Tomb sweep festival in April 2022 with discussions on submarine activities, Ukraine, and whittle-marked bottles

" ...the idiots running Finland... seem to have chosen the moment before the fall of the US Empire to join up with NATO, presumably in order to enjoy the descent. Its like ski jumping for politicians." 

-MoA commenter on the decision of the Findland Leadership to join NATO after Russia used military-technical measures to secure it's borders from NATO

When I was a young boy growing up inside the United States in the 1960s it was a different time, and a different place. People all worked, and felt good about themselves. Families were almost all single-earner housholds, and everyone had hpe for the future. Sure, it was in the midst of the cold war, but we all trusted our government, and believed in our leaders. We viewed our lives as being special and exceptional and righeous. We would eat good and healthy meals with meats and fresh vegitables daily. The father, as the head of the family would sit at the head of the table. We participated in sports, and games, and we watched television shows that reflected out hopes and dreams for the future. Here is  a fine example. You don’t have to watch the entire episode, perhaps maybe the first ten minutes, but you should all get a big kick out of this episode of “Voyage to the bottom of the sea”.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea S02E13 The Monster from Outer Space

It was pretty much standard fare for me and my siblings. My brother and I would watch these shows while we played with our erector sets, our chemistry sets, and toy guns. Maybe we too would be a hero and fight those pesky communists in the jungles of far away Vietnam. Oh, you know, we needed to do it. For democracy™ don’t you know. My mom spent most of her free time in the kitchen or the laundry room. She was always washing, cleaning or cooking. She was a machine! I only wish that I could tell her now, today, how much I appreciated what she did, and how her actions really influenced my early years in school. In the early 1960s we had a station wagon. It’s sort of like a low-ceiling mini-van, for those of you who were unaware. Us kids would love to sit in the flat back. We could spread out and stretch our legs back there. It probably would have also made a great place to make out with our (ten years later) girl friends. Alas, they went out of fashion and style. For most of my elementary school years I had this terrible crush on this really thin girl named Nancy P. I thought that she was beautiful, but I was so shy and every time I tried to talk to her I froze up. My sister didn’t help either, always constantly berating me, and embarrassing me when I started to talk to the girls in school. But times change, we age, and grow and experience life. I can positively say that the life I have led, and the experiences that I have had, bore absolutely no resemblence to the news, predictions, and movies of that time and place. And with that in mind, please remember that what you read, and experience today in the media “news” probably has very little resemblance to the actual reality that will influence your life in your future. Never the less, let’s go over some articles during this most signifigant and historical time…

US Dollar Hegemony Ended Abruptly Last Wednesday

Interview with Margaret Flowers, Clearing the Fog

Homestyle Sloppy Joes

Growing up though the 1960s and 1970s was a tale of (mostly) good eating. I must admit, however, that my mother tended to over rely on canned foods, and often used prepackaged mixes to make quick and easy meals for us kids. For sloppy joes, my mother would use a can of sloppy joe mix, and that was my sole experience with home-made sloppy joe sandwiches. Then, one day, I tried some made “from scratch” at a friends house. And, I have to tell you all, things haven’t been the same since. Give this recipe a try and see what you think.

Homestyle Sloppy Joes2 ArticleImage CategoryPage ID 956085
Homestyle Sloppy Joes
This classic all-American favorite tastes so much better when made with your own fresh ingredients. This homemade or homestyle Sloppy Joes are sink-your-teeth into ’em good!

What You’ll Need

  • 2 to 2-1/2 pounds ground beef
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 green bell pepper, chopped
  • 2 (15-ounce) cans tomato sauce
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 6 sandwich rolls or hamburger buns, split, buttered, and toasted

What to Do

  1. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown ground beef, onion, and green bell pepper 7 to 9 minutes, or until no pink remains in beef; drain off excess liquid.
  2. Add remaining ingredients except sandwich rolls; mix well. Reduce heat to low and simmer 8 to 10 minutes, or until heated through, stirring occasionally. Serve sandwich-style spooned into buns.

This month will decide world politics for next 30+ years

"Where are all the dead Russians?"

Indeed.

What happens here (and how it happens) will determine the fate of Russia, the Ukraine, Europe, and U.S. global military hegemony (to include on the Pacific Rim) for decades to come.  

If Russia is able to complete its Donbass mission by the end of April as I have predicted, then Uncle Sam’s Ukraine project is basically over—we’ll have to find another stick to poke in Russia’s side, and to keep our military-industrial lobby in the bonbons. 

Read more… Read more... .

The old blacksmith building

When I was growing up I lived in a small town of East Brady on the Allegheny river in Western Pennsylvania.  It was a tiny town with perhaps 6000 residents. When I was in fifth grade I used to go forth and hike in the woods and along the railroad tracks. There, I would discover old trash dumps from a hundred years ago. And well, being young kids, we would go and dig in those dumps searching for old bottles to clean and collect. The most prized were whittle-marked bitters.

R C.ad858c72c891d91f4cdc1c0d8989f004
A prized treasure.
In the single ravine in the town was a viaduct, and at the bottom of that ravine was this old boarded up building. It was the size of a small house, and painted an off yellow. It’s painted letters were faded, but still readable. It was an old blacksmiths shop. And of course, being kids we would wiggle our way inside that old decrept structure to scrounge around for treasures and curiosities. Inside the walls were covered with one hundred year old newspapers, placards and advertisements. There were some old moldy leather pistol hosters on the walls, as well as a bunch of big crock-pots. Dust and stacks of old news papers lay everywhere. Oh, sure we hand picked a few “treasures”, at that time we knew it was wrong, but you see, we felt that we (collectors of old bottles) appreciated the treasures that we found. Not the actual owners of the objects. Of course, we learned over time that this was wrong. But maybe we were the exception. After all, look at who is running the United States and the rest of the West today. They obviously are unable to tell right from wrong…

Ukraine Bioweapons labs

Interesting. Now, the official U.S. semantics have changed. All references to the bio-labs in Ukraine has been revised.

  • The initial spin was firm denial that the labs produced “bioweapons” (i.e. they were public health laboratories).
  • That has now been corrected and updated with an additional qualifier (“offensive”):

Pentagon official: “I can say to you unequivocally there are no offensive biologic weapons in the Ukraine laboratories that the United States has been involved with.” US Defence Department $200 million program since 2005 for 44 labs in Ukraine. USA says... .

Speaking of the bioweapons labs, look what was found by the Russians…

Somebody may find these US patents interesting:

(both were shown on the Russian MOD slides a couple of days ago). You cannot patent an idea, but you can patent an implementation. However, as soon as you implement something like the above two, you are possibly in violation of the various international treaties. Mosquitoes carrying “smallpox / aids / coronavirus” franken-viruses… You know, now that the United States is openly advancing war against Russia and China in every way except in open kenetic fighting, what do you think would happen if Asia decides to put an end once and for all to the horrible out-of-control United States monster?

Submarine 667-A Navaga scale model

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Submarine 667-A Navaga scale model
The model is made in the scale of 50:1, with internally illuminated compartments, and breakdown view, like all previous submarine projects. Building the model took two years by 6 people, part by part (nose, aft), collection of information and photographs took about 4 months more. The model is very large, it is 2,700 mm long. It was therefore decided to make it from two parts. Otherwise, it would be impossible neither to take it out of the room, nor to transport it. The body is made of laminated fiberglass. The materials used ranged from plastic and Plexiglas to metal, paper, and (new) sewer pipes. Next, you will find many photos and little text Figures of sailors were made of sets of pilots and airfield staff made by various companies in the scale of 48:1. They show all the flaws and shortcomings, but it is sometimes useful for work. Right in the model, one can fail to see them. The model was finished in 2013. Some “boxmakers” could see the aft part of the submarine at the Championship of Russia in 2013 at the Crocus Expo in Moscow.
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All this stuff about submarines…

It appears to be a subconscious theme running though MM this 4APR22. usually when MM picks up on these subconscious patterns it means that something is going on… …. be advised.

