actually “white”?
There is a percentage of the population in America that is waking up to the fact that the American government is corrupt. That it controls all media, not just the mainstream media, and that “alternative” media outlets are all corrupted. And the beloved alternatives are now, themselves part of the government narrative.
To check who is who…
See which of your favorite “alternative media” sources are parroting the government line. Let’s use this one; “China is the source of Coronavirus, and they are covering it up.”
Any “alternative media” that repeats some form of this narrative, is a de facto arm of the American government.
When they should really be talking about how neocon John Bolton (psychopathic neocon) was put in charge of the bio-weapons office in 2017.
When anyone is talking about Coronavirus being a bio-weapon but omits this most critical piece of information should tell you reams about what your source of information is. That’s like buying a new automobile without wheels, an engine, and a steering wheel.
If you cannot see that your beloved “alternative media” are simply parroting one of three key media talking directions, then you too… must be… a sheeple.
And while I am at it…
How all that “dangers of 5G” working out now?
Why, all the news articles about it all suddenly came to an end when American companies were able to compete against the Chinese lead in 5G technology. Imagine that! What a coincidence!
Who was promoting the “don’t use 5G” narrative?
Rush Limbaugh
Hall Turner
FOX News
The ones who promoted the government narrative, are themselves agents of the government.
Remember, boys and girls, your most beloved “alternative media” are just mouthpieces of the government. That way they control your actions and your behaviors by controlling your favorite news outlets. They construct one of three narratives and you end up following the narrative that appeals to what you want to believe.
Meanwhile, what is actually going on is hidden from sight.
Alt-Right
“It’s the evil Chinese. They mishandled a bio-weapon that they stole and are covering it up.”
Mainstream
“Everything is just fine, and America will recover soon.”
Alt-Left
“Don’t be afraid. Everything is under control and the Coronavirus is being tracked.”
Conclusion
I need a beer.
Is there any American out there in MM land that disagrees with this appraisal? If so, I would love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Personally, I found it “on point” and accurate. But then again, I have a “bone to pick” with the USA, so I am biased.
And with that in mind, let me close with a short video that I made of my life here in China. It’s all of a few minutes long and worth the while for you all to have some perspective what things are like…
…for me on the outside looking into the house of madness that the USA is today. The video is HERE. 150MB.
To understand what is going on inside of the forest, you need to step out of it, climb a nearby hill and look at the bigger picture. There, from that vantage point, you will be able to see a much clearer and bigger picture of what is going on.
Forest Fire.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
There was a song that I used to listen to by Triumph called “It’s Just a Game”. Their theme, at the time, was that life was just one game after the other. Ah. It was a nice theme, but you know, maybe they were right? Humans follow the rules of society, and when you have rules, you are actually playing a game.
Such as described in a particular song “Lay it on the line” where they decry the apparent game-play in relationships. It’s all just a game. Work. Relationships. Career. Family.
It’s all just a game.
And sure things have changed since the late 1970’s when I listened to this music and used the album covers to clean my nickel bags of twigs and seeds. And when I would have parties at my parent’s house with beer, whiskey, and (then illegal) marijuana.
Yes, sure things have changed since the late 1970’s.
But just because you are not wearing earth shoes, elephant bell-bottom trousers, and a fringe leather vest, doesn’t mean that the ideas and concepts of that time …
…were just short-lived conceptional fads. Perhaps what we thought at that time was actually correct. Maybe life was actually a game.
And whether you were downing Rolling Rock beer, or Coors, or an imported Beck’s beer you were too distracted to take note on the “rules of the game”. You just accepted your role. Whether it was a pawn, a rook, or a knight.
Maybe life was actually a game.
And maybe…
…just maybe…
…we all have been taking it far too seriously.
Life is a game and we have been taking it far too seriously.
And thus, maybe we should sit back, and stop being so anal about life. So what if you want to drive home and have lunch with your family during lunch break? So what if you want to go have a smoke outside? So what if you need to stretch your legs and walk around the building to give yourself a chance to think. So what if you want to have a icy cold beer at lunch with your hamburger?
In England you can get a beer with your whopper. It’s all very English, don’t you know.
Imagine that! Well, why not get a bottle from the quickie-mart, get some takeout burgers and drink the beer, eat the burger in a park?
That’s always a good idea. I used to do that. I would hop in my car, go through the drive through and order a combo meal, and then drive to a shady glade and sit there listening to El’ Rush Bo. I wouldn’t dare buy a beer. That would have gotten me fired. Not that they needed the excuse, mind you. In those days, they treated employees like toilet paper. Use and discard. Use and discard. Use and discard. There was always plenty more where they came from.
Of course, I do not advise sitting in the car listening to Rush Limbaugh right now. Since, he’s dead, and the narrative is still the alt-right US government propaganda. They are still following the script, set forth by John Bolton back in 2016, and drinking coke-cola daily is not good for you, and it’s lonely to boot.
But heck…
Go ahead, get a taco salad, and get a beer from the quickie mart, and go to a park.
What?
No park?
Well, how about driving your car to the never-visited cemetery at the end of the lane. Pulling over and either sitting in your car under the shade of a mighty oak tree, or getting out and enjoying the beer on a granite tombstone?
Lunch in a car is a typical way that American corporate clones get some private time.
What?
The grounds-keeper might call the police for observing your flagrant display of enjoying lunch with a beer in a quiet park setting!
Sacrilege!
Go to a cemetery and enjoy a beer.
Like I am saying. We are playing the game too seriously, and we are way too caught up in it.
If you are a corporate drone, and you sit back. Watch how you are participating inside a big elaborate game. And …
It's just a game, you're in it all the way
It's just a game, don't let yourself slip away
It's such a shame, I heard somebody say
It's just a game, and all I can do...is play
And it is a game.
And the rules of the game are constantly changing, and we are all adapting to the changing rules instead of defining our own rules.
Did you realize that they made a female version of Sherlock Holmes? Yup. I am not shitting you. It’s a bonafied version of Sherlock Holmes with his sister taking all the credit. Jeeze! It’s called Enola Holmes(2020).
When Enola Holmes-Sherlock's teen sister-discovers her mother missing, she sets off to find her, becoming a super-sleuth in her own right as she outwits her famous brother and unravels a dangerous conspiracy around a mysterious young Lord.
It’s all just a game.
Don’t get too caught up in it.
I dug up this interesting article on Strategic Culture, and it’s worth a study. Now, before we get into the subject matter too deeply, let’s consider life as a human has evolved (devolved?) into some kind of game with rules. All of which were created by other humans a long, long time ago. And we are all stuck “playing the game”, when we really don’t have to…
The Curse of Game Theory: Why It’s in Your Self-Interest to Exit the Rules of the Game
Game theory, the mathematical theory of games of strategy, was developed by John von Neumann. It was created in several successive stages from 1928 and into 1940-41. It was published in his book “Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour” which he co-authored with Oskar Morgenstern.
The crux of the theory is that an individuals’ behavior will always be motivated towards achieving an optimal outcome, which is determined by self-interest.
An assumption made is that the players in such a game are rational, which translates to, “will strive to maximize their payoffs in the game”.
In other words, it is assumed they are motivated by selfish self-interests.
Over the years, other contributors such as John Nash (Nash equilibrium) and John Maynard Smith (evolutionary stable strategy) have added to the theory.
Today, we are now at a point where it is considered by many to be an essential tool when modelling economic, political, sociological or military behaviors and outcomes.
As such, it is taught as such in many prestigious universities as something pretty much set in stone.
But what if we have made a terrible mistake?
After all, it is acknowledged by the theorists themselves that the entire functioning of their model relies upon the assumption that we are governed by rational selfish behavior.
People feel confident about this assumption since reality has apparently confirmed this fact to them.
But what if this game is not objectively mirroring a truthful depiction of us?
What if this game has rather, been used as a conditioning tool, a self-fulfilling prophecy, a positive feedback loop?
How can we know what is true?
How can we know what kind of a person we truly are and not what we have been conditioned to think of ourselves as?
Theory of Games and Economic Behavior
Before we can answer such a question, we need to look at the forms of simplification and assumptions that were used.
This may be counter-intuitive to some, but the “philosophy” or “hypothesis” must always precede the actual model.
The [1] variables you choose to use, [2] the variables you discount for, [3] how you define the variables, [4] how you define the relationship between the variables are not being defined by the model, but rather the creator of the model.
Once the model is created it can now, theoretically, add to that beginning structure and mimic a simplified version of reality.
However, we should keep in mind that a model that has been created on a false hypothesis could still “function.”
That is, of course, if the variables are not too much in contradiction to the other variables’ operations.
Such a model is not “aware” that it is not a representation of “reality,” and cannot indicate so to its creator.
Thus, a model can be a representation of a simplified reality or it can represent a completely artificial reality.
The Disclaimers
At the beginning of von Neumann’s book, he goes through several disclaimers which are highly problematic towards the relevance of his theory.
One of them being the acknowledgement that “there exists, at present, no satisfactory treatment of the question of rational behavior.
There may, for example, exist several ways by which to reach the optimum position.
They may depend upon the knowledge and understanding which the individual has and upon the paths of action open to them, because they imply, as must be evident, quantitative relationships.”
As becomes rapidly evident, von Neumann makes endless assertions such as these.
As if they were obvious and thus need not be examined at all.
The assumption that an under-defined “rational” selfish behavior is merely quantifiable and nothing more…
… and does not account for qualitative change (a mathematician’s worst nightmare)…
… is taking great liberty in over-simplifying human behavior to conveniently fit the limited parameters of his model.
In other words, it is cheating.
You are manipulating the definitions and interactions of your variables to fit an artificial reality of your model.
An Example of how this model fails
Let me give you an example.
In Euclid’s fifth postulate, it is considered a “rule” that two parallel lines will never intersect. Euclid was alive around the time of the mid-4th century BCE, before Eratosthenes (276-194 BCE) made his beautifully elegant discovery that the Earth was indeed curved and also made a pretty accurate first measurement of the size of Earth.
That is, Euclid assumed a linear geometric space upon which the real universe was expected to “fit”. While it is true that two parallel lines will never meet on a two-dimensional plane, they can meet on a three-dimensional plane.
As is now understood, line A and line G, can be measured as 90 degrees from the equator line and thus are parallel lines, and yet they can eventually interface with each other if the surface is curved.
The problem with assumptions such Euclid’s is that they are ultimately only true in an artificial situation and are not reflective of how such things will interact in reality. Also, there is no way to predict from Euclid’s fifth law, how two parallel lines would interact in a three dimensional space, let alone in n dimensional space as described by the physicist Bernard Riemann.
Ironically, in his book, von Neumann likens his “pioneering” work in the field of game theory to that of what physicists have been doing for centuries, that is, mathematical formulations that represent, albeit simplified, the “laws of nature,” concerning matter and energy. However, von Neumann again showcases that he has no comprehension as to what constitutes the foundation for such “laws of nature.”
…but rather dimensions defined by an ever growing array of discovered physical principles such as magnetism, light, heat, gravity, sound, etc….
… each organizing principle being ironically characterized by both a finiteness and unboundedness with quantized least-action pathways discoverable therein.
According to Euclid’s logic, you never “see” two parallel lines intersecting and thus it is unfathomable that they ever could intersect.
His “rule” was based off of shared assumptions of what we “think” we are observing in such phenomena, however, this is not necessarily reality and it certainly does not translate to a “rule” that governs all.
By von Neumann acknowledging that he himself is heavily relying on his so-called “self-evident” truths in simplifying human behavior…
… he is asserting an outcome…
… he is not proving the outcome’s natural occurrence.
The Robinson Crusoe example in Monetarist Economic Theory
According to von Neumann, the Robinson Crusoe example was used by the Austrian economic school to model an individual’s behavior towards maximizing pay-off in an environment (in this case an island) where the resources available to you are set and limited.
There are many problems with this…
… but the most unforgivable one is the assumption of a set, limited and unchanging reserve of resources available to the individual.
In other words, the Austrian school of economy and von Neumann with them, consider Crusoe’s deserted island as the perfect case study for a limited resource, zero-sum game scenario.
Ironically, this assertion is entirely missing the point of what actually occurs in Daniel Defoe’s story of “Robinson Crusoe,”…
…and it causes one to wonder whether these theorists ever read the book or rather read a two line cliff’s notes synopsis.
Henry C. Carey, Lincoln’s economic advisor, would say in his book “Unity of Law” (1872):
“Crusoe having made a bow, had thus acquired wealth; that wealth exhibiting itself in the power obtained over certain natural properties of wood and muscular fibre, thereby enabling him to secure increased supplies of food with greatly diminished expenditure of labor.
Having made a canoe, he found his wealth much increased, his new machine enabling him to obtain still further increase of food, and of the raw materials of clothing, at still decreased cost of personal effort.
Erecting a pole on his canoe, he now commands the services of wind, and with each and every step in this direction finds himself advancing, with constantly accelerated rapidity, toward becoming master of nature, and a being of real wealth and power.”
Does that sound like the description of a “limited resource,” “zero-sum game” scenario?
In other words, where is the “set” limit?
The limit is constantly being readjusted to what the individual creates which changes his/her relationship to the “utility” of the resource.
For example, the resource wood, depending on the individual’s innovation can be used to keep one warm and dry, cook food, create weapons, create shelter, create a ship for travel etc. etc.
The existence of yet-to-be-created potential thus offsets the entire system of von Neumann because his system has no way of predicting potential, i.e. qualitative transformations, nor how it will affect behavior.
If you cannot predict future qualitative change, which is ongoing, such as the discovery of electricity or the creation of man-made Plutonium and other transuranic elements…
… or the potential waiting to be unlocked by the very feasible fusion plasma torch that can turn landfills into resource mines…
… how can you assume a defined set limit or even a defined zero-sum game as a “self-evident” truth when you cannot even predict what is the limit?
The Supposed Paradox of “The Greatest Good for the Greatest Possible Number”
In von Neumann’s book he refers to “the greatest good for the greatest possible number” as a contradiction, because according to von Neumann you cannot maximize two or more functions at once, that in a social economy, all maxima are desired at once by various players.
That is, there is no concept that it is possible to cooperate and share an optimal outcome, without it coming out of “your” share so to speak, that comes at a cost of having less instead of more.
This is a very basic understanding of economy, and again does not account for how cooperation and creative potential can work to transform the “goods” of an outcome.
For instance, country A is militarily stronger than country B, which is rich in many raw resources.
Country A is also stronger politically than country B in that, there are no other countries that will likely intervene against country A’s actions if it chooses to invade country B.
What course of action will yield the greatest return to country A?
Well, there is a very obvious answer to that question; however, contrary to popular thought it will not yield the greatest optimal outcome.
The greatest optimal outcome is rather to cooperate.
It is in both country A and country B’s best interest to share knowledge, even if country A has much more knowledge, such that country B develops the capability to refine its raw resources.
By doing so, country B will yield a greater return in trade over the long-term to country A, and country A does not have to worry about a future retaliation from country B.
By developing a more advanced economy the wealth of trade is increased for both countries.
By cooperation, the optimal outcome is transformed and offers a greater return.
This is exactly the model that is being used by China presently in their philosophy of “win-win cooperation,” and it has proven itself most effective despite all attempts to villainize it as something nefarious.
Rather than fight over resources, there is a cooperation to share technology, increase resource yield and share a greater boon than originally existed.
John von Neumann goes on to state in his book, that the more players in the model, the easier it is to predict the outcome, since the use of statistics and probability are increasingly better indicators of behavior and performance. As he states:
“When the number of participants becomes really great, some hope emerges that the influence of every particular participant will become negligible and that the above difficulties may recede and a more conventional theory become possible. These are, of course, the classical conditions of ‘free competition’.”
He goes on to use the example of our solar system, with its nine major bodies, as being much harder to model than 10^25 freely moving gas particles, as per gas theory, simply due to the sheer number of objects you are dealing with.
This is truly a remarkably absurd statement, where von Neumann is asserting that if the solar system had more major bodies orbiting within it, it would thus be easier to model based off of probability.
Every planet in our solar system is a different size and weight, with a different number of moons. Every planet revolves around the sun in imperfect elliptical orbits that change slowly overtime, the planets travel along these orbits in a non-uniform way that is observable through planetary retrograde motions.
The fact is that our solar system is not some perfectly closed system that is uniform and consistent in its actions, there are cyclical changes but there are also non-cyclical changes that are occurring.
This is due to our solar system orbiting around a galactic center of the Milky Way which is itself moving in yet-to-be discovered ways within a larger cluster of galaxies.
Therefore, you cannot use any theory of probability because the system is in a state of ongoing non-linear change. The more bodies you add to such a system the more complex it becomes, not the more negligible.
For example, there exists no straightforward formula to identify all prime numbers, though there are an infinite number of prime numbers.
Prime numbers are a reflection of a non-linear process of change.
Such an oversimplification of nature shows the audacity behind the assumptions that make up such formulations like game theory.
You are nothing more than a virtual avatar in their synthetic world with programmed limits to what you can and cannot do in the game they have created for you.
Game theory does not represent the motivations behind human nature, but rather imposes such limitations since, as they acknowledge themselves, it is easier to predict and control your chosen selfish behaviors which are encouraged and rewarded with “incentives.”
It is a system of enslavement that encourages its slaves to fight each other for “table scraps” and never question the hand that withholds, the system that creates false scarcity and promotes antagonism over artificial stressors.
We are taught never to question the rules given to us in these game theory scenarios, but to react accordingly to what has been defined to us as a limited set of options in an artificial scenario.
Perhaps the best indicator to this is, ironically, the very creator of the prisoner’s dilemma, John Nash. Nash had won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994 for his “landmark” work beginning in the 1950s on game theory.
Although it is not clear whether he was suffering with paranoid schizophrenia when he developed the Nash Equilibrium, starting in 1959, Nash would go in and out of mental hospitals for over nine years.
In 2007, he was interviewed while still working at Princeton. Here is his very unselfish offering of his “enlightenment” (his words) on game theory after over 50 years of work in the field. Keep in mind he is using the definition of rational behavior according to game theory, which is defined as a selfish self-interest:
“I have had some trouble myself on the psychological level; I’ve been in mental hospitals…
I realize that what I had said at some time may have overemphasized rationality…
And I don’t want to overemphasize rational thinking on the part of humans…
Human beings are much more complicated, the human being as a businessman….
Human behavior is not entirely motivated by self-interest of each human…
...game theory works in terms of self-interest, but…
...some game theory concepts could be unsound. There is over-dependence on rationality. That is my enlightenment.”
The entire West are basing all their plans, their strategies, their efforts, and their predictions upon “Game Theory”. But this theory is faulted,; tremendously faulted, and those that follow it against a society that has a better understanding of how the world works, will lose.
And the entire world is waking up to this realization.
There’s one easy prediction, though. The US is just about done as a world power, society, economy, concept or even joke.
- One night in Amerika
Inside America you have people that are watching their world crumble around them… and it’s not a game, and they want out.
On the global stage, we see nations in competition and those that follow the “Game theory” model fail, time and time again.
The world belongs to those societies that embrace things as they are, and not as they want them to be. And that means getting off the game board, and changing out the game pieces for real, tangible and accurate measures of society.
Daily Video Report
I am going to add a semi-daily video report on what is going on in China. This is going to be my first one. I took it about 45 minutes ago. I guess you can say it’s my pissed off opinions to counter the wide-spread of lies and disinformation that bombards my morning feeds day-in and day-out.
You can view it HERE. 137MB. I talk a bit about cameras and why the “color revolution” sponsored by the NED (the CIA) failed in Hong Kong. Of course, you will never read what I am talking about in the Western press.
They have more important things to talk about, don’t you know…
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
For the longest time, I had believed that the Strauss and Howe predictions for the Fourth Turning was correct but that the timing was slightly off. Instead of a Crisis Catalyst in 2005 and a Climax in 2020. I argued that the Crisis Catalyst occurred three years later in 2008. Which would launch a Climax in 2023.
Now I am not so sure.
What Strauss and Howe stated
If the Crisis catalyst comes on schedule, around the year 2005, then the climax will be due around 2020, the resolution around 2026. What will America be like as it exits the Fourth Turning? History offers no guarantees. Obviously, things could go horribly wrong—the possibilities ranging from a nuclear exchange to incurable plagues, from terrorist anarchy to high-tech dictatorship. We should not assume that Providence will always exempt our nation from the irreversible tragedies that have overtaken so many others: not just temporary hardship, but debasement and total ruin. Since Vietnam, many Americans suppose they know what it means to lose a war. Losing in the next Fourth Turning, however, could mean something incomparably worse. It could mean a lasting defeat from which our national innocence—and perhaps even our nation—might never recover. As many Americans know from their own ancestral backgrounds, history provides numerous examples of societies that have been wiped off the map, ground into submission, or beaten so badly they revert to barbarism.
Indeed, the dates are close but seem to be off by a few years.
In our case, it appears that the “Crisis catalyst” did not occur in 2005 as predicted. It occurred in 2008 with the Wall Street “too big to fail” debacle.
That was three years later.
But does that mean that the Climax would also be delayed by three years?
I am now thinking “no”.
What is the Forth Turning Crisis?
This is what Strauss and Howe wrote;
And finally we enter the Fourth Turning, which is a Crisis.
This is an era in which America’s institutional life is torn down and rebuilt from the ground up—always in response to a perceived threat to the nation’s very survival.
Civic authority revives, cultural expression finds a community purpose, and people begin to locate themselves as members of a larger group.
In every instance, Fourth Turnings have eventually become new “founding moments” in America’s history, refreshing and redefining the national identity.
Currently, this period began in 2008, with the Global Financial Crisis and the deepening of the War on Terror, and will extend to around 2030.
If the past is any prelude to what is to come, as we contend, consider the prior Fourth Turning which was kicked off by the stock market crash of 1929 and climaxed with World War II.
Just as a Second Turning reshapes our inner world (of values, culture and religion), a Fourth Turning reshapes our outer world (of politics, economy and empire).
To be clear, the road ahead for America will be rough.
But I take comfort in the idea that history cycles back and that the past offers us a guide to what we can expect in the future.
Like Nature’s four seasons, the cycles of history follow a natural rhythm or pattern. Make no mistake. Winter is coming. How mild or harsh it will be is anyone’s guess but the basic progression is as natural as counting down the days, weeks and months until Spring.
As you can see, the essay originally published on 3/11/19 by Neil Howe confirmed that the “Crisis catalyst” did not occur in 2005 as predicted. It occurred in 2008 with the Wall Street “too big to fail” debacle.
But no one knows exactly WHEN the actual Crisis will occur.
It could be as early as 2020, or as late as 2025. And as I look at what is going on around the world, most especially with the belligerent activities of the American military empire, I see elements of a Hot War everywhere.
A “hot war” is a hallmark of this Crisis.
The Hot War
America has been involved in all sorts of operations against China since 2017 when Trump become President and John Bolton was put in charge of the Bio-Weapons office.
John Bolton was in charge of the American military bio-weapons operation.
Most notably was the attempt(s) at trying to generate famine and starvation inside China. This all was attempted by the selective destruction of food, grains, and livestock via drone-propagated bio-weapons.
But…
…it is when PEOPLE are targeted for death and destruction is when a “hot war” occurs.
I am convinced that the Hot War started in 2020 with the carpet bombing of China by the three strains of bio-weapons designed to target the Chinese people.
COVID-19 strain B against China, Iran. (Death by seizure virus) February 2020
No longer was the COVID-19 A-strain (light sniffle virus) going to provide herd immunity. The lethal B-strain was starting to rampage. And Americans started to “drop like flies” just like they did inside of China on CNY2020.
Oh, well, that was not to the liking of President Trump.
Washington still did not accept the message…
So that is when he unleashed the (Death by diarrhea virus) in July 2020 in China. This is a very, very nasty tick based virus. In Beijing. You do realize that there are no ticks in Beijing, don’t you?
Ah, the American media...
...keeping Americans stupefied since 1980.
And as soon as the CIA courtiers handed the vials to their local assets inside of China…
…these “assets”, in a strong action suggesting of Chinese patriotism, and perhaps some Geo-political understanding…
… dutifully handed over the vials to the PLA immediately.
And Washington DC was stunned.
So. Round Two. Or is it three, or four…
So then round two, the two-double punch, was unleashed. H1N1 flu G4 strain (Death by diarrhea virus) July 2020. It’s an extremely dangerous, lethal and contagious swine flu that was adapted to kill humans.
And yet again…
… the CIA assets dutifully handed over the vials to the PLA.
And China took action. China started to perform the “famous” anal swabs for testing for the three viral agents, and the American press is aghast as to why would China dare do this for a simple “flu like” virus.
Ah. The ignorance of the manipulated American sheeple.
But China handling three bio-weapons strains and interrogating the CIA assets inside of China did not go down well in Washington. As soon as it was discovered that the Chinese (and Russian) leadership were aware of what was going on…
But nothing happened, and three days later, in October 2020 he exited. With a remarkable “cure”. In which case he was miraculously cured in three days. And the media was all aghast at how amazing the President was to get cured so quickly.
Ah. American sheeple. Kept as clueless as ever.
Now, of course, none of this is reported in the “news”. At least not in context. It’s just random noise with no contextual meaning or connections.
So a Carrier Battle Group set sail for China
But you know, the morons in Washington DC, and Jesus H. Christ, they must be morons…
…decided to go ahead with that eight carrier flotilla to the South China Sea.
And the result of it has not been reported in the Western press. Still giving the idea of the American invincibility on the high seas.
Ah. American media is the "window to the world" as described by Washington DC.
Such a pity.
As well as the absolute fiasco that occurred with the Trump eight carrier invasion force that steamed home with it’s tail between it’s legs after confronting China in the South China Sea. Read about it HERE.
This is only the tip of the iceberg
As well as a number of other events that I will not go into detail about. Anyways, all of this pretty much tells me that a hot “shooting” war between China and the USA started in 2020.
Both American and Chinese people have died as a result of it.
The showdown.
And the policy positions of the two belligerents were put on the table for the entire world to see in the meeting on March 2021 in Anchorage, Alaska. And that meeting told the world that war was on-going.
Sure, there were other elements of conflict.
We have the eight viral strains designed to cause starvation inside of China that were propagated by drones. We had the color revolutions in Hong Kong. We had the positioning and build up for action “to save the Uighur Muslims” in Xinjiang, and the efforts to make Taiwan a United States protectorate.
But none of those events involved military forces.
American military were used to hurt China on Chinese soil
The American military forces started using their skills to kill, destroy and create havoc in 2020. In fact, it was precisely American military “boots on the ground” in China, at Wuhan that kicked off the first wave of biological warfare.
And the only reason that it did not erupt into World War III is because of the calm composure of China in the face of the moronic instability of the United States leadership.
But don’t relax yet.
Let’s not forget these words…
The next Fourth Turning could mark the end of man. It could be an omnicidal armageddon, destroying everything, leaving nothing. If mankind ever extinguishes itself, this will probably happen when its dominant civilization triggers a Fourth Turning that ends horribly.
So with that being said, let’s look at the timing.
The date of 2020 is the Strauss and Howe initial target date for the Climax of the Fourth Turning. But the Crisis Catalyst was supposed to occur in 2005 to have a Climax in 2020.
I have previously argued that since the Crisis Catalyst occurred three years later in 2008, it would launch a Climax in 2023. Now I am not so sure.
I am starting to believe that the Climax hit as planned on 2020. And as a result we are seeing the Strauss and Howe “textbook” results of that Climax.
The only difference is that it is not being reported at all in the American media. Which is surreal, in all the previous Fourth Turning events, the issues were always reported. But the United States is so absolutely fucked up today, that no one really knows anything, and the amount of crime, corruption and sheer incompetence is mind boggling.
So, with all that being said, let’s make it official…
The Fourth Turning Climax hit in 2020
And the next three years to five years will determine the followup events that the crisis started.
Historically, the Crisis would always set the pace of the resulting changes that would follow in the subsequent decades. And there are so many aspects and issues going on that it is difficult to anticipate what to expect.
What can we look forward to?
[1] It could go really, really, REALLY bad…
And when I mean BAD, I mean Baaaaaaaad!
The next Fourth Turning could mark the end of man.
It could be an omnicidal armageddon, destroying everything, leaving nothing. If mankind ever extinguishes itself, this will probably happen when its dominant civilization triggers a Fourth Turning that ends horribly.
But this end, while possible, is not likely.
Human life is not so easily extinguishable.
One conceit of linear thinking is the confidence that we possess such godlike power that—at the mere push of a button—we can obliterate nature, destroy our own seed, and make ourselves the final generations of our species.
Civilized (post-Neolithic) man has endured some 500 generations, prehistoric (fire-using) man perhaps 5,000 generations, Homo Erectus ten times that.
For the next Fourth Turning to put an end to all this would require an extremely unlikely blend of social disaster, human malevolence, technological perfection, and bad luck.
Only the worst pessimist can imagine that.
[2] It could change the way the world works.
And if the United States keeps on bearing down and pushing the combined nations of Russia/China/Iran you can well expect to see this…
The Fourth Turning could mark the end of modernity.
The Western saecular rhythm—which began in the mid-fifteenth century with the Renaissance—could come to an abrupt terminus. The seventh modern saeculum would be the last.
This too could come from total war, terrible but not final.
There could be a complete collapse of science, culture, politics, and society.
The “Western Civilization” of Toynbee and the “Faustian Culture” of Spengler would come to the inexorable close their prophesiers foresaw.
A new dark ages would settle in, until some new civilization could be cobbled together from the ruins.
The cycle of generations would also end, replaced by an ancient cycle of tradition (and fixed social roles for each phase of life) that would not allow progress.
As with an omnicide, such a dire result would probably happen only when a dominant nation (like today’s America) lets a Fourth Turning ekpyrosis engulf the planet.
But this outcome is well within the reach of foreseeable technology and malevolence.
[3] It could end the USA, but spare the rest of the world.
Which seems to be what the entire globe is hoping for. Few people outside of Washington DC wants America to continue being what it is. That includes most Americans. America is not “balkanized” for nothing. Most people want this “nightmare” to end.
The Fourth Turning could spare modernity but mark the end of our nation.
It could close the book on the political constitution, popular culture, and moral standing that the word America has come to signify.
This nation has endured for three saecula; Rome lasted twelve, Etruria ten, the Soviet Union (perhaps) only one.
Fourth Turnings are critical thresholds for national survival.
Each of the last three American Crises produced moments of extreme danger:
In the Revolution, the very birth of the republic hung by a threat in more than one battle.
In the Civil War, the union barely survived a four-year slaughter that in its own time was regarded as the most horrible war in history.
In World War II, the nation destroyed an enemy of democracy that for a time was winning; had the enemy won, America might have itself been destroyed.
In all likelihood, the next Crisis will present the nation with a threat and a consequence on a similar scale.
...
The new saeculum could find America a worse place.
As Paul Kennedy has warned, it might no longer be a “great power.”
Its global stature might be eclipsed by foreign rivals.
Its geography might be smaller, its culture less dominant, its military less effective, its government less democratic, its Constitution less inspiring.
Emerging from its millennial chrysalis, it might evoke nothing like the hope and respect of its “American Century” forbear.
Abroad, people of goodwill and civilized taste might perceive this society as a newly dangerous place.
Or they might see it as decayed, antiquated, an Old New World less central to human progress than we now are.
All this is plausible, and possible, in the natural turning of saecular time.
The items highlighted in BROWNhave already happened.
[4] Or, it could just be a “place holder” in the grand scheme of things.
The aggressive elements inside of Washington DC might retreat, and the same-old would continue in the same-old “well worn” pathways.
Or the Fourth Turning could simply mark the end of the Millennial Saeculum.
Mankind, modernity, and America would all persevere.
Afterward, there would be a new mood, a new High, and a new saeculum. America would be reborn. But, reborn, it would not be the same.
[5] Or,alternatively, things could end up being very, very good.
Alternatively, the new saeculum could find America, and the world, a much better place.
Like England in the Reformation Saeculum, the Superpower America of the Millennial Saeculum might merely be a prelude to a higher plane of civilization.
Its new civic life might more nearly resemble that “shining city on a hill” to which its colonial ancestors aspired.
Its ecology might be freshly repaired and newly sustainable, its economy rejuvenated, its politics functional and fair, its media elevated in tone, its culture creative and uplifting, its gender and race relations improved, its commonalities embraced and differences accepted, its institutions free of the corruptions that today seem entrenched beyond correction.
People might enjoy new realms of personal, family, community, and national fulfillment.
America’s borders might be redrawn around an altered but more cogent geography of public community.
Its influence on world peace could be more potent, on world culture more uplifting.
All this is achievable as well.
But I strongly doubt that such a positive outcome is possible.
Conclusion
As I sit here in a hot May 2021, it appears that scenario number [3] (above) is the most likely scenario.
With the option scenario number [2] (above) still possible.
We can only wait and see.
And these are my thoughts on this matter. If you feel otherwise, you are welcome to posit which of the five scenarios that you believe is possible. But for now, I am strongly placing my bets on scenario number [3].
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
If you believe this narrative, and it is a narrative, then you fit into an entirely new classification for “stupid”.
Elections are how “democracies” get to change direction, policies, laws and rules. There are no other formal ways aside from a Constitutional Convention. And every four years, the citizens of America look at their lives, and their leadership and vote to either continue on the current path or divert from it and go into new directions.
That’s how democracies work.
Yet, the media is flowing with all sorts of articles that says that Biden is going to be a real “war hawk” and that he is not only going to continue with his neocon polices, but become more aggressive with them (as if that is even possible). And this narrative is cropping up here and there, and it is really irritating to me.
Hell.
It makes me want to dust off the old turntable, and put some Lobo on and dream of what might have been. Let me off. This world has gone ape-shit.
Lobo from Big Tree Records
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For those of you who don't know, Lobo was an American music group from the early 1970's. The singer / songwriter was a Florida folk rocker kind of guy. His songs become rather well known with "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo". (travelin' and ah livin' off the land, how I love being a free man.)
Me and you and a Dog Named Boo.
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Ever since it appeared that Biden might overtake Trump in the election, the entire propaganda machine inside of America (and England) has been spewing forth this narrative…
Of course, this is the narrative that is being fed to the mindless masses; the “Joe Sixpack” in “Flyover country”.
Meanwhile, all the neocon war-loving publications inside of America are horrified that Biden might ease up on the war-stance and instead embrace the idea of co-existence…
Ah yes… not going to war with China is “hysterical”. It is horrific, dangerous and inattentive.
Sure.
What ever you say.
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Now we are going to talk about Trump
Ugh!
Hey! You just cannot avoid talking about this fellow, he has been President for the last four years, and has been very active in many areas. There are people who love him and who hate him. In fact, I will go as far as to say that he is the most polarizing figure since Hillary Clinton.
And she is VERY polarizing.
So, all you Trump supporters, don’t get all hot and bothered about bad things being said, and that goes double for the Biden supporters. Keep in mind that both Presidents, and all of their minions are but actors. Nothing more. The purpose of this post herein is to take a look at media manipulation of Americans. Just like we did in the earlier post of media manipulation of American views on China.
Just what is this particular neocon publication anyways?
TheNationalReviewis a right-leaning, semi-monthly magazine founded by author William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1955. Buckleystartedthemagazinewiththegoalofmakingconservativeideasrespectableatatimeinwhichhebelieved “literateAmerica [had] rejectedconservatisminfavorofradicalsocialexperimentation.”
-National Review Media Bias | AllSides
Yeah. They are neocons. These are the folk that cheer on the eight simultaneous wars the USA is fighting today, and who push for mega-expensive military hardware. Fun fact, one “Hellfire” missile is the cost of a hospital. These guys think that having a hundreds of thousands of them…
…isn’t enough.
But boy, oh boy, do they HATE being referred to war-loving neocons…
I think I need a beer. If you, the reader were here with me, I’d buy you all a beer. That’s the truth, and that’s a fact Jack.
It’s time for a beer, you all.
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I am getting off the subject. Oh yes. So what is all this about? What is going on, why is the American media so geared up to convince Americans that Biden is going to be just like Trump on international matters?
Why?
Hold that thought.
Why do I (and others) defend China?
Yeah. I am swimming up river. It’s just a lone lonely voice out in the wilderness while hundreds, if not thousands, of anti-China articles are being cranked out of the American media machine daily. What the fuck is going on?
Here is a quote from Bill Brodenblock…
…concerning whether he was going to waste his time retorting to some bullshit from the Wall Street Journal.
Right. A well-argued rebuttal will take you much more than a day. There’s a lie, a half-truth or impeachment in every sentence.
No, it is not worth the effort. They have the resources to produce every day another “article” or “report” on China, again bursting with lies and fabrications.
They are stronger than we, they have almost unlimited resources and much more experience in making up lies than anyone else.
Their readership is thousands of times more than ours.
A new Global Times poll in China has shown that over 70 percent of respondents believe that the "wolf warrior diplomacy" is the diplomatic attitude that China should take, with 78 percent of interviewees believing that China's global image has improved in recent years.
The outspoken example of the new Chinese wolf Warrior diplomacy is 赵立坚 (Zhào Lìjiān) the one of the cartoon, showing the Australian hypocrisy on its war crimes in Afghanistan (Brereton report).
I became a “Wolf Warrior”, not in the first place because I was living in China, also not because I feel I should defend China’s legitimate viewpoints
but because I can’t stand lies.
I can’t stand it to see politicians, journalists, teachers or whoever with some power lying to people, often people who’re helpless and unable to defend themselves.
Both my grandfathers were in politics; they knew and used all the famous tricks as so common today in politics. I, as a little boy have seen them developing their strategies at our kitchen table. My father was a teacher and a deacon. He strongly disapproved the hypocrisy of his father and father-in-law. My father taught me that lying is a sin. I feel lying it is more than just a sin, it is a crime.
My pro-China stances are motivated by my disgust for lies.
That’s why I am doing it, not in the first place to help China.
Nevertheless, I feel that China, the Chinese government or whoever with some political power in China, should at least take the effort to send me a “thank you” or to show some recognition for my efforts. That’s the least they can do.
Every day at the local social media, I get the full load of shit over me. In my meetings at business associations and service-clubs (now often on-line), there are people who start scolding, some even yelling at me, just because they know my China viewpoints. Last year, during a speech/presentation, someone was trying to prevent me from finishing my presentation.
It’s not just Bill, don’t you know.
I hate being lied to as well.
And when I think about all the lies, and the deceptions, and the tricks, and “the rug getting pulled out from under my feet” I get really angry. I just want, no NEED, to go out and get a beer.
Office party before the fleet of lies out of Washington DC suppressed drinking at work-related events via insurance restrictions.
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And I hate it even more when others actually believe the lies. Hey! Have you died from “Mad Cow Disease” yet? What about Y2K? What about “Back Masking” on Rock and Roll music? How has that “Domino Theory” panned out?
Domino TheoryThe domino theory was a theory prominent in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s that posited that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect. The domino theory was used by successive United States administrations during the Cold War to justify the need for American intervention around the world.Wikipedia
I hate it when the government is lying so obviously and so blatantly. It just riles up my skivvies.
It makes me want to go to the fridge, pop open a beer and watch some Golden Girls. Anything to get my mind off this bullshit.
The Golden Girls
NBC was already a monster by 1985 thanks to programs like "The Cosby Show", "Cheers" and "L.A. Law" (all part of that unbeatable Thursday lineup). In 1985 it appeared that Beatrice Arthur (who struck gold with "Maude", a spin-off of "All in the Family") was going back to television in a new show called "The Golden Girls".
Along with Arthur (a smart-mouthed Brooklyn native) was her old-world Sicilian mother (Estelle Getty), a bubble-headed Minnesota native (Betty White) and a sex-crazed belle from Georgia (Rue McClanahan). This quartet of actresses would create the finest core of performers to ever star in a television series.
"The Golden Girls", unlike "Cheers", was a hit from its first episode.
It dominated with vigor and spunk on Saturday nights. NBC was worried that the show would never find an audience big enough to make a dent in the ratings, but for a time "The Golden Girls" was as excellent as anything else the networks had to offer.
The four women, all obviously over 50, lived, laughed and cried together in Miami for nearly a decade from 1985 to 1992.
The series pushed the envelope on everything that dominated headlines during its run (AIDS, homosexuality, sexism, ageism, political unrest, abortion and an endless list of other topics too long to go into at length). The episodes went for comedy, but usually almost always had a deep meaning to them about love and friendship.
All four actresses shared the spotlight equally for the most part.
Arthur and McClanahan had hit gold with "Maude" and White had been along seemingly at the advent of television programming. Getty was relatively unknown, but fit in well with more-established performers immediately (her character got away with more than the others as she was written as a lady who had suffered a major stroke which affected the relationship between what she said and thought).
Herb Edelman (who made a name for himself in "The Odd Couple") was always a consistent element as Arthur's two-timing ex-husband and Harold Gould (who was a key player in "The Sting") also became a fixture during the series' latter episodes as White's love interest.
The great thing about this show is that it took a chance by starring four actresses in their mid 50s to 60s and showed that just because you're old, it doesn't mean that life is over and you can't have fun anymore. The humor reaches to all age demographics and the characters each have such distinct, hilarious traits that watching them try to get along is a hoot.
If you're a boy or adult man that feels embarrassed to watch this show, DON'T. It's a pure classic that will never be forgotten in my life and will always be one of my favorite shows! This show proves that hilarity doesn't just come from younger folks, but that it can come from older people just as much!!! Long live The Golden Girls!!! 10 out of 10 EASILY!!!
The Golden Girls learn how things were done in “the old country”.
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Yeah. I get it. I’m too old a fogy to appreciate the new understandings about how Mr. Trump ran things. For he was brilliant.
He brought factories back to America… …almost.
He built a wall… almost.
He put Hillary Clinton in jail … almost.
He lowered taxes … not quite, he actually raised them.
He balanced the budget … nope. He sent the debit into orbit.
He protected the USA… we see how well that is panning out with COVID-19.
He made America respected around the world … absolutely NOT.
Not.
Not. Not. Not.
Jeeze Man!
I need a beer.
You need a beer to slug through all the bullshit that exists int he USA today.
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America today is terribly disrespected around the world. And I attribute it to Donald Trump and his inability to master the prerequisite laws of power necessary for his position as President of the United States.
What do I mean?
I mean this…
The 48 Laws of Power
To best understand my point of view as to why his international policies stank you need to learn the basics of the laws of power. This is especially true in global politics. Consider the following laws that Trump routinely violated.
For starters, he violated Law #3.
3. Conceal your intentions.Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelop them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late.
I: Use decoyed objects of desire and red herrings to throw people off the scent:
If at any point in the deception you practice people have the slightest suspicions to your intentions, all is lost. Do not give them the chance to sense what you are up to: Throw them off the scent by dragging red herrings across the path. Use false sincerity, send ambiguous signals, set up misleading objects of desire. Unable to distinguish the genuine from the false, they cannot pick out your real goal.
Hide your intentions not by closing up, but by talking endlessly about your desires and goals - just false ones.
II: Use smoke screens to disguise your actions:
Deception is always the best strategy, but the best deceptions require a screen of smoke to distract people attention from your real purpose. The bland exterior—like the unreadable poker face—is often the perfect smoke screen, hiding your intentions behind the comfortable and familiar. If you lead the sucker down a familiar path, he won’t catch on when you lead him into a trap.
A helpful or honest gesture can divert from a deception.
Patterns will also help mask a deception.
Often the key to deception is being bland and acting with humility.
When you conceal your intentions, you can allow others to drop down their guard. They don’t groan and say “oh, it’s that Donald Trump again”. You don’t say “I demand that you do this or I will bloody well blow the shit out of you”.
Geeze!
I really do need a beer.
Times have changed, but humans haven’t.
He violated Law #4.
4. Always say less than necessary. When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.
Silence generally makes people uncomfortable - they will jump in and nervously fill the silence.
Generally saying less makes you appear more profound and mysterious.
Be particularly careful with sarcasm - rarely is it valuable.
Be careful with arousing suspicion or insecurity by being silent. At times it is easier to blend by playing the jester.
Donald Trump was never the one to keep his mouth shut. I think that many Americans grew weary (though obviously not everyone) and tired of the 70 tweets per night, and the horror of waking up to find yet another contract torn up and more discord and chaos.
Christmas Party at the office, 1970’s style.
He violated law #18.
18. Do not build fortresses to protect yourself - isolation is dangerous.The world is dangerous and enemies are everywhere—everyone has to protect themselves. A fortress seems the safest. But isolation exposes you to more dangers than it Protects you from—it cuts you off from valuable information, it makes you conspicuous and an easy target. Better to circulate among people, find allies, mingle. You are shielded from your enemies by the crowd.
Retreat to a fortress and you lose contact with your sources of power, and your knowledge of what is going on.
If you need time to think, then choose isolation as a last resort, and only in small doses.
That was the sole primary element in the MAGA plan; to Make America Great Again; it was to isolate America from all foreign trade, build a wall around it, and then just attack all non-Americans everywhere. In addition, kick all Chinese out of the country, ban all Chinese applications, and if possible sink all Chinese ships.
I mean when you are on a roll… you are on a roll.
When you are on a roll, you are on a roll.
He violated Law #19.
19. Know who you’re dealing with - do not offend the wrong person.There are many different kinds of people in the world, and you can never assume that everyone will react to your strategies in the same way. Deceive or outmaneuver some people and they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge. They are wolves in lambs’ clothing. Choose your victims and opponents carefully, then—never of fend or deceive the wrong person.
Being able to recognize the type of person you’re dealing with is critical. Here are the five most dangerous:
The Arrogant and Proud Man: any perceived slight will invite vengeance. Flee these people.
The Hopelessly Insecure Man: similar to the proud man, but will take revenge in smaller bites over time. Do not stay around him if you have harmed or deceived him.
Mr. Suspicion: sees the worst in others and imagines that everyone is after him. Easy to deceive - get him to turn on others.
The Serpent with a Long Memory: if hurt, he will show no anger, but will calculate and wait. Recognize by his calculation and cunning in other areas of life - he is usually cold and unaffectionate. Crush him completely or flee.
The Plain, Unassuming, and Often Unintelligent Man: this man will not take the bait because he does not recognize it. Do not waste your resources trying to deceive him. Have a test ready for a mark - a joke, a story. If reaction is literal, this is the type you are dealing with.
Never rely on instincts when judging someone; instead gather concrete knowledge. Also never trust appearances.
Perhaps if Trump drank alcohol, he would be more open and sensitive to how his actions affected others. But he seems to be completely and totally oblivious to it.
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He violated law #24.