Day 36 of the Russian SMO in the Ukraine – a look at Ukrainian military

Map on April first
Map on April first
Today, I want to comment on a topic I did not address yet: the quality of the Ukrainian armed forces. Over night, two Ukrainian helicopters flying at very low altitude and high speed flew across the Russian Ukrainian border, and in only six minutes of flight time found themselves next to a fuel storage facility near the Russian city of Belgorod.  They both fired, one missed, but the second one hit perfectly and the entire fuel storage facility ignited.  Not a big deal, the fire has been contained, but very embarrassing nonetheless 🙁 Another case: the night before yesterday a group of 5 Ukrainian helicopters took off from Nikolaev, flew 7 meters above the waves and landed in Mariupol.  Their mission  was to evacuate the leadership of the Azov force still hiding inside the Azovstal industrial facility. After they took off, two helicopters were shot down, but another three flew away, with a possible 3 helicopter ditching in the waters off the coast (unclear at this time). Why do I consider these two events very telling? Because it shows that the Ukrainian soldiers have A LOT of VERY REAL courage.  Not only that, in both of these operations, a great deal of careful planning went into the preparations of these missions.  So they are not only courageous, they are SMART. Yes, the Ukie Volkssturm is a joke, but not the entire Ukrainian military and most definitely not the Nazis of the Azov “battalion” (it is not really a battalion, but rather a regiment or a small brigade, but spread out in key sectors of the Ukrainian defenses).  Why is that so important to realize? Because a HUGE battle is preparing in the Donbass. Quick reminder: While nobody knows the true size of the Ukrainian force surrounded in the Donbass, most observers place that force at about 60-80 thousand men.  They are VERY well armed, courtesy of 7 years of mass delivery of weapons by the Empire of Lies.  Their defenses are very solid, since they have been preparing them also for seven years.  Furthermore, the Ukrainians are reportedly trying to bring in another major force from the central Ukraine to either reinforce their forces in the Donbass, or to help it to escape from their cauldron. On the other side, nobody really knows how many Russian/LDNR forces are being concentrated around the Donbass either.  There are reports of “immense” columns of Russian forces moving towards the Donbass, including some the Russian forces which were deployed near Kiev to pin down Ukrainian forces away from the Donbass. The same feint was used by the Black Sea Fleet off the coast of Odessa. There are two ways to control a road: you can stand on the road, place a roadblock, maybe lay mines and generally by physically on top of that road.  Or you can do that remotely, without stepping on the road but by being able to fire (small arms, RPG, artillery, CAS) at any vehicle driving on that road.  The Russian “encirclement” of the Ukrainian force in the Donbass into 2 small cauldrons which themselves are locked in a bigger cauldron are a mix of these two techniques.  In other words, the Ukrainians still have retained *some* ability to move on the ground.  But only at VERY high risk.  Keep in mind that the Donbass is pretty flat terrain and that the Russians have air supremacy.  But, with enough luck, immense courage and determination, some APC or cars could try to move out, or reinforcements move in.  Let’s look at these two options: Moving out: for a FEW vehicles, and with a lot of luck, that could still be doable.  But for the overwhelming majority of the Ukrainian force on the Donbass, this not an option.  Not only do they lack fuel, any big force would attract the attention of the Russians (which a 4 passenger car going at full speed in the dark might not) resulting in immediate strikes. Moving in: here the Ukrainian would still have fuel (or they would not even try, which they apparently  are), but the problem is that it is impossible to hide any significant force from the Russians which could then use their long range artillery and close air support to destroy that force.  I am personally very dubious as to the chances of any Ukrainian subunit to make it to the Donbass. And yet. The Ukrainian propaganda is beyond ridiculous, but we should NOT assume that if Ukie propagandists are clowns, so are the Ukrainian soldiers.  The fact is that the Ukrainians never had the initiative, and they still don’t, and all their counter-attacks, including the airstrike on Belgorod, only had a limited and local effect.  But that does not mean that they would not fight very hard for their lives, even when surrounded, even without air cover, with no ability to rotate forces and not enough fuel to engage in maneuver warfare. Here is what the map of the area of operations looks like today:
Map on April first
Map on April first
  • The yellow circle is roughly the area where the outcome of this battle will be decided.
  • The small black arrow represents the likely Ukrainian effort to send in reinforcements
  • The big black arrow represents the move away from Kiev and towards the Donbass by Russian forces

Speaking about maps: while they do, more or less, show the military reality on the ground, they do not show the political realities the same way.  The truth is that there are plenty of towns and cities which are blocked/surrounded by Russian forces, but which are still run by the “old”, Nazi, authorities.  Yes, the Russians could go in and denazify these town and cities manu militari, but that would take time, results in casualties on both sides and ruin the civilian infrastructure.  And the Russians sure don’t want, say, Kharkov to become a 2nd Mariupol.

[Sidebar: some of you must have heard that canard about the Russians “running out of ammo”, right?  Well, local residents near the Ukrainian positions in the Donbass report that for three days the Russian artillery has been shelling the Ukrainian positions nonstop.  In reality, anybody who has studied the Soviet and, later, Russian military knows that with the exception of some very modern systems which have just been deployed, Russia has huge stores of ammunition.  In fact, when the Russians prepare a military offensive the expenditures in ammo, POL, and any other form of logistics required are carefully calculated.  If not, then the order to attack will not be given.  And, with a few exceptions, the kind of hardware and supplies the Russians are using in the Ukraine is both modern and plentiful.  By the way, there are signs that the Ukrainian forces are running out of ammo, most of their shelling is directed at LDNR cities and result in scores of death and injured civilians on a daily basis]

One possible option would be to warn the Nazi authorities that while the Russian military won’t invade their city, the Russian can use special forces and means to target “just” these Nazi authorities.  Yes, the Nazi will set up traps, like, say, placing the cellphone of a Nazi leader right on top of a Kindergarten, so the Russian intelligence services will have to do a lot of careful preparations and planning, or just make the threat and then wait for the Nazis to freak out and wonder where the promised missile will be aimed at. All this means the following:

  • The Russians need to take the Ukrainians much more seriously and if that means having early warning aircraft and interceptors on combat air patrol 24/7 – then that is what the Russians should do.  A pair of MiG-31BM on constant high altitude CAP over the central Ukraine would be a good start.
  • While the outcome is not in doubt, the Russians need to be very careful and assume that the Ukrainians will fight with skills and courage.
  • I don’t like making predictions, even less so, time-related ones, but I think that we need to prepare ourselves for a major battle lasting several weeks, possibly even a month.
  • Have have to assume that the PSYOPs of the Empire of Lies will go in full attack mode, and since it will be very hard to make sense of what will be going on, we have to ready for a major attack on our minds.
  • Once that Ukrainian force in the Donbass is defeated this will basically mean the end of the 2nd phase of this Special Military Operation (SMO) and the very best and combat capable Ukrainian will have disappeared and a 3rd phase will begin, probably by an attack on the Nikolaev and Odessa regions.

Still, we need to remember that all wars are political in nature and that while the military “pain dial” is turned up quite high for the Ukrainians, the US PSYOPs are still telling the Ukrainians that they are winning and soon the first Ukie tanks will enter Moscow.  The de facto fall of Mariupol (as evidenced by the desperate attempts to evacuate the Azov leaders by helicopter) is already a major blow for the Ukrainian narrative.  But this blow pales in comparison to what will happen when the best forces the Ukraine has will simply disappear from the maps of the Donbass.  At that point, no amount of hot air, grand statements or other lies will make a difference – such a defeat is impossible to conceal, it will make the news. Furthermore, we need to keep another thing always present in our minds: while in actual combat the Russians are facing Ukrainians, in the war itself Russia is not fighting the Nazis in Kiev, but the US/NATO/EU and their vassal states.  It is also certain that the “Biden” administration does not want peace but, instead, they want that war to last as long as possible and to destroy as much of the Ukrainian population and civilian infrastructure as possible. And, of course, the Russians are not negotiating with the Nazis, they are negotiating with Uncle Shmuel via the Nazis.  Big difference.  Right now, some Ukrainians might be willing to look at reality and surrender just to save lives and the Ukrainian infrastructure.  But they know that the Nazis will kill them or kidnap their family members (as has happened to one Ukrainian mayor).  And these Nazis are taking orders only from many western “advisors” in Kiev who tell them “fight down to the last solider, then we will evacuate you“. You could say that the hardcore Ukronazis act like political commissars did during the Russian civil war. The Russians fought phase one of the SMO with a force which was deliberately kept smaller than the opposing Ukrainian force.  But against an elite Ukrainian force deeply dug in in the heavily fortified defenses Russia will have to to do some combination of two things: more man and more firepower.  And, by all accounts, that seems to be exactly what they are gearing up for. As many others have already pointed out, the chances of a false flag are extremely high, most likely some chemical attack, possibly in Kiev or Kharkov.  Such an attack, while fake, will result in the usual hysterics of the Empire of Lies, so we all need to prepare ourselves for this too. The Empire of lies is so desperate now, that US PSYOPs claim that the Russian generals are afraid of telling Putin the “horrible truth” and that Shoigu is preparing a coup against Putin.  Right now, the Ukronazis say that the Russians are on the run, but even the US Pentagon admits that the forces moved away from Kiev are only regrouping. Remember, in maneuver warfare you do not “hold terrain” anymore than you do in naval warfare, and that is what the first phase of the SMO was all about.  But in the Donbass, holding terrain will become much more important and since both sides are very skilled and courageous, do NOT expect big movements on the map.  Instead, expect several weeks of very severe “grinding down” of Ukrainian defenses followed by slow and deliberate movements, mostly short distance – from a few hundred meters to a few clicks. I hope that the above will be helpful once the 2nd phase is fully launched. One more thing: western military aid to the Ukraine.  Most of it is in Poland.  True, there is A LOT of western kit found in Mariupol or the Donbass, but that stuff was brought in long ago.  Just look at the map, look at where the Polish-Ukrainian border is and then look at where the yellow circle is.  In order to make a difference, western weapon systems need to get across the entire Ukraine and enter into a highly contested and dangerous area.  How can such a delivery be made?  Three options:

  • Road
  • Train
  • Air

In all three cases, if the force is tiny, say a few cars fill with MANPADs, there is a chance to make it, albeit a small one and such a “delivery” would be fantastically dangerous.  But the Ukrainians have now PROVEN that they can be very tough and very smart.  But such tiny reinforcements won’t make any difference.  Now a bigger force might, but it would be instantly detected and attacked by Russians standoff weapons, close air support and long range artillery.  So all this stuff about sending weapons to the Ukrainians really is a load of crap.  It’s just irrelevant fake news. So far the Russians did not consider such a possibility as significant, hence the fact that they did not blow up any bridges, remotely mined any roads or destroyed any train tracks (that I am aware of).  But if the risk of a significant reinforcements from the western Ukraine become a real threat, you can rest assured that the Russians will do all of the above, especially since there are very few towns and civilians in some parts of this track to the East. So far the Russian policy was to let the (covert) NATO forces to gather in an assembly area and only then hit them really hard.  This is a very effective strategy which the NATO forces have found no way to counter (if only because NATO air defenses are a joke, even against trans-sonic and subsonic missiles and drone). Finally, the Ukrainians don’t have any air force left, and no navy, but they have proven that they still can use helicopters flying very low and fast, especially at night when local air defense operators might mistake them for a Russian helicopter (friendly fire is always a major risk in warfare).  BTW – a helicopter is a hard target, not only do they fly very low, they can fly both fast (say to avoid a MANPAD) or very slow, to hide for fighters and interceptors. A slowly moving and low flying helicopter is a difficult target for fighter aircraft’s radar and infrared search and track system.  A hilly or mountainous terrain makes detection even harder. Russian attack helicopters all have air to air capabilities, both gun and missile, and so they can be very effectively used against Ukrainian helicopters (which are a full generation behind modern Russian helicopters) but you need to have them ready and you need to have them fly under air cover.  So that is doable, it just takes time.

Conclusion:

Phase one, pure maneuver warfare is over and it was a military success. Politically, it was pretty close to a failure, not only did the PSYOPS of the Empire of Lies totally crush the rather clumsy and primitive Russian counter-propaganda efforts, the Russians also failed to realize that they could not count on the local civilians authorities to simply do their job under a new flag. Which means that Russia failed to properly denazify even the towns and cities which were deep in the Russian rear.  Now that miscalculation will have to be fixed the hard way: with more men and more firepower. Phase two of this war will be the liquidation of the Donbass cauldron and it will decide the outcome of this war (not that this outcome was ever in doubt). On a personal note, I will only add that the past month has convinced me that Russia should NOT permanently occupy more of the Ukraine than the “full” LDNR plus the entire Ukrainian Black Sea coast.  But neither can Russia leave a the Ukraine like a Petri dish for Nazi toxins, so it seems to me that the optimal solution would be a breakup of the country into several successor states: neutral, with only police forces and light arms and with a clear understanding that Russia has the means to militarily intervene at any minute should the successor states attempt to violate their neutral, unarmed and denazified status. Will that happen? I don’t know, Putin has already surprised me twice with very risky operations which I would have recommended against (Syria and that “big” SMO in lieu of a “small” liberation of “just” the LDNR).  Considering that Russia has used only a small fraction of her armed forces, it is impossible for me to predict what Putin and the Russian General Staff will decide after the second phase of this SMO is over. Finally, I am going to take the next two days off, barring some major developments, of course. So until Monday, then, God willing. Andrei

Japan Blindly followed the United States to Sanction Russia ending with self infected injuries:

14 Japan Power Retailers Exiting Business as Energy Crunch Worsens . The war in Ukraine is making a bad situation worse for Japanese power providers struggling with the energy crisis, forcing more companies to quit the business. In the last month, at least four companies halted power retail operations, as a surge in wholesale electricity prices makes it challenging to procure stable supply and turn a profit. At least seven temporarily halted taking on new customer
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Zhao Condemns “Insane Actions” of West, Banning Russian Art and Literature, Stealing Private Property

Zhao Lijian (China) on Friday made some rather poignant statements about the behavior of the West in response to the ongoing border skirmish in the former USSR, calling it “insane.”

Zhao said:

I heard that Russian conductors were fired by orchastras in certain Western countries for refusing to condemn their motherland, and Russian movies were excluded from certain film awards. In university, the works of Dostoyevsky were banned. The display of the letter “Z” was banned in certain countries.

Western politicians often talk about how literature and art transcend borders, and the same goes for music. They also say “private property is inviolable.” So, what have these writers and musicians done wrong? Meanwhile, the private property of so many Russians has been frozen or confiscated.

Let’s hope that Western politicians will reflect on these principles they keep talking about. Their insane actions are not going to do anything good, and they’re not going to deescalate this situation. I hope that all parties can just calm down, and start working on peace talks, instead of escalating sanctions and tensions. 

Whatever you think of either side of this conflict, there cannot be any claim that the West has not consistently violated its own supposed “values,” and it’s important to point that out.

UNZ .

We seriously underestimated Russia and our own propaganda is killing us.

Remember when American analysts painted a very specific picture of the Russian armed forces, and it was proven completely wrong? The media seems to have memory-holed literally everything we’ve said about Russia for the past eight years, but I remember. The Russians (according to NATO) before Feb. 24:

  • Only capable of defensive and limited offensive operations
  • Transport limited and heavily dependent on railways
  • Logistical problems. Any large-scale offensive would need to be paused after three days due to logistical limitations.
  • A hypothetical Russian invasion could be defeated by a combination of air power and guerrilla warfare.

Here’s a [quoted] segment written by Alex Vershinin for War on the Rocks last November. This is the example I chose, and almost every other NATO analysis I read more or less matches up with this one – they were all based on the same wargames and studies by RAND. RAND. Eh? The same people who laid out the Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Taiwan “pivots”, as well as the Hong Kong, Tibet, and Uighur (Xinjiang) operations. Brilliant. They have a near perfect recod of FAILURE. Well Duh! .

Comment from “Don”

Im 61, ex military (r we eva ex?). 

Never seen so much media control, like a heavy fog, hence this site is valuable. 

My 2 cents worth. 

Never underestimate Russia, esp when run by team Putin. 

Dot points. 

Threat to north / Kiev brilliant magnet for drawing in UA resources away from South East. 

Divide and conquor, as Ceaser did, then destroy them piecemeal. 

Social meadia western armchair warriors will look more foolish as time moves on. 

Western fake news will increasingly reduce western credibility as the reality on the ground emerges. 

UA morale will fall rapidly like coming off two weeks of meth with only tabacco and vodka availiable. 

The UA is becoming a broken failed state. 

This tactic is detroying UA. 

Identify troop barracks in use, destroy with precision strikes overnight. 

Same therapy for fuel ammo, bases, supplies, defence industry transit routes i.e. railways. 

Rinse repeat. 

Let social media hype the underdog. That merely strengthens Russian resolve. 

Dont they understand Russians even a little? 

Meanwhile USA leadership weakness is a real eye opener. 

The US empire is disintegrating before it ever became civilized. 

Negotiations? 

Russia will be seen to be giving them a go. 

But UA will be broken up and lucky if it keeps Odessa. 

Biden let it out that US troops and Poland have a contingency. 

That is the west gets western UA as a neutered proxy with Nazis and Kiev. 

It will be kinda like West / East Germany. 

How this comes about I dont know. 

With Russian permission for starters and Russias security buffer intact. 

Bad ending predicted for Zel. 

Thats my take. 

Thats if we survive till then. No guarantees esp with team dementia, moron, dementia. 1,2,3 Biden Harris Pelosi. 

Prediction? 

Shit always goes down around Easter for some reason. 

We'll see...

Posted by: Dom

‘Rublegas:’ the world’s new resource-based reserve currency

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Rublegas is the commodity currency du jour and it isn’t nearly as complicated as NATO pretends. If Europe wants gas, all it needs to do is send its Euros to a Russian account inside Russia.

By Pepe Escobar, posted with the author’s permission and cross-posted with The Cradle

Saddam, Gaddafi, Iran, Venezuela – they all tried but couldn’t do it. But Russia is on a different level altogether. The beauty of the game-changing, gas-for-rubles, geoeconomic jujitsu applied by Moscow is its stark simplicity. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s presidential decree on new payment terms for energy products, predictably, was misunderstood by the collective west. The Russian government is not exactly demanding straightforward payment for gas in rubles. What Moscow wants is to be paid at Gazprombank in Russia, in its currency of choice, and not at a Gazprom account in any banking institution in western capitals. That’s the essence of less-is-more sophistication. Gazprombank will sell the foreign currency – dollars or euros – deposited by their customers on the Moscow Stock Exchange and credit it to different accounts in rubles within Gazprombank. What this means in practice is that foreign currency should be sent directly to Russia, and not accumulated in a foreign bank – where it can easily be held hostage, or frozen, for that matter. All these transactions from now on should be transferred to a Russian jurisdiction – thus eliminating the risk of payments being interrupted or outright blocked. It’s no wonder the subservient European Union (EU) apparatus – actively engaged in destroying their own national economies on behalf of Washington’s interests – is intellectually unequipped to understand the complex matter of exchanging euros into rubles. Gazprom made things easier this Friday, sending official notifications to its counterparts in the west and Japan. Putin himself was forced to explain in writing to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz how it all works. Once again, very simple: Customers open an account with Gazprombank in Russia. Payments are made in foreign currency – dollars or euros – converted into rubles according to the current exchange rate, and transferred to different Gazprom accounts. Thus it is 100 percent guaranteed that Gazprom will be paid. That’s in stark contrast to what the United States was forcing the Europeans to do: pay for Russian gas in Gazprom accounts in Europe, which would then be instantly frozen. These accounts would only be unblocked with the end of Operation Z, Russia’s military ops in Ukraine. Yet the Americans want the war to go on indefinitely, to “bog down” Moscow as if this was Afghanistan in the 1980s, and have strictly forbidden the Ukrainian Comedian in front of a green screen somewhere – certainly not Kiev – to accept any ceasefire or peace deal. So Gazprom accounts in Europe would continue to be frozen. As Scholz was still trying to understand the obvious, his economic minions went berserk, floating the idea of nationalizing Gazprom’s subsidiaries – Gazprom Germania and Wingas – in case Russia decides to halt the gas flow. This is ridiculous. It’s as if Berlin functionaries believe that Gazprom subsidiaries produce natural gas in centrally heated offices across Germany. The new rubles-for-gas mechanism does not in any way violate existing contracts. Yet, as Putin warned, existing contracts may indeed be stopped: “If such [ruble] payments are not made, we will consider this to be the buyers’ failure to perform commitments with all ensuing implications.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov was adamant that the mechanism will not be reversed under the current, dire circumstances. Still that does not mean that the gas flow would be instantly cut off. Payment in rubles will be expected from ‘The Unfriendlies’ – a list of hostile states that includes mostly the US, Canada, Japan and the EU – in the second half of April and early May. For the overwhelming majority of the Global South, the overarching Big Picture is crystal clear: an Atlanticist oligarchy is refusing to buy the Russian gas essential to the wellbeing of the population of Europe, while fully engaged in the weaponization of toxic inflation rates against the same population. Beyond Rublegas This gas-for-rubles mechanism – call it Rublegas – is just the first concrete building block in the construction of an alternative financial/monetary system, in tandem with many other mechanisms: ruble-rupee trade; the Saudi petroyuan; the Iran-Russia SWIFT- bypassing mechanism; and the most important of all, the China-Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) design of a comprehensive financial/monetary system, with the first draft to be presented in the next few days. And all of the above is directly linked to the stunning emergence of the ruble as a new, resource-based reserve currency. After the predictable initial stages of denial, the EU – actually, Germany – must face reality. The EU depends on steady supplies of Russian gas (40 percent) and oil (25 percent). The sanction hysteria has already engineered certified blowback. Natural gas accounts for 50 percent of the needs of Germany’s chemical and pharmaceutical industries. There’s no feasible replacement, be it from Algeria, Norway, Qatar or Turkmenistan. Germany is the EU’s industrial powerhouse. Only Russian gas is capable of keeping the German – and European – industrial base humming and at very affordable prices in case of long-term contracts. Disrupt this set up and you have horrifying turbulence across the EU and beyond. The inimitable Andrei Martyanov has summed it up this way: “Only two things define the world: the actual physical economy, and military power, which is its first derivative. Everything else are derivatives but you cannot live on derivatives.” The American turbo-capitalist casino believes its own derivative “narrative” – which has nothing to do with the real economy. The EU will eventually be forced by reality to move from denial to acceptance. Meanwhile, the Global South will be fast adapting to the new paradigm: the Davos Great Reset has been shattered by the Russian Reset.