24. Play the perfect courtier.The perfect courtier thrives in a world where everything revolves around power and political dexterity. He has mastered the art of indirection; he flatters, yields to superiors, and asserts power over others in the most oblique and graceful manner. Learn and apply the laws of courtiership and there will be no limit to how far you can rise in the court.The Laws of Court PoliticsAvoid Ostentation: modesty is always preferable.
Practice Nonchalance: never appear to be working too hard; your talent must appear to flow naturally, with ease. Showing your blood and toil is a form of ostentation.
Be Frugal with Flattery: flatter indirectly by being modest.
Arrange to be Noticed: pay attention to your appearance, and find a way to create a subtly distinctive style and image.
Alter Your Style and Language According to the Person You’re Dealing With: acting the same with all will be seen as condescension by those below you, and offend those above you.
Never Be the Bearer of Bad News: the messenger is always killed. Bring only glad news.
Never Affect Friendliness and Intimacy with Your Master: he does not want a friend for a subordinate.
Never Criticize Those Above You Directly: err on the side of subtlety and gentleness.
Be Frugal in Asking Those Above You for Favours: it is always better to earn your favours. Do not ask for favours on another person’s behalf.
Never Joke About Appearances or TasteDo Not Be the Court Cynic: express admiration for the good work of others.
Be Self-Observant: you must train yourself to evaluate your own actions.
Master Your EmotionsFit the Spirit of the Times: your spirit and way of thinking must keep up with the times, even if the times offend your sensibilities.
Be a Source of Pleasure: if you cannot be the life of the party, at least obscure your less desirable qualities.
Yes. Like him, love him or hate him, Mr. Trump was certainly unique. Most Americans, trapped within the media and informational bubble there, were never given insight to his faults. Only endless praises and glory. He, in a way, had a following that rivaled both Bill Clinton, and Barrack Obama, and at that you MUST give him credit.
You just MUST.
He, like Bill Clinton, is a master manipulator.
But those of us who sit outside of the American echo-chamber tend to have a different point of view.
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He violated law #43.
43. Work on the hearts and minds of others.Coercion creates a reaction that will eventually work against you. You must seduce others into wanting to move in your direction. A person you have seduced becomes your loyal pawn. And the way to seduce others is to operate on their individual psychologies and weaknesses. Soften up the resistant by working on their emotions, playing on what they hold dear and what they fear. Ignore the hearts and minds of others and they will grow to hate you.
Remember: The key to persuasion is softening people up and breaking them down, gently. Seduce them with a two-pronged approach: Work on their emotions and play on their intellectual weaknesses. Be alert to both what separates them from everyone else (their individual psychology) and what they share with everyone else (their basic emotional responses). Aim at the primary emotions—love, hate, jealousy. Once you move their emotions you have reduced their control, making them more vulnerable to persuasion.
Play on contrasts: push people to despair, then give them relief. If they expect pain and you give them pleasure, you win their hearts.
Symbolic gestures of self-sacrifice can win sympathy and goodwill.
The quickest way to secure people’s minds is by demonstrating, as simply as possible, how an action will benefit them.
All this talk about politics, manipulation and likes makes me want to drink. And drinking makes me hungry.
Some New York style pizza would really hit the spot.
And the laws that he actually used…
To be fair, President Trump DID actually follow certain rules of power. And he does deserve full credit for that. Don’t you know.
His entire presidency was Law #17.
17. Keep others in suspended terror: cultivate an air of unpredictability.Humans are creatures of habit with an insatiable need to see familiarity in other people’s actions. Your predictability gives them a sense of control. Turn the tables: Be deliberately unpredictable. Behavior that seems to have no consistency or purpose will keep them off-balance, and they will wear themselves out trying to explain your moves. Taken to an extreme, this strategy can intimidate and terrorize.
Unsettle those around you and keep the initiative by being unpredictable.
Predictability and patterns can be used as a tool when deceiving.
As well as… Law #27.
27. Play on people’s need to believe to create a cult like following.People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause, a new faith to follow. Keep your words vague but full of promise ; emphasize enthusiasm over rationality and clear thinking. Give your new disciples rituals to perform, ask them to make sacrifices on your behalf. In the absence of organized religion and grand causes, your new belief system will bring you untold power.How to create a cult in 5 easy steps:Keep It Vague, Keep it Simple: use words to attract attention, with great enthusiasm. Fancy titles for simple things are helpful, as are the use of numbers and the creation of new words for vague concepts. All of these create the impression of specialized knowledge. People want to hear there is a simple solution to their problems.
Emphasize the Visual and the Sensual over the Intellectual: Boredom and skepticism are two dangers you must counter. The best way to do this is through theatre, creating a spectacle. Appeal to all the senses, and use the exotic.
Borrow the Forms of Organized Religion to Structure the Group: create rituals, organize followers into hierarchy, rank them in grades of sanctity, give them names and titles, ask them for sacrifices that fill your coffers and increase your power. Talk and act like a prophet.
Disguise Your Source of Income: make your wealth seem to come from the truth of your methods.
Set Up an Us-Versus-Them Dynamic: first make sure your followers believe they are part of an exclusive club, unified by common goals. Then, manufacture the notion of a devious enemy out to ruin you.
People are not interested in the truth about change - that it requires hard work - but rather they are dying to believe something romantic, otherworldly.
The most effective cults mix religion with science.
I’m out of beer, and I need to drain the lizard.
Hold on.
Doesn’t all this make you hungry? It does me. That’s for certain.
A hamburger might be nice.
Where he has indeed… Law #32.
32. Play to people’s fantasies.The truth is often avoided because it is ugly and unpleasant. Never appeal to truth and reality unless you are prepared for the anger that comes from disenchantment. Life is so harsh and distressing that people who can manufacture romance or conjure up fantasy are like oases in the desert: Everyone flocks to them. There is great power in tapping into the fantasies of the masses.
Never promise a gradual improvement through hard work; rather, promise the moon, the great and sudden transformation, the pot of gold.
The key to fantasy is distance - the distance has allure and promise, seems simple and problem free. What you are offering, then, should be ungraspable. Never let it become oppressively familiar.
I think that this is more my speed. Seriously.
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And who can forget his amazing MAGA rallies? Law #32.
37. Create compelling spectacles.Striking imagery and grand symbolic gestures create the aura of power—everyone responds to them. Stage spectacles for those around you, then, full of arresting visuals and radiant symbols that heighten your presence. Dazzled by appearances, no one will notice what you are really doing.
Words often go astray, but symbols and the visual strike with emotional power and immediacy.
Find an associate yourself with powerful images and symbols to gain power.
Most effective of all is a new combination - a fusion of images and symbols that have not been seen together before, but that clearly demonstrate your new idea, message, religion.
Um…
Brilliant?
Hardly.
Like I said. I need a beer.
I say that it is time for a beer.
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Let’s pause on the “why is the news media so focused on Biden continuing Trumps policies”, and take a look at what I mean when I say that his international polices stink.
For after all NO ONE in the USA thinks that his international policies were bad.
Americans gleefully accepted a 25% increase in the price of almost all manufactured products. Not a peep from the serfs. And of course, FOX and El’ Rushbo were absolutely gleeful in every action that he took.
But functionally… yeah. His international policies stank.
Trumps international policies
Yes his international policies stunk. No, I take that back, they were an unmitigated disaster. But you all don’t need to believe me. Check out this opinion…
He has cozied up to right-wing nationalist dictators and autocrats at a moment when citizens of faltering democracies and the many peoples around the world aspiring to freedom most need an advocate on the international stage.
He has rejected the honorable American presidential tradition of seeking unity and instead has indulged in the politics of division, willfully alienating a large segment of the American electorate while among his own supporters drumming up hatred for and suspicion of others.
He has transformed the White House, which should promote policies based on reality, into the world capital of ignorance, dishonesty and misinformation by reciting verifiable falsehoods, from the size of his inauguration crowd to the direction of a hurricane to the (disproven) prevalence of election fraud.
He has been a particular antagonist to California, seeking to undermine this state’s forward-looking policies on auto emissions and environmental preservation, spreading falsehoods about the causes of its deadly wildfires, disparaging its rational and humane approach to immigration challenges, demeaning it for its struggles to deal with homelessness, and offering instead purported solutions that are unworkable, nonsensical or cruel.
He has denied the existential challenge of climate change and has promulgated policies that weaken the nation’s role in fighting it and scuttle the nation’s ability to take economic leadership in low-emission and carbon-capturing technology.
He has made the United States unreliable, erratic and foolish in international affairs by disparaging its diplomatic corps, engaging in frequent and jarring changes in foreign affairs and defense advisors and repudiating international allies and partners.
Trump has cheapened his office, instilled distrust in essential institutions of justice and democracy and replaced knowledge and professionalism with ignorance and amateurism.
He has made light of verified Russian assaults on U.S. elections, and at his notorious and shameful Helsinki news conference last year said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin over his own nation’s intelligence agencies.
He failed to elicit from the Russian leader an apology for past intervention or a promise not to intervene in other elections. In so doing, he invited further, more comprehensive attacks — and failed in the most basic duty of any U.S. president, which is to protect and defend the United States.
He has reduced or eliminated independent science advisory panels in a quest to remove fact from policymaking when it collides with damaging policies he wishes to pursue.
He has demeaned the presidency with foul, angry language hurled at his political adversaries, replacing fireside chats and presidential addresses with cable-TV-fueled, stream-of-consciousness tweets that attack his critics and stoke fear and outrage in his supporters.
He has undercut the nation’s moral standing by his shrugging response to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi operatives.
He has sullied the office of the presidency by using it to express his personal contempt for people he does not like or who do not support him. The most egregious example may be his treatment of Sen. John McCain, a much-decorated former Vietnam War prisoner whose honor Trump questioned even after McCain’s passing.
He has appealed to the basest part of our culture, lifting into the mainstream chords and currents of racism that had long been left to fester in only our darkest corners. He commented on the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., with an equivocating speech that shrank from condemning violent racism and promoted false equivalency among demonstrators for and against white supremacy. He put in place a program to deny visas to visitors from majority Muslim nations. He disparaged Latinos; called Haiti, El Salvador and African nations “shithole countries”; and expressed his preference for immigrants from Norway. He promoted the notion that one’s American-ness is a function of descent and not birth or naturalization, by saying U.S.-born members of Congress should “go back” to the countries “from which they came.” He has issued statements that in the aggregate define an America united not by law, the Constitution, liberty or justice but by racial heritage.
More than any president in living memory, Trump has cheapened his office, instilled distrust in essential institutions of justice and democracy and replaced knowledge and professionalism with ignorance and amateurism. This partial list represents a mere slice of what makes Donald Trump unacceptable as president of the United States and what makes it of utmost importance that Americans of all political parties and positions reject and replace him.
-LA Times
Of course, that is just someone’s opinion.
I like to think that he meant well. That he tried, he really tried.
It’s just that his ideas are from another time, an outdated time, when nations ruled by paper and separated by cultural differences fought over swatches of rock and desert. But that age is long gone. This is a new age, and for the human species to propagate and grow we need to discard those childish ideas behind and accept that we are all biologically the same. That we are not different. And that fighting over territory, or advantage is a undesirable pursuit.
Times have changed.
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For one thing, I was fighting for Trump. I really wanted him to stop that Obama trademark of non-stop progressive social re-engineering. I was tired of all the bullshit, and the people being forced to bake cakes against their beliefs, and other such nonsense. I wanted it to STOP. And you know what?
It did.
What’s more, I wanted factories to return to America, and people to start working again, and all that nonsense about HR Diversity officers to go away, and cheaper affordable health care to return (yes, return to pre-1980 levels).
They didn’t.
But you know, I wasn’t inside of America when he was the reigning head honcho. I was outside of America. I was sitting on the front row watching him represent the United States to the rest of the world. And precious little of what he did was covered by the American domestic press.
He was a God-damn train wreck.
In hindsight, it is no wonder that Trump was gloating that 2020 would be a “banner year” for America, and that there would be victories abound. His plans, were they to manifest would have put America back on top, and the rest of the world opposition crippled for decades to come. Even though…
People! 2020 was the year that the USA was to destroy China, first by starvation and internal revolution, then by biological weapons, and finally by military confrontation on the Chinese shores. The only reason why American cites are not radioactive ruins right now is because the Chief of Staff of the Defense department disobeyed his orders to attack China in the Summer of 2020 with the mega-flotilla of aircraft carriers.
Ah, but no one is talking about that.
Nor are they talking about his plan to destroy China through starvation with eight (x8) types of selective biological weapons targeting crops and livestock, some of which (in the more remote areas) were deployed by drones, and then a full-on assault on the Chinese people (a nation four times larger than the United States) by COVID-19B, and having Americans get “herd Immunity” though COVID-19A. With a follow up with the far more lethal vomit-to-death virus unleashed in October 2020. No wonder Trump pretended to get sick while scurrying to the airborne command post when the Chinese PLA discovered and isolated the virus..
How’s that all working out you-all?
No one is talking about that.
Of course not.
Americans know (after four years of propaganda) that China is vile and evil, and that 5G technology is bad, and that the world would be a better place if China were completely and utterly destroyed due to the superiority of American “democracy”.
American NEEDS the rest of the world to adopt the “great American way of life“. So that everyone can enjoy that great delicious, lip-smacking “democracy” and American “way of life” like this lithe young lass does.
American NEEDS the rest of the world to adopt the “great American way of life“.
But, seriously, how has President Trump’s international policies been?
Well, if you read the conservative websites, Trump has been almost God-like. He has single-handedly made America strong (again), stopped terrorism in it’s tracks, built walls around America to keep out bad guys, and almost put Hillary Clinton in Jail. To some, his tenure as President has been a resounding success.
Most conservatives do not believe in “climate change” or that humans have a responsibility to shepherd and manage our natural resources. Instead, they believe that while there are limits, they are near infinite in practicality, and thus all the issues about care for the earth is yet another way to skim money out of the pockets of Americans.
Well, both sides are right and both sides are wrong. But that doesn’t matter. What we are talking about here is the Trump policies concerning climate regarding international treaties.
Since the Trump administration took office, it has been fighting what they call an “anti-growth” agenda put in place by the Obama administration. Regulations that required businesses to spend time and money to meet the former administration’s environmental standards were swiftly reviewed and, in many cases, rolled back.
States, municipalities, and NGOs have responded to these changes by filing lawsuits to block the administration. Some, like lawsuits against the Keystone XL pipeline, have successfully kept public land closed to additional development.
This aspect of his policies has been covered substantially by National Geographic Magazine.
Clean air
1. U.S. pulls out of Paris Climate Agreement
This is perhaps the decision that set the tone for the Trump administration’s approach to the environment: when he moved to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement in June of 2017. To many, it signaled less U.S. leadership in international climate change agreements. (Read more about this decision.)
2. Trump EPA poised to scrap clean power plan
The Clean Power Plan was one of the Obama’s signature environmental policies. It required the energy sector to cut carbon emissions by 32 percent by 2030, but in October 2017 it was rolled back by Trump’s EPA. Among the reasons cited were unfair burdens on the power sector and a “war on coal.” (Read more on why Trump can’t make coal great again.)
3. EPA loosens regulations on toxic air pollution
This regulation revolved around a complicated rule referred to as “once in, always in” or OIAI. Essentially, OIAI said that if a company polluted over the legal limit, they would have to match the lowest levels set by their industry peers and they would have to match them indefinitely. By dropping OIAI, the Trump EPA forces companies to innovate ways to decrease their emissions, but once those lower targets are met, they’re no longer required to keep using those innovations. (Read more about air pollution.)
4. Rescinding methane-flaring rules
Under the Affordable Clean Energy rule issued in August 2018, states were given more power over regulating emissions. In states like California, that means regulations would likely be stricter, whereas states that produce fossil fuels are likely to weaken regulations. The following month, the EPA announced they would relax rules around releasing methane flares, inspecting equipment, and repairing leaks. (Read more about methane.)
5. Trump announces plan to weaken Obama-era fuel economy rules
Under the Obama administration’s fuel economy targets, cars made after 2012 would, on average, have to get 54 miles per gallon by 2025. In August 2018, the Trump Department of Transportation and EPA capped that target at 34 miles per gallon by 2021. The decision created legal conflict with states like California that have higher emission caps. (Read more about speed bumps in the way of super-efficient cars.)
Water
6. Trump revokes flood standards accounting for sea-level rise
In August 2017, President Trump revoked an Obama-era executive order that required federally funded projects to factor rising sea levels into construction. However, in 2018, the Department of Housing and Urban Development required buildings constructed with disaster relief grants do just that. (Read more about how rising sea levels may imperil the internet.)
7. Waters of the U.S. Rule revocation
What are the “waters of the U.S.?” President Trump issued an executive order in 2017 ordering the EPA to formally review what waters fell under the jurisdiction of the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers according to the 1972 Clean Water Act. The proposed change narrowed the definition of what’s considered a federally protected river or wetland. (Read more about Trump’s plans to roll back the Clean Water Act.)
Wildlife
8. NOAA green lights seismic airgun blasts for oil and gas drilling
Five companies were approved to use seismic air gun blasts to search for underwater oil and gas deposits. Debate over the deafening blasts stem from concerns that they disorient marine mammals that use sonar to communicate and kill plankton. The blasts were shot down by the Bureau of Energy Management in 2017 but approved after NOAA found they would not violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act. (Read more about how scientists think seismic air guns will harm marine life.)
9. Interior Department relaxes sage grouse protection
The uniquely American sage grouse, a bird resembling a turkey with spiked feathers, has become the face of the debate between land developers and conservationists. In both 2017 and 2018, the Trump administration Department of Interior eased restrictions on activities like mining and drilling that had been restricted to protect the endangered bird. (Read more about how the sage grouse become caught in the fight over who owns America’s west.)
10. Trump officials propose changes to handling the Endangered Species Act
In July of 2018, the Trump administration announced its intention to change the way the Endangered Species Act is administered, saying more weight would be put on economic considerations when designating an endangered animal’s habitat. (Read more about the rollbacks facing endangered animals.)
11. Migratory Bird Treaty Act reinterpretation
Companies installing large wind turbines, constructing power lines, or leaving oil exposed are no longer violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act if their activities kill birds. This controversial change was declared by the Trump administration in December of 2017. (Read more about why legally protecting birds is important.)
Opening public lands for business
12. Trump unveils plan to dramatically downsize two national monuments
Unlike national parks, which have to be approved by Congress, national monuments can be created by an executive order, which the president said means they can be dismantled just as easily. Such was the case for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, which President Trump reduced and opened for mining and drilling companies in 2017. Tribes and environmental groups are challenging that interpretation in court. (Read more about the impacts of downsizing these two monuments.)
13. Executive order calls for sharp logging increase on public lands
Just a day before the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, President Trump issued an executive order that called for a 30 percent increase in logging on public lands. The decision was billed as wildfire prevention, though environmental groups say it ignores the role climate change plays in starting wildfires. (Read more about California’s historic wildfires.)
Security & Enforcement
14. Trump drops climate change from list of national security threats
The Trump administration’s decision to delist climate change from national security threats in December of 2017 meant less Department of Defense research funding and a nationalistic viewpoint on the potential impacts of wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. (Read more about how climate change is forcing migration in Guatemala.)
15. EPA criminal enforcement hits 30-year low
The size and influence of the EPA has shrunk under the Trump administration, and it’s illustrated by their diminished prosecuting power. Criminal prosecutions are at a 30-year low, and many violations that would have been prosecuted in the past are now being negotiated with companies. The administration says this is streamlining its work, but environmentalists have warned it could lead to more pollution. (Read more about the scientists pushing back against President Trump’s environment agenda.)
But it’s more than that…
Donald Trump does not have a foreign policy; he has moods regarding international affairs. Underneath the volatility of his moods, however, are some convictions:
That other countries are robbing the U.S. through trade;
U.S. allies are at best incapable of defending themselves.
Our allies are unwilling to spend resources in order to do so;
multilateralism is for the weak.
In many respects, these convictions are fundamentally wrong: over the long term, the U.S. has benefited enormously from …
A commitment to open trade,
From alliances beyond immediate transactional quid-pro-quo,
A multilateral international order,
U.S. global power projection.
The real tragedy of Trump’s inability to recognize these facts is the negative consequences that his failed foreign affairs beliefs and choices frequently have for those affected by them.
It makes me want to eat, and drink…
It makes me want to go away, far away from all this nonsense.
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Trump simply makes a lot of bad foreign policy decisions that hurt everyone from U.S. domestic consumers to businesses with international supply chains to leaders of U.S. allies in Europe and the Indo-Pacific.
And for some foreign policy decisions—such as the abrogation of the Iran deal, or engagement with North Korea—the jury is still out. We still do not know how those decisions will pan out, and whether or not they are good or bad.
Nonetheless, occasionally, Trump’s convictions feed instincts leading him to decisions that are fundamentally right. Ironically, however, even when Trump makes ostensibly good foreign policy choices, he executes them so badly, or approaches them from such a chaotic and skewed vantage point, that even those who normally would support the policy in question end up obliged to reject it.
A cursory examination of three of Trump’s major international priorities— [1] relationships with allies, [2] the war in Syria, and [3] U.S.-China trade relations—is indicative of this incongruous dynamic.
[1] Trump’s Treatment of Allies
Arguably, the most enduring of Trump’s foreign policy blunders will be his alienation of U.S. allies, particularly in Europe. He has alienated everyone.
Trump is not viewed with favor on the international scene.
.
It’s one thing to raise some long-overdue points about the commitment of allies, but it is another thing to be insulting to them, to cause them to lose face, and to create havoc . His rhetorical antagonism and extortionate attempts to compel their increased defense spending (both on burden-sharing and purchases of U.S. technology) portend a change to less cohesion and more conflict between the U.S. and its allies in Europe and the Indo-Pacific.
This behavior is pushing forward a new normal in which the U.S. and its allies consider themselves to have different approaches to international affairs and fewer overlapping interests.
This is dangerous for U.S. security, as the U.S. National Defense Strategy identifies the U.S. alliance network as an asymmetric strategic advantage vis-à-vis competitors such as China or Russia.
If abandonment fears on the part of the U.S.’s European and Indo-Pacific allies could be leveraged for greater alliance investment and strengthening in the long run, then some pressure would make sense.
But Trump has undermined this potential outcome by going too far:
By stoking right-wing, illiberal nationalism in European states’ domestic politics;
Fundamentally calling into question NATO,
And questioning the EU, and U.S. commitment to Indo-Pacific hub-and-spoke allies;
Browbeating and humiliating European and Asian allies.
And failing to acknowledge the strategic advantages that U.S. basing rights overseas represent for U.S. global power projection.
Moreover, Trump seems to misunderstand basic facts about alliance burden-sharing (both multilateral and bilateral) and couples his distaste for alliances with a general destabilization of the internationalorder.
Yet, for all that, his instinct that U.S. allies—particularly in NATO—should meet their defense funding obligations (such as the 2% of GDP threshold for NATO countries) is a good one…
The open hostility of his rhetoric and the malformed reasoning behind extortionate demands (such as the recently unveiled “Cost plus 50” concept) weaken the persuasiveness of the serious voices who have pushed (and continue to push) for greater commitment from U.S. allies.
At the very least, it makes allied advocates for greater defense spending seem aligned with a U.S. president who apparently does not care about the interests of allied states.
This dynamic hurts their public credibility.
At worst, it undermines these voices’ ability to broker political deals necessary to overcome headwinds on an issue that is sensitive throughout Europe and the Indo-Pacific.
[2] Trump’s Withdrawal Decision
If you want to withdraw from the world stage, then do it. And initially it looked like that was exactly what Trump was doing. And then he started to expand the global military presence. It was confusing and confounding.
There are many good arguments for why the U.S. should not have an armed forces presence in Syria, and thus why Trump should withdraw U.S. troops from that war-ravaged land. To begin with, Trump campaigned on the promise to leave Syria, and a (small) majority of the U.S. population supports the withdrawal policy.
There is also little evidence that the U.S. military role in the country has led to better security outcomes for Syria.
American military in Syria.
.
As many have argued from the political right, left, and center (as well as from both realist and institutionalist perspectives), U.S. military participation in the Syrian conflict [1] arguably violates international law, [2] is unconstitutional under U.S. law, [3] remains hampered by undefined goals, and [4] has not successfully advanced core U.S. strategic interests (indeed there are legitimate arguments that it undermines U.S. security).
A cynic might even argue that the best strategy for the U.S. in Syria would simply be to let U.S.’s enemies—Iran, the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, Islamic State and sundry terrorist organizations, Russia, etc.—kill each other. And yet, despite there being a relatively sizable group against the U.S. presence in Syria, Trump botched the withdrawal decision.
Nor was the decision supported by sound strategic or political reasoning; rather, it was sold on the basis of patent lies about the status of defeat of the Islamic State. Indeed, ISIS carried out a lethal attack shortly after Trump’s announcement of the organization’s defeat.
As if these self-inflicted wounds to Washington’s reliability and credibility weren’t bad enough, Trump apparently reached the decision after being dubiously convinced by discussions over the phone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
A man whose ulterior motive is clearly not to finish off elements of remaining terrorist groups in the region (thereby aiding the U.S. in the war on terror)…
… and much less to provide for regional stability…
… but rather to weaken, and, if possible, destroy the U.S.’s Kurdish allies.
To boot, Trump’s decision to pull out of Syria cost him his Defense Secretary, James Mattis, for whom the policy changes were the last straw.
Given their deteriorated relationship, Trump probably considered Mattis’s resignation a blessing.
But for most experts and allied governments, it was unsettling to see him leave, not only because of his reputation as the last, preeminent “adult at the table” in Trump’s cabinet, but also because, of all things, Mattis left in protest of a failed policy, thus slightly tarnishing his sterling image as the wise warrior-monk.
In the end, this group even undermined partially the withdrawal decision, as both National Security Advisor John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walked back parts of the withdrawal commitment during their visits to the Middle East in early 2019.
Regarding Syria, rather than a well thought-out planned withdraw, the decision was conducted on a whim and implemented without any foresight. This kind of decision is what has historically caused nations to collapse, invasions to occur, and people to riot.
[3] The Trade War fiasco
I have written about this in great depth.
As for China, Trump’s instinct to confront it as a strategic competitor is an overdue corrective to the West’s negligence in realizing that China is a rising power.
But how he has dealt with this matter has been catastrophic.
Yet, a trade war, which Trump imagines will solve the U.S.-China trade imbalance, is not the right answer to these issues.
The fact that many economists do not believe the U.S. trade deficit with China is a problem in the first place.
In fact, trade wars to repair trade deficits do not lead to progress on structural issues.
The tariff-based trade war with China only acts as a tax on U.S. businesses and consumers.
It has also caused disruption in global supply and production chains.
It has caused instability in global markets.
It has fundamentally created a weakening of the free trade norm that underpinned U.S. economic strength.
And so far, China has hardly budged on “structural reform“, as U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer recently conceded. But they don’t need to implement any changes to their government, their society or their inherent way of life. China is not what the neocons think it is, much to America’s chagrin. China is doing splendidly.
Why throw away your cut of prime steak and eat dog food instead?
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It’s not a popular view point, but that is because 99% of Americans haven’t a clue as to how backwards, and repressed that they have become. Further that they have absolutely no idea of what China is, how it works, or what the Chinese people think.
Americans think that the Chinese are poor, downtrodden and living in a repressive / suppressive horrible dark and gloomy place. And that America represents the best place in the world.
But…
The Chinese are happy with their government, their way of life, and view America as a crazy place that is fat, unhealthy and rather dumbed down.
Anyone who counters with the crazy (well, insane) idea that China NEEDS to make substantive changes to their government; “structural reform“, a very successful one at that, seriously needs their fucking head fixed.
If you are driving a Porsche 911, you aren’t going to trade it in for forty year old Pacer.
American policy makers often draw a sharp distinction between what the historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom has termed “big bad China and the good Chinese people,” stressing that today’s more hawkish China policy is directed against the CCP and not the ordinary people who “dream of freedom.”
Yet China contains multitudes — not just dissidents, democrats, and human rights defenders — and many Chinese are vocal supporters of their government.
Indeed, various multinational opinion surveys consistently find a “high level of regime support” in China, even after factoring in the possibility that some people hide their dissatisfaction for fear of political repercussions. In 2014, Pew Global Research found that a staggering 92% of respondents had “confidence” in their country’s leader, Xi Jinping.
In addition, Trump is a poor, untrustworthy messenger, the optics of the trade war rollout—such as using dubious national security grounds to justify tariffs—have allowed China to plausibly appear a victim of U.S. economic aggression in general and Trump’s bad faith in particular.
Ironically, remaining locked into a trade war with negative spillover effects to other countries, especially allies, potentially pushes them away from the U.S.’s position. Indeed, the U.S. is having difficulty convincing allies—including France and Germany—not to purchase Huawei’s 5G technology, despite the unproved security risks that Washington says they have.
In the end, the consequences of Trump’s poor foreign policy choices go beyond the irony that analysts, pundits, and policymakers are compelled to abjure policy directions that they otherwise support.
Good policy choices need solid execution and messaging to have their intended effects.
Unfortunately, even Trump’s good ideas—increased allied financial commitment to security and defense burden-sharing, extricating the U.S. from some of the messiest and most hopeless aspects of Middle East conflict, and pushing back against Beijing’s violations of trade norms—are undermined by his approach to concretizing policy.
Trump is the anti-Midas—even the gold he accidentally touches turns to dirt. This warps debate about future policy choices and will restrict future options because we will have “tried that before.”
Global nuclear conflict was avoided in 2020 just narrowly. There is no doubt in the halls of MM that that would have been the result of the planned “hot war” in the South China Sea by Trump.
How can you believe anything out of the American media?
So why all this propaganda directed towards Americans that Biden will be “tough on China”?
I have identified numerous reasons.
Keep in mind that the "President" has limited powers and range of abilities. That they are all playing a role and are puppets controlled by higher forces hiding behind the scenes.
To convince the donors who funded the Trump campaign, that their investments will not be wasted.
To convince the American citizenry to keep on hating China, until a new villain can be established, and the anger and disgust siphoned away and redirected towards it.
To keep Wall Street positive and in the black.
And my thoughts on the media narrative…
While limited war, using nuclear weapons, was avoided. The (8 +1) bio-weapon assaults were not, and the globe is now dealing with the spillover from the bio-weapons attacks on China by the Trump administration.
Well, I’m still glad that we gave Trump a chance.
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That being said, MM anticipates a Biden Presidency to right some wrongs and correct some of the damage that the Trump administration inflicted on the global stage. But it will not be complete. There is much that remains raw and that will boil and fester into other issues down the road in the future.
Trump has completed his role. He has successfully isolated America from the global stage, and much of the internal discord and turmoil that will occur in the next five years will be geographically limited to the North American continent.
Biden can do anything, but I anticipate a redirection of hostilities towards Russia. This is a very dangerous turn of events. But if you know the whole and real story it makes sense.
Were Trump to actually successfully enact a “hot war” with China, it would have been a Waterloo moment (for America) with a minimum of three aircraft carrier groups sinking in internal Chernobyl fires, and uncountable submarines as well.
At that, you can pretty much expect a limited nuclear response and all of the top 20 largest American cities would be in radioactive ruins today. New York, Washington, LA, Chicago, Houston, Boston, San Francisco… all would be gone.
But this world-line did not run this way, did it?
Now…
You can say “phew” and wipe your forehead. Yay!
But…
…like I have stated in regards to [1] start, [2] end and [3] signposts on a person’s lifeline, the same is true for groups of people and societies. The end of the USA was not prevented.
It was only postponed.
Things were only postponed.
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In this post we will address one of the most common misconceptions found in the world. We will address what freedom is and what it is not. And the reason why we are going to do so is simply because brutish rulers use the ignorance of their people to enslave them. And part of that enslavement is to convince them that they have this intangible “thing”; this “freedom”. And, if you are one of those people who think that you are “free”, and that you proudly wave your flag and shout how “free” you are, perhaps this post is written for you.
What it is not.
The first thing that we must make perfectly clear is define what freedom is not. Because many people confuse “freedom” with other things. Like [1] trains that run on time, [2] having ATM machines, [3] having fast food restaurants, [4] being able to vote, or [5] having a “democratic system of governance”. Ah. None of those things have anything to do with freedom. Not one thing. None of them.
In fact, when the United States was initially founded, the people who founded it wrote an entire book on why they founded the nation, and how it was designed to work. This book was called “The Federalist Papers” and you can see it online (for free in full free text), if you don’t believe anything that I have written herein. And one of the most important principles within that book was a warning that democracies take away freedom. And, that the (then newly formed Republic) should be guarded from ever the encroachment of democracy.
So, keep in mind that if you reside within a “democracy” the chances of you having any kind of freedom is practically zero.
That’s not me talking. That’s Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and the rest of the crew that first established the United States back in 1776.
Well, if a democracy is not freedom, then what is?
What freedom is…
It’s actually very simple. It’s the ability for YOU to live life on YOUR terms without any kind of interference.
If you want to go walk down the street, the freedom to get up and walk down it should be cherished. This includes the freedom if you want to eat a hotdog, or listen to a song on a radio, or being able to swim in a pond. The ability to do any of these things are freedoms.
Even the strange and the odd, maybe even especially those things.
Having the freedom to live your life on your terms is what freedom is all about. And if you cannot, then you do not have freedom.
Freedom is the ability to live life on your terms no matter what other people think. Here’s a picture of a man holding his cock out for the entire world to see.
But that is not realistic…
Now, that is where things start to get tricky. You see, there are all sorts of people, “busybodies” as I like to call them, who have a vision of a “better world”. And more often than not, their vision requires you to act in some way that they feel is proper. So they make rules, laws, add fees, and taxes, and prohibitions and bans to stop you from exercising your freedoms.
Any action that you do that has any of the following attached to it is NOT a freedom;
A regulation.
A rule.
A tax.
A fee.
A membership.
A prohibition.
A ban from use.
Forced used.
Forced sharing.
Permit.
So, if you like to eat a triple greasy hamburger with a sunny-side-up egg on top, with a beer, and your dog beside you inside a restaurant in New Jersey, but…
There is a ban on triple hamburgers.
There is a ban on sunny-side-up eggs.
You are prohibited from bringing your dog in a restaurant.
You must pay tax on your meal.
You must be carded to check your age for the beer.
You must finish before 2 am in the morning.
You are NOT free. You are enslaved.
Ah. But how do you measure it?
Well, surprisingly enough, freedom can be measured by the same set of criteria that was laid out in The Federalist Papers.
It’s the ability to have [1] life, [2] liberty, and [3] the pursuit of happiness. With part one [1] life being further divided into [1a] food, [1b] clothing, and [1c] shelter.
And, following the guidelines as listed above, any encroachment of any of those five items is a subtraction of freedom from your life.
Since most people are confused what freedom is, and how you can measure it, let’s go one by one through those five characteristics as listed…
[1a] Food
The ability to put anything you want in your body, at any time, and at any amount free of taxes, regulation, rules, bans or prohibitions of any type is a freedom. Failure to do so is tyranny. If you and your nation is somewhere in between it is “an encroachment of tyranny”.
One person’s freedom is another person’s horror. Here, many Hindu’s from India would be horrified by this meal, and would ban this meal and probably lynch you for eating it.
It does not matter if it is a tuna fish sandwich or a tab of LSD. The freedom to ingest, inject, or partake in anything into your own body free of outside influence, regulation, fees or taxes, let alone bans or prohibitions is a freedom.
[1b] Clothing
The ability to wear what you want, when you want and how you want is a freedom. If you are forced to wear a hat, a scarf, or a head-covering, you are not free. The same is true if you must wear a uniform. Whether it is a type of dress style for your corporate office, or a uniform as part of a para-military unit. True freedom involves personal dress selection.
This also includes hair styles, and makeup and other adornments.
One person’s freedom is another person’s horror. In America many companies would forbid you to wear these outfits as part of the “dress code”.
[1c] Shelter
The ability to own things is the bedrock of freedom.
Throughout history, up until the last century, people would build houses and would put their belongings within those houses. All of which they would totally and completely own.
Now, however, things are quite different.
You rent out your house to the bank on a thirty year mortgage. Your home is subject to real estate taxes, and school taxes, and you must obey the regulations set by your neighborhood from everything that you do to change the house. In fact, often you must get permission to cut down the trees on your property, or suffer with fines and fees for the failure to maintain your property up to community standards.
Because certain areas are too restrictive in the United States, people move out of the heavily taxed and restrictive areas (such as California) and more to less restrictive areas, such as Alabama.
If anyone can place rules, regulations, prohibitions, taxes, fees, or anything else on your home, you do not own it. Failure to own things is (historically) a trait of the slave and sub-servant classes.
[2] Liberty
According to the dictionary, “liberty” is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views.
In other words, while the first three characteristics involved property (1a,1b, and 1c) this involves thought, belief and political views.
If you are unable to express them, or are constrained in writing about them, reading about them, or discussing them with others, you do not have liberty. It has been taken from you.
Some regions restrict how you think about things and what you actually think. To these other people, your thoughts and the resulting lifestyle that you embrace is a threat to their well-ordered life and society. Thus they do everything that they can to ban your behaviors and actions.
[3] Pursuit of Happiness
Finally, whether you have freedom or not, the ability to forge towards getting freedom is important. And this act, trying to have freedom is known as the “Pursuit of Happiness”.
However, if someone places laws, regulations or obstacles in front of you that prohibits or prevents you from obtaining your freedoms, they are interfering with your pursuit of happiness.
The Ideal vs. the Actual
Now the astute reader will note that the ideal cannot be found anywhere on the planet. There simply isn’t anywhere where people can have all five elements of freedom unencumbered. That is fine. Not perfect, but fine.
It leaves plenty of room for the pursuit of happiness, don’t you know.
Instead, we can measure things comparatively.
United States and China
Of course, the United States says that it has “freedom and democracy”. But does it really? According to the criteria above, the answer is a big flat no. On every level, the amount of freedom that a person has in the United States is actually quite scant.
What about China?
Well, according to the American media, China is a horrible, terrible and repressive place. It is a place full of sad impoverished people and a terribly corrupt nation. Well, that is what the powerful American press says.
Well, those expats who has visited it can confirm that it doesn’t look anything like what the American media narrative says it is. And, I can say and confirm that while there are many things that aren’t free (like not being allowed to take recreational drugs, for instance), on the whole, most Chinese people experience a far greater, wider and more diverse set of freedoms than Americans do. And if you don’t believe me, hop on a plane an see it for yourself.
Conclusion
It is easy to repeat the mindless mantras as spewed forth by the mainstream and the alt-press media. It’s far harder to engage in rational thought with those that do. This post is my “baseline”.
It’s simple.
You are either free or you are not.
If you move from a place that doesn’t have certain freedoms to a place that does, you are enjoying the “pursuit of happiness”.
And that’s exactly what I have done.
I went from a place where every single purchase of alcohol required me to show some picture identification, to where I just raise my hand and it is brought over wordlessly.
I went from leaving my dog in the truck to taking him inside of restaurants with me.
I went from taking a few drags of an expensive cigarette in the rain in the company parking lot, to smoking cigars in my large spacious office.
I went from paying yearly taxes, and reporting it to the federal government, on my house every year, to owning homes with zero taxes, zero reporting, and zero regulations.
Freedom.
You either have it or you do not.
One person’s idea of freedom is another person’s horror. Here, many Muslims would outright ban eating bacon, and maybe even decapitate you for even considering such a sandwich.
Do you want more?
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find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you.
Yes. It’s almost like the CIA no longer exists. For after a few decades of non-stop headlines about all the abuses of the CIA, it all went dark. It all went silent. It all went away. Why?
I’ll tell you why.
The CIA outsourced it’s nefarious activities.
They outsourced them to “non-governmental” agencies and NGO’s. And it has been these other organizations that have been doing all the “dirty work” of the CIA.
These NGO’s are the “cat’s paw” of the CIA.
cat's-paw
A person who is used by another to achieve some end, especially in a duplicitous or cynical manner. Taken from a fable about a monkey who uses a cat's paw to retrieve chestnuts from a fire.
I thought that Jake really loved me, but in the end, I was just a cat's-paw so he could stir up jealousy in his ex-boyfriend.
-Cat's paw - Idioms by The Free Dictionary
There are numerous such NGO agencies. But I will focus on the one that has been in the news lately. This NGO is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) which has been busy stirring up strife and conflict in Hong Kong under the guise of “pro-democracy”.
Trojan Horse: The National Endowment for Democracy
How many Americans could identify the National Endowment for Democracy? An organization which often does exactly the opposite of what its name implies.
The NED was set up in the early 1980s under President Reagan in the wake of all the negative revelations about the CIA in the second half of the 1970s. The latter was a remarkable period. Spurred by Watergate – the Church committee of the Senate, the Pike committee of the House, and the Rockefeller Commission, created by the president, were all busy investigating the CIA.
Seemingly every other day there was a new headline about the discovery of some awful thing, even criminal conduct, the CIA had been mixed up in for years. The Agency was getting an exceedingly bad name, and it was causing the powers-that-be much embarrassment.
Something had to be done.
What was done was not to stop doing these awful things. Of course not. What was done was to shift many of these awful things to a new organization, with a nice sounding name – The National Endowment for Democracy. The idea was that the NED would do somewhat overtly what the CIA had been doing covertly for decades, and thus, hopefully, eliminate the stigma associated with CIA covert activities.
It was a masterpiece. Of politics, of public relations, and of cynicism.
Thus it was that in 1983, the National Endowment for Democracy was set up to “support democratic institutions throughout the world through private, nongovernmental efforts”. Notice the “nongovernmental” – part of the image, part of the myth.
In actuality, virtually every penny of its funding comes from the federal government, as is clearly indicated in the financial statement in each issue of its annual report. NED likes to refer to itself as an NGO (Non-governmental organization) because this helps to maintain a certain credibility abroad that an official US government agency might not have. But NGO is the wrong category. NED is a GO.
GO - Government Organization
“We should not have to do this kind of work covertly,” said Carl Gershman in 1986, while he was president of the Endowment. “It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the C.I.A. We saw that in the 60’s, and that’s why it has been discontinued. We have not had the capability of doing this, and that’s why the endowment was created.” 1
And Allen Weinstein, who helped draft the legislation establishing NED, declared in 1991: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” 2
In effect, the CIA has been laundering money through NED.
The Endowment has four principal initial recipients of funds: the International Republican Institute; the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs; an affiliate of the AFL-CIO (such as the American Center for International Labor Solidarity); and an affiliate of the Chamber of Commerce (such as the Center for International Private Enterprise). These institutions then disburse funds to other institutions in the US and all over the world, which then often disburse funds to yet other organizations.
In a multitude of ways, NED meddles in the internal affairs of numerous foreign countries by supplying funds, technical know-how, training, educational materials, computers, faxes, copiers, automobiles, and so on, to selected political groups, civic organizations, labor unions, dissident movements, student groups, book publishers, newspapers, other media, etc. NED typically refers to the media it supports as “independent” despite the fact that these media are on the US payroll.
NED programs generally impart the basic philosophy that working people and other citizens are best served under a system of free enterprise, class cooperation, collective bargaining, minimal government intervention in the economy, and opposition to socialism in any shape or form. A free-market economy is equated with democracy, reform, and growth; and the merits of foreign investment in their economy are emphasized.
From 1994 to 1996, NED awarded 15 grants, totaling more than $2,500,000, to the American Institute for Free Labor Development, an organization used by the CIA for decades to subvert progressive labor unions. 3 AIFLD’s work within Third World unions typically involved a considerable educational effort very similar to the basic NED philosophy described above. The description of one of the 1996 NED grants to AIFLD includes as one its objectives: “build union-management cooperation”. 4 Like many things that NED says, this sounds innocuous, if not positive, but these in fact are ideological code words meaning “keep the labor agitation down … don’t rock the status-quo boat”. The relationship between NED and AIFLD very well captures the CIA origins of the Endowment. 5
NED has funded centrist and rightist labor organizations to help them oppose those unions which were too militantly pro-worker. This has taken place in France, Portugal and Spain amongst many other places. In France, during the 1983-4 period, NED supported a “trade union-like organization for professors and students” to counter “left-wing organizations of professors”. To this end it funded a series of seminars and the publication of posters, books and pamphlets such as “Subversion and the Theology of Revolution” and “Neutralism or Liberty”. 6 (“Neutralism” here refers to being unaligned in the cold war.)
NED describes one of its 1997-98 programs thusly: “To identify barriers to private sector development at the local and federal levels in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and to push for legislative change … [and] to develop strategies for private sector growth.” 7 Critics of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, a socialist, were supported by NED grants for years. 8
In short, NED’s programs are in sync with the basic needs and objectives of the New World Order’s economic globalization, just as the programs have for years been on the same wavelength as US foreign policy.
Interference in elections
NED’s Statement of Principles and Objectives, adopted in 1984, asserts that “No Endowment funds may be used to finance the campaigns of candidates for public office.” But the ways to circumvent the spirit of such a prohibition are not difficult to come up with; as with American elections, there’s “hard money” and there’s “soft money”.
As described in the “Elections” and “Interventions” chapters, NED successfully manipulated elections in Nicaragua in 1990 and Mongolia in 1996; helped to overthrow democratically elected governments in Bulgaria in 1990 and Albania in 1991 and 1992; and worked to defeat the candidate for prime minister of Slovakia in 2002 who was out of favor in Washington. And from 1999 to 2004, NED heavily funded members of the opposition to President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela to subvert his rule and to support a referendum to unseat him.
Additionally, in the 1990s and afterward, NED supported a coalition of groups in Haiti known as the Democratic Convergence, who were united in their opposition to Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his progressive ideology, while he was in and out of the office of the president. 9
The Endowment has made its weight felt in the electoral-political process in numerous other countries.
NED would have the world believe that it’s only teaching the ABCs of democracy and elections to people who don’t know them, but in virtually all the countries named above, in whose electoral process NED intervened, there had already been free and fair elections held. The problem, from NED’s point of view, is that the elections had been won by political parties not on NED’s favorites list.
The Endowment maintains that it’s engaged in “opposition building” and “encouraging pluralism”. “We support people who otherwise do not have a voice in their political system,” said Louisa Coan, a NED program officer. 10 But NED hasn’t provided aid to foster progressive or leftist opposition in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, or Eastern Europe – or, for that matter, in the United States – even though these groups are hard pressed for funds and to make themselves heard. Cuban dissident groups and media are heavily supported however.
NED’s reports carry on endlessly about “democracy”, but at best it’s a modest measure of mechanical political democracy they have in mind, not economic democracy; nothing that aims to threaten the powers-that-be or the way-things-are, unless of course it’s in a place like Cuba.