Pretty Chinese girl

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A Pretty Chinese girl

With AI generated bunny ears. Um. It’s a Chinese thing, don’t you know. video 4MB

Another Pretty Chinese girl

A fine hourglass shape. video 2MB

Is It Possible to Actually Know What Has Been and Is Going On in Ukraine?

From HERE.

Just recently I came across perhaps the clearest and most reasonable account of what has been going on in Ukraine.

Its importance comes due to the fact that its author, Jacques Baud, a retired colonel in the Swiss intelligence service, was variously a highly placed, major participant in NATO training operations in Ukraine.

Over the years, he also had extensive dealings with his Russian counterparts. His long essay first appeared (in French) at the respected Centre Français de Recherche sur le Renseignement.

A literal translation appeared at The Postil (April 1, 2022). I have gone back to the original French and edited the article down some and rendered it, I hope, in more idiomatic English. I do not think in editing it I have damaged Baud’s fascinating account. For in a real sense, what he has done is “to let the cat out of the bag.”

In the past I’ve read accounts and reports that either confirm or in some way match the narrative that he offers. Some of these that I’ve written about or cited are by: Dr. John Mearsheimer, Archbishop Carlo Vigano, Glenn Greenwald, Sohrab Ahmari, Colonel Douglas Macgregor, Mike Whitney, and others. But none of these writers has offered the first-hand, in depth, and comprehensive account as Colonel Baud, clearly and knowledgeably, has done.

It is still a bit lengthy, despite my editing.

But I urge you to read and ponder Baud’s commentary. Along with the historical accounts of historian John Mearsheimer, it should be required reading for those zealous policy hawks, both in the GOP and the Democratic Party, who are pushing us into World War III:

The Military Situation In The Ukraine

https://cf2r.org/documentation/la-situation-militaire-en-ukraine/

March 2022 BY Jacques Baud

Part One: The Road To War

For years, from Mali to Afghanistan, I have worked for peace and risked my life for it. It is therefore not a question of justifying war, but of understanding what led us to it. [….]

Let’s try to examine the roots of the [Ukrainian] conflict. It starts with those who for the last eight years have been talking about “separatists” or “independentists” from Donbass. This is a misnomer. The referendums conducted by the two self-proclaimed Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in May 2014, were not referendums of “independence” (независимость), as some unscrupulous journalists have claimed, but referendums of “self-determination” or “autonomy” (самостоятельность). The qualifier “pro-Russian” suggests that Russia was a party to the conflict, which was not the case, and the term “Russian speakers” would have been more honest. Moreover, these referendums were conducted against the advice of Vladimir Putin.

In fact, these Republics were not seeking to separate from Ukraine, but to have a status of autonomy, guaranteeing them the use of the Russian language as an official language–because the first legislative act of the new government resulting from the American-sponsored overthrow of [the democratically-elected] President Yanukovych, was the abolition, on February 23, 2014, of the Kivalov-Kolesnichenko law of 2012 that made Russian an official language in Ukraine. A bit like if German putschists decided that French and Italian would no longer be official languages in Switzerland.

This decision caused a storm in the Russian-speaking population. The result was fierce repression against the Russian-speaking regions (Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Lugansk and Donetsk) which was carried out beginning in February 2014 and led to a militarization of the situation and some horrific massacres of the Russian population (in Odessa and Mariupol, the most notable).

At this stage, too rigid and engrossed in a doctrinaire approach to operations, the Ukrainian general staff subdued the enemy but without managing to actually prevail. The war waged by the autonomists [consisted in].… highly mobile operations conducted with light means. With a more flexible and less doctrinaire approach, the rebels were able to exploit the inertia of Ukrainian forces to repeatedly “trap” them.

In 2014, when I was at NATO, I was responsible for the fight against the proliferation of small arms, and we were trying to detect Russian arms deliveries to the rebels, to see if Moscow was involved. The information we received then came almost entirely from Polish intelligence services and did not “fit” with the information coming from the OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe]—and despite rather crude allegations, there were no deliveries of weapons and military equipment from Russia.

The rebels were armed thanks to the defection of Russian-speaking Ukrainian units that went over to the rebel side. As Ukrainian failures continued, tank, artillery and anti-aircraft battalions swelled the ranks of the autonomists. This is what pushed the Ukrainians to commit to the Minsk Agreements.

But just after signing the Minsk 1 Agreements, the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko launched a massive “anti-terrorist operation” (ATO/Антитерористична операція) against the Donbass. Poorly advised by NATO officers, the Ukrainians suffered a crushing defeat in Debaltsevo, which forced them to engage in the Minsk 2 Agreements.

It is essential to recall here that Minsk 1 (September 2014) and Minsk 2 (February 2015) Agreements did not provide for the separation or independence of the Republics, but their autonomy within the framework of Ukraine. Those who have read the Agreements (there are very few who actually have) will note that it is written that the status of the Republics was to be negotiated between Kiev and the representatives of the Republics, for an internal solution within Ukraine.

That is why since 2014, Russia has systematically demanded the implementation of the Minsk Agreements while refusing to be a party to the negotiations, because it was an internal matter of Ukraine. On the other side, the West—led by France—systematically tried to replace Minsk Agreements with the “Normandy format,” which put Russians and Ukrainians face-to-face. However, let us remember that there were never any Russian troops in the Donbass before 23-24 February 2022. Moreover, OSCE observers have never observed the slightest trace of Russian units operating in the Donbass before then. For example, the U.S. intelligence map published by the Washington Post on December 3, 2021 does not show Russian troops in the Donbass.

In October 2015, Vasyl Hrytsak, director of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), confessed that only 56 Russian fighters had been observed in the Donbass. This was exactly comparable to the Swiss who went to fight in Bosnia on weekends, in the 1990s, or the French who go to fight in Ukraine today.

The Ukrainian army was then in a deplorable state. In October 2018, after four years of war, the chief Ukrainian military prosecutor, Anatoly Matios, stated that Ukraine had lost 2,700 men in the Donbass: 891 from illnesses, 318 from road accidents, 177 from other accidents, 175 from poisonings (alcohol, drugs), 172 from careless handling of weapons, 101 from breaches of security regulations, 228 from murders and 615 from suicides.

In fact, the Ukrainian army was undermined by the corruption of its cadres and no longer enjoyed the support of the population. According to a British Home Office report, in the March/April 2014 recall of reservists, 70 percent did not show up for the first session, 80 percent for the second, 90 percent for the third, and 95 percent for the fourth. In October/November 2017, 70% of conscripts did not show up for the “Fall 2017” recall campaign. This is not counting suicides and desertions (often over to the autonomists), which reached up to 30 percent of the workforce in the ATO area. Young Ukrainians refused to go and fight in the Donbass and preferred emigration, which also explains, at least partially, the demographic deficit of the country.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense then turned to NATO to help make its armed forces more “attractive.” Having already worked on similar projects within the framework of the United Nations, I was asked by NATO to participate in a program to restore the image of the Ukrainian armed forces. But this is a long-term process and the Ukrainians wanted to move quickly.

So, to compensate for the lack of soldiers, the Ukrainian government resorted to paramilitary militias…. In 2020, they constituted about 40 percent of the Ukrainian forces and numbered about 102,000 men, according to Reuters. They were armed, financed and trained by the United States, Great Britain, Canada and France. There were more than 19 nationalities.

These militias had been operating in the Donbass since 2014, with Western support. Even if one can argue about the term “Nazi,” the fact remains that these militias are violent, convey a nauseating ideology and are virulently anti-Semitic…[and] are composed of fanatical and brutal individuals. The best known of these is the Azov Regiment, whose emblem is reminiscent of the 2nd SS Das Reich Panzer Division, which is revered in the Ukraine for liberating Kharkov from the Soviets in 1943, before carrying out the 1944 Oradour-sur-Glane massacre in France. [….]

The characterization of the Ukrainian paramilitaries as “Nazis” or “neo-Nazis” is considered Russian propaganda. But that’s not the view of the Times of Israel, or the West Point Academy’s Center for Counterterrorism. In 2014, Newsweek magazine seemed to associate them more with… the Islamic State. Take your pick!

So, the West supported and continued to arm militias that have been guilty of numerous crimes against civilian populations since 2014: rape, torture and massacres….

The integration of these paramilitary forces into the Ukrainian National Guard was not at all accompanied by a “denazification,” as some claim.

Among the many examples, that of the Azov Regiment’s insignia is instructive:

2022 04 03 11 00
2022 04 03 11 00

In 2022, very schematically, the Ukrainian armed forces fighting the Russian offensive were organized as:

  • The Army, subordinated to the Ministry of Defense. It is organized into 3 army corps and composed of maneuver formations (tanks, heavy artillery, missiles, etc.).
  • The National Guard, which depends on the Ministry of the Interior and is organized into 5 territorial commands.

The National Guard is therefore a territorial defense force that is not part of the Ukrainian army. It includes paramilitary militias, called “volunteer battalions” (добровольчі батальйоні), also known by the evocative name of “reprisal battalions,” and composed of infantry. Primarily trained for urban combat, they now defend cities such as Kharkov, Mariupol, Odessa, Kiev, etc.

Part Two: The War

As a former head of analysis of Warsaw Pact forces in the Swiss strategic intelligence service, I observe with sadness—but not astonishment—that our services are no longer able to understand the military situation in Ukraine. The self-proclaimed “experts” who parade on our TV screens tirelessly relay the same information modulated by the claim that Russia—and Vladimir Putin—is irrational. Let’s take a step back.

  1. The Outbreak Of War

Since November 2021, the Americans have been constantly threatening a Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, the Ukrainians at first did not seem to agree. Why not?

We have to go back to March 24, 2021. On that day, Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree for the recapture of the Crimea, and began to deploy his forces to the south of the country. At the same time, several NATO exercises were conducted between the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea, accompanied by a significant increase in reconnaissance flights along the Russian border. Russia then conducted several exercises to test the operational readiness of its troops and to show that it was following the evolution of the situation.

Things calmed down until October-November with the end of the ZAPAD 21 exercises, whose troop movements were interpreted as a reinforcement for an offensive against Ukraine. However, even the Ukrainian authorities refuted the idea of Russian preparations for a war, and Oleksiy Reznikov, Ukrainian Minister of Defense, states that there had been no change on its border since the spring.

In violation of the Minsk Agreements, Ukraine was conducting air operations in Donbass using drones, including at least one strike against a fuel depot in Donetsk in October 2021. The American press noted this, but not the Europeans; and no one condemned these violations.

In February 2022, events came to a head. On February 7, during his visit to Moscow, Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed to Vladimir Putin his commitment to the Minsk Agreements, a commitment he would repeat after his meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky the next day. But on February 11, in Berlin, after nine hours of work, the meeting of political advisors to the leaders of the “Normandy format” ended without any concrete result: the Ukrainians still refused to apply the Minsk Agreements, apparently under pressure from the United States. Vladimir Putin noted that Macron had made empty promises and that the West was not ready to enforce the agreements, the same opposition to a settlement it had exhibited for eight years.

Ukrainian preparations in the contact zone continued. The Russian Parliament became alarmed; and on February 15 it asked Vladimir Putin to recognize the independence of the Republics, which he initially refused to do.

On 17 February, President Joe Biden announced that Russia would attack Ukraine in the next few days. How did he know this? It is a mystery. But since the 16th, the artillery shelling of the population of Donbass had increased dramatically, as the daily reports of the OSCE observers show. Naturally, neither the media, nor the European Union, nor NATO, nor any Western government reacted or intervened. It would be said later that this was Russian disinformation. In fact, it seems that the European Union and some countries have deliberately kept silent about the massacre of the Donbass population, knowing that this would provoke a Russian intervention.

At the same time, there were reports of sabotage in the Donbass. On 18 January, Donbass fighters intercepted saboteurs, who spoke Polish and were equipped with Western equipment and who were seeking to create chemical incidents in Gorlivka. They could have been CIA mercenaries, led or “advised” by Americans and composed of Ukrainian or European fighters, to carry out sabotage actions in the Donbass Republics.

In fact, as early as February 16, Joe Biden knew that the Ukrainians had begun intense shelling the civilian population of Donbass, forcing Vladimir Putin to make a difficult choice: to help Donbass militarily and create an international problem, or to stand by and watch the Russian-speaking people of Donbass being crushed.

If he decided to intervene, Putin could invoke the international obligation of “Responsibility To Protect” (R2P). But he knew that whatever its nature or scale, the intervention would trigger a storm of sanctions. Therefore, whether Russian intervention were limited to the Donbass or went further to put pressure on the West over the status of the Ukraine, the price to pay would be the same. This is what he explained in his speech on February 21. On that day, he agreed to the request of the Duma and recognized the independence of the two Donbass Republics and, at the same time, he signed friendship and assistance treaties with them.

The Ukrainian artillery bombardment of the Donbass population continued, and, on 23 February, the two Republics asked for military assistance from Russia. On 24 February, Vladimir Putin invoked Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which provides for mutual military assistance in the framework of a defensive alliance.

In order to make the Russian intervention seem totally illegal in the eyes of the public, Western powers deliberately hid the fact that the war actually started on February 16. The Ukrainian army was preparing to attack the Donbass as early as 2021, as some Russian and European intelligence services were well aware.

In his speech of February 24, Vladimir Putin stated the two objectives of his operation: “demilitarize” and “denazify” the Ukraine. So, it was not a question of taking over Ukraine, nor even, presumably, of occupying it; and certainly not of destroying it.

From then on, our knowledge of the course of the operation is limited: the Russians have excellent security for their operations (OPSEC) and the details of their planning are not known. But fairly quickly, the course of the operation allows us to understand how the strategic objectives were translated on the operational level.

Demilitarization:

  • ground destruction of Ukrainian aviation, air defense systems and reconnaissance assets;
  • neutralization of command and intelligence structures (C3I), as well as the main logistical routes in the depth of the territory;
  • encirclement of the bulk of the Ukrainian army massed in the southeast of the country.

Denazification:

  • destruction or neutralization of volunteer battalions operating in the cities of Odessa, Kharkov, and Mariupol, as well as in various facilities in the territory.

 

  1. Demilitarization

The Russian offensive was carried out in a very “classic” manner. Initially—as the Israelis had done in 1967—with the destruction on the ground of the air force in the very first hours. Then, we witnessed a simultaneous progression along several axes according to the principle of “flowing water”: advance everywhere where resistance was weak and leave the cities (very demanding in terms of troops) for later. In the north, the Chernobyl power plant was occupied immediately to prevent acts of sabotage. The images of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers guarding the plant together are of course not shown.

The idea that Russia is trying to take over Kiev, the capital, to eliminate Zelensky, comes typically from the West…. But Vladimir Putin never intended to shoot or topple Zelensky. Instead, Russia seeks to keep him in power by pushing him to negotiate, by surrounding Kiev. The Russians want to obtain the neutrality of Ukraine.

Many Western commentators were surprised that the Russians continued to seek a negotiated solution while conducting military operations. The explanation lies in the Russian strategic outlook since the Soviet era. For the West, war begins when politics ends. However, the Russian approach follows a Clausewitzian inspiration: war is the continuity of politics and one can move fluidly from one to the other, even during combat. This allows one to create pressure on the adversary and push him to negotiate.

From an operational point of view, the Russian offensive was an example of previous military action and planning: in six days, the Russians seized a territory as large as the United Kingdom, with a speed of advance greater than what the Wehrmacht had achieved in 1940.

The bulk of the Ukrainian army was deployed in the south of the country in preparation for a major operation against the Donbass. This is why Russian forces were able to encircle it from the beginning of March in the “cauldron” between Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk, with a thrust from the East through Kharkov and another from the South from Crimea. Troops from the Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk (LPR) Republics are complementing the Russian forces with a push from the East.

At this stage, Russian forces are slowly tightening the noose, but are no longer under any time pressure or schedule. Their demilitarization goal is all but achieved and the remaining Ukrainian forces no longer have an operational and strategic command structure.

The “slowdown” that our “experts” attribute to poor logistics is only the consequence of having achieved their objectives. Russia does not want to engage in an occupation of the entire Ukrainian territory. In fact, it appears that Russia is trying to limit its advance to the linguistic border of the country.

Our media speak of indiscriminate bombardments against the civilian population, especially in Kharkov, and horrific images are widely broadcast. However, Gonzalo Lira, a Latin American correspondent who lives there, presents us with a calm city on March 10 and March 11. It is true that it is a large city and we do not see everything—but this seems to indicate that we are not in the total war that we are served continuously on our TV screens. As for the Donbass Republics, they have “liberated” their own territories and are fighting in the city of Mariupol.

  1. Denazification

In cities like Kharkov, Mariupol and Odessa, the Ukrainian defense is provided by the paramilitary militias. They know that the objective of “denazification” is aimed primarily at them. For an attacker in an urbanized area, civilians are a problem. This is why Russia is seeking to create humanitarian corridors to empty cities of civilians and leave only the militias, to fight them more easily.

Conversely, these militias seek to keep civilians in the cities from evacuating in order to dissuade the Russian army from fighting there. This is why they are reluctant to implement these corridors and do everything to ensure that Russian efforts are unsuccessful—they use the civilian population as “human shields.” Videos showing civilians trying to leave Mariupol and beaten up by fighters of the Azov regiment are of course carefully censored by the Western media.

On Facebook, the Azov group was considered in the same category as the Islamic State [ISIS] and subject to the platform’s “policy on dangerous individuals and organizations.” It was therefore forbidden to glorify its activities, and “posts” that were favorable to it were systematically banned. But on February 24, Facebook changed its policy and allowed posts favorable to the militia. In the same spirit, in March, the platform authorized, in the former Eastern countries, calls for the murder of Russian soldiers and leaders. So much for the values that inspire our leaders.

Our media propagate a romantic image of popular resistance by the Ukrainian people. It is this image that led the European Union to finance the distribution of arms to the civilian population. In my capacity as head of peacekeeping at the UN, I worked on the issue of civilian protection. We found that violence against civilians occurred in very specific contexts. In particular, when weapons are abundant and there are no command structures.

These command structures are the essence of armies: their function is to channel the use of force towards an objective. By arming citizens in a haphazard manner, as is currently the case, the EU is turning them into combatants, with the consequential effect of making them potential targets. Moreover, without command, without operational goals, the distribution of arms leads inevitably to settling of scores, banditry and actions that are more deadly than effective. War becomes a matter of emotions. Force becomes violence. This is what happened in Tawarga (Libya) from 11 to 13 August 2011, where 30,000 black Africans were massacred with weapons parachuted (illegally) by France. By the way, the British Royal Institute for Strategic Studies (RUSI) does not see any added value in these arms deliveries.