The Endowment played an important role in the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s, funding key components of Oliver North’s shadowy “Project Democracy” network, which privatized US foreign policy, waged war, ran arms and drugs, and engaged in other equally charming activities. At one point in 1987, a White House spokesman stated that those at NED “run Project Democracy”. 11 This was an exaggeration; it would have been more correct to say that NED was the public arm of Project Democracy, while North ran the covert end of things. In any event, the statement caused much less of a stir than if – as in an earlier period – it had been revealed that it was the CIA which was behind such an unscrupulous operation.
NED also mounted a multi-level campaign to fight the leftist insurgency in the Philippines in the mid-1980s, funding a host of private organizations, including unions and the media. 12 This was a replica of a typical CIA operation of pre-NED days.
And between 1990 and 1992, the Endowment donated a quarter-million dollars of taxpayers’ money to the Cuban-American National Foundation, the ultra-fanatic anti-Castro Miami group. The CANF, in turn, financed Luis Posada Carriles, one of the most prolific and pitiless terrorists of modern times, who had been involved in the blowing up of a Cuban airplane in 1976, which killed 73 people. In 1997, he was involved in a series of bomb explosions in Havana hotels, 13 and in 2000 imprisoned in Panama when he was part of a group planning to assassinate Fidel Castro with explosives while the Cuban leader was speaking before a large crowd, although eventually, the group was tried on lesser charges.
The NED, like the CIA before it, calls what it does “supporting democracy.”
The governments and movements whom the NED targets call it “destabilization.” 14
Here is an example of one of their agents;
Here’s one of the leaders of the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong. He wrote the guidebook for the Hong Kong revolution. Oh, wait. He isn’t even Chinese. He’s an American in “yellow face” posing as a Chinese. He was an American teaching in Hong Kong and was also working for Amnesty International. That used to be a good organization and then like so many it took Soros money and got poisoned. Now is it just like Human Rights Watch, another Soros fake organization.
Here is from Max’s story,
“An American man with ties to Amnesty International and key Hong Kong separatist figures has been posing online as a Hong Kong native named Kong Tsung-gan. Routinely cited as a grassroots activist and writer by major media organizations and published in English-language media, the fictitious character Kong appears to have been concocted to disseminate anti-China propaganda behind the cover of yellowface.
Through Kong Tsung-gan’s prolific digital presence and uninterrogated reputation in mainstream Western media, he disseminates a constant stream of content hyping up the Hong Kong “freedom struggle” while clamoring for the US to turn up the heat on China.
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/08/08/hong-kong-western-media-yellowfacing-amnesty/#more-37402
The CIA and its many front organizations have thousands of these people. The news media never figures it out.
An American man with ties to Amnesty International and key Hong Kong separatist figures has been posing online as a Hong Kong native named Kong Tsung-gan. Routinely cited as a grassroots activist and writer by major media organizations and published in English-language media.
Conclusion
The NED is the CIA. It uses the same funding mechanism, the same people, the same policies, and the same techniques. It just uses a different name to confuse people, and distract attention away from what is really going on.
And what it actually is...
Is covert military activity used to topple another nation through destruction of it's governmental institutions. It is a technique of fighting war.
Thus the United States, via the NED, fight wars against other nations. They desire to topple the governments of those other nations as they believe that co-existence with the other nation is not int he best interests of America.
It is used to attack other nations, because use of the American military to engage in wars requires Congressional approval.
"The old paradigm of blind engagement with China has failed. We must not continue it. We must not return to it."
-Mike Pompeo
Notes
The New York Times, June 1, 1986
Washington Post, September 22, 1991
NED Annual Reports, 1994-96
NED Annual Report, 1996, p.39
For further information on AIFLD, see: Tom Barry, et al., The Other Side of Paradise: Foreign Control in the Caribbean (Grove Press, NY, 1984), see AIFLD in index; Jan Knippers Black, United States Penetration of Brazil (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1977), chapter 6; Fred Hirsch, An Analysis of Our AFL-CIO Role in Latin America (monograph, San Jose, California, 1974) passim; The Sunday Times (London), October 27, 1974, p.15-16
NED Annual Report, November 18, 1983 to September 30, 1984, p.21
NED Annual Report, 1998, p.35
See NED annual reports of the 1990s.
Council on Hemispheric Affairs (Washington, DC), press release, June 13, 2002; Washington Post, November 18, 2003; NED Annual Report, 1998, p.53; Haiti Progres (Port-au-Prince, Haiti), May 13-19, 1998
New York Times, March 31, 1997, p.11
Washington Post, February 16, 1987; also see New York Times, February 15, 1987, p.1
San Francisco Examiner, July 21, 1985, p.1
New York Times, July 13, 1998
For a detailed discussion of NED, in addition to the sources named above, see: William I. Robinson, A Faustian Bargain: U.S. Intervention in the Nicaraguan Elections and American Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War Era (Westview Press, Colorado, 1992), passim
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
Those that promote the benefits of “democracy” leave one thing out; it is always replaced with an oligarchy. Where the wealthy people control the government and eventually reduce the rest of society to slave or serfs serving them. Here, we take a look at the Athenian “democracy” and as we read about it, keep in mind the terrible parallels between it and America.
What is amazing to me is that our Republic was changed to a democracy by the 12th amendment, and those changing it KNEW HISTORY. They knew that democracies always… 100% always… always without fail… become oligarchies of the wealthy.
Here we look at the “gold standard” for “democracy; Athens. This is the standard that all the pro-democracy advocates cite. And the one that became an oligarchy before it’s eventual collapse.
Introduction
In the year 507 B.C., the Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced a system of political reforms that he called demokratia, or “rule by the people” (from demos, “the people,” and kratos, or “power”).
It was the first known democracy in the world.
This system was comprised of three separate institutions:
The ekklesia, a sovereign governing body that wrote laws and dictated foreign policy;
The boule, a council of representatives from the ten Athenian tribes
The dikasteria, the popular courts in which citizens argued cases before a group of lottery-selected jurors.
Although this Athenian democracy would survive for only two centuries, its invention by Cleisthenes, “The Father of Democracy,” is considered to be one of the best contributions Greek made to the world. The Greek system of direct democracy would pave the way for representative democracies across the globe.
Which is a mystery to me.
As they all failed.
Each one, in turn, becoming a nation ruled by the wealthy and one that abused it’s poor.
Who Could Vote in Ancient Greece?
One of the things that everyone omits is that in a democracy, not everyone could vote. In fact only a handful of people were ever permitted to vote, and their selection… wouldn’t you know it… was influenced (if not decided) by the wealthiest inhabitants.
“In a democracy,” the Greek historian Herodotus wrote, “there is, first, that most splendid of virtues, equality before the law.”
However, the “equality” Herodotus described was limited to a small segment of the Athenian population in Ancient Greece.
For example, in Athens in the middle of the 4th century there were about 100,000 citizens (Athenian citizenship was limited to men and women whose parents had also been Athenian citizens), about 10,000 metoikoi, or “resident foreigners,” and 150,000 slaves.
Out of all those people, only male citizens who were older than 18 were a part of the demos, meaning only about 40,000 people could participate in the democratic process.
The Ekklesia (the assembly)
Athenian democracy was a direct democracy made up of three important institutions.
The first was the ekklesia, or Assembly, the sovereign governing body of Athens.
Any member of the demos–any one of those 40,000 adult male citizens–was welcome to attend the meetings of the ekklesia, which were held 40 times per year in a hillside auditorium west of the Acropolis called the Pnyx.
Important point; The actual voters could directly make laws. They did not need to vote for a "representative" who would vote for them.
That was great on paper, but not really all that functional. For only about 5,000 men attended each session of the Assembly. The rest were serving in the army or navy or working to support their families.
At the meetings, the ekklesia made decisions about war and foreign policy, wrote and revised laws and approved or condemned the conduct of public officials.
The group made decisions by simple majority vote.
The Boule (The Council)
The second important institution was the boule, or Council of Five Hundred.
This could be considered the "Deep State" or the bureaucracy.
The boule was a group of 500 men, 50 from each of ten Athenian tribes, who served on the Council for one year.
Unlike the ekklesia, the boule met every day and did most of the hands-on work of governance.
It supervised government workers and was in charge of things like navy ships (triremes) and army horses. It dealt with ambassadors and representatives from other city-states.
Its main function was to decide what matters would come before the ekklesia. In this way, the 500 members of the boule dictated how the entire democracy would work.
Positions on the boule were chosen by lot and not by election.
This was because, in theory, a random lottery was more democratic than an election: pure chance, after all, could not be influenced by things like money or popularity.
The lottery system also prevented the establishment of a permanent class of civil servants who might be tempted to use the government to advance or enrich themselves.
However, historians argue that selection to the boule was not always just a matter of chance. They note that wealthy and influential people–and their relatives–served on the Council much more frequently than would be likely in a truly random lottery.
In actual function, the selection of membership was determined by the wealthy and influential.
The Dikasteria (The Judges / Courts)
The third important institution was the popular courts, or dikasteria.
Every day, more than 500 jurors were chosen by lot from a pool of male citizens older than 30. Of all the democratic institutions, Aristotle argued that the dikasteria “contributed most to the strength of democracy” because the jury had almost unlimited power.
There were no police in Athens, so it was the demos themselves who brought court cases, argued for the prosecution and the defense and delivered verdicts and sentences by majority rule.
There were also no rules about what kinds of cases could be prosecuted or what could and could not be said at trial, and so Athenian citizens frequently used the dikasteria to punish or embarrass their enemies. It became a tool of the wealthy.
Jurors were paid a wage for their work, so that the job could be accessible to everyone and not just the wealthy (but, since the wage was less than what the average worker earned in a day, the typical juror was an elderly retiree).
Since Athenians did not pay taxes, the money for these payments came from customs duties, contributions from allies and taxes levied on the metoikoi.
The one exception to this rule was the leitourgia, or liturgy, which was a kind of tax that wealthy people volunteered to pay to sponsor major civic undertakings such as the maintenance of a navy ship (this liturgy was called the trierarchia) or the production of a play or choral performance at the city’s annual festival.
The End of Athenian Democracy
Around 460 B.C., under the rule of the general Pericles (generals were among the only public officials who were elected, not appointed) Athenian democracy began to evolve into something that we would call an aristocracy.
This was the rule of what Herodotus called “the one man, the best.”
This has lead to all democratic nations evolving into one of the following forms…
Oligarchy
Plutocracy
Aristocracy
Conclusion
When some mindless clone voices the idea that “democracy” is the best, you should rest assured that they are either [1] ignorant of history, or [2] a shrill for the wealthy. Historically, all democracies evolve into rule by the wealthy and well-connected. There are NO EXCEPTIONS.
America was set up as a Republic, but was quickly changed into a democracy with the 12th amendment, and evolved over time to the oligarchy it is today.
Can you do anything about it?
No, you cannot.
Unless you want to get involved in armed insurrection (always a nasty business), I would advise moving somewhere else where the “grass is greener”. I have other posts on this subject and I would suggest you all take a look at them. Here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
America today does not resemble anything that is found on the original 1776 United States Constitution. In fact, in many ways, it is the exact opposite of what it was founded as. This is an open fact, and only the most ignorant disagree on this.
Today, the United States is a real mess. It really is. It is an enormous, out of control beast, and no one can tame it. It’s a snarling, nasty critter that is harmful to Americans, and a threat to the rest of the world.
Here, we talk about how America came to be what it is today.
For there are five distinct separate evolutionary periods of American governance. Each one is distinct for all the others before it. They are…
Founded as a Republic.
Changed to a Democracy with the 12th amendment.
Centralized Federal Democracy during the Civil War.
Progressive Social Democracy under President Wilson.
Military Oligarchy under President Lindon Johnson.
Corrupt Military Totalitarian Empire today.
Here we will discuss each time period in turn. What it was like, the benefits, or liabilities, and why it was changed into something different.
We will begin with the start….
Founded as a Republic. (1776)
There is no question that America was founded as a Republic. It is clearly specified as such within the Constitution itself. And the “Federalist Papers” which described (in depth) the reasoning used in the creation of the Constitution.
They abhorred a Democracy and they absolutely did not want America to ever become a Democracy. For they viewed it as “mob rule”, or rule by easily-manipulated rabble.
Their vision was one where the individual States would continue to operate as independent nations. They would have their own flags, their own military, their own laws, and the citizens would be in complete control of their state government.
The Federal Government was intended to be small. It was only intended [1] to be necessary in the case of an external military threat, and to [2] assist in the regulation of trade between the different States.
Nothing Else.
The Federal Government, through the Bill of Rights would establish the framework of “protections” that the various Federal and State governments were forbidden to touch.
The Bill of Rights listed the “untouchable” Rights, and the Ninth Amendment stated that Americans had many, many other Rights. And none of them can be legislated or rules made to curtail them. Thus, the Federal and State governments were limited to what they could do. They could only to what was IMPLICITLY STATED within the Constitution.
America was set up as a Republic. There the Individual was supreme. Second came the States Governments. The Federal Government was intentionally weak and small.
America was a Republic for only a mere 28 years.
Changed to a Democracy with the 12th amendment. (1804)
Well, that did not set well with ambitious and evil men. These people felt that they were better than other people.
Well, they did. (Read their writings.)
They felt that they were smarter, and more capable, and thus should be deserving of extra privileges. And so they strove to change the United States from a Republic into a Democracy.
This is because it is easy to manipulate mobs of people.
Through the manipulation of people, they would increase their power, through the systems inherent in the Constitution.
And this is exactly what happened.
During the first one hundred years, all of the amendments to the Constitution, and the rules and laws laid down in Congress was devoted to four main objectives…
Diluting the voting power of a citizen. (The more people allowed to vole, the less power the individual had.)
Control of the mass “mobs” of citizenry. (Control of the news media meant control of the people.)
Reduction of the influence of State Government.
Increasing Federal Control over the States.
America become a Democracy. And Controls over the manipulation of the citizenry grew, as did the size and scope of the Federal Government.
America was a Democracy for 57 years. The entire time the Federal government grew and grew and grew…
Centralized Federal Democracy during the Civil War. (1861)
This continued for many decades up until the push by the Federal Government became far too large. They kept pushing and pushing, and sooner or later someone was going to get hurt.
The States argued that they had their own sovereignty through the Tenth Amendment.
The Federal Government argued that that was no longer true. That the Bill of Rights was meaningless when you have a strong central federal Government.
They were wrong, of course.
But it did not matter. They were strong and powerful.
When the Southern States banded together to fight the Federal monster, a long Civil War broke out. It lasted four years. And while there were many cries to “free the slaves’, at the root of the matter was whether or not a State can make it’s own laws. (And the ownership of slaves is a State law issue.)
The Civil War settled that.
The individual States no longer were autonomous, and must follow the dictates of the Federal Government.
Thus, the American Government became a singular Federal Government over regional “territories” known as States.
America was a Central Federal Democracy for 52 years.
Progressive Social Democracy under President Wilson. (1913)
Now, For around sixty years or so, the Federal Government grew in size, scope and ambitions. The ideas and the systems laid out in the 1776 Constitution were not sufficient to implement any of the “new” and “progressive modern” ideas. Ideas that were being considered in the elite schools and halls of the “power brokers”. They wanted and felt that some serious structural changes needed to occur.
They longed for the power held by the Kings during the middle ages. They wanted a new and modern version; a Feudal Kingship under the guise of “democracy”. New, modern and progressive; to usher in a new utopia of man over nature.
That’s how they thought.
Enter President Wilson.
President Wilson was the President that extinguished the flame of liberty.
To make a long story short, he was the architect for what America is today. And under his leadership we now have the following realities that are permanently affixed in America today…
Government owns and controls all money.
Citizens are permitted to rent the money.
Ownership of all property belongs to the government.
Making laws and rules were handed over to “agencies”.
The Bill of Rights is just a list of “privileges”.
Americans must work to feed the government.
Yeah it sounds really bad, and it is. But if you distill all the flowery rhetoric and babble-speak, and get down to the raw meat of the issues, that is what it distills into to. And, yes, it’s horribly and very ugly.
But hey! Everyone else was doing it. From Russia, to France, to China. Every ruler wanted full control of their subjects.
America became a Feudal Kingship. People were taught to serve the Federal Government without question. And efforts to spread this type of government around the world began. For “democracy“.
America was a Feudal Kingship under the guise of “democracy” for 50 years. Then it got really bad…
Military Oligarchy under President Lindon Johnson. (1963)
We now know, through the release of the Kennedy Assassination Transcripts that a military coup occurred in 1962. President Lyndon B. Johnson, along with a hodge-podge of other Washington “interests” assassinated a “democratically elected” president.
Immediately after killing the President, America went full-on “HOT” war with Vietnam.
America became the foremost military power in the world and started to exert that power everywhere.
Then they immediately went to war fighting battles all over the world, and funneling money into an Military-industrial organization. An organization that became enormous and powerful.
America became a Military Oligarchy. Much like Hitler and his Nazi’s and Genghis Khan and his hoards of warriors.
America has been a Military Oligarchy for 38 years.
Its’ so out of control, that today we are currently fighting eight simultaneous far-flung wars.
Which brings me to today…
Corrupt Military Totalitarian Empire today. (2001)
It wouldn’t be too bad if it were “out of sight and out of mind”, but events came about that brought war, and military power and control home.
It’s been 19 years since the events of 9-11. We have been a military totalitarian empire ever since.
As America fought these various wars, simultaneous efforts were being made to "bring the Military-Industrial" complex control home domestically. We all can thank President George Bush for this.
Thus America rapidly became a full-on police / surveillance state.
America today is a wild rampaging out-of-control monster that if not contained, will plunge the world into global thermonuclear armageddon.
Domestically, the Bill of Rights no longer functionally exist. Alphabet agencies operate independently and run rough-shod over Americans with impunity. A military organization known as the DHS, operates with the NSA, and CIA / FBI to control the American citizenry. Congress has become outrageous media entertainment. Public works projects have ground to a halt, and the media (from alt-left to alt-right) are controlled by the government and manipulate with impunity.
International efforts are now all centered in [1] controlling strategic materials by proxy (Bolivia, Syria), [2] subduing other nations that might be economic threats (China, and Russia), and [3] fighting other nations wars (Yemen, Liberia) following a for-profit model.
America today is a corrupt Military Totalitarian Empire.
Conclusion
To really change the direction that America in involved in… and it needs to be changed, least the world collapse under the weight of World War III…
…we need to recognize what America is today.
We need to see what it was set up as, and how it was changed, and to put systems in place so that this will NEVER happen again.
And, America must change. This path that it is on is not sustainable.
And, tweaking things to undo the policies of Obama is not enough. We need to undo two centuries of policy changes. And this needs to be supervised by people that understand what “liberty” and “freedom” really are…
…and reporting what you did all year to a government agency is NOT freedom. Nor is asking permission to withdrawal your savings from a bank, wearing a seat-belt, or being forbidden from smoking or drinking large-size sodas. If you need to ask permission to do something or are fearful of government consequences, you are NOT living in freedom.
Any person who does not understand this MOST BASIC of understandings shouldn’t be permitted anywhere near the levers of power.
Real patriots need to take control of this situation, and it will not be organic. It’s not going to “just happen”. Like how each of the five stages of American Governance were well-planned in advance and executed, the same must occur by American patriots. This situation needs to change, and it needs to change soon.
Do not place all your hopes and beliefs on a Trump Presidency. While he is doing some good things Domestically, his International policy is driven by neocons and could actually result in World War III. This would be horrific for everyone.
Nor should you put your hopes in the other end of the spectrum. The Bernie Sanders crowd and all their ilk are dangerous idealists. They want to wind the clock back to feudal serfdom under a modern “enlightened” totalitarian social utopia. This would be horrific for many Americans.
The alternatives are far too frightening to contemplate.
Which is why we need to erase all the changes made since 1789 (The Bill of Rights) and start all over with a “clean slate”.
I hope you enjoyed this little narrative. You can find more, and better, discussions on other SHTF posts, Accessed here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
America was established as a Republic. As a Republic, it was designed to protect the liberty and the freedom of the American citizenry. Over the last two centuries, various individuals have “improved” upon this concept by replacing a Liberty protecting Republic, into a oligarchy ruled pretend-Democracy.
Here we take a look at this transition. We do so based on the book “Liberty in Peril,” by Randall Holcombe.
Liberty is freedom from the government.
In his book, he challenges the presumption that liberty and democracy are complementary. They are not. You can either have a Republic, or you can have a Democracy. You cannot have both simultaneously.
High School Civics Class
There is no such thing as democracy. It's a sweet utopia. US was the first country to show threat only money design your status and access to privileges of 21st century. Western EU countries (like Germany) show that an average citizen has little to zero control over own countries processes.
There is no such thing as democracy. there are fairy tales about it which are used as a tool of politics from the neo imperialist West towards everybody else. They consider us all savages and act accordingly. Because they are so "special" (remember one of this degenerative Obama-speeches?)
- Michael Goryany
When I took history and government in school, many critical issues were misrepresented. They were given short shrift, and in many instances ignored entirely.
These omissions greatly hampered my understanding of America and created mysteries that my teachers could not answer.
How can you have the fourth amendment, and also have the sixteenth amendment at the same time? One permits you to keep your financial affairs private, the other requires that you disclose them under the penalty of law.
How can you have a second amendment that cannot be infringed, and an ATF who’s entire purpose and objective is to infringe on the second amendment?
How can the United States be a Republic when the general population can vote for the President?
Indeed, the confusing nature of what America was founded as, and the way America was managed undermined my ability to understand what America really was.
I believe that it is particularly great in regard to American constitutionalism, what it is, and what it was intended to be. He spends time describing how it has morphed from protecting liberty to advancing democracy instead. As well as how this love of “democracy” has run roughshod over Americans at the expense of liberty.
The founders did not intend the United States to be a democracy.
It does so with a host of novel and important insights rather than the disinterest generated by the books I suffered through in school.
The Role of Government
Holcombe gets right to the main point:
The role of government as [America’s founders] saw it, was to protect the rights of individuals, and the biggest threat to individual liberty was the government itself.
This is beautiful.
I only wish that it was taught in schools this way.
The American government was designed to protect the Rights of individuals.
... So they designed a government with constitutionally limited powers, constrained to carry out only those activities specifically allowed by the Constitution.
Our nation was designed to have a very small government, with the restrictions on it, large, and clearly defined.
This book describes how the fundamental principle underlying American government has been transformed over the years…
...from protecting individual liberty...
...to carrying out the will of the people, as revealed by a democratic decision-making process. (p. xxii)
Holcombe begins by laying out the case that…
“...the Founders had no intention of creating a democracy...
...in the sense of a government that would be guided by popular opinion,” (p. 5)
…in sharp contrast to current “understanding.” Where the point of government is to take polls and gauge public opinion. Then pretend to react to the opinion poll results.
Which of course is meaningless.
Studies have shown that the government does what it wants.
The media creates fake polls, and fake news, and fake opinion pieces and fake outrage to justify the governmental actions.
And what makes the transformation from a central focus on liberty to a central focus on democracy that routinely invades liberty…
... particularly significant is that the powers embodied in America’s twenty-first-century democratic government are those that eighteenth-century Americans revolted against to escape. (p. 7)
Liberty used to be important.
Since I do not have the space to dissect all of the issues in Liberty in Peril, I would like to highlight a few particularly noteworthy things.
Holcombe starts with John Locke, which is a common place to start for those interested in advancing liberty.
John Locke was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the “Father of Liberalism”.
But he also calls attention to Cato’s Letters, which was one of the most influential—but now almost completely ignored—influences leading to the birth of the American Revolution.
I have long been struck by how many of the insights our founders are credited with that actually trace back there (see the first major chapter of my book Lines of Liberty), and I echo Holcombe’s invitation for more people to discover it.
Are Liberty and Democracy Complementary?
Liberty in Peril challenges the typical current presumption that liberty and democracy are complementary.
They are not.
If anything, they are direct opposites.
American “democracy” is a corruption. It is an oligarchy of the wealthy over the rest of humanity.
The principle of liberty suggests that first and foremost, the government’s role is to protect the rights of individuals.
The principle of democracy suggests that collective decisions are made according to the will of the majority…
The greater the allowable scope of democracy in government, the greater the threat to liberty…
In particular, the ascendancy of the concept of democracy threatens the survival of the free market economy, which is an extension of the Founders’ views on liberty. (pp. 14-15)
This is reflected in the changing nature of elections.
At one time, elections might have been viewed as a method of selecting competent people to undertake a job with constitutionally-specified limits.
With the extension of democracy, elections became referendums on public policy. (p. 20)
Consensus vs. Democracy
The book also challenges commonly held presumptions that our Founders wanted democracy.
But while “the Founders wanted those in charge of government’s operations to be selected by a democratic process,”...
... they “also wanted to insulate those who ran the government from direct influence by its citizens”...
... because “[b]y insulating political decision-makers from directs accountability to citizens...
... the government would be in a better position to adhere to its constitutionally-mandated limits.” (p. 15)
Click and Goggle “democracy meme” to see just how effective and what the people think about “democracy” in the world today.
And today, in 2020 we see how absolutely correct this assessment is.
“Thus, the Constitution created a limited government designed to protect liberty, not to foster democracy.” (p. 16)
But the United States…
“consistently has moved toward more democracy, and the unintended side effect has been a reduction in liberty.” (p. 25)
After all, that was the sole purpose of both the 12th and the 17th amendments.
Holcombe lays out issues of consensus versus democracy, with consensus illustrated by market systems in which all those whose property rights are involved agree to transactions, (p. 29) but in government…
“a group is able to undertake more extensive collective action if it requires less consensus to act.” (p. 30)
And the slippery slope is that…
The more citizens want to further national goals through government action, the less consensus they will demand in the collective decision-making process. (p. 33)
An In-Depth Study of the Constitution
Another notable aspect of Liberty in Peril is how far beyond the typical discussion of constitutional issues it goes, substantially expanding readers’ understanding in intriguing ways.
For instance, how many Americans know of the Iroquois Constitution, which focused on unanimity?
The Iroquois constitution was based on the principles of peace, power and righteousness. It laid out a system of government and a method of electing representatives to its Long House Council surprisingly similar to the United States governmental system today. For instance, the Council is divided into Younger Brother and Elder Brother meetings, an instance of a bicameral legislature. Because trade and treaties with the Native Americans were critical to the success of the American colonies, the Iroquois constitution and related documents were translated into English and distributed throughout the colonies and European traders.
How many are aware of the Albany Plan of Union, drawn up in 1754, or how it was influenced by the Iroquois Constitution?
The Albany Plan of Union was a plan to create a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies, suggested by Benjamin Franklin, then a senior leader (age 48) and a delegate from Pennsylvania, at the Albany Congress on July 10, 1754 in Albany, New York. More than twenty representatives of several Northern Atlantic colonies had gathered to plan their defense related to the French and Indian War, the front in North America of the Seven Years’ War between Great Britain and France, spurred on by George Washington’s recent defeat in the Ohio valley. The Plan represented one of multiple early attempts to form a union of the colonies “under one government as far as might be necessary for defense and other general important purposes.”
How many know that a “clear chain of constitutional evolution proceeds from the Albany Plan of Union to the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution of the United States”? (p. 43)
How many have noticed that “when compared with the Articles of
Confederation, the Constitution clearly less constraining than the
document it supplanted…the Constitution did not limit the powers of
government; it expanded them”? (p. 48) Yet,
While the authors of the Constitution did deliberately expand the powers of the federal government, they just as deliberately tried to prevent the creation of a democratic government. (p. 52)
How many are aware of what the Confederate Constitution tells us about the US Constitution.
A first draft that remains of the Confederate Constitution.
As well as the drift from its principles since its adoption.
This is especially true because…
“the problems that the authors of the Confederate Constitution actually did address were overwhelmingly associated with the use of legislative powers. Yes, legislative powers used to impose costs on the general public to provide benefits to narrow constituencies”? (p. 107)
The Constitution often is portrayed as a document that limits the power of the federal government and guarantees the liberty of its citizens…
When compared to the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution places less constraint on the federal government and allows those who run the government more discretion and autonomy and less accountability.
The adoption of the Constitution enhanced the powers of government and laid the foundation for two centuries of government growth. (pp. 66-67)
American classroom teaching American history.
The Elitist Constitution
Holcombe’s section on “The Elitist Constitution” is fascinating.
It lays out the case for why…
“[t]he Constitution devised democratic processes for collective decision-making, but the Founders had no intention of designing a government that would respond to the will of the majority,” (p. 70)
…as illustrated by the fact that citizens …
“had almost no direct input into the federal government as the Constitution was originally written and ratified.” (p. 70)
The section on the Electoral College is even more striking, as it stands in sharp variance from the presumptions behind almost the entire current debate over the National Popular Vote compact:
[A]t the time the Constitution was written the Founders anticipated that in most cases no candidate would receive votes from a majority of the electors.
The Founders reasoned that most electors would vote for one candidate from their own states…
...and it would be unlikely that voting along state lines would produce any candidate with a majority of the votes. (p. 75)
Consequently,
The Founders envisioned that in most cases the president would end up being chosen by the House of Representatives from the list of the top-five electoral vote recipients…
Furthermore, there was no indication that the number of electoral votes received should carry any weight besides creating a list of the top five candidates…
The process was not intended to be democratic. (p. 76)
I found the issues discussed above to be of particular interest. But
there is far more in the book to learn from, and often be surprised by,
in comparison to what history courses usually teach.
Seventh grade history class as taught within a private school.
America’s Evolution Away From Founding Values
Such issues include the evolution of parties, the influence of Andrew Jackson, who …
“fought for democracy, but, ironically, the result of making the nation’s government more democratic has been to expand the scope and power of government in response to popular demands for govern programs,” (p. 91)
which…
... “the Founders foresaw and tried to guard against by limiting the role of democracy in their new government,” (p. 91),
...the War Between the States (“the single most important event in the transformation of American government,” (p. 93)
And, including the elimination of state succession as a real possibility, the Reconstruction Era amendments, the origins of interest group politics, the evolution of federal regulatory power, the evolution of the incentives of civil servants, the Sixteenth Amendment (income tax) as
“a response to the demand for a larger federal government,” (p. 149)
…a different take on the 1920s, in which …
“[f]ar from representing a retreat from progressivism, the 1920s extended the now-established orthodoxy, (p. 154)
…added insight into the New Deal and the courts, Social Security as the …
“one New Deal program for the responsibility for fundamentally transforming the historical, constitutional role of the federal government,” (p. 175)
…how
...“The Great Society represents the ultimate triumph of democracy, because for the first time a major expansion in the scope of government was based on the demands of the electorate, with no extenuation circumstances” (p. 205),
…and far more.
In sum, there are very many good reasons to recommend Liberty in Peril.
In it, Randall Holcombe provides not just a powerful and insightful
look into crucial aspects of America’s evolution away from the
principles of the revolution that created it but also an important
warning:
Unfortunately, many Americans do not appear to fully understand these dangers as they continue to push the foundations of their government away from liberty and toward democracy. (p. 225)
Why is this important?
Now, global capital has created a tiny minority of wealthy people who make the feudal lords seem almost a New York rush hour crowd by comparison. As few as three multi-billionaire Americans have as much combined wealth as 150 million Americans, all of those expected to dutifully troop off to the polls and vote for continuing the system that is moving much closer to a financial breakdown, with more pain and suffering for more Americans and the rest of the world than the last collapse caused. Using public funds to bail out private wealth temporarily saved that one and the public good be damned. That cannot be allowed to happen again, and uprisings all over the world are taking place because more people can’t take it anymore. They feel the pain and see the handwriting on the wall, which may still be beyond those of us who can only use our smartphones to get dumb news which tells us nothing but what consciousness control pays its media to cram into our heads.
...
It once was easier to get away with when there were enough people getting by to feel comfortable enough to think maybe it would eventually all work out for the best. That former working middle class is sinking lower, the lower class is in more misery than ever in modern times, and the tiny minority at the top is richer than ever before based on its purchase of armies and a professional class also dwindling in numbers but still numerous enough to transform minds and politics into acceptance of the economic slavery that passes for democracy.
It can’t and won’t last much longer and if we wait for nature to take action it will obviously be a disaster. But if we organize and act as a human race, facing our problems as a race threatened with annihilation if we don’t work together, the result could be the salvation offered by real democracy in which the words of past revolutionaries like Malcolm and Martin become the actions of the present generation. That means ending capitalism and beginning humanity.
- Frank Scott’s political commentary and satire are online at the blog legalienate: http//legalienate.blogspot.com
Conclusions
Here are my “take aways” for whatever it is worth.
The founders did not intend, nor want, America to be a “democracy”.
They wanted America to be a Republic.
A Republic protects individual rights and freedoms, not to mention liberty.
A “democracy” is mob rule and is easily manipulated by people with money, power and influence.
This is what happened to America.
Today, America is a “democracy” in name, and an oligarchy by function.
As an oligarchy, as history clearly states, that it will end catastrophically.
The ONLY was to avoid catastrophic turmoil is to drastically alter the current operating framework that the United States exists under. It must go from “democracy” to something else…
If you enjoyed this post, you can view similar posts by checking out this link to the SHTF index. Here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
This post describes contemporaneous American events in the light of the loss of liberty and freedom.
Most certainly, that once you have a two-tiered justice system, you actually have no rule of law. And without a Rule of Law, you cannot have either freedom or liberty.
Today, America does not have Rule by Law. It has Rule by selectively applied Brute Force.
There is no rule of law in the United States. And there hasn’t been one for some time. When you have a two tiered justice system, then you have no justice when the country is founded on “equality”.
Introduction
America was founded on the premise of liberty and freedom. We have all heard this, well most of us, anyways. (Who knows what they are teaching in schools these days.) This article makes the simple statement; freedom and liberty REQUIRES a robust rule of law applied evenly throughout the nation.
If you do not have a robust Rule of Law, evenly applied. You will not have either freedom or liberty.
America is toast.
Freedom and liberty REQUIRES a robust rule of law applied evenly throughout the nation.
When rules are bent in favor of one person over another, justice fails. Without justice, the nation fails. It might be a slow slide into the abyss, but fail it will.
In the beginning…
When In The Course of Human Events……
The Founders of this nation put forward a very basic premise:
"...to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them..."
That no government, no person whether royalty or not, King, Queen or Pawn, can take from one to give to another, to make one lesser than another, to being removed from one of the basics of humanity…
…all for the privilege of another.
This is America today. Where and what freedoms remain?
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..."
That the very premise
of humanity is that one has a right to live, to be left alone to do as
one pleases, and to pursue — but not be guaranteed — happiness. The
only lawful and proper constraints arise when your exercise of same
prevents someone else from having that same peaceful enjoyment.
America was founded as a place where people could aspire to follow their dreams unencumbered by government interference. Sadly this is no longer the case, as the movie “Tucker – A man and his dream”, so clearly illustrates.
One cannot have a right to life if one cannot defend it using tools at least as powerful as those who would take it from you. You cannot have that right to life, that right of freedom and that right of liberty, if the rules of law are not evenly applied to everyone.
There is no freedom when the government can stop your pursuit of happiness.
Based on a true story. Shortly after World War II, Preston Tucker is a grandiose schemer with a new dream, to produce the best cars ever made. With the assistance of Abe Karatz and some impressive salesmanship on his own part, he obtains funding and begins to build his factory. The whole movie also has many parallels with director Coppola’s own efforts to build a new movie studio of his own.
There is no freedom when the government can stop your pursuit of happiness.
This is the story of entrepreneur Preston Tucker and the innovative car he designed in the late 1940s.
The car was attractive, economical, and safe, and had many features not found on the cars of that time -- an air-cooled rear engine, disk brakes, independent 4-wheel suspension, an additional center headlight that pivoted left and right for better vision when turning, a padded dash, seatbelts, and a popout safety windshield.
Tucker's promotional activities generated widespread public excitement and interest in the car, but the powerful auto industry blocked its production.
Only 50 cars were ever made.
The plan was to produce the car in the former Dodge B-29 engine plant on the far southwest side of Chicago. Many Chicagoans invested in the Tucker Motor Corporation, and some bought dealerships.
Even today, many people believe that then-Senator Homer Ferguson (R-Michigan) is the person most responsible for the loss of their investment in the revolutionary ahead-of-its-time "Tucker Torpedo".
- Tucker: The Man and His Dream
There is no freedom when the government can stop your pursuit of happiness.
This is a basic premise. It is a fundamental requirement for a nation to be one where people can live within an environment of freedom and liberty.
America today.
There is no freedom when the government can stop your pursuit of happiness.
The Constitution
The Founders put together a document called The Constitution. It established the Rule of Law that the nation would exist under.
The debate over it, and what needed to be added to it, is found in The Federalist and The Anti-Federalist; two books that are the chronology of the running debate of the time.
Anyone who claims to have an opinion on the foundations of our nation and why the Constitution is important ought to have read both, as should anyone who claims a right to run for elective office at any level — state, local or federal.
Duh! All elected officials NEED to be well-versed in both documents. The vast majority today are not.
Chief among the foundation of this nation is The Rule of Law and that it apply equally to everyone, all the time. It must be applied in each case evenly without exception.
Over time.
By various people, all for various reasons…
Laws grew, became confused, morphed into one thing or another, and their application distorted.
Today, functionally, the Rule of Law does not exist in America.
I can point this out, over and over, and over. And so I will, using examples that we read about every single day.
The law clearly states…
Not one illegal immigrant has a right to live and work, and have children in America. This is true under any circumstance; The Rule of Law says so.
It does not matter whether they personally intended to break said law; that merely encompasses whether they bear criminal culpability for the offense. It does not matter what you call them either. You can call them “dreamers”, “hopefuls”, “migrants”, “refugees” and “travelers”.
If they do not follow the law, they must be imprisoned, and then expelled.
Migrants ride on top of a northern bound train toward the U.S.-Mexico border in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, in March. Migrants crossing Mexico to get to the U.S. have increasingly become targets of criminal gangs who kidnap them to obtain ransom money.
Laws follow Due Process and are implemented, policed and structured fairly. Otherwise, they do not follow the Rule of Law. All laws must follow the Rule of Law, and that means that they are derived from the Bill of Rights.
Red Flag Laws
‘Red flag’ gun confiscation laws violate every principle of liberty upon which our country was founded. There is no due process associated with “red flag” laws. A judge’s order to seize the firearms from an American citizen who has not been accused of a crime, charged with a crime, convicted of a crime—or who never even threatened to commit a crime—based on the accusation of a single individual is anything but due process.
Our accuser could be a disgruntled employee, a bitter ex-spouse or relative, a vengeful neighbor, an anti-gun liberal or even an anti-gun policeman. By definition, “red flag” laws use mere suspicion of what one “might” do as justification to seize a person’s firearms. Tactics such as these have been used in virtually every despotic regime of history.
- Pastor Chuck Baldwin, quoted at Survival Blog
The key to having a Constitution, and a Bill of Rights… a strong organized structure from whence all other laws are derived, is that it becomes clear whether a law is constitutional or not.
Not all laws are constitutional.
Since the Rule of Law is derived from the Bill of Rights, any law that violates it is invalid.
How can you have an ATF who’s entire reason for existence is to infringe on the second amendment?
How can the IRS exist when it, by it’s own fundamental nature, violates the fourth amendment?
How can the FDA ban or arrest someone for using drugs when it violates the ninth amendment?
Now, the latest, in a long string of unconstiutional laws, the “red flag” law completely throws the “due process” scheme out the window. Where, an elected judge will make a determination of whether or not someone is guilty and action by the government needs to take place.
Once you remove judges from the equation…
You have no Rule of Law.
And…
And…
And it’s a big deal.
It’s a really, really, big deal.
If you do not enforce the Rule of Law, you do not have a nation.
The anti-gun movement.
Senators Richard Blumenthal and Mark Warner, both Democrats, have threatened legislation that is a rank violation of the First Amendment. They do so using the excuse of being necessary in response to the Christchurch live-stream.
The second amendment.
So…
Now we have 90% of the counties in Virginia turning into sanctuary enclaves that protects the Bill of Rights for the citizens of those counties. The Democrat reaction? Call in the military and increase funding to incarcerate everyone opposing them.
The Bill of Rights is not up for debate.
That’s right.
Pay attention.
Virginia under Democrat leadership.
The elected officials”, the new government has decided to openly violate the Rule of Law, and disarm citizens in direct defiance of the Bill of Rights.
This arrogance is what the founders of the nation fought against.
And it’s going to be fought again.
Americans fought the arrogant British government. They did not like being treated as a “cash cow” while the ruling class spent the money on frivolities.
90% of the counties in Virginia has declared themselves sanctuaries against government encroachment of their liberties and they will fight back.
Americans should pay attention.
Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better.
When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity.
To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control.
I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.
-Theodore Dalrymple
It is not possible to understand evil.
In contrast, the “American” empire acts like Genghis Khan on steroids without his military genius:
it appears to me Washington is intent on the wholesale obliteration of countries, their infrastructure, murdering the civilian populations by the millions, and so on.
Moreover, perhaps in the most memorable quote of Hillary Clinton in calling some Americans “deplorables,” it seems the entire class of rulers of America views its citizens as dispensable commodities and ill disguised contempt.
You cannot stop evil if you refuse to recognize it exists. You cannot accept that evil exists in this world if you close your eyes to it. You cannot see the evil. You cannot see the dangers if you fail to watch the errors others made that led them to their demise.
-UNZ
1st Amendment – Freedom of Speech. Means zero censorship of speech of any kind.
2nd Amendment – Ability to fight back against a tyrannical government.
Yet, these two elected Democrat officials want to violate a core tenet of law. Why?
Why?
The Democrats believe that they have achieved a strong degree of control over Americans and the only thing remaining to do is to disarm them. They are following a time-line and time-table laid out years ago, and if it seems like they over-played their hand it is because they did NOT expect a Donald Trump in the office of the President. They expected a Hillary Clinton.
Why the Democrats want to suppress freedom.
Governments are banning and attempting to ban guns and opinions related to keeping guns, not because they fear copycats:
They are banning that speech and literally burning books because faced with the gore, the nastiness and inhumanity of these acts the people may conclude that it was the government itself that sowed the seeds of these acts.
And that the government conspired with gave comfort to said people and groups…
…all the while rendering individual people powerless to stop it by infringing on The Right to Keep and Bear Arms…
…and did all of the above intentionally.
Were the people to reach that conclusion they’d be correct and in response they might revoke their consent to said government entirely and demand it depart.
When the citizens reach the conclusion that the government is corrupted and needs to be reformed, the second amendment is designed to facilitate that change.
America is resembling a slave camp.
A slave is not allowed weapons because he might use them to become free.
If, before undertaking some action, you must obtain the permission of society—you are not free, whether such permission is granted to you or not.
Only a slave acts on permission. A permission is not a right.
-Ayn Rand
A collapse of cultures…
Cultures collapse when there is no cohesion remaining.
Cultures collapse when the primary means to get ahead is to stomp on someone else’s head instead of innovating.
Cultures collapse when cheating is no longer punished and is celebrated instead.
Cultures collapse when cheating is no longer punished and is celebrated instead.
If that is not curtailed then collapse is inevitable — it is simply a matter of time.
Europeans dubbed it the Great War. Americans today remember it as World War One, and recall it as little more than a precursor of an even more violent Second World War. In reality, Democrat Woodrow Wilson’s justification for entering the war as a freedom crusade, as a “war to end all wars,” was, ultimately, little more than rhetorical cover for what amounted to a war in support of one group of empires, the British and French, against another, German and Austrian.
Indeed, in a certain sense, it was a bankers’ war. While the ostensibly “neutral” United States acceded to the British Navy’s starvation blockade of Germany, Washington simultaneously traded war materials with its Anglo brothers and floated London vital loans numbering in the billions of dollars. Clearly, by 1917, after three years of macabre massacre, Washington had a pecuniary interest in British victory.
That may not be the version of First World War history that most Americans learned in elementary or high school. Even less well known is the cynicism and civil liberties suppression of the “Progressive”-in-chief, President Wilson.
His strongman tactics: imprisonment of peaceful antiwar activists under the Sedition Act, detainment of pacifists in prison camps, and prosecution of critical journalists under the (still statute law) Espionage Act, are abhorrent enough. Worse still, however, was the reflexive manner in which the progressive “left” quickly fell in line with their president.
The left eats its own; maybe it always has. Immense majorities of “progressive s,”just like their socialist brethren in Europe, supported Wilson and the war in spite of past records of more dovish positions.
They then proceeded to attack, suppress, and often professionally ruin, or imprison, their former compatriots —relabeled as “radicals”—such as Randolph Bourne and Eugene Debs.
Nonetheless, for all of World War I’s horror, futility, absurdity even, the veterans of the war collectively emerged from the sodden trenches imbued with a vocal philosophy of never again. Indeed, they celebrated the moment the guns finally fell silent, the 11th minute, or the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, 1918, as Armistice Day.
It was, romantic as it now seems, widely believed that theirs would be the last war. In fact, millions of lucky survivors left the war deeply dedicated to ensuring that be the case. Much of the finest Western literature of the 20th century, unsurprisingly, generated from the pens of disgruntled, damaged veterans—Hemingway, Graves, Fitzgerald, Sassoon, and many more—forever changed by the experience of needless war.
- The (Real) Revolution in Military Affairs: An Interview with Andrei Martyanov ... a long but fascinating read
Whether something is “hate speech” is in the eye of the beholder but irrespective of that The First Amendment protects it.
Why?
Because even the most-vile expression of dislike is one’s right to hold and have. To state otherwise is to state a right to control another person’s mind and thoughts — to not only enslave as to labor but to thought itself.
That is profoundly evil.
The facts are (and do facts matter in America any longer?) that on July 27th, 2014, when the East of Ukraine was already at war, a young woman and her little daughter—Kristina and Kira—were murdered from the shelling of Ukrainian forces. The mother then was named the “Gorlovka Madonna.”
What is evil?
Manipulation by others for personal gain? Why are the Democrats so focused on the Ukraine? Why do they want to start World War III with Russia?
America tomorrow.
Why is our government fighting eight simultaneous wars in far off lands? Lands like Yemen? Lands like Syria? Lands like Afghanistan? Lands like Libya?
Why does it want a pick a fight with Russia over the Ukraine?
Why does it want to pick a fight with China over Taiwan?
What the heck is the matter with these people?
Why is the American leadership so focused on fighting wars, and why do they want to challenge major nuclear armed nations? Can they not see the consequences?
Evil has occupied all American institutions for some time now.
All, not most, American institutions are not corrupted.
They are all beyond redemption. It need to be completely overhauled and that might mean burning them all down and building up out from the ashes remaining.
In contrast, the “American” empire acts like Genghis Khan on steroids without his military genius:
it appears to me Washington is intent on the wholesale obliteration of countries, their infrastructure, murdering the civilian populations by the millions, and so on.
Moreover, perhaps in the most memorable quote of Hillary Clinton in calling some Americans “deplorables,” it seems the entire class of rulers of America views its citizens as dispensable commodities and ill disguised contempt.
You cannot stop evil if you refuse to recognize it exists. You cannot accept that evil exists in this world if you close your eyes to it. You cannot see the evil. You cannot see the dangers if you fail to watch the errors others made that led them to their demise.
-UNZ
This very same act is what our government is now calling on “big companies” to do, it is what the left has repeatedly done to anyone who dares speak against their policies and desires.
This is true whether on college campuses, in corporate America or in the public square.
If this story was a movie plot,…the audience would walk out and want their money back. Way too unbelievable! hat’s right, – College Bribe Mommy has a JD from Harvard, Daddy has a JD from USC and was a prosecuting attorney for both Los Angeles and San Diego, – before going into high tech and becoming CEO of Wireless Telematics.
Celebrities with dim-witted children got them into colleges by paying bribes and cheating.
The claim that said students were “blameless” if their test scores were faked or they faked a “disability” to extend time and thus be able to cheat is a lie.
Another view…
Said “students” are fully culpable yet none of them have been charged;
Not only did every one of them know they didn’t compete on the rowing team (for example)…
Any of them who got an extra hour or two to take the SAT or ACT knew damn well they were cheating, whether they knew their answers were being modified or not.
Why did this happen and why aren’t the kids in the dock too?
Sad will be the day…
Universities do not obey the law.
We have no rules of law.
Colleges claim they need “diversity.”
That’s nonsense; in a meritocracy the best rise irrespective of skin color, race or religion.
The fact is that this “diversity need” is met by lowering standards and allowing unqualified people who cannot do the work into the school.
When you no longer follow the conventions established by merit, you end up diluting the value of your institution. Eventually, the lowest common denominator becomes the norm.
This was going on in the 1990s and it has only gotten worse — much worse — since.
There is, of course, no value in that to a person “selected” via “diversity” if they have to pay full price and will inevitably fail to be able to do the work.
America today.
This in turn means someone else gets screwed so they don’t have to pay full price and they also don’t have to do the work they are incapable of.
The alleged “degree” conferred by said school is thus rendered meaningless; it no longer denotes competence and to prevent that from being recognized and their “brand” destroyed said colleges conspire with employers and governments, both outwardly and not to “require” said “credentials” for an ever-expanding list of “professions.”
In short college is no longer about education.
Instead, it is about grift, fraud, bribery and slavery. It’s a racketeering enterprise writ large and ought to be prosecuted as a felony, starting with the “most-elite” schools.
Devolution of cultures.
Is it any surprise that a tiny bit of the bribery began six months earlier with so-called “standardized” testing that really isn’t and claims of being on a soccer team that were false?
Federal agencies do not follow the law.
We have no rule of law.
The Fed is prohibited from buying anything other than government backed securities.
Fannie and Freddie paper have on their face the statement that they have no such backing; go online and view any of their prospectuses.
That the government bailed them out does not matter.
Mount corruptmore.
The Fed’s transacting in same and their continued ownership is illegal.
Rather than change the law (which might provoke a debate over exactly what The Fed “prints”) they simply ignore the law and you let them.
You let them.
The Fed's legal mandate under the law is for stable prices.
The Fed’s chair and other governors make dozens of speeches a year and testify under oath before Congress to their intent to violate the law with their “2% inflation target.”
Inflation, is by definition, not stability.
Congress could change that law but doing so might provoke a debate over exactly what The Fed “prints” and so instead both Congress and The Fed ignore the law and you let them.
You let them.
The truth is that Money is a medium of exchange which you acquire by producing something of value to someone else. It facilitates trade because it is fungible — that is, you don’t need to transact in oranges, chickens or hours of programming a computer; all three can be reduced to money.
The truth is that Money is a medium of exchange which you acquire by producing something of value to someone else.
You cannot print money because it is impossible to materialize a television, a car, a piece of computer software, gasoline or electrical power out of thin air.
You can print credit, which spends like money.
But if you emit credit then what you are claiming is that someone in the future will produce a thing to legitimate what you did. If the people refuse what’s left?
Prosecuting him would have inevitably drawn those Democrats into what could have easily wound up being criminal culpability including spying for foreign nations. Which is treason.
So they let him go.
They let him go despite proof that he wired more than $280,000 to Pakistan — funds that very well might have been used to facilitate terrorism!
Outstanding…
Industry does not obey the law.
We have no rule of law.
Industry does not obey the law.
It is a felony to restrain trade, attempt to monopolize or fix prices among people who are supposed to be competing.
The medical industry does it every single day.
Neoliberal Economics Destroyed the Economy and the Middle Class ... credit-driven debt grows faster than the income that services it, and this impoverishes the 90%
- Paul Craig Roberts
Why not when the example set is that if you’re rich or powerful (and they are both) you could even spy for a foreign nation and get away with it.
We could literally dispose of the entire federal budget deficit, all of the Federal debt, all of the state and local pension problems and cut property taxes in half or more if we put a stop to this crap.
They do it because despite the law they have no fear of prosecution.
Why should they?
We certainly are living in dangerous times; I suspect it’s even dangerous to me to discuss the writings on his blog and his two recent books with Andrei Martyanov in an environment of omnipresent electronic monitoring and profiling of every individual American citizen, especially those who question the warfare state and challenge its goals, if only out of sense of morality and a perception—at least on my part—that the policies pursued will be destructive to America, which unfortunately seems hellbent on a path of no return.
-UNZ
You can, through hard work, earn a mid-six-figure income and have multiple business ideas that you can develop.
But given the above examples, along with the myriad things I’ve watched big business do in the last 20 years and get away with all of them — acts that were I to do myself I would be prosecuted criminally and go to prison…
So why would I?
If I was to undertake any of those risky ventures and put my capital and intellectual effort at risk any of those people could illegally undermine my product or service, putting me out of business or simply steal it.
Now we know how and why Google and Amazon and Facebook got so big, so fast. They were the corporate arm of the surveillance state.
- From Vox Day at Vox Popoli
Unless I was willing to personally kill the persons responsible there is nothing I could do about it and I’d go broke.
I will not undertake such a venture for as long as all of this crap exists, and that’s why.
I instead choose to hike, ski, run, drink beer and enjoy a much lower stress lifestyle.
There are those of us who choose to live a more relaxed and simpler life. One without stress and fighting to be the “top dog” in the barnyard.
I do not need any of the trappings of wealth; they’re options.
When my time comes to die those ideas, products and services intentionally left undeveloped will die with me instead of being produced.
Intelligent people decide to “tune out” and not fight the system.
We have no rule of law.
The Christchurch shooter, obviously nuts, wrote a “manifesto” which governments are actively trying to suppress your ability to read.
In it he pointed out an inconvenient truth — that there is no nation with a material white population percentage in which white women are reproducing at a replacement or better rate.
That is, unless this changes white people will eventually go extinct.
Know your history. Read up on it.
We bemoan a little fish, frog or bird disappearing but there is literally not one word in the media about this. The most-productive and innovative differentiated group of human beings ever to walk the planet is heading directly for extinction by their own voluntary decision.
Why are white women choosing not to bear children?
Maybe it’s because a goodly number of them have come to the same conclusion I have.
That there is no rule of law.
Think about this cartoon. Think about what it means. How can this be permitted to happen if the Rule of Law were being followed?
We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission.
-Ayn Rand
Thus unless they’re so rich they can cheat (like those who did so to get their kids into college) their offspring have no chance of success on a merit basis.
And they thus make the entirely reasonable decision not to create children at all.
After all why would you willingly and intentionally bring a child into this world if you believe they are going to be enslaved and mercilessly robbed for their entire lives?
After all why would you willingly and intentionally bring a child into this world if you believe they are going to be enslaved and mercilessly robbed for their entire lives?
Rather than correct that problem governments instead are importing people who have not yet made that determination.
Or even worse, believe (and are explicitly promised) that they can simply put their hand out and force others to provide whatever they want and need.
And…
And thus those people make the entirely reasonable decision to breed like rabbits!
The socialist ideal eventually goes viral, and the majority learns to game the system.
Everyone is trying to live at the expense of everyone else.
In the terminal phase, the failure of the system is disguised under a mountain of lies, hollow promises, and debts. When the stream of other people's money runs out, the system collapses.
-Kevin Brekke
WE HAVE NO RULE OF LAW.
Think about this tweet. Think about what it means. How can this be permitted to happen if the Rule of Law were being followed?
WE
HAVE NO RULE OF LAW AND WE ARE GOING TO LITERALLY EXTINGUISH WHITE
PEOPLE THROUGHOUT THE WESTERN WORLD AS A RESULT. AS FURTHER POPULATION
SEGMENTS ARE TAPPED TO BE THE VICTIMS OF SAID POLICIES THEY WILL CHOOSE
NOT TO REPRODUCE AS WELL AND INEVITABLY THEY WILL ALSO GO EXTINCT, ONE AT A TIME.
Our government is depraved.
We have no rule of law.
Our government has turned into a tyrannical monster. It is obvious to everyone.
We have in fact become so depraved that our own government is giving cats diseases on purpose. The excuse is to study them, and even though those diseases are easily curable and the animals could then be adopted out that takes a bit of effort and more than a a nickel in cost so they kill them instead.
That would be bad enough but our government is also importing cats and dogs from nations around the world for the purpose of meat to feed said study subjects, practicing animal cannibalism.
We can’t be bothered to use byproducts of human food production; you see, that might cost a bit more money.
In twenty-five years, we went from arguing that it must be legal to burn the American flag to punishing someone who burns an LGBTP flag with fifteen years in prison.
- From Brett Stevens at Periscope
I’m not the only one who recognizes this; here’s another article pointing out many of the same things.
America is extended, riddled with debt and too reliant on ever more debt, past its growth peak, incapable and unwilling to address structural issues.
Both political parties have given up on dealing with debt, illusory monetary policies such as MMT are invented to render structural issues as irrelevant.
Meanwhile wealth inequality keeps expanding from administration to administration no matter who is in charge with voters distracted by the ideological divisions of the day, not trusting their leaders or each other.
And all this with 3.8% unemployment. What will this all look like during the next downturn?
Nobody knows. Rome showed us to not take civilization for granted. It also showed us to not ignore structural problems before they become too large to tackle.
Sven may be hopeful but I am not.
The writing is on the wall.
When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods, but in favors; when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you … you may know that your society is doomed.
-Ayn Rand
I’m not alone either. Charles Hugh Smith has written a number of columns on this same point, including just recently.
I challenge you to show me just one “grand idea” or modern stock market rocketship that is not a scam in some form over the last 10+ years.
America today.
Netflix, as just one example, effectively stole their entire distribution infrastructure, which is very expensive, through various forms of browbeating and when that was threatened they got the government to mandate their ability to force non-customers to pay for what they wanted during the Obama Administration.
Then, when Obama left, both he and his wife got a multi-million dollar contract from the company.
No justice in America today.
You don’t really think that was the kickback payment to the former President since the stock went from ~$5 when Obama took office to nearly $400 now….
Martyanov blogs about the political class, including Donald Trump, on his blog Reminiscence of the Future…. But I gave him, if you pardon the expression, a homework assignment, a recent piece by Whitney Webb describing the powers behind Washington’s politicians, be they “Democrats” or “Republicans.”
It’s hard to determine where the real power in Washington and the City of London lies, that is to say who the actual rulers are, but the greater power is evidently held by the central bankers and billionaires, operating in a mob like fashion as Ms. Webb described, in fact actually working with mobsters.
-UNZ
None of them would exist were there an even-handed enforcement of the law for the simple reason that all of them violate the basic law of business balance:
The more people who touch a transaction the more it costs -- always.
The reason for that is simple: Nobody works for free.
If you think you’ve found someone who is someone else is stealing from them because no rational person will perform work that benefits only someone else.
No reason to change. The justice system is beyond repair.
We have no rule of law.
This can’t — and won’t — change without Americans rising up by the millions and demanding that it stop and be willing to enforce that demand by whatever means are necessary.
Soldiers and armed civilians occupy the office of ousted Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu in the capital Bucharest on Dec. 26, 1989, the day after he was executed.
This does not mean violence is required.
However, until and unless, those who claim to be “our leaders” believe that any such demand has the force of the people behind it (and will be enforced)…
… should they stick up their middle finger toward common people (once again) as they have done for the last 30+ years…
… they have no reason to stop stealing…
…no reason to stop rigging the system…
…and no reason to stop screwing everyone else.
There’s no reason for me to be hopeful.
This is what I would look like if I was a cat.
This is because there is no reason to believe that Americans, say much less the people in any of the other developed, Western nations will in fact demand this crap stop.
While we have been indoctrinated to believe that “democracy” is the favored and best way to govern nations, the spectacular failure of what America has become is obvious to the world to see. America, that great, and grand experiment is a complete and total failure.
Coming soon to a State near you.
You, and I, and our families will now need to ride out the collapse to it’s conclusion.
Yvonne, I don’t think many in Russia view the United States as a “fascist” power per se—it is indeed difficult to do so for a country so ethnically and culturally diverse as the United States.
This diversity precludes the United States to define itself completely as a nation in an ethno-cultural sense, nor does the political system of the United States allow for the emergence of a dictator, a key element of the fascist state.
For all his bluster today and accusations in being a sort of a dictator, President Trump is an extremely weak president, as is generally the office of POTUS.
The United States is a classic oligarchy wrapped in a vast state bureaucracy a/k/a the Deep State which is increasingly dysfunctional.
If it is a fascist state in any sense, it is a very sad in a comical sort of way fascist state, as the three-years long Russia and Ukrainegate “investigations” demonstrated. Russians, however do use widely the term of “liberal fascism” to underscore the totalitarian nature of the so called “liberal” ideology of which the United States, together with subservient Europe, are the main drivers.
As I repeat ad nauseam for years now, the Western in general and American in particular so-called elites are incompetent. I observed a precipitous decline in the professional, the intellectual and the ethical levels of these elites for over twenty years.
Now it has reached truly grotesque forms from pedophilia inside the ruling class, to the media being utterly corrupt and incompetent.
I can only repeat my point about the US having no mechanisms anymore for producing real statesmen.
Russians know this, they observe this everyday and in my fifty-seven years of life on many continents I cannot recall a time period when Russians had such contempt for and rejection of the so called “democratic values.”
This is simply unprecedented in Russian history.
- Andrei Martyanov
America tomorrow.
Conclusion
There is no rule of law in the United States. A two tiered justice system is NOT rule by law. It is rule by power. As such, the nation will soon collapse. As the Rule of Law is a fundamental aspect of a thriving and successful nation.
There is no rule of law in the United States. And there hasn’t been one for some time. When you have a two tiered justice system, then you have no justice when the country is founded on “equality”.
A Rule of Law is important to suppress evil, and to keep the government under control and the nation stable.
Now, everyone, from all quarters and all points of view are starting to come together. All from different perspectives and are arriving at the same conclusion.
r/K theory
Generational turnings.
The rise and fall of nations.
Kala Rhythms
I pretty much covered this subject here, in numerous posts.
When there isn’t any rule of law, the people in power start to act tyrannical and dictatorial. Fundamental to this behavior is the disarming of the population. As that is the last remaining resistance to them.
Failure to obey the Constitution is treasonous.
You can expect to see an acceleration of disarmament efforts all over the Western sphere of influence. With major efforts in the United States taking place irregardless of the consequences. The progressive Marxists do not believe that people will rise up and fight back.
They DO NOT believe that it will happen, or if it does, that they can effectively suppress the actions and spin the events in their favor.
You all can decide on how to handle the elements that are certain to transpire. Just be quick about it, why don’t you.
We don’t have any control over the coming storms- but what we do control is our own abilities and what we bring to the table.
- NC Scout at American Partisan
Some areas will be very “hot”, while others will escape unscathed.
Some areas will be very “hot”, while others will escape unscathed.
Plan ahead, and be smart about it. If you have any questions, check out this post…
If you enjoyed this post, then please check out the SHTF master index. You can access it here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
This article discusses neocons and their manipulation of American politics for Geo-political advantage.
The problem with this is that the stakes are dangerously high. We are not talking about a small country with a few cities. We are talking about technologically advanced first-world nations with state of the art weapons and nuclear, biological, and germ warfare technology.
Further, most Americans are so dumbed down that they have no idea just how advanced China and Russia are. That robots, facial recognition, 5 and 6G systems, and high speed trains are the norm. And have been so for half a decade. America has fallen terribly behind, and our military as well trained and experienced as it is, is not a match for the kinds of swarm drone germ warfare that China and Russia possess.
It'll be very difficult to shoot your rifle while your eyes are foaming with blood and puss.
I did take the liberty to make editing changes. I edited the run-on sentences to make it easier to read. I also added images, and commentary in dialog boxes, and provided supporting links. The conclusions, photo narratives, and associated editing are my own.
Donald Trump is in a painful bind.
The China-bashing traitors within his own party trying to pass themselves off as American patriots have done everything imaginable to destroy the one chance the President has to save America from the policies of economic and social decay which have mis-shaped the past 50 years of world history.
Before breaking under the pressure to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act on November 27, Trump attempted desperately to push against the hard liners stating a day earlier:
“I stand with Hong Kong, but I also stand with President Xi. He’s a friend of mine, he’s an incredible guy. We have to stand, but I’d like to see them work it out, OK? We have to see them work it out. I stand for Hong Kong, I stand for freedom, I stand for all those things we want to do. But we are also in the process of making the largest trade deal in history.”
Of course, Trump’s desire to use protective tariffs, rebuild decayed infrastructure and industries while reversing the regime change wars abroad are good things.
They are very good things.
Risk of confrontation is high.
However, the ugly fact is that the Trans-Atlantic financial system is also set to crash, and a serious military confrontation between the US military and the Russia-China alliance is both very real and very dangerous.
This is also why the passage of the anti-Beijing Bill on November 27 is so tragic, since the desperately needed economic alliance which Trump has desired may have suffered a wound from which it cannot recover.
A serious military confrontation between the US military and the Russia-China alliance is both very real and very dangerous. It will NOT be America plinking away at a third world “shit hole”. It will instead, be nuclear, bio-weapons, germ weapons, and using the most modern technologies available to man ON AMERICAN soil.
Not only this, but those anti-China hawks pervasive across Washington are now emboldened to go even further starting with Sen. Ted Cruz’s new bill.
The use of pests and biological warfare is almost a given if World War 3 is to take place. With the advancement made by biotechnology in the 21st century, strains of viruses capable of eliminating the entire population of the rival country are a reality.
-Listsurge
America to interfere with Taiwan.
For it is a bill to recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty, thus undoing the 1972 ‘One China’ agreement which established Beijing as the capital of China, and OPENLY threatening to drag mainland China into a nuclear confrontation.
I’ll say it again.
China has repeatedly stated that if you mess with Taiwan, you mess with China. It is one and the same.
If you mess with Texas, you mess with the USA. It's one and the same.
So any war, or provocation involving Taiwan, will involve China.
So, any war involving Texas, will involve the United States.
But this war or conflict or skirmish…
…will NOT be limited to China. But, will instead, include the American cities of Los Angles, Chicago, New York and many other enormous civilian population centers.
The basis of nuclear warfare in future was established when America dropped the two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the end of 2nd World War. The rush to develop nuclear weapons by France, USA, Soviet Union and China following the 2nd World War resulted in the extremely tension ridden period known as Cold War.
It is theorized that a nuclear war will cause ten times more casualties than a military war. Some analysts suggest that the nuclear fog after a war will result in the entire humanity starving to death.
The political standoff between USA and China over Taiwan is thought to be a situation that could easily spin out of control if these two nuclear super powers do not behave rationally.
-Listsurge
Here’s Chicago…
Neocons believe, incorrectly, that nuclear warfare will never occur on American soil. That any war that they promote will be limited to the geographical areas that they define. They are wrong. Any war with either China or Russia will result in nuclear destruction of most of urban America.
Any large scale conflict today (or in the near future) will seriously affect America’s status as a global superpower. Whether America “wins” or “loses”, it will change, and the likelihood is that it will not change for the good.
The rise of USA as a superpower during the end of the Second World War and the disintegration of Soviet Union after the Cold War is proof of the rearrangement of powers at the end of major wars. It can be theorized that the Third World War will see the emergence of a new super power. Many think that China can be the superpower which changes the dynamics of the next war to come.
-Listsurge
Perhaps this is what Washington, D.C. might look like after a cluster of MIRV SLBM hyper-glide swarm nuclear missiles are launched.
Dancing with danger…
Cruz’s Taiwan Symbols of Sovereignty Actaims in Cruz’s words to “peel back some of the extreme insults of the Taiwanese that are inflicted by the One-China policy protocol”
including the banning of Taiwan officials from visiting US government
agencies, and Taiwan students studying at West Point military academy
from wearing the Taiwan flag.
Hum. Are "extreme insults" reason enough for your entire family to be bleeding out of their anus, and your home a smoking black radioactive waste?
Already, the US-military have vastly amplified their presence on China’s border ever since Obama’s “Pivot-to-Asia” and “Air-Sea Battle” were put into practice in 2011-2012. This presence heavily relies on a militarized anti-China force in Taiwan ready to do the US’s bidding.
Any one who is delusional to think that American soil will not be affected by these decisions should have their head examined.
This is not 1913. Wars can get radioactive "hot" within seconds.
Here’s San Francisco…
Neocons think nothing of getting involved in the affairs of other nations. Today, America is fighting eight simultaneous wars. They argue that a ninth war would be easy. That China for all it’s technology, is no match for the United States military and is willing to bet YOUR life and YOUR family’s lives on that belief.
Everyone seems to want a fight…
Many leading figures in Taiwan are stuck in a Cold War traumatized mindset established 60 years earlier, and still see their life’s mission and Taiwan’s destiny through the outdated lens of their Kuomintang forebears- as the only rightful leaders of China, destined to reconquer the mainland lost to the Communist Party in 1949.
The G series of nerve gases is so named due to their origin, with all of them originally discovered in Germany in the 1930s and 40s. Their discovery was actually a complete accident; Gebhardt Schraeder, a German researcher, was investigating the potential use of organophosphates as pesticides in 1936 when he synthesised the first of the G series nerve gases, tabun. He also played a part in the discovery of sarin in 1938. The other member of the G series, soman and cyclosarin, were discovered during the course of research funded by the German army into the pharmacological action of tabun and sarin.
These groups would do anything to fulfill that quasi-religious sense of purpose. Thus making them the perfect puppets for the Deep State.
What the heck is America doing? Why is it so involved in far away places, blowing the shit out of buildings and leveling cities flat? Doesn’t anyone realize that sooner or later America will pick on the wrong nation.
Here’s Houston, Texas…
Nuclear weapons launched by Russia or China will be SLBM’s with MIRV multiple warheads many, many times larger than what was used in Japan during World War II. These SLBM MIRV’s are all hype-velocity weapons and the city would be obliterated within five minutes of launch. The doctrine calls for multiple warheads for city, thus guaranteeing complete and absolute devastation.
An ugly and overlooked example of this operation includes the renewed effort by China-basher Steve Bannon who Trump rightly booted from his team in August 2017.
Bannon has been a dangerous character attempting to coral Trump supporters in America and the European right into a new anti-Chinese united front. He is doing this while reviving the neo-con “clash of civilizations” doctrine with a vengeance.
Steve Bannon.
One of the main conduits Bannon chose to unleash this assault was the Committee on Present Danger-China. This is an organization which he founded alongside a group of raging neocons in March 2019.
Labeling China’s Belt and Road as a new empire threatening to undo America and enslave the world, Bannon’s think tank stated:
“As with the Soviet Union in the past, communist China represents an existential and ideological threat to the United States and to the idea of freedom – one that requires a new American consensus regarding the policies and priorities required to defeat this threat.”
He just doesn’t get it.
This could be Thanksgiving day, two years after the United States is struck with a nuclear salvo of AI robotic nuclear swarm missiles in hyper-velocity glide platforms.
China doesn’t give a rat’s ass about America. Anyone who attacks it will be glowing nuclear rainbows for the next two hundred years.
Here’s Boston…
The neocons, such as Bannon, do not believe that the nuclear on/off switch will ever be depressed. They believe that a conflict with China will be a conventional affair. With American Naval forces firing curse missiles at leisure, and launching drones at will to an unarmed, and America-leaning China.
Bannon has also found himself working ever more tightly with the anti-Beijing CIA-funded cult Falun Gong. This radical group has been banned from China since 1999. It is readily and consistently used by the CIA as a propaganda weapon against China.
In these propaganda attacks they routinely claim anecdotal evidence of Beijing-sponsored organ harvesting and killing of religious minorities. Though pushing itself as a meditation group, its leader Li Hongzhi is based in the USA. He promotes the idea that he has magical powers that keep the forces of evil from destroying the world.
Bannon most recently produced the Falun Gong-funded film “Claws of the Red Dragon”. This kind of action put him into the same boat as his left-handed mirror image George Soros who also supports the Falun Gong. He does so through Open Society Foundation’s Freedom House.
Of course, Soros wants World War III on American soil. He said so many, many times in public.
Here’s New York City…
The rest of the world “does not play”. Expect any toying around with the internal affairs of a major superpower will result in nuclear detonations up and down the American coastline.
The contradiction arising from this alliance of pro-Trump sociopaths working with anti-Trump sociopaths only makes sense when you look at the anti-human game from the top down rather than the bottom up.
It is here, that we start getting a fuller picture of the nature of the false ‘left vs right’ game being played. We look at a City of London-based think tank which Bannon leads. It is called the Dignitas Humanitae Institute. And it operates alongside 5 other highly connected figures which were recently exposed in a powerful expose . This expose by journalist Stan Ezrol described Bannon’s four other co-patrons of this Catholic group as…
“Archduke Otto Von Habsburg, successor to the throne of the Holy Roman Emperor when it was dissolved; His Royal Highness Charles of Bourbon Two Sicilies and Duke of Castro, a leading figure in the anti-Renaissance wing of European nobility; Field Marshal the Lord Guthrie GCB (Knight of the Grand Cross), LVO (Lieutenant of the Victorian Order), OBE (Order of the British Empire); and Father Matthew Festing.”
The forces managing this international battle are desperately afraid of the fact that western and eastern renaissance traditions may be awakened in the face of the existential crisis facing the human species today.
These groups are very much aware that the essential character of any society fit to survive is rooted on certain moral principles that are found in both Christian and Confucian cultures alike, making the USA and China potentially very strong and organic allies.
When one reads the writings of such founding fathers of either great nation as Dr. Benjamin Franklin or Dr. Sun Yatsen, the common moral worldview and sense of human nature as a species made in the image of the creator endowed with inalienable rights is electric.
Both Dr. Benjamin Franklin (USA) and Dr. Sun Yatsen (China) believed that governments are made by man to serve under Rights given by the divine creator.
This is a concept which Hong Kong rioters, Taiwan militarists, Open Society ideologues and right wing Bannonites know nothing about.
George Soros, through his Open Society network, is actively pushing for the United States to be involved in wars domestically and globally. He intends to destroy America completely and that is why he is funding and supporting Neocon efforts to entangle the United States into global warfare with nuclear armed nations.
Today, Xi Jinping and President Putin exemplify this common outlook wonderfully. As their alliance has transformed the international rules of the game on every level. If Trump wasn’t constrained by such bigoted agents as Cruz, Bannon or the rabid hive of leftist hacks frothing at the mouth for impeachment, then the USA would make an organic ally in this new multi-polar alliance.
If not, it will be China and Russia that will align, and the USA will be on it’s own.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is issuing a warning, one Americans need to pay attention to before US politicians take us past the point of no return, if they haven't done so already.
While the media in Russia is "state-run," meaning that one never knows how much is true or how much is propaganda, the flip side of that particular coin is that nothing goes out over it without the express permission, or instigation of Russian leadership, so it is clear that when their articles are written or news spoken, it is exactly what Putin wants the world to know.
With that said, the very first paragraph of Russia Today's editorial titled "America tuned out as Congress bangs war drum against Russia," which states that US House resolution 758 has "brought the nation one step closer to all-out-war with Russia," is a dire warning directly from Russia to the populace of the United States.
Future historians - that is, assuming there are humans still around to contemplate history - may one day point to House Resolution 758 as the single piece of legislation that sparked a global conflagration between two leading nuclear powers.
The article also goes on to take a look at House resolution 758, breaking it down, giving a birds-eye view of how Russian leadership views these actions on the part of the US Congress and it appears that things are about to get much uglier.
Read the whole article over at RT.
We need to take a fucking serious look at who we are picking fights with. Not everyone will stand by, bend over, and allow them to get fucked over.
Here’s Washington, D.C…
Nothing can quite ruin your day like global thermonuclear war can.
Conclusion
Both sides of the political spectrum (in the United States) are pushing President Trump towards war. It feeds the neocon agenda. It provides a great distraction of the public from domestic malfeasance, and allows the wealthy oligarchy to loot and profit from “American nation rebuilding efforts”.
Only this time, the stakes are higher and the nations selected will fight back.
They will fight back on American soil.
You know, it might be all Gung-Ho to say “Bring it on!”, the fact is no one wants to see America turned into a radioactive wasteland. But, that is exactly what will happen unless these neocons are corralled up and subdued.
I’m just a lone voice in the wilderness. But please listen to what I have to say. I am begging. I am pleading with you all.
400 kilometers northeast of Bombay there is a circular 2,154-metre-diameter crater, the Lonar crater. It has been dated at less than 50,000 years old, and could conceivably be related to a nuclear attack or mishap of antiquity.
No traces of any expected meteoric material has ever been found in the vicinity, and this is the world's only known "impact" crater in solid basalt. Indications of a tremendous shock exceeding 600,000 atmospheres combined with intense, sudden heat has been determined.
In Rajasthan, India ten miles west of Jodhpur -there is a heavy layer of radioactive ash ,it covers about three-square miles. Scientists investigated the site. It has been noted that has always been a very high rate of birth defects and cancer in the area. The levels of radiation there registered so high on investigators' gauges that the Indian government cordoned off the region.
- Nuclear Warfare in Ancient India
Nuclear war would send America back to the stone age. It might never recover.
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Human history has been quite violent. From devastating pandemics to consistent war, our ancestors saw more action in a single week than most of us will see in our lifetimes.
We, living in our safe societies, has assumed that civilized safety is the norm. We are wrong. It isn’t. Violence is the norm.
Even if we have the numbers, it’s still difficult to imagine exactly how violent some of our history has been. Our most tumultuous times are now only remembered as statistics, even if they were a living nightmare for anyone unlucky enough to be there.
Consider the horrors during the collapse of society.
Here we discuss collapse scenarios and their stories. We look at historical events, and use them to predict future events. And, contrary to what we might want to believe, all nations eventually collapse. They do. This includes the largest empires on the face of the globe. Yes. This includes America.
Once they collapse, the survivors are either assimilated into other collectives, die off completely, or form new associations. Here, we look at the collapse of nations, empires and communities and what has happened during the events. These are just seemingly random reminders that the collapse of any society is possible and is often quite ugly.
This post…
This post is a compilation of musings that I have had for some time…
I have been wondering what it must have been for the people who were living in their nice stable societies when suddenly their entire world turned upside down. I wonder just how they felt when seemingly overnight, their entire life came crashing down.
America has NEVER experienced this.
Oh, some of the cities in the Southern States experienced this during the American Civil War, but they still were able to keep their English language, their history, and the deeds to their land. The people of Maine, for instance didn’t have the same experience that the citizens of Georgia or Alabama had to endure.
Nope. I’m talking about losing everything, and being grateful that you are still alive in a world that no longer speaks your language, where you are suddenly a third class slave, and every day is wracked with pain and agony.
America has never experienced THIS.
I say this because the collapse of the United States empire is probably going to be quite spectacular. It’s collapse will rival the fall of Asia before the great Mongol hordes.
The collapse of the United States is going to be spectacular.
I am going to concentrate on both Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun for illustration. There are many examples that I can use, but rather than get involved in other places and times, we’re going to keep things simple. Perhaps I can compare collapses using other nations and other times such as the Soviet Union, or the Comanche nation later on.
Most of this discussion revolves around the changes made by Genghis Khan.
Disclaimer
I cannot read tea leaves and have no way to predict the future aside from paying attending to trends in human behaviors. I have no special abilities in this regard. What I know about the MWI provides me with very little insight on our apparent future. Just my own part within it.
My advice to everyone is simple.
Strengthen your relationships with your neighbors. Make yourself known. Know people in town by their first names and be welcoming to all your local neighbors.
Don't get too caught up with the news.
Observe prudence in stockpiling food, and basic necessities. Live in a rural area if possible. Keep positive thoughts for they will affect your surroundings.
I am not promoting anything, just simply discussing what happened in the past, and raising the alarm that it could very well happen again.
…
Oh good God, no!
…
Do not be under the impression that you and your children will always be able to get a Moca-frappe coffee at Starbucks. Times change. Sometimes they evolve peacefully and sometimes they collapse all together violently.
Destroyed Starbucks.
Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun.
Let’s look at history.
Both of these rulers are similar in that they both seized well-established societies and communities. And those communities had become soft, complaisant and easy targets for a more aggressive society.
Genghis Khan (born Temüjin, c. 1162 – August 18, 1227) was the founder and first Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death. He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of Northeast Asia.After founding the Empire and being proclaimed Genghis Khan, he launched the Mongol invasions that conquered most of Eurasia.
- Genghis Khan - Wikipedia
Map of the Empire of Genghis Khan.
Both Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun utilized superior military forces.
For the cities and cultivated places in the Mongols’ path, they were a natural disaster on the order of an asteroid collision.
Like the Huns and the Scythians before them, they came from the steppe grasslands of central Asia, which produced their great resource of horses and draft animals. After Genghis Khan united a number of Mongol tribes into a single horde under his command in the early thirteenth century, they descended on cities in China, India, Afghanistan, Persia, Turkestan, and Russia. Between 1211 and 1223, they wasted dozens of cities and wiped out more than 18.4 million people in China and environs alone.
-Brandon Christenson
These forces were trained and promoted through merit. They were lead by officers who obtained their positions through merit. In total these experts moved forward to conquer cities and nations. Nations, mind you, that had grown soft by a life of ease, internal political squabbling, and a digression away from meritorious behaviors.
Why is this important?
Attila the Hun = Russian Prototype = 450 AD
Ghenghis Khan = Chinese Prototype = 1200 AD
The time difference between the two is roughly 750 years.
So if you add 750 years to the time of Ghenghis Khan you end up with 1950. And in 1950 the largest nations in the world were China, Russia and the United States.
Using this rough calculation we can see that the decades following this date are significant for catastrophic changes in well-established nations.
China departure from pure communism to commercial socialism = 1970’s.
Russia departure from pure communism to democratic socialism = 1990’s.
American departure from oligarchical rule via democracy to a new form … 2020’s or so…
Every indicator is “red lining” and pointing to a massive reorganization of the United States. It may be voluntary, or it can be forced through catastrophic events. It might be initiated by the citizens themselves, or it can be aggravated through outside influences.
Though, reading the comments on social media, tells me that America is ripe for yet another fight. Ready to battle the world, Russia and China, for "democracy".
Totally oblivious to the consequences of global thermonuclear war.
What ever the cause, the developments, the reasoning, the mechanism or the intent… there WILL be changes coming to America in the 2020 decade. Here we discuss what it was like when the changes were brought forth suddenly to communities, cities and villages, in the past.
Please note all of these changes could have been prevented.
In every case it was the leadership of those cities, nation-states, and communities that “opened the door” for the rapid disintegration of their cultures, societies and lifestyles. In all cases, they misjudged the Huns, the Mongols, Attila, Ghenghis Khan, and their strengths. They viewed themselves technically, socially, spiritually, and culturally superior to the Asian horde.
They mistakenly believed that their previous national accomplishments, public structures, military campaigns, social importance, cultures and the arts were strong enough to withstand assault from outside threats.
They sat fat and comfortable in their capital cities, enjoying their concubines, eating lavish meals and trusting that things would forever continue on that path.
It was the national leadership that caused the destruction of their cities.
They mistakenly believed that their previous national accomplishments, public structures, military campaigns, social importance, cultures and the arts were strong enough to withstand assault from outside threats. They sat fat and comfortable in their capital cities, enjoying their concubines, eating lavish meals and trusting that things would forever continue on that path.
Leadership through merit
One of the most amazing things about the Mongols is that they had such exceptional leadership, even though they didn’t have much in the way of formal education.
The tactics and strategies employed by Genghis Khan and his greatest general, Subutai, were revolutionary, and at the time almost unstoppable.
One of the most amazing things about the Mongols is that they had such exceptional leadership.
Genghis created a meritocracy where the strongest and most talented rose to the top, and managed to unify the fighting Mongol tribes under his rule.
Leadership through merit creates a dangerous power.
General Subutai was able to simultaneously control two large armies, hundreds of miles away from each other. Pretty amazing in a time where communication was via horseback.
He was no slouch.
General Subutai won sixty five (65x) pitched battles, and masterminded over 20 military campaigns.
Leadership though merit will win over popularity or wealth every time.
US President Barack Obama has awarded the USA’s highest civilian honor to various actors, musicians and athletes during a ceremony at the White House.
The collapse of cities before Genghis Khan
We start our study by looking at some tales of cities that fell before the might of the Mongol hordes.
Now, empires, nations and civilizations don’t typically collapse due to war alone. It is often a combination of factors. Of which, war and violence is the most spectacular attribute.
Social collapse.
Political collapse.
Economic collapse.
Ethical collapse.
Physical collapse of infrastructure.
So, when Genghis Khan took over Asia, he did so not only with his superior forces, but through the knowledge that the cities were ripe for looting.
The cities were soft. Their people have become soft. Their rulers… soft.
President Obama showing his strength and leadership skills by riding a bicycle.
Their leadership was weak, and their military, while in numerous cases quite state-of-the-art, lost their ability to adequately assess threats, and dangers and take strategic action. They were led by weaklings, political appointees or nepotism.
They were not led through merit.
The cities started to adopt unhealthy behaviors and strange mannerisms. These in turn, isolated them from the surrounding communities. They began to get the reputation as a “loony bin” or place where people live “within their own bubble”. Today, even still, we refer to some of these cities such as Babylon, as a place of degradation.
The cities started to adopt unhealthy behaviors and strange mannerisms. These in turn, isolated them from the surrounding communities. They began to get the reputation as a “loony bin” or place where people live “within their own bubble”.
The collapse of a nation is caused by a combination of factors. Often, it is a superior culture or society confronts a stable but “soft” culture.
Most military historians judge that no European force could have stopped the disciplined and innovative Mongolian armies. “Employed against the Mongol invaders of Europe, knightly warfare failed even more disastrously for the Poles at Legnica and the Hungarians at Mohi in 1241”
-Stephen Hicks
You see the events around Genghis Khan are archetypal for the human condition.
Societies migrate from the K-reproductive strategy towards the r-reproductive strategy. Other societies do not, and then we have a situation where a K-reproductive strategy civilization encounters a r-reproductive society.
Blood is thus shed.
What happens when a society based on survival by merit encounters one of lazy sloth and unlimited sex?
Humans get comfortable, they get fat and lazy, and leaner, and meaner people confront them and take everything from them. The tough, the strong, and the aggressive takes from the weak and meek.
“The greatest joy for a man is to defeat his enemies, to drive them before him, to take all they possess, to see those they love in tears, to ride their horses, and to hold their wives and daughters in his arms.”
-Genghis Khan.
While this historical example (Genghis Khan) is actually referring to the physical seizure and physical destruction of people, place and things, we are referring to a far wider scope of assault.
A superior culture is one where everyone has a role, and works to the best of their ability. Leadership and success is determined by merit.
This can be military, as we have mentioned. It can be economic. It can be cultural. It can be sociological, and it can be ideological.
And, it can certainly be a combination of the above.
The Mongol were masterful at spreading fear and hate throughout Asia, people feared them, and therefore hated them.
They would rape and pillage entire villages, and torture their victims for fun.
Nobles would get it the worst.
Spilling noble blood was considered a crime, so they simply crushed them to death, which took many hours. Mongols would literally dine on top of them, making merry to the sounds of their screams from underneath. The sounds of bodies squelching, and bones snapping didn’t faze them.
But rumors of this execution method struck terror.
Fear made them even more powerful, and more feared, as people often chose to surrender and pay tribute rather than risk fighting them.
The tough, the strong, and the aggressive takes from the weak and meek.
They cultivated the illusion to sow fear into their enemies. And, you know, everyone who wasn’t a Mongol was their enemy.
Mongols also ate meat tenderized by being sat on beneath their saddles on long journeys; marmot steeped in sour milk; curds dried in the sun; roots, dogs, rats—almost anything, according to several observers. Marco Polo, who traveled among them in the years 1275-92, wrote that they ate hamsters, which were plentiful on the steppes.
A Franciscan friar who in 1245 went to seek out the Great Khan in the hope of persuading him to become a Christian reported that, during a siege of a Chinese city, a Mongol army ran out of food and ate one of every ten of its own soldiers.
Mediterranean people who knew the Mongols only by reputation believed they were creatures with dogs’ heads who lived on human flesh.
Other Mongol facts: On their treeless steppes, they tended to get hit by lightning a lot.
Thunder terrified them. They wore armor made of scales of iron sewn to garments of thick hide, and iron helmets that sometimes came to a point on top.
Their swords were short and sometimes curved.
The notches in their arrows were too narrow to fit the wider bowstrings of the Western people they fought, so that the arrows could not be picked up and shot back at them.
Mongol bows, made of layers of horn and sinew on a wooden frame, took two men to string. Warriors carried them strung, in holsterlike cases at their belts.
Mongols had no words for “right” and “left,” but called them “west” and “east,” respectively.
When anyone begged from them, they replied, “Go, with God’s curse, for if he loved you as he loves me, he would have provided for you.”
-The New Yorker
Human nature & Poland
Why do humans tend to get weak and soft? It’s in our nature. It’s called the r/K theory, and it’s worth a read. (Opens up in a separate tab.)
An anecdote from my most-recent visit there (Poland), which was three years ago. I was in the historic downtown of one of the smaller cities. My brother-in-law and I were at an outdoor table of a restaurant.
Next to us were two men, maybe mid-twenties. They discussed something. One of them was passionate about the subject and the other was listening.
For the first time ever in all of my visits to Poland, I felt that my SMV is behind the curve there. Age does its thing, of course, but that wasn’t it. Rather, after twenty years of my regular visits, I felt that… the young men there suddenly looked taller, better dressed, more intelligent, less awed by a shiny foreigner, more ready to give you that piercing look like they can make it hurt.
They are healthy people who see the same global war on Whites that I do, encircling their country.
The difference between me and them, is that I as a sort-of American represented a conquered people and they represented free men. What a difference that makes.
-PA "A Normal Country"
Best kinds of comments under Peter Sweden’s tweet are along the lines of “What a great example for the rest of us!” Exactly. The worst kinds of comments, and thankfully there were very few of those and I only saw them from European female posters: “I wish I could move to Poland.” Poland in the present moment is an example of a White Christian society that is free to be itself. This makes Peter Sweden’s statement “feels like a normal country” mean more than it does on its face.
“Normal country.” Ordinary people in a normal country aren’t going to be defensive or get in your face. Nor will they hem-and-haw like a normie-cuckservative who watches his words lest a non-lie slips out. What they will do, is patiently and politely tell you the simple truth because they are not ashamed of anything.
This is why Poland is so unusual to Western observers. It is a normal country in which men are masculine and women are feminine. Peter Sweden’s flattering comment about Poles should be as banal as an observation that the people there have two arms and two legs each. Yet it’s a startling observation because proper masculinity and femininity are under attack. Under these circumstances, Poland is paradoxically an extraordinary normal country. And so be it.
When people move away from “normal”, they become soft and easy prey for the rest of the wild dangerous world…
Here’s a shout out for Mr. Putin. You all might want to compare him to his American equivalent; Barrack Obama.
President Putin said, “It’s not just pounding your fists and making loud statements, I believe that strength has several dimensions: First, a person must be convinced of the truth in what he is doing, and secondly: he must be ready to go all the way to achieve the goals that he set.”
An important note
It is so very easy to get all caught up in history; dates, places and names. It can become so confusing if you are coming flush without any context to put the information into perspective.
Here, I am going to throw out some stories, history and details related to events and leaders of the past. This includes various generals, and leaders and the actions that they took. When names are given, it’s pretty much assumed that they are a ranking general.
There will be figures thrown about… 100,000 killed, 5000 ships sunk, 350,000 civilians slaughtered, etc. These are enormous figures and it is very difficult to put into perspective.
To keep things reasonable, consider that when figures such as these are mentioned, assume them to mean 95% of the people were killed, or 98% of the city was slaughtered. Or 100% of the ships were sunk.
Please do not get too caught up in the details.
It’s easy to get bogged down. Just read and learn that our past is a violent one, and enormous groups of people were caught up in very difficult times where survival was a rarity.
When a city was sacked our under siege, the surrounding environment was completely picked clean. The Mongols would forage for food, livestock and property. Homes, villages and communities were emptied. Roving band of marauders would attack individual communities and young boys would be set forth to learn how to sack a household on their own.
The Mongol area of influence during the battle of Mohi. When a city was attacked, the surrounding areas were emptied of everything. No one survived. Everything become the property and under the ownership of the Mongols.
The Mongols were like a plague of locusts eating and destroying everything in their path.
Speaking of Mohi…
Do not underestimate the dangerous
The Battle of Mohi was one of the most devastating battles in European history.
The Mongols attacked Hungary with three armies. One of them attacked through Poland in order to withhold possible Polish auxiliaries and defeated the army of Duke Henry II the Pious of Silesia at the Legnica. Duke Henry was slain (after trying to retreat) and “nine sacks of ears” collected by the victors “attested to the heavy losses of the defeated.” A southern army attacked Transylvania, defeated the Voivode (military commander) and crushed the Transylvanian Hungarian army. The main army led by Khan Batu and Subutai attacked Hungary through the fortified Verecke Pass and annihilated the army led by the count Palatine on March 12, 1241.
The Battle of Mohi, or Battle of the Sajó River, (on April 11, 1241) was the main battle between the Mongols under Subutai and the Kingdom of Hungary under Béla IV during the Mongol invasion of Europe.
It took place at Muhi or Mohi, southwest of the Sajó River.
Mongol use of heavy machinery demonstrated how military engineering could be put to effective and strategic use.