Moreover, by delivering arms to a country at war, one exposes oneself to being considered a belligerent. The Russian strikes of March 13, 2022, against the Mykolayev air base follow Russian warnings that arms shipments would be treated as hostile targets.

The EU is repeating the disastrous experience of the Third Reich in the final hours of the Battle of Berlin. War must be left to the military and when one side has lost, it must be admitted. And if there is to be resistance, it must be led and structured. But we are doing exactly the opposite—we are pushing citizens to go and fight, and at the same time, Facebook authorizes calls for the murder of Russian soldiers and leaders. So much for the values that inspire us.

Some intelligence services see this irresponsible decision as a way to use the Ukrainian population as cannon fodder to fight Vladimir Putin’s Russia…. It would have been better to engage in negotiations and thus obtain guarantees for the civilian population than to add fuel to the fire. It is easy to be combative with the blood of others.

  1. The Maternity Hospital At Mariupol

It is important to understand beforehand that it is not the Ukrainian army that is defending Mariupol, but the Azov militia, composed of foreign mercenaries.

In its March 7, 2022 summary of the situation, the Russian UN mission in New York stated that “Residents report that Ukrainian armed forces expelled staff from the Mariupol city birth hospital No. 1 and set up a firing post inside the facility.” On March 8, the independent Russian media Lenta.ru, published the testimony of civilians from Mariupol who told that the maternity hospital was taken over by the militia of the Azov regiment, and who drove out the civilian occupants by threatening them with their weapons. They confirmed the statements of the Russian ambassador a few hours earlier.

The hospital in Mariupol occupies a dominant position, perfectly suited for the installation of anti-tank weapons and for observation. On 9 March, Russian forces struck the building. According to CNN, 17 people were wounded, but the images do not show any casualties in the building and there is no evidence that the victims mentioned are related to this strike. There is talk of children, but in reality, there is nothing. This does not prevent the leaders of the EU from seeing this as a war crime. And this allows Zelensky to call for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

In reality, we do not know exactly what happened. But the sequence of events tends to confirm that Russian forces struck a position of the Azov regiment and that the maternity ward was then free of civilians.

The problem is that the paramilitary militias that defend the cities are encouraged by the international community not to respect the rules of war. It seems that the Ukrainians have replayed the scenario of the Kuwait City maternity hospital in 1990, which was totally staged by the firm Hill & Knowlton for $10.7 million in order to convince the United Nations Security Council to intervene in Iraq for Operation Desert Shield/Storm.

Western politicians have accepted civilian strikes in the Donbass for eight years without adopting any sanctions against the Ukrainian government. We have long since entered a dynamic where Western politicians have agreed to sacrifice international law towards their goal of weakening Russia.

Part Three: Conclusions

As an ex-intelligence professional, the first thing that strikes me is the total absence of Western intelligence services in accurately representing the situation over the past year…. In fact, it seems that throughout the Western world intelligence services have been overwhelmed by the politicians. The problem is that it is the politicians who decide—the best intelligence service in the world is useless if the decision-maker does not listen. This is what has happened during this crisis.

That said, while a few intelligence services had a very accurate and rational picture of the situation, others clearly had the same picture as that propagated by our media… The problem is that, from experience, I have found them to be extremely bad at the analytical level—doctrinaire, they lack the intellectual and political independence necessary to assess a situation with military “quality.”

Second, it seems that in some European countries, politicians have deliberately responded ideologically to the situation. That is why this crisis has been irrational from the beginning. It should be noted that all the documents that were presented to the public during this crisis were presented by politicians based on commercial sources.

Some Western politicians obviously wanted there to be a conflict. In the United States, the attack scenarios presented by Anthony Blinken to the UN Security Council were only the product of the imagination of a Tiger Team working for him—he did exactly as Donald Rumsfeld did in 2002, who “bypassed” the CIA and other intelligence services that were much less assertive about Iraqi chemical weapons.

The dramatic developments we are witnessing today have causes that we knew about but refused to see:

  • on the strategic level, the expansion of NATO (which we have not dealt with here);
  • on the political level, the Western refusal to implement the Minsk Agreements;
  • and operationally, the continuous and repeated attacks on the civilian population of the Donbass over the past years and the dramatic increase in late February 2022.

In other words, we can naturally deplore and condemn the Russian attack. But WE (that is: the United States, France and the European Union in the lead) have created the conditions for a conflict to break out. We show compassion for the Ukrainian people and the two million refugees. That is fine. But if we had had a modicum of compassion for the same number of refugees from the Ukrainian populations of Donbass massacred by their own government and who sought refuge in Russia for eight years, none of this would probably have happened.

[….]

Whether the term “genocide” applies to the abuses suffered by the people of Donbass is an open question. The term is generally reserved for cases of greater magnitude (Holocaust, etc.). But the definition given by the Genocide Convention is probably broad enough to apply to this case.

Clearly, this conflict has led us into hysteria. Sanctions seem to have become the preferred tool of our foreign policies. If we had insisted that Ukraine abide by the Minsk Agreements, which we had negotiated and endorsed, none of this would have happened. Vladimir Putin’s condemnation is also ours. There is no point in whining afterwards—we should have acted earlier. However, neither Emmanuel Macron (as guarantor and member of the UN Security Council), nor Olaf Scholz, nor Volodymyr Zelensky have respected their commitments. In the end, the real defeat is that of those who have no voice.

The European Union was unable to promote the implementation of the Minsk agreements—on the contrary, it did not react when Ukraine was bombing its own population in the Donbass. Had it done so, Vladimir Putin would not have needed to react. Absent from the diplomatic phase, the EU distinguished itself by fueling the conflict. On February 27, the Ukrainian government agreed to enter into negotiations with Russia. But a few hours later, the European Union voted a budget of 450 million euros to supply arms to the Ukraine, adding fuel to the fire. From then on, the Ukrainians felt that they did not need to reach an agreement. The resistance of the Azov militia in Mariupol even led to a boost of 500 million euros for weapons.

In Ukraine, with the blessing of the Western countries, those who are in favor of a negotiation have been eliminated. This is the case of Denis Kireyev, one of the Ukrainian negotiators, assassinated on March 5 by the Ukrainian secret service (SBU) because he was too favorable to Russia and was considered a traitor. The same fate befell Dmitry Demyanenko, former deputy head of the SBU’s main directorate for Kiev and its region, who was assassinated on March 10 because he was too favorable to an agreement with Russia—he was shot by the Mirotvorets (“Peacemaker”) militia. This militia is associated with the Mirotvorets website, which lists the “enemies of Ukraine,” with their personal data, addresses and telephone numbers, so that they can be harassed or even eliminated; a practice that is punishable in many countries, but not in the Ukraine. The UN and some European countries have demanded the closure of this site—but that demand was refused by the Rada [Ukrainian parliament].

In the end, the price will be high, but Vladimir Putin will likely achieve the goals he set for himself. We have pushed him into the arms of China. His ties with Beijing have solidified. China is emerging as a mediator in the conflict…. The Americans have to ask Venezuela and Iran for oil to get out of the energy impasse they have put themselves in—and the United States has to piteously backtrack on the sanctions imposed on its enemies.

Western ministers who seek to collapse the Russian economy and make the Russian people suffer, or even call for the assassination of Putin, show (even if they have partially reversed the form of their words, but not the substance!) that our leaders are no better than those we hate—sanctioning Russian athletes in the Para-Olympic Games or Russian artists has nothing to do with fighting Putin. [….]

What makes the conflict in Ukraine more blameworthy than our wars in Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya? What sanctions have we adopted against those who deliberately lied to the international community in order to wage unjust, unjustified and murderous wars?….Have we adopted a single sanction against the countries, companies or politicians who are supplying weapons to the conflict in Yemen, considered to be the “worst humanitarian disaster in the world?”

To ask the question is to answer it… and the answer is not pretty.

Jacques Baud is a former colonel of the General Staff, ex-member of the Swiss strategic intelligence, specialist on Eastern countries. He was trained in the American and British intelligence services. He has served as Policy Chief for United Nations Peace Operations. As a UN expert on rule of law and security institutions, he designed and led the first multidimensional UN intelligence unit in the Sudan. He has worked for the African Union and was for 5 years responsible for the fight, at NATO, against the proliferation of small arms. He was involved in discussions with the highest Russian military and intelligence officials just after the fall of the USSR. Within NATO, he followed the 2014 Ukrainian crisis and later participated in programs to assist the Ukraine. He is the author of several books on intelligence, war and terrorism, in particular Le Détournement published by SIGEST, Gouverner par les fake news , L’affaire Navalny . His latest book is Poutine, maître du jeu? published by Max Milo.

This article appears through the gracious courtesy of Centre Français de Recherche sur le Renseignement, Paris.