After the invasion, Hungary lay in ruins.
Nearly half of the inhabited places had been destroyed by the invading armies.
Around a quarter of the population was lost, mostly in lowland areas, especially in the Great Hungarian Plain, where there were hardly any survivors; in the southern reaches of the Hungarian plain in the area now called the Banat, and in southern Transylvania.
- Battle of Mohi - New World Encyclopedia
25% of Hungary’s population was wiped out by after the Mongol incursions.
Half of all livable places had crumbled, smashed to bits by hordes of Mongols. Losses were heavy on both sides, but the Europeans suffered most. This was the most important major battle of the war between Hungary and the Mongolians.
The Mongol invasion of Europe showing the battle of Mohi. This was the “Stalingrad” of the Hungarian Army. After the loss of this major battle, Europe fell to the Mongols.
After this major battle, Hungary was pretty much disarmed.
No armies remained to fight the Mongolians. Those few Hungarian survivors fled the area as fast as they could, leaving the cities. towns and villages undefended.
What followed was a tidal wave of death and destruction, as Mongol hordes rampaged through Hungary destroying cities, towns, communities, hamlets and habitations as they went.
What followed was a tidal wave of death and destruction, as Mongol hordes rampaged through Hungary destroying cities as they went.
It is terribly bad.
It made Hitler’s scorched earth policy look like a “walk in the park”.
Bela IV, the King of Hungary, actually had to run to his archenemy, Duke Frederick, for safety. Frederick extorted him for as much as possible, including three of his countries.
He was a coward, but he lived on…
And his nation was remade in the image of the conquering Mongol armies.
What must it have been like… I wonder…
Looting of a Gallo-Roman Villa, Painting by Georges Rochegrosse
We begin our study into this historical trend by looking at a fine painting by Georges Rochegrosse. It is titled “Looting of a Gallo-Roman Villa”, and it’s wonderful.
Let this painting tell the story of what to expect when a nation is ruled by the soft, corrupt and effeminate. Here we have a scene somewhere in the wealthy sections of the Roman empire.
Members of Genghis Khan’s armies have moved upon the villa. They killed the soft, fat and chubby wealthy owner, and took possession of his wives, sons, daughters and slaves.
Looting of a Gallo-Roman Villa, Painting Signed by the painter Georges Rochegrosse.Male servants / bodyguards are quickly killed and lie in front of the doorways, the walls and the stairs. Here, this male guard can be seen as such as determined by his pants and tunic / smock.The villa master / owner (fat, chubby, balding head, and fine white robes) lies dead in the flowers in his front yard. His fancy robes, and gold bracelets did not protect him.The military, with young restless males, kill their opposition and loot the household. They cart away what ever they desire.The owner’s wife / mistress / daughter is forcibly removed to be raped, and sold off into slavery. Judging from this painting, my guess would be that it was the mistress of the house. She is being removed along with the furnishings, carted away like the various possessions that the man had.The children, young daughters, sons, slaves, servants and elders are collected and stood in front of their news owners who will determine their individual fates. They are all resigned to their fates and await whatever lies in store for them.
The reader should never be under the impression that humanity has moved away from this reality. Technology has changed, but human nature has not.
Human nature has NOT changed.
The Nature of the society with advantage
In a nomadic society, you can’t afford to have slackers. There’s just too much work to be done. So that means it there’s no room for anyone who can’t make him or herself useful, women and children included.
This includes everyone, and if slaves cannot do what they are told, they are killed immediately.
Genghis Khan believed in being rewarded for hard work, and operated on a meritocracy over a nepotistic system. Many of his highest ranking officers and generals had earned their way to those positions, instead of simply being born to a particular family.
-Factinate
It’s not just the men folk. It’s everyone in the entire community.
According to the University of Victoria, Mongolian women were not only expected to shoulder a lot of the responsibility, they were also expected to do a lot of the heavy lifting.
This differs substantially from the lifestyle of the wives and women of the lands that they conquered.
While all women had to “earn their keep” in the households, the more “advanced the society”, the weaker and softer the women became.
While all women had to “earn their keep” in the households, the more “advanced the society”, the weaker and softer the women became. Rather than be tough, handling the daily chores, raising the children and supporting their men, they chose a life of ease and sloth.
Modern “woke” woman enjoying her “down time”. Self absorbed, selfish, and soft. They follow the historical norm for decadent cultures.
As such, when SHTF back “in the day”, there was little that they could do aside from submit to their conquerors. The women quickly learned their role in the new society or were killed. There were no other options.
Normalcy bias. The belief that things are never changing, that they have always been that way and will always continue to stay that way.
It must have been very difficult for the pampered women of the aristocratic classes…
Women who worked were not at all admired or esteemed.
Compared to their counterparts in ancient Greece, Roman wives of the upper classes were shocking in their visibility in public. Married women appeared in public, with their husbands, or with a retinue of attendants.
They went shopping, attended festivals, sacrifices, games, and entertainment. They acted as hostesses and dined out. They attended women-only social events.
Aristocratic women spent a great deal of time on personal grooming and beauty preparations.
- Women in Ancient Rome: Women's Daily Life and Work
A superior culture is one where everyone has a role, and works to the best of their ability. Leadership and success is determined by merit.
A superior culture is one where everyone has a role, and works to the best of their ability. Leadership and success is determined by merit.
Using Merit and Ability to control the weak and meek
Genghis Khan amassed the largest contiguous empire the world had yet seen. Only the British Empire, when it included both Canada and Australia, would be larger.
A superior culture is one where everyone has a role, and works to the best of their ability. Leadership and success is determined by merit.
Unlike Alexander the great, the Caesars or the Persian emperors, Genghis Khan’s idea of conquest was not to occupy and rule another people, but rather to rape, pillage and destroy everything in his path.
We was a warlord of destruction.
Genghis Khan was a man of reason. He let the people in the Mongol Empire live a happy life as long as they followed his rules. However, Genghis Khan cruelly punished everyone who tried to break those rules. For example, when the governor of one of the cities in the Khwarazmian Empire took over Genghis Khan's trade caravan and killed all the traders, Genghis Khan went berserker. He sent 100,000 Mongols to the Khwarazmian Empire and killed thousands of people, including the governor. Genghis Khan poured molten silver into the governor's eyes and mouth until the poor guy roasted from the inside. That was a clear sign that anyone, stupid enough to harm the Mongol Empire, would have to face devastating consequences. History shows that spreading fear worked perfectly in Genghis Khan's favor. He still needed to invade some rebellious places from time to time, but for the most of the time, people in The Mongol Empire behaved really well.
-The Richest
He purged the lands of all human opposition, all human constructions, all human education and learning, and all human influence.
Then he remade it in his own image.
Worse was to come in 1221 — ‘a year to live in infamy’. While Genghis’s other armies had been busy in the east, threatening Tbilisi in Georgia and terrifying the Christian world, Tolui, one of Genghis’s equally reprehensible sons, took Merv (in modern-day Turkmenistan), then one of the largest cities in the world.
Promised safety, the citizens surrendered and emerged from behind their walls.
Tolui looked at the mass of people placed in front of him.
He ‘surveyed the masses dolefully gathered with their possessions, mounted a golden chair and ordered mass executions to commence’. They took four days and nights to complete. Genghis’s rotten fruit did not fall far from the tree.
Terror — and the certainty of its visitation — was a major weapon in Genghis’s arsenal: decapitated women, children and even cats and dogs were reputedly displayed. But while the butchery was indeed immense, it is worth questioning its extent on occasion: a depopulated city had little economic value, and imported colonisers could make up only so much of the shortfall.
- Was Genghis Khan the cruellest man who ever lived?
Mongolia was a very difficult place to live, and thus the people that lived there become fierce and tough. Those in the West were no match for them. They became soft, and corrupt. They became easy prey for a tough warrior traditional conservative culture of warriors.
His total disregard for human life led to him being utterly feared throughout virtually the entire Eurasian land mass.
When George Curzon visited the ruined city of Merv in 1888, the vision of its decay overwhelmed him. “In the midst of an absolute wilderness of crumbling brick and clay,” the future viceroy of India wrote, “the spectacle of walls, towers, ramparts and domes, stretching in bewildering confusion to the horizon, reminds us that we are in the centre of bygone greatness.”
In its 12th-century pomp, Merv straddled the prosperous trade routes of the Silk Road. It was a capital of the Seljuk sultanate that extended from central Asia to the Mediterranean. According to some estimates, Merv was the biggest city in the world in AD1200, with a population of more than half a million people.
But only decades later, the city was effectively razed by the armies of Genghis Khan in a grisly conquest that resulted – if contemporary accounts are to be believed – in 700,000 deaths.
A trader arriving from Bukhara to the north-east or from Nishapur to the south-west would once have been relieved at the sight of Merv. Crisscrossed by canals and bridges, full of gardens and orchards, medieval Merv and its surrounding oasis were green and richly cultivated, a welcome reprieve from the bleakness of the Karakum desert.
The city’s enclosing walls ran in an oblong circuit of five miles, interrupted by strong towers and four main gates. Its streets were mostly narrow and winding, crowded with closely built houses and occasional larger structures: mosques, schools, libraries and bathhouses.
The citadel of the Seljuk sultans – replete with a palace, gardens and administrative buildings – loomed over the north-eastern part of Merv. Many different polities chose to make Merv the seat from which to rule Khurasan, a region that included eastern Iran and parts of modern-day Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
“For its cleanliness, its good streets, the divisions of its buildings and quarters among the rivers … their city [Merv] is superior to the rest of the cities of Khurasan,” wrote the 10th-century Persian geographer and traveller al-Istakhri. “Its markets are good.”
Reaching Merv, the visiting trader might lead his pack-animals into the open courtyard of a two-storey caravanserai (an inn with a courtyard for travellers), where he would jostle for space with other merchants from as far as India, Iraq and western China. Or he could go straight to one of Merv’s large markets, convened outside the gates of the town or sometimes near its major mosques. The smoke of potters’ kilns and steel-making furnaces (Merv was famous for its crucible steel) would have hung over the surrounding industrial suburbs.
If the trader was feeling hot, he might step inside the icehouse on the city outskirts; a tall conical building where residents accumulated snow during the winter and which they used like a vast mud-brick fridge. Maybe he paid a visit to a member of the city’s elite who lived in a koshk (a fortress-like home outside the walls removed from the dust and noise of the city).
If he followed the route of the Majan canal, which ran up the middle of the city, past the workshops of embroiderers and weavers, he would reach both Merv’s central mosque and the adjacent monument, the mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar. Built in AD1157 to honour the long-ruling Seljuk sultan, the mausoleum was a large, square-shaped building rung with fine arches, capped by a dome sheathed in turquoise-glazed tile. The dome was so intensely blue that according to the Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi, who visited Merv in the 13th century, “It could be seen from a day’s journey away.”
The city was known as Marv-i-Shahijan or “Merv the Great”, the largest and most famous of a succession of towns in the Merv oasis. In fact, the city sat alongside an earlier incarnation of Merv just to the east, known as Gyaur-kala (“fortress of the pagans”).
Gyaur-kala flourished under the Sassanid kings of Persia from the third to the seventh centuries AD. Archaeologists have found evidence in this older Merv of a cosmopolitan urban society, boasting communities of Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Manicheans, Christians and Jews. Under Muslim rule from the seventh century onwards, the locus of urban activity shifted west across the Razik canal to what would become Marv-i-Shahijan (also known as Sultan-kala, “fortress of the sultan”). Many of Gyaur-kala’s structures were probably cannibalised for material in the construction of the new Merv, and industrial workshops, kilns and furnaces sprung up amid its ruins.
Merv was famous for its exports, especially its textiles. “From this country is derived much silk as well as cotton of a superior quality under the name of Merv cotton, which is extremely soft,” noted the 12th-century Arab geographer al-Idrisi. Robes and turbans made from Merv cloth were popular around the Islamic world.
So too were Merv’s much-loved melons. “The fruits of Merv are finer than those of any other place,” wrote Ibn Hawqal, a 10th-century Arab chronicler, “and in no other city are to be seen such palaces and groves, and gardens and streams.”
Merv had such a strong reputation for commerce and the pursuit of wealth that the 14th-century Egyptian scribe al-Nuwayri described the city’s chief characteristic as “miserliness”.
But Merv under the Seljuks was also a city of learning and culture. It produced notable poets, mathematicians, astronomers, physicians, musicians and physicists. The polymath Umar Khayyam is known to have spent several years working at the astronomical observatory in Merv. “Of all the countries of Iran,” al-Istakhri wrote of Merv, “these people were noted for their talents and education.” Yaqut al-Hamawi counted at least 10 significant libraries in the city, including one attached to a major mosque that contained 12,000 volumes.
No conquest was as traumatic as its pillage by the Mongols in 1221. Yaqut al-Hamawi was forced to flee the libraries of Merv as the armies of Genghis Khan’s son Tolui advanced upon the city.
“Verily, but for the Mongols I would have stayed and lived and died there, and hardly could I tear myself away,” he wrote sadly. The Mongols laid siege for six days before the city surrendered, prompting one of the worst massacres of the age.
According to the Arab historian Ibn al-Athir, who based his account on the reports of refugees from Merv: “Genghis Khan sat on a golden throne and ordered the troops who had been seized should be brought before him. When they were in front of him, they were executed and the people looked on and wept. When it came to the common people, they separated men, women, children and possessions. It was a memorable day for shrieking and weeping and wailing. They took the wealthy people and beat them and tortured them with all sorts of cruelties in the search for wealth … Then they set fire to the city and burned the tomb of Sultan Sanjar and dug up his grave looking for money. They said, ‘These people have resisted us’ so they killed them all. Then Genghis Khan ordered that the dead should be counted and there were around 700,000 corpses.”
- Lost cities #5: how the magnificent city of Merv was razed – and never recovered
The large walls of the city-fort of Merv today. You can clearly see the turreted towers, and the tall walls.
This level of fear is difficult to imagine. As we sit in our comfortable, well furnished homes, and our nice new iPhones and brand new pickup trucks. It seems so far away. Like that war that American are fight for off in west-bumfuck-istan. Something you read about, but don’t really get too concerned about.
The closest thing that approaches this level of fear is a full-scale global thermonuclear war with hyper-velocity MIRV’s targeting the cities within driving distance from your home.
Nothing quite ruins a day like global thermonuclear war.
Americans need to wake up to what REAL fear is like before it is too late.
On a personal level…
There have been many, many sad events associated with invasion, war and conflict. Let’s not forget that everything is on a personal level.
War is deeply personal.
It is on a visceral level, where once the society collapses, the military fails, and the rulers flee, it is the individual families that must confront their new fates.
Imagine that the menfolk are off in the local militia fighting off the Mongol horde. The ladies are at the farm. It’s quiet. The rooster is starting to crow, and then suddenly…
Let’s not forget that everything is on a personal level. It is on a visceral level, where once the society collapses, the military fails, and the rulers flee, it is the individual families that must confront their new fates…
About this picture…
It’s just a small story besides great catastrophes and tragedies, but the most memorable thing I have ever learned about is the small family that burned in their own oven while - probably - were trying to hide from Mongol invaders.
Their village - which was destroyed and burned - was dated to be from the 13. century which is the time of the Mongol invasion (1241–42 in Hungary).
Most people could probably escape their settlement as archaeologist only found one other body in a ditch, but they were not that lucky. In the burned house they found an 8–10 years old girl, a 10–11 years old boy, and a 20–30 years old young woman in the oven of the house.
Someone probably ignited their house and as they couldn’t escape they hid in the oven in desperation. They died with their hand protecting their face, probably from the smoke, the boy was holding onto a kitchen tool which he perhaps wanted to use earlier to protect themselves.
-Quora
These photos are really powerful as they tell the horrible, vivid story this family might have gone through, which is really rare in archaeology in general. We talk about invasions, wars, and catastrophes so easily and tend to dehumanize the people who suffered from them because it happened so long ago but looking at them… it just reminds me that these dehumanized masses were made of persons. On the oven baking surface, we opened the skeletons of two children who had been huddled together, in front of them, and at the mouth of the furnace, the remains of a young woman were found. The youngchild was an 8-10-year-old girl who, on her left side, curled up, holding her right hand in front of her face, behind her 10-11-year-old brother.
They used strategy, always doing something new and unexpected.
A single battle can be the turning point in a war, partly due to this psychological warfare.
Once stable societies with decades of peace, trade, gardens, and robust relationships can become ghost-towns overnight when an invasion occurs and the military is not able to repel it.
In the Batlle of Legnica the Mongolians are estimated to have been fighting a force twice its size with a variety of soldiers, including the famed Knights Templar.
A European coalition formed to try and stop the Mongols from entering Europe. The safety of Europe depended on this battle. Partway through the battle the Mongolian forces and began to retreat, and Polish forces charged in, reserves were also sent in to capitalize on this opportunity.
The Mongols used feigned retreats to separate the knights from the European infantry, and fight them separately.
Little did they know, they had fallen for one of Genghis Khan’s most famous tactics, the feigned retreat. The Mongols used feigned retreats to separate the knights from the European infantry, and fight them separately.
As a result the Polish forces were decimated.
Dead horses, men and blood were everywhere. The survivors fled. Leading vast areas of Poland undefended.
Dead horses, men and blood were everywhere. The survivors fled. Leading vast areas of Poland undefended.
The people outside of the cities, in the small towns and villages, often unaware of what was going on, were often surprised by local raiding parties of Mongols. The raids would happen unexpectedly and were often quite brutal and nasty.
They were often killed, or burned alive in their homes.
The mother cradles an infant in her arms as the the father tries to protect them both .
The Mongols Lied, and failed to keep agreements.
And, aside from that, they also were terrible at keeping promises…
Mstislave surrendered to Subutai with the agreement that neither he, nor any of his men would be harmed. They were all slaughtered upon leaving the camp.
Subutai led an army of 20,000 Mongols against a Russian army 4 times its size.
The Mongol rear guard was defeated early in the battle, and so the rest of the horde was forced to retreat. Mstislav the Bold chased down the retreating Mongols with victory in his eyes. His army spread out as they attempted to catch them, a chase which lasted many days. Mstislav spotted Mongols in formation along the Kalka River, and attacked without waiting for reinforcements. With his army in disarray, Mstislav was forced to retreat back to a fortified camp.
He had fallen for a feigned retreat.
Mstislave surrendered to Subutai with the agreement that neither he, nor any of his men would be harmed. They were all slaughtered upon leaving the camp. Luckily, Mstislav managed to escape. Mstislav the Bold, boldly ran away.
-ESKify
Entire communities were wiped off the face of the Earth. Their leadership, grown fat, complaisant and happy over the decades of a life of leisure, were not at all equipped to deal with fierce, aggressive humans.
The Mongols were responsible for their own provisions. So while they were not fighting the armies, individual raiding parties broke from the main group and attacked isolated villages, homes and hamlets. No one was spared.
Consider Hungary.
This was one of the most devastating battles in European history. 25% of Hungary’s population was wiped out by after the Mongol incursions.
Half of all liveable places had crumbled, smashed to bits by hordes of Mongols. Losses were heavy on both sides, but the Europeans suffered most. This was the most major battle of the war between Hungary and the Mongolians.
-ESKify
Lets look at what happened to some of the various cities that decided to stand up and defy the Mongol armies.
Kaifeng, 1232-33.
Kaifeng was the capital city of the Jurchen Jin dynasty of northern China.
Mongol Siege of Kaifeng, (1232–33). A Mongol army commanded by Subedei captured the northern Chinese Jin dynasty capital, Kaifeng, overcoming defenders equipped with gunpowder bombs. The Jin emperor committed suicide, handing control of Jin territories in northern China to the recently elected Mongol khan, Ogödei.
- Mongol Siege of Kaifeng | Summary | Britannica
At the time of the Mongol siege of Kaifeng, China was roughly divided between three empires, the Xi Xia, the Jurchen Jin, and the Song.
At the time of the Mongol siege of Kaifeng, China was roughly divided between three empires, the Xi Xia, the Jurchen Jin, and the Song.
The Jurchen Jin were the predecessors of the Manchus in northern China and they had been at war with the Mongols for about 20 years before Kaifeng actually became a target of Mongol ambitions.
One of the first major cities to be attacked by Mongol armies, Kaifeng was also one of the longest-lasting sieges, as its garrisons used firebombs, gunpowder, and the resources of the entire Jurchen Jin empire to fend off the assault.
Kaifeng was also one of the longest-lasting sieges, as its garrisons used firebombs, gunpowder, and the resources of the entire Jurchen Jin empire to fend off the assault.
The Mongols had learned well from their Chinese prisoners how to conduct sieges.
They built a 54-mile-long wooden wall of contravallation to hem in Kaifeng’s one million frightened inhabitants.
Contravallation definition, a more or less continuous chain of redoubts and breastworks raised by besiegers outside the line of circumvallation of a besieged place to protect the besiegers from attacks from the outside, as by a relieving force.
- Contravallation | Definition of Contravallation
In addition to the almost 150,000 Mongols conducting the siege, the Song sent 300,000 troops to help finish off their Jin enemies. For six days, the Mongol and Song armies assaulted Kaifeng’s wall but took thousands of casualties from a dreaded weapon called a ho pao, a long bamboo tube filled with incendiaries that could be lit with a fuse or thrown into siege engines from holes in the walls to explode with such force that it left craters in the ground and burned everyone in the immediate vicinity.
Thousands of Mongol and Song Chinese troops died in assaults against Kaifeng’s stout walls.
It was clear to Subedei that a long siege was needed to reduce the Jin capital. Plague soon broke out in Kaifeng, and Subedei withdrew his forces to let the disease destroy his enemies while the Mongol and Song armies remained plague-free.
Plague soon broke out in Kaifeng, and Subedei withdrew his forces to let the disease destroy his enemies while the Mongol and Song armies remained plague-free.
Within a month, the Jin emperor committed suicide. Soon afterwards the Mongol and Song armies broke into Kaifeng and began massacring the population.
Ogedei ordered the massacre to be stopped and aid brought to the suffering people. Subedei wanted to massacre the entire Jin population and turn the farmland into grazing fields for Mongol horses, but Ogedei overruled him.
Ogedei ordered the massacre to be stopped and aid brought to the suffering people. Subedei wanted to massacre the entire Jin population and turn the farmland into grazing fields for Mongol horses, but Ogedei overruled him.
Ogedei’s Chinese advisers had convinced him that the Jin population would provide lucrative taxes, craftsmen, and soldiers for future Mongol conquests. The Jin held out until 1234 before being overwhelmed by the combined Mongol and Song forces, ending the Jin dynasty forever.
XiXia, the capital of Zhongxing
The Xi Xia capital of Zhongxing presented a new problem for the Mongols, who had little experience in siege warfare.
In an earlier siege of the walled city of Volohai, the Mongols had attempted a series of suicidal assaults with scaling ladders that failed, and they suffered heavy casualties in the fighting.
Genghis offered to lift the siege of the city provided the residents gave the Mongols 1,000 cats and 10,000 swallows in cages. The puzzled citizens of Volohai quickly granted the request—and just as quickly lived to regret it when the animals fled back into the city with tufts of flaming wool tied to each of them by the Mongols.
Soon, the whole city was ablaze. While the defenders were occupied with putting out the fire, the Mongols scaled the now undefended walls and massacred the inhabitants.
Genghis did not want to face a similar costly assault of the walls of Zhongxing.
Instead, he decided to break the dikes on the Huang River and flood the city below.
The plan backfired, however, when the Mongol camp itself was flooded and hundreds of troops were swept away by the raging waters.
To make matters worse, the move left two feet of standing water for miles around the city, in effect creating a ready-made moat.
The Mongols retreated into the surrounding hills but returned in force in 1210. Xi Xia Emperor Li Anquan, not wishing to face another siege, agreed to give his daughter Chaka to Genghis Khan as a wife and to pay tribute to the Mongols as a vassal state.
Genghis demanded and received another 1,000 young men and women, 3,000 horses, and vast quantities of gold, jewelry, and silk.
The Xi Xia later rebelled in 1218 and 1223 because they tired of providing the Mongols with so many men to fight in their wars of conquest, but these rebellions were brutally put down.
-Warfare History Network
Hangzhou (Lin’an), 1276.
Lin’an, or Hangzhou, was the capital city of the Song dynasty, which ruled over the much wealthier, much more powerful southern part of China.
Thesiegelastedfiveyears, butafullblockadewasnotwonforthree. Afterthecity'ssurrenderin 1273, theSongcourtwasindisarrayanddecidedtosendoutaforceof 130,000 mentomeettheMongols, butlostdecisively. TheMongolstookHangzhouin 1276 andcleanedupSongloyalistsinthenextfewyears.
- How did the mighty China lose to Mongols? : AskHistorians
Map of the Song dynasty showing city locations.
The long campaign to conquer all of China went through Song lands, and the Mongols had an incredibly tough time making their way to Hangzhou.
The capital city of the wealthiest polity in China, Lin’an was also one of the largest in the world and housed merchants (and their religious sites) from all over Asia.
The public buildings of the Song dynasty were impressive.
In this international city, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism all competed for the hearts and minds (and money) of Hangzhou’s citizens.
The long campaign to conquer all of China went through Song lands, and the Mongols had an incredibly tough time making their way to Hangzhou.
The city of Hangzhou refused an offer to surrender peacefully and the Mongols had to fight their way in.
The siege of Hangzhou is less famous than many of the Mongols’ other sieges, despite the splendor of Hangzhou, because the royal family, headed by a child and run by a widowed empress – gave up and surrendered rather quickly.
Of course, once it was occupied it was burned to the ground. As usual, the Mongols massacred the city’s inhabitants.
The Mongols attacked the Jin Dynasty of northern China, whose ruler had made the mistake of demanding Genghis Khan’s submission. From 1211 to 1214, the outnumbered Mongols ravaged the countryside and sent refugees pouring into the cities. Food shortages became a problem, and the Jin army ended up killing tens of thousands of its own peasants. In 1214 the Mongols besieged the capital of Zhongdu (now Beijing), and the Jin ruler agreed to hand over large amounts of silk, silver, gold and horses. When the Jin ruler subsequently moved his court south to the city of Kaifeng, Genghis Khan took this as a breach of their agreement and, with the help of Jin deserters, sacked Zhongdu to the ground.
Xiangyang, 1267-73.
The Song dynasty was by far the most powerful enemy that the Mongols faced in their conquest of Eurasia. It was larger, wealthier, more populated, and had a better educated populace than any other polity in the world at the time.
OncetheMongolforcesoccupied Xiangyang, theycouldtravelbyshipsdowntheHanriverintotheYangtzeriver. AftertheBattleof Xiangyang, Chinacouldnotenjoytheprotectionofnaturalbarriersanymoreandsoitcollapsedinjustafewyears.
- Battle of Xiangyang - Wikipedia
The siege of Xiangyang, which lasted six years, was actually a siege of the twin cities of Xiangyang and Fancheng, which were both heavily fortified and served as the gateway to Song lands.
In battle, a historian wrote, “the Mongols made the fullest use of the terror inspired by their physique, their ugliness, and their stench.” Mongols were narrow-waisted and small-footed, with big heads. They shaved their hair short on the backs and tops of their heads and left it long at the sides. Custom forbade them from ever washing their clothes. Also contributing to their smell might have been their diet, which at certain times of the year was mainly mare’s milk. On marches when there wasn’t time to milk, Mongol riders would open a vein in their horses’ necks and drink the blood, either straight or from a pouch. Mongols were especially fond of fermented mare’s milk, called kumis. Many Mongol nobles died young from drunkenness. After victories, Mongols sometimes celebrated by drinking kumis while sitting on benches made of planks tied to the backs of their prisoners.
-The New Yorker
The Mongols had unsuccessfully laid siege to Xiangyang before, and gave up in order to conquer Russia and the entire Middle East instead.
The siege of Xiangyang, which lasted six years, was actually a siege of the twin cities of Xiangyang and Fancheng, which were both heavily fortified and served as the gateway to Song lands.
Mongol generals brought engineers from the Middle East to oversee the building and use of new trebuchets that eventually gave the invaders their victory over Xiangyang’s defenders.
With the fall of the twin cities, Mongols were free to overrun the rest of the Song dynasty’s territory. Most historians consider the sacking of Xiangyang to be the official end of the southern Song dynasty, and with it the cultural and economic power of old China.
Routing the Jin
In 1210, an emissary of the newly installed Jin emperor, Prince Wei, appeared before Genghis and demanded his submission and a tribute paid to the Jin.
An infuriated Genghis answered that it was the Jin who needed to pay tribute to him; he spat on the ground as a gesture of defiance. With his flank secured by the conquest of Xi Xia, Genghis was ready to attack the mighty Jin Dynasty.
After the Jin cavalry was defeated, the Jin pikemen, half of whom were militia conscripts, broke and ran. They were cut down by the Mongol cavalry or trampled by their own terrified horsemen.
In 1211, 30,000 Mongol troops under Genghis’s greatest general, Subedei, assaulted the Great Wall. The Mongols brought up groups of archers who cleared an area of wall while other Mongols scaled the wall with ladders and took possession of sections of it. The Jin rushed in reinforcements and recaptured the lost sections of the Great Wall. Thousands died on both sides as the fighting continued back and forth for several days.
The Jin brought most of their army to back up the forces defending the Great Wall. What the Jin didn’t know was that Subedei’s attack was merely a diversion.
Some 200 miles to the west, Genghis and a force of 90,000 Mongols were crossing the Great Wall at its end in the Gobi Desert. The Onguts, a tribe similar to the Mongols, were supposed to be guarding the western end of the Great Wall for the Chin, but they defected to Genghis and allowed the Mongols to cross into China unmolested.
After Genghis’s cavalry poured into China, Subedei’s force broke off its attack and crossed over into China from the end of the Great Wall as well.
The Jin forces were now out of position and moved to cut off the Mongols from Beijing. Genghis’s cavalry caught close to 200,000 Jin troops on open ground near Badger Pass, where the Jin hoped to block the Mongols from advancing any farther.
The Mongols would kill and acquire everything once they held a battle event. It was rare for there to be survivors, and the romantic notion of tending to wounded warriors was indeed a rarity.
The Jin formed for battle with the pike phalanxes and crossbowmen in the middle and armored heavy cavalry on the flanks. The outnumbered Mongol heavy cavalry engaged in a hotly contested battle on the flanks with the Jin cavalry as the densely packed Jin phalanxes and their crossbowmen held off the Mongol horse archers.
Suddenly, Subedei’s remaining 27,000 Mongols (3,000 had died at the Great Wall) showed up on the battlefield on the flanks and rear of the Jin army. The rout was on.
After the Jin cavalry was defeated, the Jin pikemen, half of whom were militia conscripts, broke and ran. They were cut down by the Mongol cavalry or trampled by their own terrified horsemen.
Bodies stacked “like rotten logs” littered the ground for more than 30 miles. Genghis then separated his army into three forces that burned, pillaged, raped, and murdered the populations of 90 cities over the next six months.
After the Jin cavalry was defeated, the Jin pikemen, half of whom were militia conscripts, broke and ran. They were cut down by the Mongol cavalry or trampled by their own terrified horsemen.
Despite the awful destruction, the Jin would not surrender. Genghis became frustrated by the enormous size and scope of a nation-state like the Jin.
He entered into negotiations with the emperor and agreed not to attack any more cities. The Mongols had already captured well over 100,000 Chinese prisoners; to make a negotiating point, Genghis had them executed.
Beijing
In response to the losses due to the invasion by Genghis Khan, the Jin moved their capital farther south, from Beijing to Kaifeng, and began rebuilding their armies.
Genghis was angered by the move, which he considered a betrayal of trust, and looked for an opportunity to attack the Jin again.
In the spring of 1213, the Jin attacked the Mongol-allied Khitan tribe in Manchuria.
Genghis came to the aid of his Khitan allies and attacked the Jin armies in Manchuria, which fell back to their fortifications at Nankuo Pass.
The Mongols were blocked from attacking Beijing by the well-fortified Jin positions at the pass and by the eastern sections of the Great Wall. The Mongols headed into the pass and then retreated. It was all a ruse.
Throughout history, Mongolia and China have had complicated relations. The Mongolian has the most robust environment; all the people are nomads who make their economy very poorly. The harsh environment makes it so tricky to survival, so the Mongolians always united to invade other countries.
The Jin forces hurried to trap the fleeing Mongols, recklessly leaving their fortified positions to pursue them.
The Mongols led the Jin forces into their own trap and destroyed most of the Jin army.
Those Jin troops that had not pursued the Mongols fled their fortified positions and retreated to the Great Wall, with the Mongols in hot pursuit.
A khanate was a political entity ruled by a khan. Historically speaking, the ruler of a Mongolian tribe was given the title ‘Khan’. Later on, this title was adopted by many Muslim societies. Although there were many khanates throughout history, the most famous ones are those that succeeded the Mongol Empire. During the 13th century, the Mongol Empire was established by Genghis Khan. To signify his position as the supreme ruler of the Mongols, Genghis Khan assumed the title ‘Khagan’, which may be translated to mean ‘Great Khan’. The successors of Genghis Khan continued to use the title ‘Khagan’, though it was not long before the empire began to fragment.
The Mongols caught and destroyed the remaining Jin troops as they tried frantically to retreat through the Great Wall. The Mongols then passed through the open gates of the Great Wall.
The Mongols began besieging the more than one million residents of Beijing. Beijing was a tough nut to crack, with walls and moats that extended more than nine miles around the city, and was watched over by 900 towers.
The city’s defenders had double and triple crossbow ballistae and trebuchet catapults that fired clay pots filled with naphtha-like incendiaries that exploded and set on fire whatever they hit.
Beijing was a tough nut to crack, with walls and moats that extended more than nine miles around the city, and was watched over by 900 towers.
The Jin also introduced one of the first poison gas weapons in history, firing projectiles bound in wax and paper of 70 pounds of dried human waste, ground-up poisonous herbs, roots, and beetles packed in gunpowder.
The projectiles were lit with a fuse and fired from a trebuchet, creating a deadly cloud of toxic fumes that killed or disabled anyone unfortunate enough to breathe in the poisonous dust.
The projectiles were lit with a fuse and fired from a trebuchet, creating a deadly cloud of toxic fumes that killed or disabled anyone unfortunate enough to breathe in the poisonous dust.
The Jin also had clay-pot firebombs filled with incendiaries to throw from the walls and hot oil to pour down on attackers.
The Mongols launched attacks against the walls with ladders, but lost dozens of men to the incendiaries and the hot oil.
The Mongols then forced Jin prisoners to build and push forward siege engines and serve as human shields for the attackers. Jin soldiers would recognize family and friends among the captives and hold their fire.
Many Jin prisoners were killed from missed crossbow fire aimed at the Mongols and from the bombs used to burn down the siege engines before they could get into the city.
Many Jin prisoners were killed from missed crossbow fire aimed at the Mongols and from the bombs used to burn down the siege engines before they could get into the city.
The Mongols and their Chinese human shields dug trenches covered by cowhide up to the walls to undermine them, but the Jin dropped firebombs from chains onto the trenches that exploded with such force that they left only smoldering craters and no intact human remains.
The siege dragged on for a year as starvation and disease began killing people on both sides of the walls, but the defenders, with more than a million people to feed, had the worst of it.
Two Jin relief columns loaded down with food were intercepted by the Mongols, and some defenders in Beijing turned to cannibalism to survive.
In June 1215, the Jin commander escaped to Kaifeng, where he was executed by the emperor for leaving his post.
The Jin also introduced one of the first poison gas weapons in history, firing projectiles bound in wax and paper of 70 pounds of dried human waste, ground-up poisonous herbs, roots, and beetles packed in gunpowder.
The desperate people of Beijing then opened the gates of the city to the Mongols, who ransacked the city and massacred thousands in revenge for their ordeal. The city was set on fire. Thousands of girls ran to the city’s steepest walls and threw themselves to their deaths to escape the flames and the unwanted amorous attention of the Mongols.
A year later, the ambassador of Khwarezm described seeing mountains of bones inside and outside of what had been the greatest city in the world.
Moscow, 1382.
By 1382, Mongol power in Russia had waned considerably.
So much so, in fact, that Moscow’s rulers felt confident enough to challenge the authority of the Golden Horde on the field of battle.
Russia around 1382.
After a string of light victories against Mongol cavalry earlier in the year, the Mongols showed up with a large force on the doorstep of Moscow, promising to spare its inhabitants if it surrendered.
The poor fools in Moscow believed the Mongols, and 24,000 people were slaughtered as the Mongols sacked the city once again.
Moscow believed the Mongols, and 24,000 people were slaughtered as the Mongols sacked the city once again.
The siege of Moscow (one of many) reasserted Mongol control over Russia for nearly 100 more years before the Russians were finally able throw off the infamous yoke of the Golden Horde.
When the Mongols invaded the Russian town of Yaroslavl in 1238, almost nobody was spared.
Hundreds were slaughtered brutally and dumped into mass graves as the town was completely sacked. Nearly 800 years later, researchers have given us a chilling glimpse of the victims left behind.
After the slaughter, Mongol raiders buried the dead in pits by the dozens with no markers to distinguish who these poor victims even were, wrote LiveScience.
But one pit of the dead in particular stood out after scientists of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology began genetically analyzing three of its 15 corpses.
Researchers found that the three murdered townsfolk buried together in the dirt were a woman, her daughter, and her grandson.
Moscow’s research team found that the eldest of the three corpses was at least 55 years old before she died. Her daughter was between 30 and 40, while her grandson was younger than 20.
They were buried in one of nine pits found at Yaroslavl, which altogether held more than 300 bodies.
- Researchers Uncover Horrors Of Russian ‘City Drowned In Blood’ By The Mongols In 1238
Nearly 300 bodies were buried across nine pits. The son, mother, and grandmother were buried in a pit of 15 people.
As for Yaroslavl as a whole, Mongols led by Genghis Khan’s grandson Batu Khan destroyed the town not long after advancing into Russia.
Nonetheless, enough buildings and artifacts survived to tell us a little something about the area, namely that it was a wealthy one. Scientists determined this by noting the tooth decay present in the three bodies in question and noting that the honey and sugar that could cause this were only available to those with substantial means at the time.
Beyond the three generations of one family left slaughtered in a pit, the scene at Yaroslavl showed just how brutal its conquest was. Batu Khan invaded towns like Yaroslavl with utter indifference, ultimately taking more than a dozen places in present-day Russia.
In just five years, he wiped out seven percent of Russia’s population.
When the Russian Grand Prince refused to submit to the Mongols, Genghis Khan’s grandson simply burned the capital city to the ground — with the royal family and every inhabitant inside.
- Researchers Uncover Horrors Of Russian ‘City Drowned In Blood’ By The Mongols In 1238
The skulls and bones all showed signs of violence. They were either punctured, broken, burned, or a combination of all three.
The brutality that has made the conquest of Yaroslavl unforgettable for many Russians was certainly on display in the way the victims’ bodies were treated after death.
Prior analysis suggested that the three family members, for example, were buried in February 1238. But recent evidence in the form of preserved maggots in their remains indicated otherwise. In fact, new evidence shows that the bodies were probably decomposing in the open air for months before they were buried.
“These people were killed, and their bodies remained lying in the snow for a fairly long time,” Engovatova said.
“In April or May, flies started to multiply on the remains, and in late May or early June, they were buried in a pit on the homestead, which is where they probably had lived.”
Fittingly, Engovatova described Yaroslavl after the attack as a “city drowned in blood.”
The skeletons of the three family members as well as the remains of the other victims — including punctured, broken, and burned bones in the hundreds of buried bodies — certainly suggest that to be true.
- Researchers Uncover Horrors Of Russian ‘City Drowned In Blood’ By The Mongols In 1238
Kiev, 1240.
There is a convincing argument to be made that during the medieval era in Europe, the Slavic world’s cultural, political, and economic epicenter was Kiev rather than Moscow or Warsaw.
The Mongols had so many oxen and cattle that they were able to carry all kinds of stuff with them—entire houses, and even temples—on giant carts. Observers said the number of Mongol horses was beyond counting, every warrior possessing many remounts.
Mongols spent so much time on horseback that they grew up bowlegged. If a Mongol had to move any distance farther than a hundred paces, he jumped on a horse and rode. A contemporary Russian annal describes the Mongol army approaching the walls of Kiev:
“The rattling of their innumerable carts, the bellowing of camels and cattle, the neighing of horses, and the wild battle-cry, were so overwhelming as to render inaudible the conversation of the people inside the city.”
Of necessity, the Mongols did most of their conquering and plundering during the warmer seasons, when there was sufficient grass for their herds.
-The New Yorker
Alexander and Frederick the Great brilliantly exploited the military foundations laid by their fathers. The genius of Julius Caesar and Napoleon was nourished by the might and wealth of Rome and France. Of the iconic conquerors, only Genghis built from scratch, spending over 20 years bringing the warring tribes of Mongolia under his rule, before exploding in campaigns of conquest at all points of the compass. The skill and mobility of Mongol horsemen was legendary; their archers and lancers were devastating. By his death in 1227, his armies had conquered as far west as the Caspian, annihilating the Khwarizm Empire, and crushed the Chin and Xi Xia kingdoms of northern China. Under his son, Ogedei, the Mongols advanced into China, India, and eastern Europe, where they routed Christian armies at Legnica and Mohi (1241). After destroying both the Abbasid and Ayyubid caliphates, the Mongols finally found their nemesis in the Mamluks at Ayn Jalut in Syria (1260).
When the Mongols invaded Europe and plundered Kiev in 1240, the collapse of Kiev indeed proved crucial to the invading army’s success in pillaging Europe’s surprisingly defenseless countryside.
Landscape of Podil. Fragment of ancient Kiev layout 10-13 centuries. Reconstruction Mazyukevich.
Unlike China, which had a densely populated countryside and a few well-fortified cities, or the Middle East, which had virtually no countryside and many well-fortified urban areas, Europe was comparatively rural, or semi-rural .
Map of the surrounding regions of Kiev prior to the Mongol invasion.
This meant that small urban areas like Kiev fell easily to the Mongol hordes, but it also made it harder for Mongol administrators to govern and tougher for the Mongol military to plunder, siege, and demoralize the populace.
None of this stopped the Mongols from wreaking havoc on eastern Europe, of course, but it does help to explain, in part, why khanates in Europe did not share the successes of their contemporaries in the Middle East, western India, and China.
Kiev has a moderately grid-like layout- much like the Greeks. It is probably like this because the Romans copied the Greek grid layout, and Ukraine was apart of the Roman Empire when it was established.
Oh, by the way, the Mongols slaughtered 48,000 of the 50,000 people living in Kiev when the city’s defenses collapsed.
Baghdad, 1258.
All is fine, peaceful, then all of a sudden all Hell breaks loose. It could happen to you, at any time, and at any place.
The fall of Baghdad was in a class of it’s own.
(General) Tamerlane’s thing was building pyramids out of heads.
When his forces took Baghdad, he spared almost no one, and ordered that each of his ninety thousand soldiers bring him a head (some sources say two) or lose his own life.
The thousands of heads were piled into towers.
Tamerlane also said not to destroy hospitals and mosques, a small concession by a Muslim to the former capital of his faith.
Nonetheless, thanks to him and to Hulagu, almost no architecture from the golden days of Harun al-Rashid has survived.
Baghdad would not be a city of any consequence for another five hundred years, until its strategic location and Iraq’s oil attracted the attention of world powers.
Many Muslims believe that the Mongol destruction of Baghdad and of the caliphate was the worst misfortune ever to befall Islam. With it, the faith’s first period of flowering came to a decisive close (though its actual decline had, of course, begun earlier).
Historical speculations about what might have been if the disaster had never occurred go in various directions, some tending toward the wild.
A book on Arab cultural identity published in the nineteen-fifties quoted a high official in the Syrian government who said that if the Mongols hadn’t destroyed the libraries of Baghdad, Arab science would have produced the atom bomb long before the West.
Recently, when TV stations everywhere were replaying the video of a U.S. marine shooting a wounded prisoner in a mosque in Falluja, a newspaper story about Arab reaction to the incident said that a retired army officer in Cairo said that the Americans were “acting like Genghis Khan.” He had the wrong Mongol, but his drift was ancient and familiar.
-The New Yorker
Baghdad was the technological, cultural, and societal center of the civilized world.
The walls of Bagdad.
As happens with most golden eras, Baghdad’s quickly ended.
A century after Harun al-Rashid, the city’s influence and glory had declined. Political changes made the caliph less powerful, limiting his temporal domain to Baghdad and nearest regions, though Sunni Muslims in other places still accepted his spiritual authority. The city remained a center of wealth and commerce, and an imposing sight architecturally.
A Spanish pilgrim, Ibn Jubayr, who visited Baghdad in 1184, wrote, “The Tigris . . . runs between its eastern and its western parts . . . like a string of pearls between two breasts.” He noted the beauty of the caliph’s palace reflected in the water.
Caliph Mustasim, the thirty-seventh in the Abbassid line, who became caliph in 1242, had confidence that his house would reign until Resurrection Day. Rumors of the approach of the Mongol army in 1257 did not worry him. During the reign of his father, the armies of the caliph had been among a very few opponents to defeat and turn back the Mongols.
From deep in Mongolia (General) Hulagu set out in 1253, marching westward at the head of a large force that included siege-engine experts of several nationalities.
His trebuchets could hurl huge rocks, and smaller stones covered in flaming naphtha, and his arbalesters could shoot bolts dipped in burning pitch a distance of twenty-five hundred paces.
Hulagu’s brother Mongke Khan told him to subdue the people he encountered as he continued all the way to Egypt, being kind to those who submitted and killing or enslaving the rest.
The Mongols took eighteen months crossing Asia as far as Afghanistan.
There and in the mountains of Persia they stopped to conquer the Assassins, an extreme Shiite sect that terrorized neighboring rulers by sending young men on suicide missions to kill them. The young men were drugged with hashish (source of the word “assassin”) and were told that when they died they would immediately go to Paradise, where women and other pleasures awaited.
In no-quarter sieges, Hulagu battered the Assassins out of their mountain fortresses with his heavy weapons, and then destroyed them root and branch.
Later historians agreed that in this, at least, he did the world a favor.
By 1257, Hulagu had reached western Persia.
From there he sent emissaries to the caliph telling him to raze the walls of Baghdad and fill in the moat and come in person to make obeisance to Hulagu.
The caliph replied that with all of Islam ready to defend him, he did not fear.
He advised Hulagu to go back where he came from.
The Mongol army had recently received reinforcements from other Mongol hordes, and a contingent of Christian cavalry from Georgia.
Perhaps the Mongols had eight hundred and fifty thousand soldiers; certainly they had more than a hundred thousand.
In November of 1257, they marched on toward Baghdad, dividing as they approached so that their forces would surround the city. The caliph sent an army to stop those approaching from the west, and repulsed them in an early battle.
In the next encounter, the Mongols broke some dikes and flooded the ground behind the caliph’s army, and slaughtered or drowned them all.
Mustasim, the caliph, was not of a character equal to such large problems. He is described as a weak, vacillating layabout who liked to drink sherbet and keep company with musicians and clowns.
Worse, from a strategic point of view, Mustasim had recently angered the Shiites by various insults and offenses, such as throwing the poem of a famous Shiite poet in the river.
Now vengeful Shiites volunteered help to the Mongols in Mosul and other places along their march.
The caliph’s vizier, or chief minister, was himself a Shiite of uncertain loyalty. Islamic opinion afterward held that the vizier, al-Alkamzi, vilely betrayed the caliph and conspired with the Mongols; an exhortation in Muslim school books used to say, “Let him be cursed of God who curses not al-Alkamzi.”
As fighting began, Hulagu, acknowledging the importance of Shiite support, prudently posted guard detachments of a hundred Mongol horsemen at the most sacred Shiite shrines in Najef and Karbala.
On January 29, 1258, Hulagu’s forces took up a position on the eastern outskirts of Baghdad and began a bombardment.
Soon they had breached the outer wall.
The caliph, who had been advised against escaping by his vizier, offered to negotiate. Hulagu, with the city practically in his hands, refused.
The upshot was that the caliph and his retinue came out of the city, the remainder of his army followed, they laid down their arms, and the Mongols killed almost everybody.
Hulagu told Baghdad’s Christians to stay in a church, which he put off-limits to his soldiers. Then, for a period of seven days, the Mongols sacked the city, killing (depending on the source) two hundred thousand, or eight hundred thousand, or more than a million.
The Mongols’ Georgian Christian allies were said to have particularly distinguished themselves in slaughter.
Plunderers threw away their swords and filled their scabbards with gold. Silver and jewels and gold piled up in great heaps around Hulagu’s tent.
Fire consumed the caliph’s palace, and the smoke from its beams of aloe wood, sandalwood, and ebony filled the air with fragrance for a distance of a hundred li. (A li equalled five hundred bow lengths—a hundred li was maybe thirty miles.)
So many books from Baghdad’s libraries were flung into the Tigris that a horse could walk across on them. The river ran black with scholars’ ink and red with the blood of martyrs.
The stories of what Hulagu did to the caliph vary.
One says that Hulagu toyed with him a while, dining with him and discussing theology and pretending to be his guest. A famous account describes how Hulagu imprisoned the caliph in a roomful of treasure and brought him gold on a tray instead of food. The caliph protested that he could not eat gold, and Hulagu asked him why he hadn’t used his money to strengthen his army and defend against the Mongols. The caliph said, “That was the will of God.” Hulagu replied, “What will happen to you is the will of God, also,” leaving him among the treasure to starve.
Many sources agree that there was fear of an earthquake or other shock to nature occurring if the caliph’s sacred blood was spilled. Learned Shiites advised Hulagu that no catastrophes had followed the bloody deaths of John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, or the Shiite saint Hosein, so he should go ahead.
To be safe, Hulagu had the caliph wrapped in a carpet and then trodden to death by horses.
He also killed all the caliph’s family, except for his youngest son and a daughter. The daughter was shipped off to Mongolia to be a slave in the harem of Mongke Khan.
-The New Yorker
The Mongols took all of 12 days to destroy several centuries worth of cultural, political, and scientific achievements. All was left in ruin…
Hulagu left three thousand Mongols in Baghdad to rebuild it, but they did not accomplish much.
Decades later, it was still mostly a ruin.
Some irrigation systems that the Mongol army destroyed were not repaired until Iraq began to get money from its oil in the twentieth century. Mongols had no real talent for building, anyway.
Plague and famine and disintegration followed the Mongol incursion. Places they conquered sometimes had to be re-subdued.
The city of Mosul, which had submitted almost eagerly to Mongol rule at first, changed its attitude afterward, when a new malik, or prince, came to power there. Under his leadership the inhabitants of Mosul—Kurds, Arabs, and some tribal people—rebelled and forted themselves up behind the city walls, and the Mongols put them under siege.
During one attack, a number of Mongol soldiers climbed over Mosul’s walls, only to be surrounded and killed to a man. The defenders then cut off the Mongols’ heads, put the heads in a catapult, and fired them back at the Mongols outside.
This effrontery brought out Hulagu’s sternest side.
After his forces finally took the city, he ordered the malik to be brought to him. Then he had the malik fastened tightly inside a fresh sheepskin and left in the sun, where vermin ate him alive for a month until he died.
-The New Yorker
Aleppo, 1260.
In 1219 Genghis Khan went to war against the Khwarezm Empire in present-day Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Iran.
The sultan there had agreed to a trade treaty, but when the first caravan arrived its goods were stolen and its merchants were killed.
The sultan then murdered some of Genghis Khan’s ambassadors.
Despite once again being outnumbered, the Mongol horde swept through one Khwarezm city after another, including Bukhara, Samarkand and Urgench.
Skilled workers such as carpenters and jewelers were usually saved, while aristocrats and resisting soldiers were killed. Unskilled workers, meanwhile, were often used as human shields during the next assault.
No one knows with any certainty how many people died during Genghis Khan’s wars, in part because the Mongols propagated their vicious image as a way of spreading terror.
-History.com
The Mongol siege of Aleppo wasn’t all that noteworthy, and the city itself wasn’t all that important to any of the players involved in the Mongol conquest of the caliphate, but Aleppo is today a famous city (notwithstanding former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson’s famous gaffe) for all the wrong reasons.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Aleppo fell to the Mongols in six days, and like most of the Muslim cities that were conquered by the Mongol hordes, Aleppo’s citizens were callously slaughtered.
The Great Mosque of Aleppo, one of the few bright spots in the city’s long, mostly sad history, was also razed. (The Mongol general who led the siege, Hulagu Khan, executed some his local ally’s leaders, who were Christian, for this travesty.)
Bukhara, 1220.
Located along the Silk Road, Bukhara was at the time of the Mongol invasion of Persia a flourishing center of intellectual and commercial activity, and not just throughout Persia but the whole Muslim world.
Scholars, merchants, and mercenaries from Bukhara were famed as far away as China and Germany.
The walls of Bukhara are still standing today.
It is estimated that 30,000 people died after the Mongols conquered Bukhara, a result of most of the city surrendering but not the garrison.
Thirty thousand was a “moderate” number of people to be killed for Bukhara’s equally moderate resistance to the Mongol hordes.
Bukhara is a city found in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. It is located 39.77 latitude and 64.43 longitude and it is situated at elevation 229 meters above sea level.
The Mongol invasion of Persia, which was ruled by the Khwarazmian dynasty at the time, happened just as the empire was emerging from expansionary conquests of its own. This meant that the Khwarazmians, while technically governing Persia, had little actual power in the region, and the resistance to the marauding Mongols highlights Persian weakness well.
Samarkand, 1220.
... his armies moved west and targeted Persia in 1219, where the Sultan had, in an act of extreme foolhardiness, deliberately provoked Genghis by shaving off the beards of two of his ambassadors and killing a third.
Samarkand, that glorious city on the Silk Road, fell in 1220, despite the defenders’ super-weapon of two dozen war elephants.
McLynn dismisses the oft-quoted figure of 50,000 killed there in a single day (note the limited time span), but admits ‘it is clear that the death toll was terrific and unacceptable’.
-Spectator
Samarkand, the makeshift, emergency capital city of the Khwarazmian dynasty, was much larger than Bukhara and much better fortified. (Samarkand, was made a legitimate, non-emergency capital by Tamerlane 150 years after the Mongol siege and conquest.)
The Mongols used prisoners as body shields during the assault, and pulled off a brilliant tactical stunt when they collectively feigned retreat, drawing out the Persian garrison, only to turn on the careless attackers and slaughter them in the open field of battle.
Due to the fame of Samarkand far and wide, Genghis Khan spared the inhabitants of the city but did loot it and conscripted another estimated 60,000 for military service or craftsmanship. This left Samarkand, glorious from the time of Alexander the Great, empty of people and empty of riches.
Lahore, 1241.
Lahore is today the largest city in the Punjabi world, and one of the most important cities in all of Pakistan.
In 1241, when the Mongols laid siege to it for the first time, Lahore had already been abandoned for Delhi by elites who were worried about the unrest caused by the Mongol invasions in neighboring countries.
Lahore is a city found in Punjab, Pakistan. It is located 31.55 latitude and 74.34 longitude and it is situated at elevation 224 meters above sea level.
When Persia fell, for example, some of the Khwarazmian dynasty’s elite fled to Lahore, where they conquered the city and tried to establish a new dynasty.
The locals retook Lahore from the fleeing Persians, but this confusion only weakened the city and by the time the Mongol horde arrived in 1241, Lahore was ripe for the plucking.
The Mongols soon lost the city to yet another reconquest by the locals, but this back-and-forth between the marauding Mongols and the local elites rendered Lahore, once a prominent center of Islamic education and culture, a frontier urban area, fit only for fighting and brusque commerce with non-urban peoples.
Lahore’s frontier status, while bad for this once-prestigious city, enable the Indian subcontinent to largely avoid the fate of China, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.
The Chinese were the most powerful and wealthiest country on the planet in the 1200s. China had the ability to put more soldiers in the field than many other countries had in total population! For a group of less than 70,000 horse archers to conquer such an enormous power without writing, sophisticated siege technology, or a concrete military system like the Chinese had is almost unimaginable. However, Chinese sources were stunned with the speed and efficiency with which the Mongols were able to sweep through their lands.
Genghis Khan Diverted A River Through An Enemy’s Birthplace To Erase It Off The Map
When Genghis Khan found the Muslim kingdom of Khwarezmia, he did
something unusual: He took the peaceful route. A group of diplomats were
sent to the city, hoping to establish a trade route and diplomatic
ties.
The governor of Khwarezmia, though, didn’t trust them. He thought the
diplomats were part of a Mongolian conspiracy and had them executed. He
killed the next group they sent, too.
Genghis Khan was furious. He had tried to be nice, and he’d been repaid with dead diplomats. He set up an army of 200,000 soldiers, attacked, and completely destroyed Khwarezmia.
Genghis Khan was furious. He had tried to be nice, and he’d been
repaid with dead diplomats. He set up an army of 200,000 soldiers,
attacked, and completely destroyed Khwarezmia.
Even after he’d won, Khan sent two armies to burn down every castle,
town, and farm they found to make sure that no hint of Khwarezmia
survived. According to one story, he even diverted a river to run
through the emperor’s birthplace, just to make sure it would never
appear on a map again.
Genghis Khan Erased A Kingdom From History For Not Helping Him
When Genghis Khan attacked Khwarezmia, he asked the conquered kingdom of Xi Xia to send him troops. They refused. Xi Xia tried to take a bold stand against their oppressor, and they quickly regretted it. The Mongolian army swarmed through Xi Xia, destroying everything that they found. They systematically exterminated every member of the population.
The Mongolian army swarmed through Xi Xia, destroying everything that they found. They systematically exterminated every member of the population.
They hadn’t written down their own stories, so the only records of their existence came from neighboring countries. Their language wasn’t recovered for more than 700 years. It took until the mid-20th century for archaeologists to unearth stones that had their writing on them. In the meantime, every word they had spoken was forgotten.
Genghis Khan died during the battle, most likely from being thrown from his horse. Still, the Mongolian army carried out his work. They slaughtered every person they found, even after their leader was dead and their enemy had surrendered.
The Yuan Dynasty
In 1251, Mongke was elected Great Khan and decided to intensify the war with the Song Dynasty.
In 1253, some 100,000 Mongols and their Chinese allies captured Dali and Yunnan and crossed through Laos to attack the Song Empire’s southern flank.
The Mongols clashed with more than 100,000 Song troops and 1,000 war elephants near the Laotian border.
The next year, the Mongols clashed with more than 100,000 Song troops and 1,000 war elephants near the Laotian border. The Mongol horses would not charge the elephants, so the Mongols dismounted and fired flaming arrows to kill or enrage the great animals, which became uncontrollable and randomly killed men on both sides.
The battle degenerated into a chaotic hand-to-hand battle.
Both armies virtually annihilated each other, and the Mongols withdrew into Laos with only 20,000 men.
In 1257, Mongke made the mistake of invading Da Viet (North Vietnam) and lost most of the rest of his men and horses to disease in the intense tropical conditions.
In 1258, Mongke pulled together 300,000 Mongol and Chinese soldiers to face a massive army of over 400,000 Song Chinese troops under General Wang Jian in Sichuan.
In 1259, the two sides met at the Battle of Diaoyucheng. During the battle, Mongke collapsed and died from cholera and dysentery. The battle ended in stalemate, with more than 100,000 dead on both sides, including Wang Jian.
In 1259, the two sides met at the Battle of Diaoyucheng. During the battle, Mongke collapsed and died from cholera and dysentery. The battle ended in stalemate, with more than 100,000 dead on both sides, including Wang Jian.
The new commanding Song general, Jia Sidao, collaborated with Genghis Khan’s grandson, Prince Kublai, and worked out a deal whereby the Song army would occupy Sichuan under Mongol authority.
The Death of Genghis, the Ascension of Ogedei
Despite the overwhelming victories, the Mongols were trapped in a long war of attrition in China.
Rather than finish the conquest of the Jin, Genghis became sidetracked in 1217 in the destruction of Khwarezm (Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan), an Islamic holocaust in which more than a million people were massacred by the Mongols.
During the campaign to conquer Khwarezm, the Mongols brought in thousands of Chinese engineers, siege engines, and crews to help reduce Islamic fortifications.
In 1223, Genghis turned his attention back on the Jin.
He sent a trusted general, Mukhulai, with 100,000 troops to attack Chang’an, which was defended by 200,000 Jin troops. Mukhulai became ill and died. As soon as this happened, the Xi Xia troops abandoned the Mongol army, which in turn caused the siege to be abandoned.
Genghis then hunted down and killed the Xi Xia troops who had deserted his army.
Genghis himself died in 1227, probably from typhus, while planning yet another massive invasion of Jin.
His son, Ogedei, ascended the throne and sent envoys to the Jin, who promptly had them executed. Meanwhile, Subedei was to conduct one last effort to conquer the Jin in 1231. The Jin armies all faced north to prevent Subedei’s 120,000 Mongols from crossing the Yellow River. Subudei sent a general named Tuli with 30,000 Mongols on an arduous journey across the western Chinese mountains of Sichuan and through Song territory into southern Jin territory.
The women of China fared poorly once the Mongol invaders captured a city.
The Jin panicked, thinking the Mongol force was much bigger than it was.
The Jin repositioned the majority of their troops to the south and began pursuing the Mongols with a massive force of over 300,000 men. The Mongols retreated as planned into the Sichuan Mountains as the huge Jin army followed them.
The Mongols fought a tenacious rearguard action with their archers in the rough mountain terrain, killing thousands of pursuing Jin. The Mongols led the Jin higher and deeper into the snow-covered mountains, where additional thousands froze to death or fell off the icy trails.
The Mongols circled back through the mountain passes and destroyed the Jin baggage trains, adding starvation to the woes the Jin troops were already enduring.
Once Subedei had the main Jin army trapped in the mountains of Sichuan, he moved his 120,000 Mongols across the Yellow River against the much smaller Jin forces.
The Jin belatedly realized their mistake and began desperately trying to get their main army out of the mountains to defend the capital.
The Jin retreat turned into a rout as Tuli’s and Subedei’s forces massacred the entire Jin army without mercy on the open ground within sight of Kaifeng.
A Five-Year Siege of the twin fortress cities of Xiangyang and Fancheng.
In 1265, a Chinese allied naval force destroyed 100 Song ships in a river battle, and Mongol troops defeated the isolated Song army to regain control of part of Sichuan.
The key to conquering the Song was capturing the twin fortress cities of Xiangyang and Fancheng.
Both cities had thick walls with wide moats protecting the convergence of the Han and Yellow Rivers.
The city walls of Xiangyang today.
In 1268, the Mongols built fortifications downriver from Xiangyang on the Han River to cut off resupply of the city by ship. Never the less, most Song ships were able to run by the Mongol forts and resupply Xiangyang and Fancheng.
Chinese ships allied with the Mongols were brought in to block the passage between the Mongol forts. More than 20 miles of siege lines were built around Xiangyang and Fancheng on both sides of the Han River.
Tourists visit the Urn City which is fenced by old city walls in Xiangyang, central China’s Hubei Province, March 21, 2013. Xiangyang, a prefecture-level city in central China’s Hubei Province, has a history of over 2,000 years. It was the location of major battles during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280 A.D.) and the Southern Song period (1127-1279 A.D.). The city is well-known for its city wall, which is very old but reserved well. To better develop its tourism as well as to protect its historical relics, the local government has poured hundreds of millions of yuan to restore the Three Kingdom remains since 2006.
The Mongols and their Chinese engineers set up trebuchets and began firing incendiary clay bombs and exploding biochemical projectiles they had learned from the Jin at the siege of Beijing in 1215.
The Song fired incendiary bombs and biochemical projectiles at the Mongols as well, causing great destruction and loss of life on both sides. The Mongols had to pull back after their wooden siege walls and trebuchets caught fire from the bombardments, leaving the Mongols with no cover, while the Song defenders took shelter behind the twin cities’ stout rock and masonry walls.
The fortification of the city of Xi’an, the ancient capital of Shaanxi province, in the center of the Guanzhong Plain, represents one of the oldest and best preserved Chinese city walls. The wall was built in the 14th century by Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, under the advice of a hermit who told him to “built high walls, store abundant food supplies and take time to be an Emperor,” so that he could fortify the city and unify the other states. After the establishment of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang followed his advice and began to enlarge the wall built initially during the old Tang Dynasty (618 – 907), creating the modern Xian City Wall. It’s the most complete city wall that has survived in China, as well being one of the largest ancient military defensive systems in the world.
In 1269, Kublai Khan sent another 20,000 troops to replace those in the previous year’s fighting. More than 3,000 Song ships attacked the Mongol forts on the Han River in an effort to break the blockade, but 500 ships were sunk by Kublai Khan’s brilliant admiral Liu Cheng, who had defected to the Mongols.
Mongol and Chinese troops clambered aboard the Song vessels and beheaded hundreds of Song soldiers and sailors.
The besieged Song tried several unsuccessful attempts to break out but were defeated each time with thousands of casualties.
In 1271, 100 Song ships successfully broke through a boom across the Han River to bring 3,000 soldiers and much-needed supplies to reinforce Xiangyang.
The original Xi’an city wall was started in 194 BCE and took 4 years to finish. Upon completion, the wall measured 25.7 km in length and 12–16 m in thickness at the base, and enclosed an area of 36 square km. The first city wall was built of earth, quick lime, and glutinous rice extract, tamped together. Later, the wall was totally enclosed with bricks. Xi’an’s city wall, after its enlargement in the Ming Dynasty, stands 12 meters high. It is 12-14 meters across the top, 15-18 meters thick at bottom, and 13.7 kilometers in length and encircles an area of roughly 14 square kilometers within the city. There is a rampart every 120 meters that extend out from the main wall and allow soldiers to see enemies trying to climb the wall. The distance between every two ramparts is just within the range of arrow shot from either side.
The siege dragged on with no real advantage for either side until Kublai Khan decided to send a Muslim engineer captured during the siege of Baghdad to China to build a giant 40-ton trebuchet that could hurl 220-pound projectiles more than 600 feet to breach the cities’ walls.
After a few days, a breach was opened and Mongol troops stormed through to meet the Chinese defenders.
For days, men fought and died in the vicious battle at the breach.
There are four main gates on the wall, which were the only way to go into and out of town in ancient times. Each gate is overlooked by sentries on three towers. A wide moat ran around the city. Over the moat, there used to be huge drawbridges, which would cut off the way in and out of the city, once lifted.
The Song were able to throw more soldiers into Fancheng to defend the breach from a pontoon bridge that connected Xiangyang across the Han River.
The Mongols called off the assault on the breach and used their giant trebuchet to widen the breach and destroy the pontoon bridge. Incendiary bombs fired from the trebuchet struck the bridge and consumed it.
With Fancheng cut off from reinforcements, the Mongols assaulted the widened breach. The disheartened defenders held on for several hours before resistance broke and the Mongols poured into the city and began massacring the inhabitants.
The Mongols took the last 3,000 Song soldiers and 7,000 inhabitants to the walls facing Xiangyang and in full view slit the prisoners’ throats and threw them off the wall.
The Mongols took the last 3,000 Song soldiers and 7,000 inhabitants to the walls facing Xiangyang and in full view slit the prisoners’ throats and threw them off the wall.
The Mongols then dismantled their giant trebuchet and repositioned it across the river facing Xiangyang. The first shot from the trebuchet forced a tower to collapse in a great crash as the Song inhabitants screamed in terror.
Kublai Khan offered to spare the inhabitants and to reward the Song commander if he would surrender the city.
Xiangyang was surrendered and the Song heartland was open to the Mongols. The siege had lasted from 1268 to 1273.
The impregnable fortress of Yang-lo.
In 1274, the Mongols headed down the Han River, bypassing Song fortresses and emerging onto the flood plains of the Yangtze River. The Mongols now faced the impregnable fortress of Yang-lo.
The Mongols sacrificed several thousand Chinese troops on a frontal attack on Yang-lo while most of the Mongol army, carrying a number of ships, bypassed the fort and crossed the river upstream.
In 1274, the Mongols headed down the Han River, bypassing Song fortresses and emerging onto the flood plains of the Yangtze River. The Mongols now faced the impregnable fortress of Yang-lo.
Then the Mongol and Chinese fleet came down the Yangtze and attacked the Song fleet from both front and behind. The Song boats were packed so close together on the river that incendiary bombs fired from Mongol catapults set much of the Song fleet on fire.
Thousands perished in the flames.
Fortress Yang-lo and the 100,000 cut-off Song troops surrendered the next day.
Genghis Khan Exterminated 1.7 Million People To Avenge One Person
The marriages might have been strategic alliances, but that didn’t
mean there wasn’t any love involved. One of Genghis Khan’s daughters
loved her husband, a man name Toquchar. Genghis Khan loved him, too, as
his favorite son-in-law.
When Toquchar was killed by an archer from Nishapur, his wife demanded vengeance.
Genghis Khan’s troops attacked Nishapur and slaughtered every person
there. By some estimates, 1,748,000 people were killed. Other historians
dispute that number, but there’s no doubt that his armies killed
everyone they found.
Women, children, babies, and even dogs and cats were tracked down and murdered.
Then they were beheaded, and their skulls were piled into pyramids—a request by Genghis Khan’s daughter to ensure that no one got away with a simple wounding.
Acts of Desperation
In 1275, Jia Sidao set out from the capital of Hangzhou at the head of 100,000 Song troops and another fleet of 2,500 ships in a last-ditch effort to stop the Mongol juggernaut.
Jia Sidao quote.
A massive cavalry and infantry battle took place on both sides of the river. The Mongols and their Chinese allies pushed back the Song army and boarded their ships from both ends of the river, beheading thousands of Song troops and capturing 2,000 ships.
It was another overwhelming victory for the Mongols.
Jia Sidao quote.
Jia Sidao was later assassinated by a Song officer.
Jia Sidao quote.
On February 21, 1276, the boy emperor Zhao Xian came out of Hangzhou, bowed toward the north in obeisance to Kublai Khan, and turned over the capital and the rest of the Song Empire to the Mongols.
The Mongol conquest of China had taken 74 years and claimed the lives of as many as 25 million Chinese from war, plague, and famine.
As much as Mongolians love Genghis Khan, Iranians hate him. And there is a legit reason for that. The Khwarazmian Empire was located in the territory of Iran, and it was a very powerful dynasty up until the Mongol Empire invaded it.
In just a few years, the Mongols with Genghis Khan ahead of them, entirely destroyed and conquered the Khwarazmian Empire. Scholars estimate that during the wars, Genghis Khan butchered around 3/4 of the Iranians. That is one of the biggest genocides in history, and estimations show that the population of Iranians only reached its pre-Mongols level in the mid-20th century.
Oh yes, it took Iranians 700 years to heal their deep wounds left by Genghis Khan. Even today, Iranians have a saying "it's as if the Mongols have attacked," which means that something chaotic and brutal has happened. Thanks to Genghis Khan, Iranians will never forgive Mongols their crimes.
-The Richest
Ramifications
The ramifications of the Mongol conquest of China were felt for some time. The Ming, who overthrew the Mongols in 1368, became obsessed with improving and lengthening the Great Wall to close to 5,000 miles (including walls that backed up walls) to prevent another Mongol invasion of China.
This was the ancient version of The Maginot Line. A very costly and enormous albatross.
The Great Wall as it existed from the time of the Ming Dynasty was an expensive reaction to the Mongol conquest of China. In the end, the improved Great Wall did not save China.
In 1644, a Mongol-like nation, the Manchu, conquered China and ruled the unhappy nation until 1911.
Re-population of conquered lands.
The Mongols completely repopulated Asia in their own image.
Incursions into Southeast Asia were largely successful, most factions agreed to pay tribute, and only the Invasions into Vietnam and Java failed.
Europe was devastated by the Mongols. They destroyed near enough every major Russian city, and invaded Volga Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Poland, and Hungary. If rumours spread that the Mongols were coming, then it would cause a mass panic, and some would run to safety.
There was no guaranteed way to defeat the Mongol hordes, they continuously defeated much larger armies, so numerical strength couldn’t protect you.
Mongol conquests would leave once populous and flourishing areas as wastelands, with little to no people, those remaining would be slaves.
-ESKify
They used their abilities, and fear of the meek, to seize control.
The Mongol were masterful at spreading fear and hate throughout Asia, people feared them, and therefore hated them.
They would rape and pillage entire villages, and torture their victims for fun. Nobles would get it the worst. Spilling noble blood was considered a crime, so they simply crushed them to death, which took many hours.
Mongols would literally dine on top of them, making merry to the sounds of their screams from underneath. The sounds of bodies squelching, and bones snapping didn’t faze them.
But rumours of this execution method struck terror. Fear made them powerful, as people often chose to surrender and pay tribute rather than risk fighting them.
-ESKify
Women, gold, horses, and other objects were considered spoils of war, which meant soldiers got to do pretty much whatever they wanted to do with them. Now, you don’t have to stretch your imagination too much to figure out what that means.
Do you?
Women, gold, horses, and other objects were considered spoils of war, which meant soldiers got to do pretty much whatever they wanted to do with them.
Amassing large harems was an important occupation of the khans. Genghis Khan was said to have had five hundred wives and concubines. When the Mongols overran a place, their captains took some of the women and passed along the more beautiful ones to their superiors, who passed the more beautiful to their superiors, and so on all the way to the khan, who could choose among the pulchritude of a continent. Genghis Khan had scores of children, as did other khans and nobles descended from him for centuries in the Genghis Khanite line.
Recently, a geneticist at Oxford University, Dr. Chris Tyler-Smith, and geneticists from China and central Asia took blood samples from populations living in regions near the former Mongol empire, and they studied the Y chromosomes. These are useful in establishing lineage because Y chromosomes continue from father to son. Dr. Tyler-Smith and his colleagues found that an anomalously large number of the Y chromosomes carried a genetic signature indicating descent from a single common ancestor about a thousand years ago. The scientists theorized that the ancestor was Genghis Khan (or, more exactly, an eleventh-century ancestor of Genghis Khan). About eight per cent of all males in the region studied, or sixteen million men, possess this chromosome signature. That’s a half per cent of the world’s entire male population. It is possible, therefore, that more than thirty-two million people in the world today are descended from Genghis Khan.
-The New Yorker
On the other hand, if you were lucky enough to be super-extra
beautiful, you could be forcibly entered into one of Genghis Khan’s
weird beauty pageants.
Genghis Khan had so much power that he could do whatever he wanted. For instance, when Genghis occupied some new area, he would kill or enslave all the men and share all the women amongst his tribe.
Genghis Khan would even make beauty contests of captured women to decide which woman is the most beautiful one. Yeah, he was having his Miss Universe competition before it was cool.
So, the queen of those beauty competitions would win the privilege to become one of many Genghis Khan's women. Rest of the Mongolian army would share all the other contestants.
-The Richest
According to Ancient Origins, once Genghis’ soldiers were done with the pillaging and the abusing, they brought Genghis himself the most beautiful women they’d encountered.
I’m sure that Genghis appreciated the sentiment.
Girls in Mongolia seem to be a mystery to all but those who have visited these rare lands. These unique girls offer Asian features with larger bodies than most expect.
I was baffled by the women I encountered in Mongolia.
I’d never seen such tall, curvy Asians (well, Indonesian girls are curvy) in all of my travels throughout the region. There was truly something different about the Mongolian girls.
After meeting, greeting, and mating with some of these fine specimens, it finally clicked – these gals were direct descendants of Genghis Khan. I was balls deep in warrior genes, and I can’t lie – the thought of having myself a warrior-blooded baby certainly went through my mind.
-Life around Asia
These women alone would be spared from the antics of the conquering
army so they could be paraded in front of the man himself. The winner
got the honor of becoming one of Genghis Khan’s many wives, which was
probably preferable to ending up as the loser, though Ancient Origins
doesn’t say what happened to them.
First and foremost, these girls were definitely Asian. Their features were dainty and stunning. However, Mongolian girls did not remind me of Thai girls or Indonesian girls much. They seemed to have a unique mixture to them.
I’d say many of the girls looked maybe 75% Asian with a mixture of Slavic genes, too.
It was incredibly unique and quite sexy. Some guys said they weren’t too into the look, but I loved it! Think a girl who is 2/3rds Asian and a third Russian. How could that not be sexy?!
-Life around Asia
Modern Mongolian beauty.
Evidently, though, women who Genghis deemed not to be up to his
standards of beauty were sent off with the soldiers to be abused and
then discarded. So yeah, great to be a woman in peacetime Mongolia but
when Genghis comes to town you might just want to emigrate to China.
0.5 Percent of all men alive today are believed to have a genetic relation with Genghis Khan. It is estimated that his descendants are 8 percent of men in Asia.
-My Interesting Facts
The fate of the civilians.
Although Genghis Khan restricted the use of torture, Mongol executions were often extremely grisly.
When Guyuk Khan suspected that the powerful courtier Fatima had poisoned his brother, Guyuk had her tortured into confessing before “her upper and lower orifices were sewn up and she was rolled up in a sheet of felt and thrown into the river.”
The Mongols traditionally had a taboo against shedding royal blood, so another favorite method of execution was crushing.
Although Genghis Khan restricted the use of torture, Mongol executions were often extremely grisly.
The Abbasid Caliph al-Musta’sim was rolled up in a carpet and trampled to death by stampeding horses.
After the Battle of the Kalka River, captured Russian princes were shoved under some floorboards and crushed as the Mongols held their victory feast on top of them.
Genghis himself ordered that a captured Tangut ruler be renamed Shidurqu (“Loyal”) before he was crushed, so that his spirit would be forced to serve the Mongols in the afterlife.
He was lucky compared to the Persian noble who was covered in sheep fat, wrapped in felt, and left tied up in the hot sun to meet his fate.
Genghis Khan’s Legacy
Perhaps the greatest legacy a conqueror can leave is his progeny.
Genghis Khan wasn’t an especially gracious winner — after he was
done with the conquering, he enjoyed abducting his enemies’ wives and
either romancing them or brutalizing them, depending on how cool they
were with being abducted by Genghis Khan.
Mongolian
girls are smart, beautiful, stacked, and feisty. They also can drink
you under the table. They are warriors from warrior stock.
In fact in one of his most famous quotes he waxed poetic about the joys of the post-conquering aftermath:
"The greatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies and chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth and see those dear to them bathed in tears, to ride their horses and clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters."
Nice guy, that Genghis.
He wasn’t always content to romance just one woman at a time, either.
According to Ancient Origins, his army commanders were all super-impressed with his manliness because he frequently spent his evenings with multiple women. I mean, that was his role; to repopulate the conquered (now depopulated) lands in his image (literally).
While broad shoulders aren’t exactly a good trait on women, the women in Mongolia didn’t get the short end of the stick in other ways.
In fact, I found some of the biggest Asian tits in the world to be in Mongolia. It was fantastic for me, as I’m a boobs man!
There are a number of rain-thin Mongolian girls that have big, natural racks. I was thoroughly impressed. In fact, outside of Indonesia, I haven’t seen bigger tits in an Asian country. The asses here aren’t as amazing as the boobs, but there still above average for Asia.
-Life around Asia
If
you were the first wife, you basically inherited everything and became
head of the household. After that you got to live pretty much
autonomously and independently, which is not something that was
especially common around the world during that time period.
A stronger genetic pool…
He wasn’t that into birth control, either, in fact by modern estimates Genghis Khan has roughly 16 million descendants.
Now, the study that put forth this hypothesis can’t actually prove that
the individual they identified is Genghis Khan, since no one knows
where the Mongol leader is buried and therefore they can’t recover any
of his DNA.
But this person lived roughly 1,000 years ago in the Mongol Empire
and must have had access to a lot of women, and there really aren’t
that many people from history that fit that description, so the
assumption is pretty sound.
Modern
Mongolian women are quite amazing and if you fall in love with them, be
prepared to give them everything. They are traditional and conservative
and expect the man to give them 100% of what he has. They will accept
no less.
When we look at what Genghis Khan achieved with the Mongol Empire, we cannot help but appreciate his mastermind as a warlord. It surely looks like Genghis Khan had three dragons with him just like Khaleesi.
I cannot find any other explanation of Genghis Khan's success. I mean, he defeated Jin Dynasty's one million troops with only 90,000 Mongolians by his side.
Yes, Genghis Khan managed to win a war with ten times fewer troops than his opponent's army. On top of that, he was invading China, so he had to overcome all the "little" problems such as the Great Wall of China. Genghis Khan with his army had destroyed over 500,000 of Chinese troop before getting control of Northern China and Beijing.
The rest of the Chinese army had to surrender to the power of Genghis Khan. Destroying Jin Dynasty is only one of many examples of how great of a warlord Genghis Khan was. Also, he had some brutal and loyal men by his side, and let’s not rule out the dragon theory.
-The Richest
Anyways, ol’ Genghis Khan was quite the fellow, and he really wanted
to make good in the (now decimated) lands that he conquered. Because of
this, and the history of his people, the women of Mongolia are what they
are today.
I am an American Structural Engineer and spent approximately 1-1/2 years working in Mongolia, and living in UB. I have since moved on to another project in Cape Town, SA, however wanted to comment on perhaps the most accurate article I have read in relation to Mongolian women.
I have additionally worked in several other Asian counties to include Singapore, Hong Kong, China, etc. I hope that you will agree that you cannot even “basically” compare the contemporary Mongolian woman to any other Asians.
BTW, forget the “Asian Height Charts by Country” seen all over the internet – not even close. For example, China, S. Korean and even Japanese women are calculated taller in stature than Mongolian ladies – Not eve close!
When I strolled through Sukhbaatar Square on warm days, it was not uncommon for me to see several Mongolian women 5′7″, 5′8″ even up to 5′10″. What stands out just as much, is that these ladies have shapes and many pronounced bust-lines; mainly due to diet (meat/dairy).
They appear physically to be much stronger built than other Asians. The best way I can explain it, Mongolian women have physical shapes closer to Russian women than they do other Asians.
Another distinguishing factor, many Chinese, Japanese women have very small hands and feet – not Mongolian women who have larger hands/feet. Consider this, for a country of just over 3 million people, Nearly 50% of all top Asian fashion models are from Mongolia.
Battsetseg Turbat for example has been in many famous American commercials to include Budweiser and Apple. This is what surprised me most when I first stepped off the plane upon my arrival to UB. Mongolian women’s height can be deceiving when viewing online photos – the reason is that they have voluptuous shapes to accompany their height.
An additional quality is personality. Mongolian women have big personalities, laugh loudly and not afraid to approach someone they may wish to meet. Additionally, Mongolian women when affronted, do not shy away as do other Asians, however will meet the confrontation head-on 100%. What I have also noticed, when in other parts of Asia, women will almost always give way when an American woman is walking down the sidewalk toward them.
Not in UB – A Mongolian woman will expect the American woman to step aside most every time.
In relation to toughness, Mongolia are second to none.
In fact, Mongolian women have very little respect for American women, thinking them soft and spoiled (their words not mine).
All Mongolian women are excellent horsemen, whether raised in the Ger District or city. They are like the land they inhabit, resilient and everlasting.
I remember taking a walk around Sukhbaatar Square with a Mongolian lady I befriended to just enjoy the day . It was in November last year and nearly freezing. I remember she was wearing heels, barely covered up and seemed fine. I was layered to the hilt, still shivering although looked like the Michelin tire man with all my garb.
She must have noticed I was freezing as suggested we walk to Millie’s Espresso to have lunch, drink something warm and relax. These women impressed me as they were able to balance their hardiness with their femininity.
You are correct, there is a slight mix of Slav in most Mongolian ladies, however, does not distract from their Asian appearance. I do not know if I will ever return to Mongolia, however, the Mongolian ladies will have my respect and admiration for life.
-Life Around Asia
Conclusion
We can learn a lot from the terrors of the past.
Genghis Khan devastated urban areas, cities, towns and villages and laid waste to entire swaths of land. This mass devastation would continue in other ways at other times. Whether it is the plagues that devastated Europe, or the World Wars that followed afterwards, entire well-established civilizations completely collapsed and the survivors had to pick up the pieces and start all over again.
Genghis Khan devastated urban areas, cities, towns and villages and laid waste to entire swaths of land. This mass devastation would continue in other ways at other times.
In the case of many human-wrought changes, it is a situation where a strong and powerful person becomes a leader and assimilates (often violently) other weaker communities. It’s human nature.
It’s the human condition.
Human nature is such that communities form, thrive, expand, get lazy and then collapse. Other humans, often more skilled, with abilities, and positions through merit exploit the vulnerabilities of the older community.
Human nature is such that communities form, thrive, expand, get lazy and then collapse. Other humans, often more skilled, with abilities, and positions through merit exploit the vulnerabilities of the older community.
This event is often very uncomfortable and often results in open warfare, with the NEWEST and MOST DANGEROUS WEAPONS of the time.
America is not afraid of the consequences of using Nuclear Weapons. They do not think that any nation would use nuclear weapons in retaliation. Nor do they believe that American cities might be affected. They are living in a dangerous and crazy illusion.
They WILL be used.
This event is often very uncomfortable and often results in open warfare, with the NEWEST and MOST DANGEROUS WEAPONS of the time.
The strife might take different forms and last for a period of time, but in all cases… the human group managed through merit and ability will overcome the civilization that has become complaisant, lazy and slothful.
The human group managed through merit and ability will overcome the civilization that has become complaisant, lazy and slothful. They take over and use the strongest and most powerful weapons available.
I used the Mongol takeover of Asia as an example, but the fall of America will be on a similar scale. It will not be sudden. It will not be uniform and homogeneous. But it will eventually be complete and the changes will be stunning.
I used the Mongol takeover of Asia as an example, but the fall of America will be on a similar scale. It will not be sudden. It will not be uniform and homogeneous. But it will eventually be complete and the changes will be stunning.
The world of the weak, corrupted, and confused will be purged, and a new world will manifest.
It will be reshaped by the strong.
It will be reshaped using the modern technologies of the time.
Human nature is such that communities form, thrive, expand, get lazy and then collapse. Other humans, often more skilled, with abilities, and positions through merit exploit the vulnerabilities of the older community.
To understand our future, you must understand our past.
And NEVER, ever think that the unthinkable could never happen. You will often be surprised with how evil, out of touch, or selfish humans can become. It is our very nature.
And NEVER, ever think that the unthinkable could never happen. You will often be surprised with how evil, out of touch, or selfish humans can become. It is our very nature.
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Here we look at the protests in Hong Kong and who is funding and training them. For they are using sophisticated urban combat techniques, as well as creating very sophisticated bombs, and handmade weapons. Obviously, some agent wants this group to cause damage and trouble in Hong Kong.
Who are they, and who funds them?
I pretty much sat down and wrote most of this after reading the onslaught of negative news reporting out of the USA after the Senate passed an anti-China resolution regarding HK and American businesses operating inside of China.
U.S. Senate Passes Hong Kong Democracy Bill, Drawing …
I don't like lies and characterizations in general, but this affects me personally, and it thus pisses me off.
To quote Q;
Control of narrative = control of public opinion
Control of public opinion = power
How do you control the narrative?
Information warfare.
Q
Well for starters, for the most part, the most radical instigators are not Hong Kong citizens. The instigators are NOT the “figureheads”, they are educated agitators, with knowledge in urban warfare, and close combat strategies.
Those “leaders”, “trainers” and “agitators” that have been captured by police are neither students, nor (in most cases) Hong Kong residents. While the vast bulk of the protestors are indeed, HK residents, their leadership is not.
What’s going on?
The demonstrations in Hong Kong, now an open confrontation with the People’s Republic of China, have a global impact. So, as such, what are the forces behind this movement? Who provides the funds and who stands to benefit?
Who?
Protests in Hong Kong routinely carry the US flag and photos of Donald Trump.
The increasingly violent demonstrations in Hong Kong are completely embraced and enthusiastically supported by the United States government, including Donald Trump, the US Congress and the Senate. The American news media is having a near feeding frenzy over all this news, and the U.S. corporate media is eating it all up.
This should be a danger sign to everyone fighting for change and for social progress. U.S. imperialism is never disinterested or neutral. It’s always for a objective.
The protesters now use the same violent methods that were used in the Maidan protests in the Ukraine. The U.S. seems to hope that China will intervene and create a second Tianamen scene.
That U.S. color revolution attempt failed but was an excellent instrument to demonize China.
A repeat in Hong Kong would allow the U.S. to declare a "clash of civilization" and increase 'western' hostility against China. But while China is prepared to intervene it is unlikely to do the U.S. that favor. Its government expressed confidence that the local authorities will be able to handle the issue.
-Moon Over Alabama
That objective is almost always to institute a “puppet government” taking the form of a dictatorship under the disguise of “fighting for democracy”. It’s a model that has worked for many decades, and should be so well known by now to everyone…
The Vietnam war was for democracy.
The Kuwait war was for democracy.
The Iraq war was for democracy.
The Grenada war was for democracy.
The Panama war was for democracy.
The Libyan war was for democracy.
The Yemen war was for democracy.
Now, the war drums are for what? Democracy?
A war in Hong Kong for democracy…
Only this time it isn’t against a long tiny third-world back-water nation. It will not be Libya, Yemen, Syria, or Grenada. This would be a war against China, on Chinese soil.
And China will fight back…
…in a nuclear fashion.
Why does China want Hong Kong?
Well, Hong Kong was always a part of China. The English seized the city during the Opium Wars, as part of a treaty that put an end to one of the steps of English aggression against China. Even then, the English only got a 99 year lease. That expired towards the end of the 20th century.
China was of course happy to see a part of their country that had been stolen by the English returned to them.
Can't really think of an example where the USA has had a portion of its nation stolen from them, but it isn't hard to imagine that they'd want it back. They were certainly willing to kill a lot of people just to get back a part of America that seceded and tried to tell the Yankees that they weren't all that into them anyways.
-Posted by: Who Dat | Aug 14 2019 15:51 utc | MOA
And make no mistake about it, parsing the details to confuse Americans will not work on the global audience. You would be dealing against a nuclear-armed global super-power. How do you seriously think it’s going to pan out? Are you willing to engage in nuclear war with Russia and China simultaneously? Because, that’s what’s going to happen…
And make no mistake about this either, China (even if alone) is no slouch in the ICBM, MIRV nuclear arena. They would “kick some ass” and have enough left over…
For decades, the United States has taken China’s ballistic missile capability for granted, assessing it as a low-capability force with limited regional impact and virtually no strategic value. But on October 1, during a massive military parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Beijing put the U.S., and the world, on notice that this assessment was no longer valid.
In one fell swoop, China may have nullified America’s strategic nuclear deterrent, the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and U.S. missile defense capability. Through its impressive display of new weapons systems, China has underscored the reality that while the United States has spent the last two decades squandering trillions of dollars fighting insurgents in the Middle East, Beijing was singularly focused on overcoming American military superiority in the Pacific. If the capabilities of these new weapons are taken at face value, China will have succeeded on this front.
Nothing is what it appears. It’s all manipulations and lies to mask the true purposes.
Those that want confrontation with Beijing are delusional, and you are, in a few short years, going to pay the price of their idiocy.
The official statement of the Chinese Embassy in the Russian Federation regarding the events in Hong Kong (in Russian).
The words at the end of the statement are very revealing, given the recent intentional provocations and riots of a bunch of marginals (aka "Russian liberal opposition") in Moscow:
A comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction have been established between China and the Russian Federation in a new era. Both countries have been unjustly charged for their level of freedom, democracy, and human rights. We are confident that we will meet the same attitude among the general public of the Russian Federation on the issues of Xiangang. We are confident in the understanding by the Russians of the determination and perseverance of China in protecting state prestige and sovereignty.
- Posted by: alaff | Aug 14 2019 16:23 utc | MoA
Manipulation in Hong Kong
One of the most significant examples of US aggression against China is the instigation of a color protest or color revolution in Hong Kong. The aim is to provoke China into reacting harshly and violently, which would reinforce the Western perception that China is heavy-handed, tyrannical and totalitarian. China has already moved troops to its southern mainland border, just across the water from Hong Kong. It is possible that another US objective is to push the protestors into declaring Hong Kong independent of China. There are some who say the Hong Kong protests are a grassroots affair. There is usually a grassroots element to many of these protests, but almost always the bigger factor in the shadows is US interference (or US-UK, or US-UK-Israeli, interference). Here is a very telling comment about the Hong Kong protests found under the article Violent Protests In Hong Kong Reach Their Last Stage on the MoonOfAlabama.org website.“The Extradition Law revision that started this was only a convenient proxy for those wanting chaos in HK to create chaos. The instigators behind the initial protest march are the same ones who started Occupy Central five years ago. They are the ones who huddle with operatives from US/UK Consulates, who travelled to the Washington/London/Brussel/Taipei, etc. to see politicians and plot strategies, to arrange for funding, and to recruit dare devils for the carnage. Lucky for them that HK was ripe for such shenanigans because HKers in general are sullen over their loss of superiority complex against mainland Chinese, brainwashed subconsciously through schools and churches about CCP wickedness, and desperately stressed under HK’s economic realities. Most of the protesters don’t even know what the Extradition Law is all about …”“The instigators, however, are well versed in all the intricacies. They know who they can easily recruit and order to do violence … they know the fifth column within the government and business … If large casualties result what do they care? … [T]hey know their foreign backers are only too glad to see Chinese killing Chinese …”“By the way, the US Consulate in HK has over 1,000 on payroll (an estimated 200 CIA agents), UK’s is over 500 (among them MI6 agents). That size of consulate in a city of less than 400 sq. miles of land (over half of which mountainous) is a laughable anomaly, wouldn’t you think? What are they all there for?”