MM shows off some Chinese food

This is General Tsos Chicken, only it’s the real deal. Not the fast food that you eat in the ‘States. It’s called Geng Pao Ji Deng. video 36MB

Some delicious pepper beef

Look at this beauty. Oh boy! video 16MB

Richie Blackmore / Ronnie James Dio “Catch the Rainbow (Live)”

Now this is a real treat. When I was in my Senior Year in High School, we must have worn down this album by playing it over, and over, and over again. Today, as an older man, with a great deal of “life experience” I have a completely different mindset, and when I listen to this music it affects me quite differently. Today, I view it as a work of art; an entertaining distraction, and one that showcases the brilliance of the singer Ronnie James Dio, the great drum work of Cozy Powell, and of course, the ease at which Richie Blackmore belted out those guitar solos. While when I was younger, it reflected struggle, passion and ambition. Ah. It’s amazing how one changes as they age. Anyways, I present it here as just that. A fine historical view and fun entertainment for youse guys to enjoy. Part 1

Part 2

Funeral Directors, Embalmers Alarmed by Unusual Blood Clots in Vaccinated Bodies

Normally I do not post these kinds of articles, but this is a mainstream America media article. It is signifigant. -MM

From HERE.

by Debra Heine

Board-certified funeral directors and embalmers are coming forward to tell tales of horror featuring vaccinated bodies with veins and arteries clogged with strange, rubbery, worm-like clots. Richard Hirschman, a funeral director and embalmer from Alabama, with over twenty years of experience in the field, has said in recent interviews that he had never seen anything like it until around the middle of 2021, after the mass injections of the experimental COVID vaccines began. He says his colleagues in the field are seeing the same thing, and the numbers are increasing. Earlier this month, Hirschman told Steve Kirsch, the Executive Director of the Vaccine Research Center, that in Jan 2022, 37 out of 57 bodies (65 percent) had these suspicious clots. Prior to the vaccines, Hirschman said blood clots in patients who died of COVID were seen, but they appeared to be more typical, and not in the alarming numbers he’s seeing now. Since Hirschman has gone public, Cary D. Watkins, a colleague from Alabama with over 50 years experience as a funeral director and embalmer, has come forward to corroborate his story, and Anna Foster, an embalmer from Missouri with 11 years of experience, has revealed in an interview that 93 percent of her last 30 cases died due to unusual clots completely filling their vascular systems. Funeral director John O’Looney of Milton Keynes, England, is also blowing the whistle on the alarming increase in number of thrombosis deaths. O’Looney said in an interview that it’s not just “a two or three-fold increase—it’s around a 500 or 600 percent increase,” and nine out of ten of these cases were vaccinated. . Much more... .

Buckets of kittens

Oh, my goodness. video 3MB

Help others in Need

You don’t drive by slowly and film people in distress, you get off your fucking ass and help them. What’s you God damn malfunction? video 4MB

Life is too short not to be a Rufus

You can be a hero, or you can be a selfish greedy psycopathic loner. It’s your choice. video 1MB

Be the Rufus and change your life

Change your thoughts, and you will change your behaviors. That in turn will change your life. Don’t be afraid. make the changes that you so very much need. video. 3MB

Be the Rufus and make the world worth living in

Sure. You have heard this over and over and over again. Yet you still come back to MM for more. Why? WHy do you visit MM instead of Fox “news”, CNN, the BBC, or any of thousands of for-profit “news”? Perhaps it is becuase you are different. Yes. Maybe you are different; and maybe you are special. So, and if so, perhaps you are here at this place at this time to make a difference. Are you up to the challenge? It doesn’t matter what your role is, or what your job is. Do it with passion; with gusto, and with a big happy smile. You WILL CHANGE the world around you. video 4MB

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. New Beginnings 3 .

Articles & Links

Master Index .

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When multiple unusual things are all happening all at once.

Sometimes, it just seems like the United States is just one big science-fiction movie. Seriously it does. Why? Well, there are various “news” articles popping up here, and then there, that all seem to point to a dystopic future; one that resembles a horrific science fiction film.

I argue that there are two vectors that are intersecting right now. One [1] is that of a fear-based narrative; be afraid, be very afraid. And the other [2] is one of general collapse while everyone is acting crazy and running around in crazy insanity.

These two vectors create a very horrific narrative, and it is one that is now commonplace within the United States.

Here we review some of these events. And discuss what they could mean and look at them as an impartial observer witnessing a geographic area going down the tubes in insanity.

We start with…

Bioweapon tainted monkeys escape into the population…

So many movies had this theme. Remember that that was the “cover story” for “American Ultra”, and the theme for numerous science fiction movies. Such as Outbreak (1995).

“American Ultra”

Woman claims she is sick after carrying hissing monkey that escaped truck in Pennsylvania crash. The woman’s pinkeye was so bad that she checked herself into an emergency room.

Note: Biological weapon experimental monkeys escape? Check the earlier local news from Pennsylvania to know how they activate their military and police forces to blanket search for the 4 escape monkeys, and alerted the local residents to report to the authorities if they come by any monkey and not to get close to the monkeys.
The evil American country is very scary, and a constant threat to the survival of humanity and all living thing on the planet.
.

Bioweapon monkeys, eh?

Remember that right before the release of the Coronavirus in the Wuhan games, that an “event” occurred where an agency closed down Fort Detrick. Of course, agencies do not have the power to close American miltiary facilities and bases. It was closed for other reasons, not for the stated reasons.

Only ONE person can close down a military base. That’s the President of the United States.

Remember that right before the release of the Coronavirus in the Wuhan games…an odd closure of the Major Bioweapons facility by the EPA.

Bioweapon monkeys, eh?

Yeah. Sure.

Right before XXXXX, an odd escaped monkey started to terrorize America.

Bioweapon monkeys eh?

The United States and rules…

Obviously the “news” is full of such bullshit, partial truths and distortions and no one knows what is really going on. most Americans are completely confused by the onslaught of lies, and many beleive them.

And that makes it easy for the USA to do what it wants.

Thus, it is not unusual for the USA to make the rules as they see fit.

[A] Laws, and rules domestically no longer have any validity, and [B] international treaties are used when it provides advantage, and discarded when they do not.

Combined, [A] and [B] clearly show a nation in chaos where there are no rules, no structures, and very little in the way of law.

As I see it, the United States is like this big thrashing monster, and it is trying desperately to cling to power and relevance. But it is failing at every level, and that is why it is engaged in World War III right now. The opening salvos hit this month, and they are concerning…

Sitrep on the emerging actions of World War III

Let’s look at some of the “news” that can be found in the American, Britsh and Australian “news” media…

Supermarket tabloids

Of couse, it’s just bullshit, and made up stories. However, these things sell, and that means that there ARE people who read them. I remeber when I lived in Kokomo, Indiana, USA  that my next door neighbor (a girl named Misty, a stripper by the way) would read these things weekly and believed every word written in them…

Ah.

Then we have just day to day news.

I have no doubt that this actually occurred, but think about it. Look at this chick, and note that he has convinced the police detective to investigate fifteen (15!) men of raping her.

Woman Who Falsely Accused 15 Men Of Rape Given 10 Year Sentence

A woman from West London is to be jailed for a decade for falsely accusing over a dozen men of sexually assaulting her. 27-year-old Jemma Beale, who hails from Bedfont, west London, was handed a lengthy prison sentence for perverting the course of justice and perjuring innocent men in 2017, one of whom was jailed for two years.

Now, Beale has challenged her sentence throughout the latest appeal process, in a bid to clear her name. However, the prosecution presented evidence that Beale texted her then-girlfriend, saying that she was “glorying in his discomfort” when giving false evidence against one of her victims.

Beale made her first complaint on the morning of 26 November 2010, telling police that she’d been sexually assaulted by Mahad Cassim the previous night. Cassim was sentenced to seven years in prison for rape in 2012.

According to her, all men cannot wait to rape her.

Beale had been supported by the authorities throughout her case as a victim of sexual violence, whose account was to be believed. Professionals will have been on hand to give her support, in addition to a police victim-liaison officer.

She received compensation from the taxpayer amounting to £11,000. Meanwhile, the innocent man whom she had falsely accused was rotting in a prison cell, his reputation destroyed and his life effectively over. Before his conviction was quashed, he had already served over two years of his seven-year sentence.

Beale later told police she had been the victim of two other sexual assaults that year, and allegedly fabricated similar allegations against six other men in 2013.

Commenting on the case, Lady Justice Hallett, the judge presiding over the appeal, stated:

“This case went far further then myths and stereotypes about a complainant’s behaviour. The appellant was accused of being a serial liar who fabricated accounts mostly of a sexual nature. In the light of the evidence called even if the guidance was given it would not have assisted the appellant.”

She added:

“The system of justice has suffered considerable harm – considerable resources have been spent investigating and prosecuting crimes which never happened. There has been no indication of remorse on the appellant’s part.

Then we have this article. Knowing what I know of certain individuals that I have met in prison, this seems to be much more common than one woud think…

But… why?

There must also be betting, and gambling, and probably other vices as well. Don’t you know.

But you do know that maybe it’s how American children are being raised today. Consider this next article…

And when the children grow up, and they discover alcohol, drugs and influence on social media, they start to act really strange.

Like this fellow.

Why?

Well, you need to understand that the United States is fragmented, and balkenized.  As this next article illustrates…

Tennessee Pastor Who Repeatedly Raped 14-Year-Old Daughter Gets Lenient Sentence Because He Was A Good Christian

A former pastor who repeatedly raped his adopted teenage daughter has been given an effective 12 year prison sentence.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reports prosecutors sought the maximum term of 72 years behind bars. The judge on the case, Steve Sword, took Richards work as a pastor, the support he still receives and his role key role in leading a Bible study at the prison as mitigating factors.

During his trial in February, 41-year-old David Lynn Richards Jr. had taken the stand in his own defense and asserted his innocence.

He claimed that the victim, Amber Richards, was a defiant teenager who made the allegations of sexual abuse against him after he tried to impose stricter rules on his children.

The victim was 16 when she reported the abuse, saying it began two years earlier.

She told authorities where they could find DNA evidence at her home and said Richards had texted her about taking their relationship “to the next level.” A

uthorities said they found her mattress stripped bare and his phone factory reset, but they were able to recover Forensic evidence showing traces of Richards’ semen on his daughter’s bed frame

Amber, who has chosen to identify herself and speak out after Richards was found guilty, delivered a powerful impact statement before Richards’ sentencing on Thursday.

“I wanted to throw my body away. Not a day goes by that I don’t, in some way, think of what he did to me. … I firmly believe if given the opportunity, he would victimize another young girl.”

Despite the overwhelming evidence, many in the community refused to believe that Pastor Richards was a rapist.

Over 30 parishioners from the church came to court to show support not for the victim, but for the rapist.

Pastor David Thompson, who shared ministry duties with Pastor Richards at My Father’s House Church of God in Lenoir City, said:

I find it impossible for me to believe he’s guilty of this. His business needs him. His family needs him. Our church needs him.

Despite being found guilty, Richards Jr continued to maintain his innocence while asking the judge for leniency in the sentence.