-The Freedom Articles
The disruptive actions involve helmeted and masked protesters using gasoline bombs, flaming bricks, arson and steel bars, random attacks on buses, and airport and mass transit shutdowns.
HK protestors are set on burning down the entire city.
Among the most provocative acts was an organized break-in at the Hong Kong legislature where “activists” vandalized the building and hung the British Union Jack flag. As well as burning down a university campus.
U.S., British and Hong Kong’s colonial flags are prominent in these
confrontations, along with defaced flags and other symbols of People’s
China.
A man inspects a Bestmart store which was vandalised during Sunday’s anti-government protest in Hong Kong, China, October 21, 2019. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
The New York Times described the airport shutdown:
“The protests at the airport have been deeply tactical, as the largely leaderless movement strikes at a vital economic artery. Hong Kong International Airport, which opened in 1998, the year after China reclaimed the territory from Britain, serves as a gateway to the rest of Asia. Sleek and well run, the airport accommodates nearly 75 million passengers a year and handles more than 5.1 million metric tons of cargo.” (Aug. 14)
U.S. media have consistently labeled these violent actions “pro-democracy.”
But are they?
HK protestors are set on burning down the entire city.
Even if the leaders of these reactionary actions decide to pull back from the brink and re-calibrate their tactics, there is pause for concern. For based on the Chinese government’s unequivocally strong warnings, it is important to understand a movement that has such strong U.S. support.
The protestors want “freedom”
This is a rally cry that evokes strong emotions with Americans.
Though it shouldn’t. Most Americans haven’t tasted freedom for at least one hundred years, and have no concept of what it actually is.
The cognitive dissonance has been overwhelming these past months. "Pro-democracy protesters" who use black bloc tactics of arson and vandalism. "Students yearning for freedom" who organize Molotov cocktail factories. Complaints of excessive "police brutality" when by objective international standards the police were remarkably constrained.
"Hong Kong is a repressive police state" says Joshua Wong, and yet it is consistently near the top of the list in the Cato Institute world freedom index.
The protesters are "fighting for democracy" even though Hong Kong is democratic, and demand a "universal suffrage" that in practice very few jurisdictions, least of all their beloved US/UK, enjoy.
Add a dollop of uninformed virtue-signalling from the usual clueless western cheerleaders, and it has been a festival of delusion which somehow ends with the image of a petrol-bomb-wielding black bloc protester as the new face of "freedom" (as seen on twitter).
-Posted by: jayc | Nov 22 2019 21:14 utc | 19
People, freedom is being able to drink booze, and smoke, and plop your dog Fido next to you in a public restaurant. It means that you can ride in a car without a seat-belt, drink large size coke’s and have sunny-side up eggs whenever you want. It means that you can hunt and fish without a permit, and buy most medicines without a prescription.
America had freedoms, but when FDR and Wilson removed the SCOUS defense of the ninth amendment, American became a nice, safe, gulag.
Today, most Americans can only have small brief glimpses on what freedom used to be like…
The Fitzgeralds arrived in New York in the early autumn of 1922—after a rocky start working as an ad man in his bachelor days, Scott was finally making headway as a celebrated author. They checked into the Plaza and began partying, not even sobering up to go house hunting, but then what was the point, they weren’t going to be sober while they lived there. Zelda was an incorrigible flirt when drunk and she also had a habit of taking her clothes off and dancing naked in fountains or parading down railway tracks. Scott, although less of an exhibitionist, was equally out of control. In December of the same year the couple’s ‘house rules’ for weekend guests at their home in Great Neck, Long Island included a polite directive “not to break down doors in search of liquor, even when authorized to do so by their host and hostess,” and warned that “the invitation to stay over Monday, issued by the host and hostess during the small hours of Sunday morning, must not be taken seriously.”
They needed the occasional sober Monday, if only to write the letters of apology they constantly had to send excusing their drunken antics and bad behavior, but in many ways the Fitzgeralds could do no wrong. They were young, beautiful—Dorothy Parker described them as looking “as though they had stepped out of the sun”—and fast. In a complex case of life imitating art, and vice versa, they both typified and immortalized the Jazz Age—their extravagant lifestyle funded by the handsome payments Scott received from the magazines that published his flapper fictions and the publishers who bought his novels.
So, I find it very curious, and you the reader should as well, that a nation-state that is #1 in personal and economic freedom would want to be more like a nation that is #25 at best in the same category.
For the past 25 years, including this year, Hong Kong has been ranked No. 1 in the Heritage Foundation’s list of countries with the “greatest economic freedom”—meaning the least restraints on capitalist profit taking.
Why do the HK protestors want less democracy and freedom? The answer is that this is not really their goal. It is instead the mechanism from which they can instigate disruptions.
Hong Kong’s ranking is based on low taxes and light regulations, the strongest property rights and business freedom, and “openness to global commerce and vibrant entrepreneurial climate … no restrictions on foreign banks.”
That has not changed. No where has the mainland placed new laws, regulations or changes to that model of governance. When the HK local government wanted to open up extradition to other nations, the protests erupted, and the government backed down.
So what the heck is going on? The protestors are not asking for more. They are demanding less.
WTF?
China has a right to intervene
It must be strongly stated that China is not invading Hong Kong if it
moves against these violent disruptions. Hong Kong is part of China.
This is an internal matter, and the call for independence for Hong Kong
is an open attack on China’s national sovereignty.
Hong Kong is a part of China.
The idea that any American military force will come to “liberate” or “save” Hong Kong is an invasion of China.
Any attempted invasion of China will result in the nuclear destruction of most major United States cities.
As it stands today, and what is NOT being reported in the United States media, is that under Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the constitution for the city, the government is legally allowed to request help from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
China is not Syria.
China is not Bolivia.
China is not Venezuela.
China will fight back. They will not permit this, and frankly, I am quite surprised that they have permitted this to go on so long. They have been very polite and have kept causalities to a minimum. Were this kind and level of damage to have taken place in the United States, people would have been killed.
Here is an article that explains one key way that Washington is meddling in the affairs of Hong Kong:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2019/08/how-washington-is-meddling-in-affairs.html
While the ideals of democracy are admirable and desirable, Washington's version of democracy is tainted by big money and has developed into a system where politicians are for sale to the highest bidder.
-Posted by: Sally Snyder | Aug 14 2019 16:10 utc | MoA
China has announced that it will take action if things escalate.
The Chinese government has announced that it will intervene militarily to defend China’s sovereignty.
Top government officials have labeled the most extreme acts as “terrorism” and denounced U.S. support.
Several times officials raised the analogy to the Western “color revolutions” that violently overturned governments in Serbia, Ukraine, Libya and Haiti and were attempted in Venezuela and Syria.
China is aware of what is going on and they will take appropriate and measured action. the problem is that the United States people, haven’t seen measured and appropriate responses since the 1940’s.
Americans are not expecting military push-back. For if they were, they would be terrified of all the war-drum beating by the American press.
“The ideologues in Western governments never cease in their efforts
to engineer unrest against governments that are not to their liking, even though their actions have caused misery and chaos in country after country in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Now they are trying the same trick in China,”
-China Daily explained on July 3rd, 2019
Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to Britain, told reporters that
their country was still acting as Hong Kong’s colonial master.
(nbcnews.com, July 4)
“A spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry claimed Tuesday that
recent comments from American lawmakers [Nancy] Pelosi (D-Ca.) and
[Mitch] McConnell (R-Ky.) demonstrate that Washington’s real goal is to incite chaos in the city,” according to CNBC.
“By neglecting and distorting the truth, they whitewashed violent crimes as a struggle for human rights and freedom.” (Aug. 14)
Where is U.S. support for other resistance?
Hong Kong police are denounced in the U.S. media for violence, but actually have shown great restraint. Despite months of violent confrontations, with flaming bottles constantly thrown, no one has been killed by the police.
That is NOT going to last for long.
There are rumors that some Hong Kong oligarchs were originally behind the protests to prevent their extradition for shady deals they made in China. There may be some truth to that.
China's president Xi Jingpin is waging a fierce campaign against corruption and Hong Kong is a target rich environment for fighting that crime.
The former British colony is ruled by a handful of oligarchs who have monopolies in the housing, electricity, trade and transport markets:
The book to read is Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong (2010) by Alice Poon, which explains how the lack of competition law created outrageous wealth for the tycoons. It’s a complex subject but the key point is that in Hong Kong all land is leasehold and ultimately owned by the government, which uses it as a means of raising revenue.
This goes back to the days of empire when British policy required colonies to be self-funding. The system kept taxes down and attracted business – but one side-effect was that it gave the government an interest in rationing land to keep it expensive. That didn’t matter much when the local economy comprised a few traders but, in the modern technological world of 2012, it puts the government at odds with every person and business wanting affordable space.
Indeed, it induces the government to distort and damage the economy, and indeed society. This system paved the way for a handful of Hong Kong families to become unimaginably wealthy by getting their hands on cheap land back in the days before the city started to boom.
Rents and apartment prices in Hong Kong are high. People from the mainland who buy up apartments with probably illegally gained money only increase the scarcity. This is one reason why the Cantonese speaking Hong Kong protesters spray slurs against the Mandarin speaking people from the mainland. The people in Hong Kong also grieve over their declining importance. Hong Kong lost its once important economical position. In 1993 Hong Kong's share of China's GDP was 27%. It is now less than a tenths of that and the city is now more or less irrelevant to mainland China.
-Moon over Alabama
Demonstrations in Honduras. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
There is no such favorable media coverage or support from U.S. politicians for demonstrations of desperate workers and peasants in Honduras, Haiti or the Philippines, or for the Yellow Vest movement in France.
There is never an official condemnation when demonstrators are killed in Yemen or Kashmir or in weekly demonstrations in Gaza against Israeli occupation.
Demonstrations in Haiti. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
These struggles receive barely a mention, although in every case scores of people have been killed by police, targeted for assassination or simply just disappeared.
Demonstrations in the Philippines. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
Hong Kong has always been part of China. It was seized by the British in order to facilitate the illegal drug traffic of the East India Company. The Chinese government, concerned at the social and economic mayhem caused by imported opium, paid for in silver, banned its import. The British government, which relied on the revenues it got from exporting cheap Indian opium, grown on stolen land, insisted that China allow the trade to continue. And enforced its demands militarily-the Opium Wars. Within fifty years of these wars and Hong Kong's occupation by the British on a 99 year lease, a significant proportion, close to 20% of China's men were addicted to opium.
That is why China wanted to regain sovereignty over Hong Kong. As to the assertion that the local people don't want Chinese rule but long for the British-now under US rule- to return, that is simply untrue.
As b has been pointing out the troubles in Hong Kong are almost certainly organised by the US government.
Laguerre suspects that the same is true of the gilets jaunes. Does anyone else believe that Macron is being attacked by the US government?
-Posted by: bevin | Aug 14 2019 16:18 utc | MoA
Demonstrations in Malawi. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
While Hong Kong protests receive widespread attention, there is no similar coverage of or political support for Antifa, Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the U.S. or the masses protesting racist Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and roundups of migrants.
It seems to be a narrow focus on China, and only on China.
U.S. pressure continues
Months of violence and chaos in Hong Kong have US dirty hands all over them.Orchestrated by the CIA in cahoots with other anti-democratic US agencies and anti-government Chinese hooligans, there’s nothing spontaneous about what’s going on endlessly.
Days earlier, the Trump regime’s State Department (up to its ears in what’s happening) expressed phony grave concern about violence and chaos in the city — ignoring US responsibility for what’s ongoing.
Pompeo threatened China, saying all options are on the table, including direct US intervention, if Beijing’s military intervenes to quell what’s unacceptable and must be stopped.
Over the weekend, masked hooligans clashed with police at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University.
On Sunday, police surrounded the campus, warning elements involved in rioting and vandalism to leave or be dealt with harshly.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that a “sedan without license plates tried to ram a group of police officers,” a live round and rubber bullet fired at the vehicle.
“(M)asked radicals” occupying the campus clashed violently with police, dozens arrested, hundreds more involved.
Highly inflammable “dangerous materials” that can be used for explosives were seized from elements arrested — “stolen” from the university’s labs, adding:
“(R)adicals shot arrows and hurled petrol bombs and bricks (at police) – sometimes from catapults mounted on the roof of campus buildings.”
“Police fired a large quantity of tear gas and deployed two water cannons and armored vehicles.”
Clashes raged for hours, a police statement saying: “Anyone who enters or stays on the campus and assists the rioters in any way will risk committing the offense of ‘taking part in a riot.’ ”
Hooligans arrested were not university students.Police called them outsiders. On Monday, classes at all Hong Kong universities were suspended — a Polytechnic Univ. statement saying in part:
“All classes have been forced to be suspended and all operations on the campus have been halted,” adding:
“The University is gravely concerned that the spiraling radical illicit activities will cause not only a tremendous safety threat on campus, but also class suspension over an indefinite period of time.”
“They are concerned about the safety on the campus, and they do not want to see the campus being destroyed further.”
A commentary published by Beijing’s official People’s Daily broadsheet on Monday said ending months of violence and chaos in Hong Kong “is a critical matter,” adding:
In multiple parts of the city, “rioters have been rampantly committing acts of vandalism and arson, paralyzing public transport, trashing rail tracks, hurling petrol bombs at running trains, indiscriminately causing bodily harm to civilians and even turning campuses into battlefields.”
If what’s going on isn’t stopped and the rule of law restored, “there would be no guarantee for the peaceful life of residents, to say nothing of Hong Kong’s future development.”
On Monday, SCMP’s deputy executive editor Zuraidah Ibrahim said the following:
“Hardcore mobs upped their violent game when they took over tertiary campuses last week, as bureaucrats came under fire for doing little and the police warned the city was on the brink of total breakdown,” adding:
“In the north, radicals occupying Chinese University took over the Tolo Highway. At Polytechnic University, they have shut down the Cross-Harbour Tunnel for five days, the longest forced closure ever.” “The mobs broke into the campuses’ chemical laboratories and set up petrol bomb mills overnight and practiced throwing fire bombs with catapults and arrows.” “Fiery battles between protesters and police spread across several universities, as mainland and international students evacuated.”
“The radicals finally withdrew, except at PolyU where a stand-off continues as I write this. Last week, the People’s Liberation Army soldiers took to the streets with brooms – not guns – to clean up, as did volunteers fed-up with the violence and their pockmarked streets. We still don’t see an end in sight.”
US dirty hands are all over months of violence, vandalism, chaos in the city, attacking China’s soft underbelly, trying to destabilize and weaken the country.
Beijing knows what it’s up against — US imperial rage challenging China’s sovereign independence.
- US Dirty Hands Escalate Hong Kong Violence
Despite China’s warnings of possible martial law, strict curfews and military intervention to restore order, protesters have shown no signs of retreat.
The U.S. and Britain are determined to propel forward those hostile political forces they have cultivated over the past two decades.
This is really, really dangerous.
What a fucking mess the Empire has made over the last century.
Trying to reconcile my belief in democracy with non-intervention makes this one tricky. I have no desire to support the fascist United States in attempting to subvert another country's government.
The cultural gap (and therefore lack of knowledge and understanding) between the west and China is so vast it makes attempting to separate genuine journalism from McCarthy-ist era style propaganda about the country very difficult, thus making a merits based comparison between the 2 spheres of power almost impossible.
Most of the stories I hear about Chinese repression are obvious pro-western propaganda, which makes it tempting to dismiss other pieces of information out of hand.
I can only wish the best for the people of Hong Kong and China, whatever they decide that may be.
Laguerre hints at an interesting point I'd not considered with regards to the yellow vests in France - are they US aided? I'm still inclined to lean towards it being a more genuine grass roots movement from the limited bits I've seen, though I'd be intrigued to see what connections could be verified there. US state department attempting to push Frexit would certainly be a new angle to think about for a lot of us.
-Posted by: Northern | Aug 14 2019 16:22 utc | MoA
Methodology
The escalating demonstrations are linked to [1] the U.S. trade war, [2] tariffs and [3] military encirclement of China.
Four hundred—half—of the 800 U.S. overseas military bases surround China. Aircraft carriers, destroyers, nuclear submarines, jet aircraft, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile batteries, and satellite surveillance infrastructures are positioned in the South China Sea, close to Hong Kong.
Media demonization is needed to justify and intensify this military presence. And it is ongoing and ruthless.
John Reed at Foreign Policy describes “how the U.S. is encircling China with military bases.”
The U.S. military is encircling China with a chain of air bases and military ports. The latest link: a small airstrip on the tiny Pacific island of Saipan. The U.S. Air Force is planning to lease 33 acres of land on the island for the next 50 years to build a “divert airfield” on an old World War II airbase there. But the residents don’t want it. And the Chinese are in no mood to be surrounded by Americans.
…In addition to the site on Saipan, the Air Force plans to send aircraft on regular deployments to bases ranging from Australia to India as part of its bulked up force in the Pacific. These plans include regular deployments to Royal Australian Air Force bases at Darwin and Tindal, Changi East air base in Singapore, Korat air base in Thailand, Trivandrum in India, and possibly bases at Cubi Point and Puerto Princesa in the Philippines and airfields in Indonesia and Malaysia, a top U.S. Air Force general revealed last month.
As I’ve written in the past, these Pentagon plans are part of the Air-Sea Battle strategy. The idea is to have enough US bases and Air Force capabilities peppered throughout the region so that China would be too surrounded to safely attack in the event of a conflict.
“Stealthy American bombers and submarines would knock out China’s long-range surveillance radar and precision missile systems located deep inside the country,” reports the WashingtonPost. ”The initial ‘blinding campaign’ would be followed by a larger air and naval assault.”
Not surprisingly, Beijing is none-too-pleased with the fact that Washington is planning contingencies to “battle” China, and militarily encircling China in the Pacific. Imagine the calls for war in Washington if China was backing various Latin American countries with money and weapons and building air and naval bases in the Caribbean with the explicit aim of bombing United States to smithereens.
I haven’t seen such demonization since World War II against the Nazi Germans.
Encouraging the demonstrations goes hand-in-hand with international efforts to bar Huawei 5G technology, the cancellation of a joint study of cancer and the arrest of Chinese corporate officers.
All these belligerent acts are designed to exert maximum pressure on China, divide the leadership, destabilize economic development and weaken China’s resolve to maintain any socialist planning.
The Trump Admin has come out with all guns blazing against Huawei, China’s telecommunications giant, which is now the 2nd biggest smartphone producer in the world, second only to Apple and within striking distance of them.
The USG has accused Huawei of assisting Chinese Intelligence by placing backdoors in its software and hardware that allow surveillance by Chinese authorities (but not the NSA).
Trump has even pressured allies like the UK to stop using Huawei altogether, despite the fact that Britain relies heavily of Huawei for its infrastructure.
The attacks against Huawei escalated on December 1st 2018, when the US orchestrated a totally illegal kidnapping and illegal detention of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s CFO (Chief Financial Officer). Wanzhou is still being held against her will in Canada on US orders.
-The Freedom Articles
Martial law in Hong Kong, a major financial center, especially for international investment funds coming into China, would impact China’s development.
And that, my friends, is the objective.
Capitalist economic “freedom”
British imperialism, in the 155 years it ruled Hong Kong, denied
rights to millions of workers. There was no elected government, no right
to a minimum wage, unions, decent housing or health care, and certainly
no freedom of the press or freedom of speech. These basic democratic
rights were not even on the books in colonial Hong Kong.
The British were ruthless when they owned Hong Kong, and treated the native Chinese there with scorn and dismay.
For the past 25 years, including this year, Hong Kong has been ranked No. 1 in the right-wing Heritage Foundation’s list of countries with the “greatest economic freedom”—meaning the least restraints on capitalist profit taking. Hong Kong’s ranking is based on low taxes and light regulations, the strongest property rights and business freedom, and “openness to global commerce and vibrant entrepreneurial climate … no restrictions on foreign banks.”
For this Hong Kong is well considered the “freest society in the world.”
This “freedom” means the world’s highest rents and the greatest gap
between the super-rich and the desperately poor and homeless. This is
what Hong Kong youth face today. But the youth are consciously being
misdirected to blame the city administration for the conditions Hong
Kong is locked into under the “One Country, Two Systems agreement.”
Ah, if only HK was independent, free of China, would everything become equal, fair and just. Only if...
An unequal colonial treaty
Hong Kong is stolen land.
This spectacular deep water port in the South China Sea at the mouth of the Pearl River, a major waterway in south China, was seized by Britain in the 1842 Opium Wars.
Hong Kong was seized by Britain, and used as a staging platform to get the Chinese addicted to Opium so that the wealthy in Britain could profit.
After negotiations with Britain had dragged on through the 1980s, the British imposed another unequal treaty on the People’s Republic of China.
Hong Kong under British rule in the 1970’s.
Under the 1997 “One Country, Two Systems” agreement that officially
returned Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories to the PRC, Britain
and China agreed to leave “the previous capitalist system” in place for
50 years.
China, determined to reassert its sovereignty over land stolen by the British, also needed funds for development.
Most money in Asia moved through the Hong Kong banking system. So in 1997 China was anxious to reach a smooth transition that would not destabilize the transfer of investment funds into the 99.5 percent of China that had previously been denied development funds.
To understand this situation, you must realize that ever since the Chinese Revolution in 1949, China had been sanctioned and blockaded from accessing Western investment and technology.
China had been denied development funds for many years. The plan was to keep them backwards and primitive. So that they could continue to be a low-cost resource for the Western nations.
U.S. and British imperialism took full advantage of the 1997
concession that maintained their economic control of the former colony.
Their hope was that Hong Kong could serve, as it had in the past, as an
economic battering ram into China.
Their hopes were not realized.
In 1997 Hong Kong’s gross domestic product was 27 percent of China’s gross domestic product. Today it’s a mere 3 percent and falling. Much to U.S. and British frustration, the world’s largest banks are now in China and they are state-owned banks.
What confounds the capitalist class, far more than China’s incredible growth, is that the top 12 Chinese companies on U.S. Fortune 500 list are all state-owned and state-subsidized. They include massive oil, solar energy, telecommunications, engineering and construction companies, banks and the auto industry.
-Fortune.com, July 22, 2015
U.S. corporate power is deeply threatened by China’s level of
development through the Belt and Road Initiative and its growing
position in international trade and investment.
U.S., Britain built a network of collaborators
When Britain and China signed the One Country, Two Systems agreement,
all foreign intervention and colonial claims on Hong Kong were supposed
to end. Full sovereignty was to return to China.
However, U.S. and British efforts to undercut Hong Kong’s return began in advance of the signing.
Just before the transfer of sovereignty, Britain hastily set up, after 150 years of appointed officials, a partially elected, although still mainly appointed, government. They quickly established and funded political parties, composed of their loyal collaborators.
Millions of dollars were openly and secretly funneled into a whole
network of protected social service organizations, political parties,
media and social media, student and youth organizations, and labor
unions established to undercut support for China and the Communist Party
of China.
Think about it. Of course this would happen. Neither the USA nor the UK were stupid.
The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKFTU) receives U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funding, along with British support. It promotes “pro-democracy, independent unions” throughout China. The HKCTU was established in 1990 to counter and undercut the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions founded in 1948, which is still the largest union organization with 410,000 members.
The HKFTU suffered years of brutal repression under British colonial rule as it fought for basic protection of workers’ rights. A strike organized by the HKFTU shook British colonial rule in 1967. The strike became a citywide rebellion sparked by mass layoffs of workers from the plastic flower factory.
"They seem to want a Tiananmen Square outcome as success."
The Tiananmen Square outcome was–media accounts to the contrary–that the kids all left the square safely by 7:20 am, just as all the HK demonstrators are unharmed.
There was a riot led by professional thugs elsewhere in Beijing, in Chang'An Avenue, but that was a different matter entirely and one with an interesting sequel. The leader of that riot was exfiltrated to the UK by MI6 and subsequently convicted of robbing and murdering an elderly Londoner. Sweet.
- Posted by: Godfree Roberts | Nov 22 2019 23:23 utc | 34
British colonial authorities harshly suppressed the uprising, resulting in 51 deaths and hundreds injured and disappeared. The HKFTU supports China and opposes the reactionary demonstrations.
NED funding = CIA support
Allen Weinstein, a founder of the NED, told the Washington Post in 1991;
“A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” (Sept. 21, 1991)
The NED funds, coordinates and weaponizes nongovernmental organizations and social organizations with the capacity to put tens of thousands of misdirected, idealistic and alienated youth on the streets.
Funding from the NED, the Ford, Rockefeller, Soros and numerous other corporate foundations, Christian churches of every denomination, and generous British funding, is behind this hostile, subversive network orchestrating the Hong Kong protests today.
While you would NEVER hear about this in the mainstream American media, it of course makes sense. All you need to do is follow the money trail.
In HK, for instance, when the protestors receive payments through the NED, or NID, they get a tattoo on their arm (to prevent multiple payouts),a nd you can see this clearly on the exposed skin of rioters.
The NED bankrolls the Hong Kong Human Rights Movement, the Hong Kong
Journalists Association, the Civic Party, Labor Party and Democratic
Party. They are members of the Civil Human Rights Front that coordinates
the demonstrations.
This role of the NED in China is increasingly harder to obscure.
Alexander Rubinstein reported in “American Gov’t, NGOs Fuel and Fund Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Protests” (mintpressnews.com, June 13):
“It is inconceivable that the organizers of the protests are unaware of the NED ties to some of its members.” (tinyurl.com/y6nhmapz)
The goal is to promote a hostile and suspicious attitude toward China and toward communism and to foster the false concept of a past democratic Hong Kong with a distinct identity.
China Daily warns:
“In recent years, there have been warnings that color revolutions are emerging as a new form of warfare employed by the West to destabilize certain countries.” (Aug. 12)
Which system works better?
The Aug. 13 New York Times refers to Hong Kong as a “bastion of civil
liberties” to counter “Beijing’s brand of authoritarianism.”
British colonial past is deeply mythologized. Twenty-two years of constant nostalgia for this past, supposedly glorious time has influenced increasingly impoverished youth.
The most violent rioters, amongst them those who hold the US flag, have obviously the order or to kill somebody, better a policeman ( as the clear intend on the GT journalist shows... ) or to provoke some killing of a protester, or by accident of a journalist ( who, btw, astonishingly, remain in the middle of the melee always...
I find this very suspicious, which is their insurance company? I want it for my travels...Most probably not journalists themselves but rioters in disguise ), as these intends of assassination happened very timely, almost simultaneously with or consecutive to Trump´s Twitter on that he expected nobody will result with any harm.... obviously from his terrorists side...
BTW, this behavior have time ago passed from ghastly to straight criminal, under any country´s law.
In the US, none of these terrorists would still remain alive, they would never had been able to get so close to any policeman so as to grab his batton leaving him unarmed. They would had been shot in place, the whole bunch of them...as we so usually watch happens with black people there....
Why The Donald ( and Bannon, the Pepe Frog exposes him all the way, they already do not even try to conceal anymore...) thinks any country in the world would have to allow this?
I posted some of these videos yesterday in the week review thread ( and I am glad "b" gave them some greater visibility..) and to my view, some of these rioters, especially those who talk with the travelers seem to be on drugs....
It´s an appreciation on how their tongue slide so much plus the slowness with which they talk, in such stressant situation, very contrasting with, for example, the elder summoning the rioter in the subway. See the very thin guy talking with the Australian businessman in the video i posted in the week and review thread....
I wonder whether these could be people taken from jail or correstionals, as they were part of the ISIS recruits who flew to Turkey to be tarinned and then to Syria, their behavior is clearly antisocial, no wonder any real complaint they could have ...
In the video on "strangers" supplying the rioters, there are two totally masked and covered women ( all the way the ISIS handlers style...) who, by their physical complexion and hair, seem to not be Chinese women at all, but Westerners...at 2:21 footage....Most probably NED/CIA operatives...
-Posted by: Sasha | Aug 14 2019 16:06 utc | MoA
Listen up. Much of what you read is a myth.
Despite decades of multimillion-dollar Western funding, Hong Kong has
a poverty rate of 20 percent (23.1 percent for children) compared to
less than 1 percent in mainland China. In the past 20 years, mainland
China has lifted countless millions of people out of poverty.
Poverty rate in HK = 20%
Poverty rate in mainland China <1%
Just across the river from Hong Kong sits the city of Shenzhen.
It is one of the Special Economic Zones established to lure Western technology. These zones, originally with thousands of labor-intensive factories and millions of workers earning low wages, were centers of capitalist exploitation and enormous profits for U.S. and other global capitalists.
Shenzhen grew from a city of 30,000 in 1979 to a megacity of 20 million, with the largest migrant population in China.
Shenzhen had a population three times the size of Hong Kong. With investments via Hong Kong, this new city became a massive polluted factory town with sweatshops spewing out clouds of dark toxic smoke.
In the past five years, through city and national urban planning, Shenzhen is today one of the most livable cities in China, with extensive parks, tree-lined streets and the largest fleet of electric buses in the world (16,000), along with all-electric cabs.
Shenzhen aims to have 80 percent of its new buildings green-certified by 2020. It is full of apartment blocks, office towers and modern factories with advanced equipment manufacturing, robotics, automation and giant tech startups.
For the last 10 years wages have been stagnant in Hong Kong while
rents have increased 300 percent; it is the most expensive city in the
world. In Shenzhen, wages have increased 8 percent every year, and more
than 1 million new, public, green housing units at low rates are nearing
completion.
United States Demands
The U.S. is demanding that China abandon state support of its
industries, the ownership of its banks and national planning. But
contrasting the decay, growing poverty and intense alienation in Hong
Kong with the green vibrant city of Shenzhen across the river shows that
there are two choices for China today, including the angry forces
mobilized in Hong Kong: modern socialist planning or a return to the
super-exploitation and imperialist domination of the colonial past.
For decades Britain and the U.S. used the people of Hong Kong for
cheap labor. Now they are using the same population for cheap political
propaganda. This cynical maneuver is just one more weapon in a desperate
effort to disrupt China’s further development.
U.S. corporate power is incapable of meeting any of the desperate needs for housing, health care, education and a healthy environment for people here. Instead, in a relentless drive for profits, enormous resources are squandered on militarism to threaten countries around the world.
Today…
The Hong Kong protests are escalating, just as the US-China trade war is also escalating. None of this is out of the blue.
For quite some time now, the US has been shifting the focus of its hegemonic and imperial ambitions towards China, recognizing it – even more than Russia – as its main rival superpower.
Author Graham Allen published his 2017 book entitled Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? addressing growing US-China tension and the potential for a future US-China war.
The term Thucydides trap is derived from ancient Greece to describe a situation when a rising power gains enough strength to challenge and disturb the existing ruling power. With this phenomenon in mind, let’s take a look at the background to the current US-China trade war (which is becoming more bitter and intense by the week) and the Hong Kong Protests.
Identifying the Enemy
Quotes from top US officials, military and non-military alike, show that China has gradually been replacing Russia as the #1 enemy, although this is not clear cut; there is still a lot of hatred towards and fear of Russia.
In 2018, the USA changed its official defense strategy.
Terrorism was no longer the #1 threat and was replaced by Russia and China.
The DoD report accused China of wielding predatory economics and building fake islands in the South China Sea to intimidate nearby countries.
“China remains our biggest long-term challenge. Without focused involvement and engagement by the United States, and our allies and partners, China will realize its dream of hegemony in Asia.”
- Admiral Harry Harris, former commander of the US Pacific Command, said this about China in 2018.
“China’s intent is crystal clear. We ignore it at our peril. I’m concerned China will now work to undermine the international rules-based order … China’s impressive military build-up could soon challenge the United States across almost every domain.”
Earlier this year, DNI (Director of National Intelligence) Dan Coats said:
“[The] rule of law, international norms, and fairness in trade and international engagements is not the Chinese model … Chinese leaders will increasingly seek to assert China’s model of authoritarian capitalism as an alternative—and implicitly superior—development path abroad, exacerbating great-power competition that could threaten international support for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.”
- DNI (Director of National Intelligence) Dan Coats said:
Previously in 2018 Coats had followed Trump’s lead by blaming China
for interfering in US elections (where have I heard that one before?).
He stated:
“[China is targeting] state and local governments and officials … It is trying to exploit any divisions between federal and local levels on policy, and uses investments and other incentives to expand its influence.”
- DNI (Director of National Intelligence) Dan Coats said:
All this rhetoric comes against a backdrop of intertwined economies, where many US companies have outsourced and offshored their labor to China.
Targeting Chinese Institutions, Initiatives and Projects
The US has taken a dim view of practically every Chinese effort to develop itself in the last decade.
The US has opposed China’s gigantic OBR (One Belt, One Road) Initiative which has been dubbed the New Silk Road.
The US has directed propaganda against BRICS, China’s SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization), its development bank and many other trade initiatives.
The US accuses China of trying to control the world, yet such accusations must be difficult to receive with a straight face given that the US routinely threatens both its allies and enemies with economic warfare, sanctions, trade wars, governmental overthrow, invasion or even nuclear annihilation if they don’t toe the American line.
Funding and Training Muslim Uyghurs – Sometimes as Part of ISIS
You may not have heard of them, but there is a Chinese minority group known as the Uyghurs or Uighurs. Many are Muslim and of Turkic ethnicity. They live in the semi-autonomous region of north-west China in a province called Xinjiang.
Well, guess what?
The United States government has been funding them to aggressively fight against the Chinese government.
The funny thing is that a little bit of effort and the whole thing becomes apparent even through the traditional media reports. Recall that early media reports said there were 1.7 million protesters "according to the organiser's estimates". Once you remember that, then every time you hear millions is a hint to look up the Police estimate (150k) and estimates of maximum numbers in space available - also 150k or thereabouts.
More stories hint of high protester numbers but don't mention numbers -so check the accompanying pictures and videos - we a few thousand (ie well down on ever factual early numbers) and more recently just a few hundred. Police violence - yet every picture or video show large numbers of police acting very very peaceably (compare Paris). HK democracy - yet all the pictures recently have been exclusively of masked blackshirts and if you dig deep most of the violence has been blackshirt on passers by.
There must be picture editors who are stunned by the reports they run.
And obviously the story they are all looking for is the China overreaction that was never going to happen.
The whole thing runs in parallel with the obvious Ujghur 1 million in prison lie (it would be equivalent to every male aged 16-29) where the only witnesses to speak to western journalists have been fed to the press in Istanbul. We all know that Chinese muslims in Istanbul are going to or already in ISIS. James Le Mesurier doing a little extra press feeding in his spare time.
- Posted by: Michael Droy | Nov 22 2019 22:17 utc | 29
So when ever you hear, or read about the Chinese concentration camps and the imprisonment of those “poor” Uyghur Muslims, keep in mind that it is the Untied States that has the largest prison population in the world. China doesn’t even come close.
The United States is THE prison nation, and locks up more citizens than any other nation on the surface of the earth, and has put more people in prison behind bars than Hitler did in Nazi Germany, Stalin did in the Soviet Union, and Pol Pot did in Cambodia. Compared to China, it’s not even on the “radar screen”.
So America is great because of “freedom” and “liberty” and protections afforded by the “Bill of Rights”, Eh?
The White House has asked the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals to place an emergency stay on a ruling made last week by a federal judge so that the president’s power to indefinitely detain Americans without charge is reaffirmed immediately.
On Wednesday, September 12, US District Court Judge Katherine Forrest made permanent a temporary injunction she issued in May that bars the federal government from abiding by the indefinite detention provision in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, or NDAA.
Judge Forrest ruled that a clause that gives the government the power to arrest US citizens suspected of maintaining alliances with terrorists and hold them without due process violated the Constitution and that the White House would be stripped of that ability immediately.
- White House demands military prisons for Americans under NDAA
The bullshit is amazing to me!
In America, you can get incarcerated for the tiniest of reasons, or commit enormous crimes and be totally immune from prosecution.
We all need to look at things objectively and at the “big picture”. Just why is the United States government pushing the anti-China narrative? Why are they making a big deal of “concentration camps for Muslim terrorists” when the largest number of inmates are in the USA itself? What is going on?
Follow the money trail…
Neocon Marco Rubio, and warhawk, sponsored this 2018 bill pushing the US to get involved.
Rubio, for those who don’t recall, was the very same guy itching for war with Venezuela earlier this year in 2019. War is so great with these people. They think that America will forever be isolated and protected and war can never come to roost inside the United States.
Hong Kong’s opposition unites with Washington hardliners to ‘preserve the US’s own political and economic interests’
While claiming to fight for “self-determination,” Hong Kong opposition leaders are collaborating with regime-change neoconservatives in Washington to “preserve the US’s own political and economic interests.” A new DC lobbying front has become their base of operations.
The Grayzone piece linked above misses the real man behind the lobbying. Andrew Duncan who is a main sponsor of Senator Marco Rubio who is the main promoter on the hill for "activist" and U.S. darling Joshua Wong. Duncan is also one of the producers (financiers) of a film about Wong.
Watchdog group files complaint in shadowy gift to super PAC aiding Marco Rubio
An election watchdog organization filed a complaint Friday with the Federal Election Commission over a $500,000 donation to a super political action committee aiding Marco Rubio from a mystery firm headed by a New York investor.
...
The complaint from the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, seeks an investigation into IGX LLC for masking the donation and to determine whether the Conservative Solutions PAC was aware of the origins of the contribution. The actual donor, Andrew Duncan, of Brooklyn, New York, acknowledged to the Associated Press earlier this month that he had routed his contribution through IGX, a business entity registered last year in Delaware.
- Posted by: b | Nov 22 2019 20:17 utc | 12
However, much of the funding is done under-the-table by the soft power network of NGOs, illustrious among them the National Endowment for Democracy of NWO (New World Order) insider George Soros.
The UHRP (Uyghur Human Rights Project) admits on its website that it was “founded by the Uyghur American Association (UAA) in 2004 with a supporting grant from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).”
Got the following email today from my "representative" U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (for whom I have never voted) on the reason for his vote: "The world is watching, and we must step up to hold the Chinese government accountable. Please know that I will continue to fight for an America that brings moral leadership to the international stage."
Merkley remains the darling of self-styled Oregon "progressives", who have no clue about the real meaning of moral leadership. He pulled a stunt a year ago trying to get into an immigration gulag and was refused entry. He conveniently forgot to mention that privatized corporate immigration gulags were established by Democrats under President Obama.
I used to call his office to express my opinion, but no longer bother, he's just another war party flack.
- Posted by: Trisha | Nov 22 2019 22:22 utc | 31
Since when does the USG deeply care about oppressed minorities in
other nations? It’s a rhetorical question, but I’ll answer it this time:
if – and only if – US interests are aligned with that minority, and for
the (usually short) time period the interests are aligned.
“The alleged “struggle” by the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, referred to by the terrorists and their foreign sponsors as “East Turkistan,” consists of two essential components – a foreign harbored political front including the Washington D.C. and Munich-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and a militant front clearly backed by the US and NATO through intermediary groups like Turkey’s Grey Wolves … Encouraging separatism in China’s western Xinjiang region, if successful, would carve off a substantial amount of territory. In conjunction with US-backed separatism in China’s Tibet region, an immense buffer region stands to be created that would virtually isolate China from Central Asia.”
So, just as the US funded and trained Operation Gladio warriors to fight communism in Europe, Mujahideen fighters to battle the USSR, ISIS to battle Syria, it is also preparing for war with China by funding and training the ‘separatists’, whoever they may be, in this case the Uyghurs.
“Chinese militants from the western region of Xinjiang have fled from the country to get “terrorist training” from Islamic State group fighters for attacks at home, state media reported on Monday.”
Initiating a Trade War
There is no doubt that it was the US under Trump who initiated the US-China trade war. As such, these series of HK protests are part of the negotiating strategy.
Even before he took office, Trump took to twitter bashing China for its supposed economic exploitation of the US. Trump says the objective is a better trade deal with China to benefit all Americans, but this trade war is producing a massive fallout and host of negative effects for American consumers, farmers and manufacturers.
“How about China’s economy? Are Trump’s tariffs crushing the Chinese economy? Not really. During Jan-May 2019, China’s exports to the US fell about 5%, but China’s exports to the EU rose more than 14%. And, guess what, EU is China’s #1 trading partner (and ASEAN is the #2 trade partner), while the US is #3. So, China keeps growing at a healthy pace — even the IMF predicts a healthy 6.2% real GDP growth for China this year!
But here’s the kicker. While China’s exports to the US fell 4.8%, the reverse — US exports to China — fell by a whopping 24% (for the first five months of 2019). So, US exporters and farmers are hurting real bad. And Trump cannot win re-election without the support of those “great soybean/corn/pork farmers.””
Instigating a Color Revolution by way of the Hong Kong Protests
One of the most significant examples of US aggression against China is the instigation of a color protest or color revolution in Hong Kong. The aim is to provoke China into reacting harshly and violently, which would reinforce the Western perception that China is heavy-handed, tyrannical and totalitarian.
China has already moved troops to its southern mainland border, just across the water from Hong Kong. It is possible that another US objective is to push the protestors into declaring Hong Kong independent of China. But, you know what, they are going to hold back. They will not give the USA what it so obviously wants.
The idea behind the protests and the rioters In Hong Kong was all along to provoke another Tian An Men incident. This was quite obvious since the start of the protest. It now gets publicly acknowledged:
BBC Newsnight @BBCNewsnight - 11:00 UTC · Nov 19, 2019 “Some of the protesters seem to have an objective to provoke a military confrontation with China. They seem to want a Tiananmen Square outcome as success.”
Fmr Foreign Sec @Jeremy_Hunt says he is “concerned with the tactics” with some of #HongKong’s protesters.
Had China moved troops to Hong Kong, or allowed more force to be used against the protesters, the U.S. would have used that to press its allies to put strong sanctions on China. The protesters' violence was designed to achieve that outcome. The plan was part of the larger U.S. strategy of decoupling from China.
The plan failed because China was too smart to give the U.S. what it wanted. Now it is Trump who is under pressure. He needs the trade deal with China because the current trade war is doing harm to the U.S. economy and endangers his reelection.
Which is probably the real reason why the protests have died down.
- Posted by b on November 22, 2019 at 19:02 UTC | Permalink
There are some who say the Hong Kong protests are a grassroots affair. There is usually a grassroots element to many of these protests, but almost always the bigger factor in the shadows is US interference (or US-UK, or US-UK-Israeli, interference).
“The Extradition Law revision that started this was only a convenient proxy for those wanting chaos in HK to create chaos. The instigators behind the initial protest march are the same ones who started Occupy Central five years ago. They are the ones who huddle with operatives from US/UK Consulates, who travelled to the Washington/London/Brussel/Taipei, etc. to see politicians and plot strategies, to arrange for funding, and to recruit dare devils for the carnage. Lucky for them that HK was ripe for such shenanigans because HKers in general are sullen over their loss of superiority complex against mainland Chinese, brainwashed subconsciously through schools and churches about CCP wickedness, and desperately stressed under HK’s economic realities. Most of the protesters don’t even know what the Extradition Law is all about …”
“The instigators, however, are well versed in all the intricacies. They know who they can easily recruit and order to do violence … they know the fifth column within the government and business … If large casualties result what do they care? … [T]hey know their foreign backers are only too glad to see Chinese killing Chinese …”
“By the way, the US Consulate in HK has over 1,000 on payroll (an estimated 200 CIA agents), UK’s is over 500 (among them MI6 agents). That size of consulate in a city of less than 400 sq. miles of land (over half of which mountainous) is a laughable anomaly, wouldn’t you think? What are they all there for?”
And yes, there is proof. The senior US consulate member Julie Eadeh
was photographed secretly meeting with the top 2 leaders of the Hong
Kong protests, Joshua Wong and Nathan Law.
The senior US consulate member Julie Eadeh was photographed secretly meeting with the top 2 leaders of the Hong Kong protests, Joshua Wong and Nathan Law.
Remember – the NED now does overtly what the CIA did covertly decades ago. Allen Weinstein, one of the founders of NED, confessed that “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
NED has been equipping the HK protestors out of CIA enclaves inside of Hong Kong.
To an American, I sound like some kind of Chinese lover / Communist sympathizer. But the difference between myself and Joe and Suzy average is that I LIVE HERE. I see the changes and the differences FIRST HAND.
I can compare things directly, and I don’t need to be told what to believe by an actor playing a newscaster on television.
I'm a Hongkonger, so allow me to inject some perspectives here as a very concerned onlooker to what is happening. I'd admit my views are in the slim minority among fellow Hongkongers, and likely be laughed off as a conspiracy-theory monger or a Commie groupie.
The Extradition Law revision that started this was only a convenient proxy for those wanting chaos in HK to create chaos. The instigators behind the initial protest march are the same ones who started Occupy Central five years ago. They are the ones who huddle with operatives from US/UK Consulates, who travelled to the Washington/London/Brussel/Taipei, etc. to see politicians and plot strategies, to arrange for funding, and to recruit dare devils for the carnage. Lucky for them that HK was ripe for such shenanigans because HKers in general are sullen over their loss of superiority complex against mainland Chinese, brainwashed subconsciously through schools and churches about CCP wickedness, and desperately stressed under HK's economic realities. Most of the protesters don't even know what the Extradition Law is all about, but what the heck, it seemed like a good party to participate in, no?
The instigators, however, are well versed in all the intricacies. They know who they can easily recruit and order to do violence; they know the Basic Law and its fuzzy edges; they know the influences of clergy/university,high-school teachers; they know the fifth column within the government and business; they know HKers' irrational sensitivity towards so-called world opinions; they know that the foreign judges (which consist of 95% of the court) and foreign press are solidly behind them. Thus, they wanted to sock it to China; the more direly the better. If large casualties result what do they care? None of their own children were among the crowd and casualties would surely enlarge that blackeye they were to deliver. And they know their foreign backers are only too glad to see Chinese killing Chinese.
Like someone said in posts before mine, this incident is more similar to Maidan than any other color revolution prior. US/UK/Taiwan/Oz/Japan are enjoying their 5-minutes of glory and celebration at this point. The blowback, however, will come years and decades later.
By the way, the US Consulate in HK has over 1,000 on payroll (an estimated 200 CIA agents), UK's is over 500 (among them MI6 agents). That size of consulate in a city of less than 400 sq. miles of land (over half of which mountainous) is a laughable anormaly, wouldn't you think? What are they all there for?
-Posted by: Oriental Voice | Aug 14 2019 19:22 utc | MoA
The USA is collapsing, and like a snarling, rabid dog is snapping and thrashing about as it plummets further and further into the black, black abyss. The idea that somehow, the USA can wrestle back some of it’s old “greatness” by stalling the rise of China is a chimera.
America the nation that was founded as a republic no longer exists. it has been replaced with something different. First a “democracy”. Then after untold number of amendments, “mob rule”. Then with the consolidation of the mainstream press, an oligarchy.
It’s just an illusion. It’s not going to happen.
Evil Outlaw US Empire planners in their hubristic zeal to decouple from China's economy erred massively in thinking China would be the one harmed and come begging for a trade deal. Instead, China's geoeconomic strategy is clearly working and is more potent than what the Empire can bring to the table--Oops! China can now play Trump.
- Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 22 2019 21:16 utc | 20
But in the meantime, these are dangerous times we live in, and Nuclear warfare is nothing to trifle with.
What the American media is showing are distortions and lies. They are dangerous.
To understand what is going on you need to see the FULL picture. Not only what the “deep state” wants you to see to the exclusion of all else.
Links about China
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
We often talk (and complain) about the bad side of the new Orwellian police state that all nations are morphing into. Yet, with all of our moaning, groaning, and complaining we neglect to look at the more positive aspects. No, this is not an article in praise of the Orwellian Police State. Instead, we look at how intense monitoring of enormous populations, using high resolution cameras and 5G networks enable full “real time” tracking of agitators and hooligans. Especially those from another nation. Ones that are intended to destabilize, and cause strife, for global political ends.
In particular, we will look at the tracking (by China) of the United States agitation in the (so called) “Free Democracy” movement in Hong Kong during the Summer of 2019.
Quick Review
The United States under President Donald Trump has been involved in difficult negotiations with China over trade. These negotiations began in 2017, and “heated up” in early Summer of 2019. During the Summer of 2019 mass “Pro Democracy” protests broke out in Hong Kong. The idea, of course, has been to put every type and means of “pressure” on China so that the trade negotiations would fall in favor of the United States.
I covered the Chinese reaction to all this here. The link below opens up into a separate tab so as not to interrupt your viewing pleasure in this article.
These “pressures” included such things as…
Increasing Tariffs on Chinese made products.
Protests and disruptions in Hong Kong.
Asking European Nations to stop or break trade with China.
Financial incentives to other nations.
Pressure on American companies to move back to the USA.
Time will tell just how effective they will all be.
What I do know, as of the time of this writing, at the tail-end of September moving forward into the 70th anniversary of China, the following is true…
[1] International Trade
There is a GLOBAL slowing of all international trade.
International trade, across the board is reduced by 30%.
Companies located in strong pro-USA nations (Australia, NZ, and the UK) are looking for alternative off-shore supply chain operations outside of China. But there just aren’t any.
[2] American Trade With China
China has also surprised Americans with the most complete supply chains in the world. "You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That's the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours," one former high-ranking Apple executive was quoted as saying in a New York Times report.
- Smaller US companies depend on Chinese supply chain
The clear majority of American companies are staying inside of China. This is out of financial necessity. They do not have the financial means to take on the enormous financial risks to relocate back to the USA.
Those American companies are passing on the tariffs directly to the American consumer (25% direct) or (10% through a “pass through” arrangement).
But all accounts, the tariff situation is hurting American consumers much more than it is hurting China.
Read about the reasons here. Opens in a separate tab.
[3] Cut in American Food Items for Export
The cut in importation of American foodstuffs has resulted in the increase in the price of food. But not in the availability of food. China has food galore and a-plenty.
This goes absolutely against the American media narrative. Which on some websites are even suggesting famine! It’s insane. Ah, but, it’s easy enough to check.
China has spent the last thirty years building up their self-sufficiency in food, technology and vital products. They have not forgotten the mistakes made under Communism under Mr. Mao.
Now, of course, there are all kinds of different cuts of pork. It would be like comparing apples and watermelons if we use different cuts of pork. But, you know what, we work with what we have to work with.
Here is a flier showing one of the more expensive cuts of pork (it’s the Chinese national holiday, after all, ) Never the less, you can clearly see that a pork roast costs 17.8 RMB / half a Kg in October. Where in January (before the trade embargoes) a cheap cut of pork shoulder costs 12.8 RMB / half a Kg.
At which I would like to remind the reader that China is a bacon-loving nation. They love their pork and out-produces pork products that makes America look like teeny-boppers.
China, with it’s enormous population, does not need food imports to exist. China is an enormous breadbasket. Farms exist everywhere. For instance, did you know that China has more pigs than the next 43 pork producing countries combined.
Yeah. America is a light-weight in pork production.
The Chinese love pork. This is a nation that loves bacon. They love pork chops, and all sorts of pork products.
China does not need any imports of food to feed it’s people. It is self-sufficient.
China feeds 22 percent of the world population with only seven percent of the planet's arable land. Land is heavily utilized for agriculture. Vegetables are planted on road embankments, in traffic triangles and right up the walls of many buildings.
China is the world's top consumer of meat and grain. As it becomes more affluent people consume more meat and cooking oil and this has lead to increased demand for soybeans as an oil source and feed for livestock. China also uses more fertilizer that any other country.
According to United Nations statistics, China's cereal production is the largest in the world. In 2003 China produced 377 million tons, or 18.1 percent of total world production. Its plant oil crops---at 15 million tons in 2003---are a close second to those of the United States and amounted to 12.6 percent of total world production.
Lauren Keane wrote in the Washington Post, “China has a long-standing policy of food self-sufficiency, growing 95 percent of the grain required to feed its people. The country's sheer size means that a major crop failure or other food emergency here could have international ramifications, overwhelming world food markets with sudden demand. "Were China to need to import a large amount of grain, it would have a very dramatic impact on world food prices," said Anthea Webb, director of World Food Program China. [Source:Lauren Keane, Washington Post, May 31, 2010]
-Facts and Details
The idea that China cannot feed it’s people comes from the late
1960’s when the Communist central government failed in the
implementation of policy. Taking advantage of that situation was a SJW
moment known as the Cultural Revolution. It collapsed when the military had to be called into to restore order and control.
[4] Discarding of the United States Dollar
For a full half a century, the world used the USD to conduct international business and trade. This was advantageous for the United States. As the value of the dollar could be artificially propped up as the entire world was using this currency, and it was able to “float” upon the stability of the economies of multiple nations.
Not so any longer. Each time a nation stops using the USD as a currency for international trade, the stability of the USD decreases.
Numerous nations are starting to conduct trade in the Yuan instead of the US Dollar.
Numerous nations are buying up gold and increasing their gold reserves.
America has countered to this by printing more money, and taking on more debt.
Maybe these nations know something that many Americans aren’t.
In the forefront of all these various issues, we have the (so called) “Pro Democracy” movement in HK. This is an effort that is designed to destabilize the region as a way to put pressure on China.
Indeed, Donald Trump himself tweeted to Xi Peng in September that all the protests in HK would end abruptly if China agreed to the USA trade concessions.
How could Donald Trump say that if he wasn't able to make that happen?
The “Pro Democracy Movement”
I covered this subject in great deal elsewhere. If you want to find out who the players are, the stakes involved, the money that changes hands, and the interests of the American “deep state” swamp you can clink on this link below. It opens up in a separate tab so as not to interrupt your reading pleasure here.
In order to put pressure on China, Donald Trump utilized a branch of the CIA known as the National Endowment for Democracy or NED.
This is all well known as the “paper trail” for the funding is public knowledge. Indeed, groups in the coalition reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars from the NED and NDI last year alone.
You know… for “democracy” around the world.
While
US lawmakers nominate Hong Kong protest leaders for peace prizes and
pump their organizations with money to “promote democracy,” the
demonstrations have begun to spiral out of control.
And the people used to [1] instigate the riots, [2] train the protestors, arrange and [3] organize the newsmen and cameras and [4] teach and instruct the rioters for “soft conflicts” used to [5] provoke violent actions by the HK Police all have LinkedIN profiles.
Don’t you know.
So, even a dweeb like myself can [1] track the funding, [2] see the names and addresses of the agitators, and [3] view where they are and what they are doing in Hong Kong.
Just imagine what the Chinese government can do.
But Hong Kong is not America. It is part of China.
As Americans, especially those who have never stepped foot outside of America, think of other nations, other people and other cities from our point of view. That is to say, we imagine the WORST outside the USA. And never give the other nations any credit for doing certain things well. We just assume that they are all blunder-head nincompoops.
When we think of Hong Kong, we think of New York city.
Night meal in Hong Kong. Yup. It’s pretty much like this. And, yes, I do love it. It’s glorious.
Which is sad.
We should be thinking of Tokyo. We should be thinking of High-Tech (though not nearly as high-tech as Shenzhen), and state of the art. China is advancing in so, so , SO many ways and NONE of it is being reported by the mainstream American media.
We think, maybe that there are a few cameras here and there. We think that maybe the video feeds are being monitored, or that the traffic police are checking things out.
We don’t realize that the entire city is under constant advanced surveillance. And that China knows exactly what is going on in great detail.
Here, we are going to talk about this.
5G networks in all the Chinese cities
In the USA, there is an active program to justify why America is still using obsolete technology. “We don’t want to be irradiated with that dangerous 5G radio waves”, we say to ourselves. “We don’t want our brains cooked”.
Yeah. We heard it all before.
We Americans don’t want or need High Speed Rail. We are just happy with boarding our cattle-car-airlines, and paying the enormous ticket prices. We like doing it. HST has no place in America. Besides we have Amtrak!
Who cares about fluoride in the water? It’s a great way to get rid of the by-products of aluminum production. Fluoride is good for us. It’s modern, don’t you know.
America is great!
And a wall on the border of the USA and Mexico. It’s been three years and America can’t even construct a simple, singular wall. You know you have a problem when illiterate goat-herders in Afghanistan can make a half-decent wall and the great United States can’t even start…
Well, while Americans are justifying living in a nation that is increasingly becoming a “time portal” back to the last century, the rest of the world is advancing at break-neck speed.
Most of Africa has a growing and vibrant middle class, with malls, toll booths, and high speed (5G) internet. The Middle East (outside of the American-sponsored war zones) are all prospering. Check out the photos, for goodness sakes!
America is still stuck in the 1970’s I guess.
You can tell.
People still write checks instead of scan QR codes.
AM radio has the largest listening audience.
Everything comes with a price tag. Nothing is free, including water.
Software still has the same functionality as it did in the 1990’s, only now it has a nicer interface, but you must pay for updates and it auto copies your work “to the cloud” for governmental purposes.
China is different.
They have implemented 5G everywhere. There are cameras everywhere. And instead of paying people to collect welfare, have free healthcare, and protest for more goodies, China puts them to work. They are employed. They build things, clean things, work on things and monitor things.
Yes, and Hong Kong is constantly being monitored.
China is aware of everything.
One of the mysteries that I had was why didn’t the Chinese just “take out” the agitators? I mean, it was public knowledge who they were.
The HK populace are getting increasingly pissed off with the Antifa-style interruptions, and they are actively unmasking (literally) the protester participants. And, of course, everyone knows that everything you do is tracked in China. HK is NOT an exception.
So why not “take out the agitators”?
And then they actually did…
On Wednesday 4SEP19, President Trump reached out to China’s President Xi in a tweet:
“I know President Xi of China very well. He is a great leader who very much has the respect of his people. He is also a good man in a ‘tough business.’ I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it. Personal meeting? ”
-Donald Trump
So what is Donald Trump saying?
That’s he’s ready to stop the HK protests if Xi Peng negotiates.
Or, perhaps that China can use their military to enter HK.
So.. the Chinese went forth and rounded up all the CIA related NED operatives in Hong Kong.
The video footage was pretty darn dramatic.
It’s all in 5G. You can even count the eyebrow hair on the American CIA agents. The Chinese had everything. From complete transcripts of the CIA instructing the rioters in “soft conflict” designed to provoke a military reaction, to a second by second, “walk through” where Trump advisors worked out planning with the protest leadership.
It’s all there.
Not televised in the USA, though.
Man! The Chinese knew everything!
People, it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with American presidential aides!
Check out the photo below. Notice the angle of the photo. Taken by an object on a dining room table. (Below belt level.)
People,
it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK
protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with
American presidential aides in the HK Marriot hotel!
This is very very embarrassing. Julie Eadeh, a US diplomat in Hong Kong, was caught meeting HK protest leaders. It would be hard to imagine the US reaction if Chinese diplomat were meeting leaders of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter or Never Trump protesters. pic.twitter.com/JfiU2O2HZq
— Chen Weihua (@chenweihua) August 8, 2019
Of course, this kind of nonsense won’t be tolerated by China.
The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong submitted a formal complaint with the US consulate general, calling on the US …
“to immediately make a clean break from anti-China forces who stir up trouble in Hong Kong, stop sending out wrong signals to violent offenders, refrain from meddling with Hong Kong affairs and avoid going further down the wrong path.”
The Chinese knew everything.
Everything. And they expected the United States to realize (and expect it).
They didn’t.
From the moment that Julie Eadeh stepped foot in Hong Kong, to how many steps she took to the elevator. They knew her heart-beat as she rode in the elevator in the Marriott. They even knew the color of the bra and panties that she wore. (Well, at least that is the current joke on Chinese social media…)
They know everything she said with the young protestors.
Everything.
Everything. From, promises, various “guarantees”, words of support and hope for assistance. As well as implications and guarantees of a cushy future and financial support in all sorts of ways. Any outsider can clearly see the implied promises under the veneer of political jargon.
Promises of free high-end university schooling .
Promises that they will be backed politically and that they will become the future leaders of HK.
Promises of houses, cars, and lifestyle,
Promises of money, lots and lots of money.
As well as who they are, and what they told her. Then they used “Minority Report” style technology to back-track and see who all the connections and phone calls that the confederates made. They had full conversation records, don’t you know.
The Chinese knew everything.
Of Course the CIA instructed the protestors.
It’s all on video. It’s all recorded in audio, and transcribed in English, Cantonese and Chinese. And then, then… then, plastered all over social media for the Chinese to see. Woo woo. What ever the American media is saying, the videos that the rest of the world watch clearly show that the United States is LYING.
It makes the United States look like some kind of Keystone Kops.
The protestors were instructed by NED to take out cameras and video systems. They were told to use black cans of spray paint.
Yes, but every can of black spray paint purchased in Hong Kong is recorded with a video of the person buying the paint. The Chinese government knows the person who bought the paint, and can make reasonable assumptions on it’s use. (The Chinese do not need to prove intent in a court of law.)
They were instructed to post flyers on the walls, use glue to hold them in place, and make banners.
But, every printer shop is under surveillance. Every one has video cameras installed. They know who ordered the flyers. They even have the PDF artwork in digital file from which the flyers were made. They know who ordered the fliers, when they ordered, who they paid and from which bank account. They also know the moneys that went into that bank account and who deposited the money.
They were instructed to leave their phones at home. And, I am sure that this helped. Maybe.
However, every person in China has a profile of “normal” behavior. If you take your phone with you every day, and then suddenly on a day of protest, you phone is at you house of residence, when the video cameras show you leaving the house, the police pretty much assumes what you are up to.
They were instructed in what to do by the CIA under the assumption that the Chinese are a growing third-world nation. Maybe like Libya or Syria.
They are not treating China like a high-technology version of Japan. They are not treating China like a serious, serious, SERIOUS nation that does not play around.
Conclusion
All of China is wired as a high-technology surveillance center. The larger cities are all wired. The Western cities (Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing) pretty much follow the “London model” of domestic surveillance.
While America has been busy throwing money away …
In “NASA educational programs for elementary schools in the Sudan”.
War after war. Now, eight simultaneous wars.
And 15 miles of rail for a High Speed Train that was never intended to be anything other than a political slush fund to pay off people.
… the Chinese have been spending their money on their nation. Improving the roads, public transport, lines and means of communication, public works, buildings, and public health. Not to mention, planting trees, making parks, and increasing the amount of farmland.
And they are dead serious about it. These Chinese are very, very serious people. Those that oppose or try to siphon away money are seized, arrested and imprisoned by the corruption police.
The Chinese do not mess around.
Thus when the United States tried to use the same “play book” to agitate protests in Hong Kong in the Summer of 2019, the Chinese observed and leveraged that information. Then when the time was ready, they pounced.
Round #1 – China win. USA media oblivious.
I anticipate another series of protests that the Chinese will observe, and then quietly (behind the scenes) squelch. Maybe in the first week of October 2019.
They will do so and the American television viewing public will be confused. They will wonder “what is going on”? Why doesn’t China relent and allow HK to be just like America?
Round #2 – TBD
It’s because the main-steam media (both conservative and progressive) provides a skewed nonsensical narrative. One that has no bearing on the true and actual state of affairs. And that ignorance… will be what ultimately hurts and harms America.
People! Listen up!
America NEEDS a well-informed electorate to function properly. To think that the vast bulk of Chinese citizens, both on the mainland, and in Hong Kong want America “to save them” is ludicrous. Absolutely bovine excrement!
Looking at the big picture, it looks silly…
The truth about the HK pro-democracy movement and the tariff wars.
Just silly. It make the United States look… well… awful.
Predictions
I cannot predict the future. It has been my experience that the future will always certainly surprise. Anything can happen.
Anything.
Anything.
Donald Trump could be impeached.
Joe Biden or some other Marxist could become President.
Anti-gun house-to-house collection efforts might begin in earnest.
The USA could start a war with Iran.
Bacon could be banned all over America so not to offend Muslims.
Taxes could be raised 50% to fight global-warming.
Gender-neutral operations could be mandated in all American elementary schools.
I do not know what is going to happen. I am always taken by surprise, and I haven’t a clue as to what is going to happen in the future. Maybe some more of the old same-old same-old, eh?
The future will surprise…
I never expected “Joe Camel” to be banned in the United States “for the children”. Heck, by law, you had to be at least 16 years old just to be able to buy the cigarettes.
It has certainly surprised me. Time and time again, what I expected to happen, never came true…
I expected the United States to have a full colony on the moon by the year 2000. I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that the money would be funneled away for infrastructure investments in Russia! As well as some social re-engineering initiatives in Baltimore, Detroit and San Francisco.
Not just objectively, but socially as well, and on so many levels at that. Don’t you know.
I never expected that 007 James Bond would be replaced with a black woman. Never, in my wildest nightmares. It’s not yet released. I wouldn’t be surprised if she is some kind of transgender LGBT thingy.
The future cannot be predicted. Not by myself. Not by anyone.
I never, in my wildest dreams, expected companies to do away with free coffee and coffee services. That they would expect the employees to “chip in” and pay for the coffee that they would drink at work. Amazing, and completely unexpected!
The future will always surprise.
In the trade front, it’s all in flux. What I really hope for is a strengthening of relationships. I hope for balanced trade without influence by the greedy in Washington D.C. and a chance for American industry to recover from the devastation of the Marxist globalist agenda. I can see it being a win-win for both the USA and China.
Seriously! China is an enormous market. They would pay a premium (+50% more) for “Made in America” products. But that is never going to happen if China matches the Trump tariff scheme. It just will close American companies to the enormous Chinese consumer market.
Right now, and for the last three years, the tariff negotiations have been driven by the Neocon advisors to Trump. They have asked the impossible and set up road-blocks at every turn.
Jimmy
Lai (HK ultra-billionaire) meets with American VP Mike Pence. His goal
is to disrupt the relationship between the United States and China so
that he can have financial and economic advantage in Hong Kong. His
primary and sole goal is to INTERRUPT the relationship between China and
America.
This is actionable disruption, and while it might make some political “hay” in the short term, it will result in some real serious problems in America in the long term.
Donald
Trump fired John Bolton. He obviously felt that John Bolton was not
“on the same page” in resolving the issues with China at this time.
As I have previously stated, John Bolton is a war-hawk and a neo-con from the “deep state”. He has opposed every effort that Trump has made to negotiate with China, North Korea, and Iran. In his world view these are all dictatorial nations and America must stand firm in opposing them in every way possible.
Understand that the rest of the world does not think like Americans. They do not watch American media and do not care what Americans think. They will follow nations that seemingly benefit THEM in the future.
They will be selfish. They will work with nations that provide them with benefit.
That being stated, do not make dated assumptions on the inflated capabilities of the United States, and upon the out-of-date ideas about China. I said it once, I said it twice. I will say it again. China is a serious, serious nation. They DO NOT PLAY. We had best start treating them as such.
Finally.
Do not think that China is not afraid to kill a few people for the greater public good. They will do so in a heart-beat.
Do not judge China under the same criteria that you might judge America. It is like comparing apples to an oak tree.
Chinese Social Media
You do not need to rely on CNN, Fox or Rush Limbaugh for your news. You can [1] watch the videos of the CIA agents getting arrested yourselves. You can [2] read what the “Joe on the streets” thinks about the protests. You can [3] see what is going on in the other side of the world with your own two eyes.
America needs an informed electorate to function properly.
Here’s some links to Chinese social media. Warning, most are banned in the United States. You might need to use a VPN to use them. You do know that the Software moguls in California does not like competition.
I posted this article under “bloggers” in the Free Republic website, and was subsequently banned. I guess they do not like my opinions.
Never the less, immediately afterwards, it turned out the the United States government admitted that everything in this post is true, and that was posted on the well-known Washington Post.
Then they totally blocked me. Erased my 20+ years of articles and comments, and I became a non-person. That’s what “freedom of speech” is on Free Republic. You will conform to the Alt-Right narrative out of Washington DC, or you get destroyed.
Well, I was “killed”, but…
..everything I wrote was accurate, and real. And thus…
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Sunday had a call with President Donald Trump about gun control legislation. According to a statement from Democratic leadership, universal background checks are a non negotiable that must be included in any proposal Trump moves forward with.
People! A “universal background check” is a violation of the 4th amendment. Yeah, I know. It’s already violated left and right and every which way that you can think of. Indeed, the entire 16th amendment is a blatant violation of the 4th amendment on it’s face.
Fourth Amendment - Search and Seizure
Amendment Text | Annotations
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
And for all of you who are confused about the second amendment…
Second Amendment - Bearing Arms
Amendment Text | Annotations
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
All of this is silly.
The United States stopped being the land of the free the moment the 12th amendment was ratified. Good-by Republic. Hello to mob rule and manipulation by oligarchs. It’s just dying a long, slow death. That’s the way it is, and any protests from myself or others just fall on deaf ears. No one wants to hear all this. They want their feudal society, and us rabble had just better accept our place within that model.
From what I see, they are not giving up on this. They will push and push and push until something snaps. Though, I think that they have no fucking idea just how bad the snap will be. You have over three decades of rage built up inside of conservative patriots. They will not give any quarter.
And that, boys and girls, is the way it is.
About the picture, splash above…
Cambodian troops before they were disarmed by Pol Pot in 1970. Socialist Marxist Communist Pol Pot came to power in Cambodia in 1970. These troops were government military forces who were told by their leadership to hand in their weapons to the new government. They complied. They listened. They turned in their weapons. Every one of them were then systematically killed. Not one survived.
Not one person survived once they turned in their firearms to the new government. Not. One.
SHTF Related Index
This is a collection of my posts related to prepping, SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Posts Regarding Life and Contentment
Here are
some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you
might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up
in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society
within communist China. As there are some really stark differences
between the two.
More Posts about Life
I have
broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones
actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little
different, in subtle ways.
Funny Pictures
Be the Rufus – Tales of Everyday Heroism.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Everything that I need to know about Democracy, I learned in High School. It’s true. By the time I started work at 14, I had a very good understanding about how democracy worked.
Now, this wasn’t by sitting down in Civics Class. It wasn’t by listening to a teacher instruct us. It wasn’t by reading a book on politics. No. It was by my experiences on Student Council.
You know, it is absolutely amazing to me that I received such a profound understanding at such an early age. Even my father, a staunch liberal democrat, couldn’t wrap his arms around my perception of it. He thought that they must have been teaching me some very strange things indeed. Yet, here we were. I would come home from school with a perception of governance that was alien to everything that he believed In.
Let’s spend some time and take a look at what I learned.
Student Council was Comprised of the Most Popular Boys and Girls
While I cannot speak for every single school in the 1960s and 1970s, I can most certainly state that at my school this was true.
The most popular boys and girls were always able to get elected to class office.
In my school, the members on the student council were primarily the most popular students. Gender had no bearing on this. If you were a popular football player, or a popular cheerleader, your entry into Student Council was near guaranteed. Those who were not major figures in school sports and activities were always attractive.
We can see this clearly in the United States federal elections.
Consider who the winners of the Democrat Party have been. Let’s go back to when I was a little boy and have a gander, shall we;
John F. Kennedy
Jimmy Carter
Bill Clinton
Barrack Obama
All were young and youthful when elected. All, with the exception of Jimmy Carter, was considered by the media as a sort of sex idol. The stories of the sexual escapades of John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton are all over the place.
If they were all attending middle school together, I could easily see them on Student Council together.
John F. Kennedy would be the Football quarterback who was always joking around. The same would be true for George Bush.Jimmy Carter would be the quiet one who would be the first one in the meeting, and the last one to leave. He would have a notebook, pencil and a pocket protector.
Bill Clinton would enter the room like a talk show host, with one girl on each arm.
Both Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan would be outside in the hallway getting their pictures taken and signing autographs.
Then, old Barrack Obama would arrive about fifteen minutes late. He’d smell of marijuana smoke. He would grab a seat at the table, lean the chair against the wall. He’d put dark sunglasses on and tip his hat to cover his eyes. He would sit there and not say anything.
Elections were Won by those who Gave Away Things
One of the first lessons that I learned was that you got elected by giving things away. As amazing as this it, it was my most important lesson. It is true.
The first rule of getting elected is that you buy your votes. You can provide tangible benefits or gifts. Barring that, you can provide promises.
My next door neighbor was always getting elected to office in her class. She was one grade below me, and she must have been President for six or seven years in a row. I remember well talking to her about this. That was when she told me her secret.
Before each election, her parents would buy her a bag of candy or lollypops. Then she would give everyone a candy of lollypop if they voted for her!
It’s true, and more than that, it actually worked. They would go vote with the candy in their mouths. They would fill out the ballot sucking on the tootsie-roll, or lollypop. If she won, they were guaranteed to get another candy or maybe two after the election.
We can see this today.
Everyone who runs for election promises things to their constituents. Look at Bernie Sanders, for instance. He wants everything to be free. Of course he doesn’t mention or detail how it will be paid for. Maybe it’s from a big magical Santa Claus, or more than likely form the “evil” rich people.
Socialists and communists always have support of the arts. That’s one surefire way to tell who and what they are; if they have artistic political posters.
Of course, one of the most important lessons that I learned was that a promise means nothing. No one ever kept their promises. Even when there were friends and classmates that kept on reminding them of their promises.
At best they would say that things were more complicated than they thought at the time before the election. Or, more often than not, simply did not respond to the accusations. Some of the smarter ones would say that they were “working on the issues”, but of course, they never produced any results.
Endorsements Worked
I noticed that when a popular person endorsed you, you would get votes. I also noted that if a hated person, or disliked person was your friend, you would lose votes comparatively.
Cheerleaders were always popular. An endorsement from one of them would just about guarantee election success.
One year my younger brother ran for office. To help him get elected, my sister came to his rescue. At the time she was (perhaps) the most popular girl in school. She was smart, attractive, the head cheerleader, and was going “steady” with the captain of the football team. Yeah, by High School measurements, she was pretty “hot” stuff.
So my sister went to my brother’s home room, not once but numerous times. She mingled with the boys and girls there and make friends. Then she would tell them that her kid brother was running for election and that she would REALLY appreciate it if everyone would give him their vote.
Needless to say, he ran and won.
Vote Stuffing was Common
Of course, we always needed to recount the votes. In fact we needed to have different people counting the boxes of votes. And they needed to be watched carefully. Every election had fraud.
One of the most common frauds was that in a class of 400 people, there would be 500 votes counted. People from other classes would vote. Some people would vote twice. And, some votes were counted twice by those counting the votes.
It’s not the people who vote that count. It is the people that count the votes. It is a great quote by Joseph Stalin.
Another thing was that sometime students would get to bring cousins or friends to school with them. This was not a common occurrence. However, during key elections there would be an increase in these visits, and often they would be able to vote right along with the rest of the class. Even when they didn’t know anyone, they still voted. Often time, they would be instructed on whom to vote for.
It was common that the class with the most voting fraud was also the ones who said that there wasn’t any vote fraud at all. It seemed like there was a direct correlation; if you were trying to rig an election, you would be the one to shout “discrimination” the loudest.
Today it has become so easy to rig an election. As many voting machines are electronic. A person with the right software can easily reset the machines to vote for anyone.
Followers went around People who had Something to Offer them Personally
Another thing that I noticed was that certain people had followers. I am sure that the reader has noticed this. Some people have followers. These people hang around them, and nod in agreement with every word that they say.
If the boy was a star quarterback, for instance, he would be surrounded by other popular football players. He would have some attractive cheerleaders around him as well. If the girl was particularly attractive, she might have other girls, not necessarily cheerleaders, who wanted to hand out with her.
Some people end up having followers or groupies. Anyone can be a follower. That can include newscasters. I am sure that this gal would do anything that this man asked.
These followers weren’t there because they were being paid. No. Instead they were there because the followers would gain something from latching and attaching themselves with the person. Plain girls would suddenly become more popular if they hung around with a popular and attractive girl. Guys might be invited to some get-togethers and parties. Some would benefit in other ways. For instance, one of my friends was always able to get a ride home from the school by hanging around with more popular kids with cars.
We can see that today.
Look at the Clintons, for instance. There is a term “the cult of the Clintons” that describe this phenomenon quite aptly. It is just like in High School, except on GMO-steriods.
“By the Cult of Hillary Clinton, I don't mean the nearly 62 million Americans who voted for her. I have not one doubt that they are as mixed and normal a bag of people as the Trumpites are. No, I mean the Hillary machine—the celebs and activists and hacks who were so devoted to getting her elected and who have spent the past week sobbing and moaning over her loss. These people exhibit cult-like behavior far more than any Trump cheerer I've come across.Trump supporters view their man as a leader "fused with the idea of the nation"? Perhaps some do, but at least they don't see him as "light itself." That's how Clinton was described in the subhead of a piece for Lena Dunham's Lenny Letter. "Maybe [Clinton] is more than a president," gushed writer Virginia Heffernan. "Maybe she is an idea, a world-historical heroine, light itself," Nothing this nutty has been said by any of Trump's media fanboys."Hillary is Athena," Heffernan continued, adding that "Hillary did everything right in this campaign… She cannot be faulted, criticized, or analyzed for even one more second."That's a key cry of the Cult of Hillary (as it is among followers of L. Ron Hubbard or devotees of Christ): our gal is beyond criticism, beyond the sober and technical analysis of mere humans. Michael Moore, in his movie Trumpland, looked out at his audience and, with voice breaking, said: "Maybe Hillary could be our Pope Francis."Or consider Kate McKinnon's post-election opening bit on SNL, in which she played Clinton as a pantsuited angel at a piano singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," her voice almost cracking as she sang: "I told the truth, I didn't come to fool ya." Just imagine if some right-leaning Christian celeb (are there any?) had dolled up as Trump-as-godhead and sang praises to him. It would have been the source of East Coast mirth for years to come. But SNL's Hallelujah for Hillary was seen as perfectly normal.”
-Reason.com
Followers surround a person or celebrity precisely because they will benefit from it in some way. Indeed, there are “groupies” that follow elected officials around. The gals will volunteer for any and all work, just to get near a noted personality. Of course, there are other activities that take place in private that involve these groupies and followers.
When I ran for student government, I would make banners, put up posters and go from room to room making speeches. Others, didn’t need to. It was almost like they didn’t need to do anything. They were elected automatically.
Some were elected because they were part of a dynasty. They had older brothers and sisters who were popular and attractive. When their relatives or younger brethren ran for government, they were often associated with the more popular children, even if they weren’t popular at all.
Some just had a reputation. If you were part of an unpopular group, you were always associated with that group. Even if you tried to distance yourself from it. No amount of posters, or speeches could change that fact.
Some were elected because a popular person had a relationship with them. One friend was elected because he had an ongoing relationship with the head cheerleader. He wasn’t anything special to look at, he wasn’t smart. He wasn’t popular. He wasn’t a football player. However, he had a very popular and attractive girlfriend. That was enough.
In short, none of these individuals were elected based on any tangible ability. They were elected on association. Either they had relatives that were popular, or they had friends that were popular. If they were associated with something unpopular or unattractive, they were shunned.
Governance had Nothing to do with Ability
At no time was anyone elected to school council based on ability. No one showed their report card. No one compared grades, sports scores, or participation in extra-curricular activities.
They were elected by mob rule based on the factors that appealed to the mob.
We see that today with many people in government, and most especially elected officials, completely ignorant of the law. They do not know even the basics of the United States and how it is structured. That includes Federal Senators that should know better.
How else can you explain the clowns that are constantly being elected to Congress today?
Power was Easily Abused
One of the first things that you learn in High School is that when you are elected, you get to make up the rules. As Class President, I was able to set aside meetings, and pronouncement. I could control whether or not a club could have money for a parade float, or how the Senior Prom would be constructed.
As a result, I discovered that I had many people coming to me asking for favors.
These favors could be given at will, or for a price. The bigger the request the larger the price I could ask. I quickly learned that I could trade favors for advantage. If I wanted to be popular with a group of girls (for instance), I could help them out in things that appealed to them. Once, there was a group of girls who I enjoyed study-hall square-dancing with, by granting them the freedom to decorate the “Home Room”, I garnered favor with them. That favor was translated into a positive reputation for all of their friends.
Heck, I even got a free pizza out of it! When a group of pretty girls take you out and buy you a pizza, that’s big news when you are 17 years of age!
Pizza is one of my favorite foods. I like the New York style pizza. It’s a nice and tasty think crust pizza. I also enjoy a nice Chicago “deep dish” style pizza. That is very delicious. I like sausage and pepperoni and olives. I also have to admit in enjoying hamburger on it was well.
Today, as an older man, I can easily see how power is constantly abused and misused. This can be anything from using government airplanes, to skimming off the top and getting kick-backs on funding.
Many Opportunities for Embezzlement
I well remember that when I became Class President, I inherited a class budget of $240 dollars that had been collected over the years. During the year, I make sure that no money was spent on anything. Which, to the distain of the cheerleaders, was quite a negative. Never the less, they were able to, somehow fund their sock-hops, dances, car-washes, and parades. However, at the end of the year we only had $25 in the till. The Class Treasurer had no idea where the money went. It just disappeared.
Obviously someone’s hand was in the till. But whos? We’ll never know.
Which makes me remember all through that particular year. Numerous groups in the school wanted me to raise class dues. At that time, the dues were an enormous $5/year. It might not sound like much today, but at that time, it was considered rather excessive. They wanted to increase it to $10/year. Later, I found out that they really just wanted it to be $8/year, but they were aiming high and negotiating downward.
They had stated that the increase was to take care of basic class materials that was not covered by the school. This included such things as disposable paper plates and plastic tablecloths for a planned outing and class trip. It also included such things as snacks and fixings for sandwiches.
I later noticed, when I went through the purchased groceries that many of the items were tagged “buy one get one free”, yet only one item was included in the package that I reviewed. For example, there was a large bag of Lays potato chips. On it was a sticker that said “two for the price of one” and a green piece of tape that was clear evidence that another bag was attached to it. Yet, the other bag was missing. Where did it go?
Obviously the person who bought the items kept some of the items for themselves. Also when reviewing the items, I noted that there were some items that were paid for, but that were not given to the class. These things included cigarettes, some candy bars, two bags of potato chips and some other minor items.
One can only imagine what these individuals would do if they had access to a multi-million dollar budget.
Pallets of $100 bills were flown to Iran in unmarked planes and given freely to them by President Obama. This was done without approval by Congress or the Senate, and without any signed agreement with Iran.
Friends were promoted to Positions of Power
Another thing that I noted had to do with friends and associations. If a task needed to be done, and it was a desirable task, friends were elected to do it. For instance, once we needed to take a ride out to a nearby town and buy some paint. The lucky people who were to do this had no time limit on getting the paint. As such, they could actually take the entire half of the day off to do that simple one hour task.
Obviously, friends were selected to assist them in these tasks.
Isn’t that the same way today. Look at the “deep state” that is dogging every single thing that President Donald Trump is trying to do. Yet, they had no problem implementing every program or task the President Obama was involved in. We can also well remember the fiasco with the “Travel Office” when Bill Clinton was in office. Of course, his presidency was not free of controversy. Consider the issues found HERE and HERE.
Ah. Just another day in politics. Yuck.
Perks of Office could be Expanded Upon Easily
Another thing that I learned was that I could create perks of my office. I could also expand upon those perks.
For instance, the class president did not get anything other than a title. Yet, I noticed that in a grade below me, somehow the class president was able to get to use an unused closet as a storage location. Using that as a precedent, I was able to convince the school to let “us” students on the school council have access to an unused room in the basement. They granted us that ability.
High School in the 1970s permitted us a lot of free time to get involved in various school activities.
Using that, we were able to decorate it. As I was the president of the oldest class, I discovered that I was able to “boss around” or influence the other class presidents. I was able to dictate how the room was to be decorated, and who got to use it and what times they could come and go. I soon discovered that only my class was the only class using that room.
Using our influence, we were able to convert that room into a class lounge. It was used for our class only, and none of the other students outside of our class could have access to it.
Blue-Ribbon Panels were set up to Justify the Status-Quo
Since we now had a class lounge, a method of being able to leave class and visit the lounge needed to be put into effect. So, in short order we created a series of automatic “get out of class” privileges which enabled us to go to the lounge provided the student met certain criteria.
Eventually we negotiated to get the criteria dropped, and we even set up a committee (a “blue ribbon” committee) to determine who could have access to these vaulted hallway privileges.
Of course, the entire game was rigged. Our friends and associates could access the hallways and roam at will. Others would need to provide us favors or pay a small fee to get let into the game. This could include cash, but more often or not it involved a pack of cigarettes or a six pack of beer.
Now, you can’t tell me that this doesn’t go on in Washington, D.C. can you?
Checks and Balances were Weak or Nonexistent
One of the great things that I discovered was that aside from the regular day-to-day student life, no one was policing our actions. With the understanding that we were members of the Student Council and that we had various student related “things” that we were involved in, we could leverage that knowledge to our advantage.
For instance, I could take time off and visit my friends at a vocational-technical school socially (and get them out of class). I would just make up an excuse and there we could meet. I could roam the halls at will. I could skip out of class early and arrive late. I could take long lunch periods and I could have access to forbidden areas of the school, such as the locker rooms, the weight room, the school yard, and the parking lot. All without trouble.
Having the title gave me privileges.
Even though there were other students who saw the scam, and enemies or jealous students tried to curtail my efforts, they were ineffective. For the school teachers point of view, as well as the administration, I had the right to do what I was doing. It did not matter how far I pushed the envelope, as long as it did not interfere in the education of the rest of the school.
As such, I did take full advantage of this.
My Father Didn’t Understand
My father was unable to understand why I was not a liberal democrat like himself. I think that he took it as a personal affront, or maybe he thought that I was “brainwashed” by the school. Yet the truth is that the school afforded me an education that no book-learning in Civics Class could ever do. It gave me the opportunity to see how governance worked within a democracy.
For that is exactly what was provided in school; democratic elections were each person got one vote.
It was mob rule by disinterested classmates. Many of which couldn’t care less who was going to be the class president or the class officers. They actually were (in some cases exactly) the “unwashed masses”.
Here’s to my father. He meant well, but he did not understand human nature very well. The United States is not a Democracy, it is a Republic. It is not, and should not ever be subject to mob rule.
Now my father was always trying to impress upon me that being in political office was a big responsibility. He wanted me to understand that I could do great things while in office. He wanted me to appreciate the opportunities that it gave me to help others and to better the lives of my fellow man.
Heck, I just needed the experience so that I could qualify for the United States Air Force Academy.
Take Aways
Human nature does not change when a person becomes an adult.
Democracy is actually organized mob rule.
The person who can best control the mob, can rule over them.
The United States is a Republic, not a Democracy.
The individual states that comprise the United States are set up as Democracies.
All of the problems that I experienced in student government, manifest in State and Federal governments.
Those whom enjoy money, power and fame gravitate to politics.
Most politics in America today is mostly as a specator sport.
RFQ
Does anyone have a better idea?
All my life, as an American I was taught the superiority of a republic. I was also taught how important (and great) that America was a democracy. That way, everyone had a (theoretical) say in the governing of their life. I was taught the dangers of socialism, and particularly communism. I was told the benefits of democracy in making America great.
However, as I have traveled, lived life, experienced life, and generally lived in places that were considered Hell-holes (when I was growing up), I have come to question this narrative. I am not the only one, either…
"Certainly there are more clever and nefarious, but the fact that imbeciles like Maxine are actually voted into policy making, authoritative positions, demonstrates that we have failed miserably."
-1981XLS Comment
In fact, I have come to ask some pretty blistering questions. These are questions that I would have never asked earlier.
Is “democracy” a superior way of governing a society? Obviously the founders of the United States didn’t think so. Read the Federalist Papers. They despised democracies.
Is a “republic” a superior way of governing a society? With all the ills that America has today, especially in light of it actually being a oligarchy for all practical purposes, perhaps it really isn’t.
Is “free market” communism a superior way of governing a society? It seems to be working quite well for China. At least, mind you, for now.
Is a “theology” a superior way of governing a society? After all, both the Vatican, and Iran are theologies. I never hear about starving children in either of those nations, nor do I hear about crime or any of the ills that seemingly plague America today.
Now, the reader should not misunderstand me. I am not throwing out the American constitution with the “bath water”. I am just questioning things that I have always (up to now) took as immutible truths.
"It is indeed a slow motion train wreck......there comes a point when the level of retardation has momentum of its own, not easy to turn around by any means. Such are the forces of history and crowd psychology. Another evolutionary cul de sac of yet more ideas that were hijacked and rammed into the ground by the same group of psychopaths, and their dumb followers.
The institutions mankind created with the birth of "civilization" a few thousand years ago, - namely the state, propaganda, banking, religion and military, have morphed into monstrosities, hijacked by sociopaths at every level. Mankind went from the tribal collective connected spiritually with the Earth, to a mass manufactured plantation farm, disconnected from its Earthly roots. There are bubbles of freedom here and there, for those of us who actually know what freedom means, but most are hopelessly enslaved zombies.
Freedom come with caveats, like, responsibility, - something most people wish to escape from. While the "leaders" invented the limited liability corporation to avoid accountability of their own actions, and forego skin in the game. Many of these institutions enable bad decision making.
Many people don't even know what to do with freedom, so they fall back onto the lame, default expectations of mainstream society and its stupefying culture."
-Brazen Heist Mon, 05/14/2018 - 18:16
Perhaps we need to take a good hard look at what America has actually turned into and what it is today. We need to see the influences on governance, and how they affect the bulk of Americans in society today. We need to really understand our global role as it is [1] ill defined, and [2] manipulated substantially for [3] the gains that do not benefit the average American.
We need a top-down rethinking of the American governmental structure.
We need to take in account;
The needs of the individual.
The global relationship of America to other nations.
The Rights all humans have, and a way of protecting them from elected officials.
Controls to prevent mob rule.
Controls to prevent tyrannity.
Controls to prevent the government to being an all-powerful entity.
The role of justices and courts and how to enforce universal fairness.
Controls to prevent rules, laws, bureaucracies, and out of control spending.
The individual need for privacy in our personal papers and day to day life.
I, myself, have no easy answers. What I do know is that older civilizations and cultures do not utilize democracies as stable vectors for long-term governance of their societies. I would like to hear your view on this.
FAQ
Q: Did you ever make a student council speech?
A: Yes. Of course I cannot remember it. I do remember that I spent about an hour on it, and I was amazed how well thought out it sounded. I also remember how it was delivered. It would have been fine except that there were audio problems at the time. Audio problems, I later found out was actually sabotage by a rival confederate.
Q: What were the student council positions available to you?
A: President, Vice President, Treasurer, Master at Arms, and archivist. I only ran for president when I was running for anything. My motivation was positions that looked best on school records.
Q: What were student council elections like?
A: Mimeographed sheets of those who were running for government was presented to all of us. Those who were running were not permitted to vote. So we stood outside in the hallway while the votes were in process. The voter would check off who they would want for each position. Only one vote per position was allowed.
Q: How often were the meetings for student council?
A: I seem to remember that they were held about once a month. However, they could have been easily head weekly. It all depended on who was in charge at the time.
Q: What were class elections like?
A: They were the same as the Student Council elections, only that everyone could vote. This would include the candidates. Prior to the vote there would be a chance for each of us to make a speech or a pitch as to why they would make a good candidate. When I ran for class President, I ran on a platform with a VP, treasurer, and a master of arms.
Q: Did you hold any elected position in your class?
A: Yes. I was the class President.
Q: What happened to your High School?
A: It was incorporated with another school in a bigger town in the 1990’s. The school building was abandoned for about five years, and then the town repurposed it for the town offices and civic storage.
Q: Do you think that State and Federal elections are the same as the elections that you had in school?
A: Yes. The only different is in scale. The rewards are greater, as is the potential for fraud.
Free Republic Posting
This post was introduced to Free Republic on 27JUL18. You can read the comments HERE.
Posts Regarding Life and Contentment
Here are some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society within communist China. As there are some really stark differences between the two.
More Posts about Life
I have broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little different, in subtle ways.
Stories that Inspired Me
Here are reprints in full text of stories that inspired me, but that are nearly impossible to find in China. I place them here as sort of a personal library that I can use for inspiration. The reader is welcome to come and enjoy a read or two as well.
The BBC’s editors yesterday printed the article (above) — but sprinkled it with links (see picture below) which powerfully proved the critics’ point that the BBC is biased against China.In effect, the BBC said “we’re not anti-China — by the way, here’s a link to an article showing how China is a dystopian hellscape! And another one. And another one. And another one. And . . “.It’s hard not to laugh.
E-Hang’s electric VT-30 travels 300km in 100 minutes. With eight propellers, two fixed wings, and a propeller at the rear, it achieves a balance of hybrid lift and push, so needs no runway. Its tri-redundant, fly-by-wire controls can be flexibly altered for multiple modes, implying a much higher safety level for the aircraft. 
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