I stand before you convicted of crimes I did not commit. … I’m not sure why I’m here. … but I assume it’s for His purpose.

Welcome to America.

You know Hollywood, and alcohol dosen’t always mix. ..

And things are even weirder in Great Britian…

But I have to tell you all that things are off-the-wall in certain parts of the United States. Consider the American “Bible Belt”.

Here’s a map of the “Bible Belt”.

Bible Belt.

And this is what goes on there as everyday fodder…

Christian TV Host: Plant-Based Burgers Are A Satanic Plot To Create A “Race of Soulless Creatures”

Rick Wiles warned on his “TruNews” program that the rise of companies that make plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy products, is part of a satanic plot to alter human DNA so that people can no longer worship God.

Appearing on his program earlier this week, Wiles said:

When you go to your favorite fast food restaurant, you are going to be eating a fake hamburger. You’re going to go to the grocery store and buy a pound of fake hamburger or a fake steak, and you won’t know that it was grown in some big corporation’s laboratory. This is the nightmare world that they are taking us into. They’re changing God’s creation. Why? Because they want to be God.

Wiles continued:

God is an environmentalist. He takes this very seriously. He created this planet, he created the universe and he’s watching these Luciferians destroy this planet, destroy the animal kingdom, destroy the plant kingdom, change human DNA. Why? They want to change human DNA so that you can’t be born again. That’s where they’re going with this, to change the DNA of humans so it will be impossible for a human to be born again. They want to create a race of soulless creatures on this planet.

Yuppr.

Things are awfully strange in the ‘States right now.

No more fun in the sun for Jake.

I guess sex is a great motivator.

Consider this screen shot…

I mean, if you are hungry… well…

America is insane, and it is exploding in all sorts of strangeness.

Colorado University Warns Students Not to Say ‘America’, ‘American’ Because It’s Not Inclusive

Colorado State University has included the words “American” and “America” on its list of language to avoid because they are not inclusive.

The school’s Inclusive Communications Task Force compiled a list of words in its Inclusive Language Guide that serve to help those on campus foster “inclusion, respect, and social justice.”

The guide states that it is not about being politically correct but instead is there to help “communicators practice inclusive language” and make everyone on campus “feel welcomed, respected, and valued.”

CSU lists both “American” and “America” as non-inclusive words “to avoid,” due to the fact that America encompasses more than just the U.S.

“The Americas encompass a lot more than the United States,” the guide states. “There is South America, Central America, Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean just to name a few of 42 countries in total.”

By referring to the U.S. as America, the guide claims that one “erases other cultures and depicts the United States as the dominant American country.” The school suggests using “U.S. citizen” or “person from the U.S.” as substitutes.

The guide advises students to use the words “U.S. citizen” or “person from the U.S.” instead of “American.”

Among other words and phrases on the list are:

The words “male” and “female” (because this “refers to biological sex and not gender,” and “we very rarely need to identify or know a person’s biological sex and more often are referring to gender”), “cake walk” (because it apparently has origins in “the racism of 19th century minstrel shows”), “freshman” (because it “excludes women and non-binary gender identities”), “Hispanic” (“because of its origins in colonialization and the implication that to be Hispanic or Latinx/Latine/Latino, one needs to be Spanish-speaking”), “hold down the fort” (because “the U.S. the historical connotation refers to guarding against Native American ‘intruders’ and feeds into the stereotype of ‘savages’”), “no can do” (because it was “originally a way to mock Chinese people”), “peanut gallery” (because it “names a section in theaters, usually the cheapest and worst, where many Black people sat during the era of Vaudeville”), “straight” (because it “implies that anyone LGBT is ‘crooked’ or not normal”), “food coma” (because it “directly alludes to the stereotype of laziness associated with African-Americans”), and “war” or “battle,” when used any way other than to describe a literal war or battle (because “they evoke very real tragedy that can be problematic for survivors of war or Veterans”). (National Review)

The guide does note, however, that the recommendations are not official policy.

What some people will do for a lawn tool.

And what some people will do for fun…

But, you know…

This kind of disconnect from rules, laws and tradition occur world-wide. It’s just that the United States is really very sick.

Consider the middle east…

Saudi Millionaire Who Said He Accidentally “Tripped and Penetrated” Teenage Girl Cleared of Rape

Ehsan Abdulaziz, a Saudi millionaire property developer, was cleared of rape charges in London after he claimed that he had tripped and fallen on an 18-year-old girl who was sleeping at his apartment after partying with him, penetrating her by accident.

The Saudi property developer said he had already had sex with the young woman’s 24-year-old friend and it was possible his penis may have been poking out of his underwear when he tripped

The Mirror reported the group had met at an exclusive West End club last year where he entertained them before offering them a lift home.

The 18-year-old claimed that after a number of drinks at Abdulaziz’s north London home, she went to sleep on the couch.

She said she woke up to find him on top of her, forcing himself on her.

“She woke up with the defendant kissing her and his penis in her vagina,” prosecutor Jonathan Davies told the Southwark Crown Court.

“She said: ‘What are you doing?’ and he said ‘It’s fine,’ indicating that her friend was asleep.

“She got up to find her friend, tried to wake her but couldn’t, she then tried to get out of the flat as quickly as she could.”

Abdulaziz said he had accidentally fallen on the teenager and that she tried to seduce him, and that was how his DNA got onto her vagina.

“I’m fragile, I fell down but nothing ever happened, between me and this girl nothing ever happened,” he said.

He also told the court it was possible he had semen on his hands after having sex with the young woman’s friend.

The jury acquitted Abdulaziz after just 30 minutes of deliberations.

They believed his excuse. He was obviouly being truthful as he was man and a “pillar of the community”.

Tripped.

And of course, there’s all sorts of lies on the Western “news” too.

Like this one about China.

Hey, do you see their faces? Do you see their clothing? How can you tell where this picture was taken?

Well. Look at the pavement. That’s asphalt.

It’s against the law to pave large public areas in China, only certain roads can be paved with asphalt. Only bike lanes maybe paved (and on special permission) cerain senic roads. But never large public areas. They are either cement, if in the rural areas, or dressed stone, which is the norm. This pavement is NOT of dressed stone.

My guess is that someone staged this photo in the UK or USA and wrote a bullshit story around it. It’s pretty common for American “news” these days.

Indeed.

It’s awfully strange in America these days.

Awfully strange.

And it’s not just that.

It’s everything.

Dodgeball Is “An Unethical Tool Of Oppression” And Should Be Banned, Say Researchers

Researchers in Canada say that dodgeball is nothing more than legalized bullying.

When you’re setting up the environment for students to learn, and you introduce the idea that it’s okay to slam the ball at whomever you like, even if it’s with a soft ball, the intention is there,’ Joy Butler, a professor who studies pedagogy and curriculum development said to the Washington Post.

‘When students think it’s okay because they’re being told it’s okay to do that, what do they learn? People say dodgeball is being used as an outlet for aggression or catharsis. I suspect that this is where they’re learning that.

‘Phys-ed should be an arena where teachers are helping students control their aggression and move on instead of expressing themselves through anger.’

Researchers interviewed middle-school students about their physical education classes and say the overwhelming feeling was that students hated dodgeball.

The team’s findings are to be presented at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences this week in Vancouver and will argue that the playground favorite actually ‘reinforces the five faces of oppression’ identified as exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence by political theorist Iris Marion Young.

‘I think of the little girl who is running to the back to avoid being targeted,’

Professor Butler said.

‘What is she learning in that class? Avoidance?’

Researchers also noted that they had observed the more athletic, authoritative students had created their own rules and purposely stacked the teams.  This, naturally made it more difficult for the less athletic or popular to compete.

‘The message is that it’s okay to hurt or dehumanize the ‘other,’

Butler said.

‘The competition is about annihilating one’s opponent, and the true definition of competition is between two evenly matched teams. Well, kids stack their teams, and they really enjoy beating the other team. What’s the enjoyment of that?’

“Despite the fact that many physical educators understand their vital role in helping students develop robust, equal, productive relationships and critical awareness, their practices on the ground do not always reflect this agenda,”

they write.

“We suggest that this tension becomes sharply visible in the common practice of allowing students to play dodgeball.

They ultimately recommended that Physical Education curriculum’s focus more on health, wellness and fitness rather than just sports.

Next up is Brazil. I wonder how many followers he had…

Holy milk, eh?

I wonder if he told them that those that drank the “fresh milk” would get special privileges. Perhaps if they bent over, and prayed really hard…

Meanwhile in Utah…

Yuppur.

Strange things in the United States these days.

And in Africa…

Say what?

And again, inside the United States…

From the low-lives, to the high brow… all of the United States has gone insane.

Insane.

Colorado State University: Saying ‘Long Time, No See,’ ‘You Guys,’ ‘Freshman’ is Offensive

Students at Colorado State University (CSU), apparently, should no longer say “long time, no see,” “you guys” or “freshman,” because those terms are not considered “inclusive language.”

That’s according to a student, Katrina Leibee, who writes for the campus paper, The Rocky Mountain Collegian. Leibee met with Zahra Al-Saloom, director of diversity and inclusion at CSU, who showed her an entire packet of terms and phrases considered contrary to the university’s mission of fostering inclusion.

“One of these phrases was ‘long time, no see,’ which is viewed as derogatory towards those of Asian descent,” wrote Leibee.

The packet says the phrase originally mocked “Native Americans or Chinese pidgin English” without providing an ounce of historical context. It suggests saying the flaccid, unmeasured, structureless, “I haven’t seen you in a while” in the phrase’s place.

“We were told that the popular term ‘you guys’ was not inclusive of all genders, and we should instead replace it with ‘y’all,’” she wrote. “We were told to use the term ‘first-year’ instead of ‘freshman,’ because ‘freshman’ is not inclusive of all genders.”

“A countless amount of words and phrases have been marked with a big, red X and defined as non-inclusive,” she continued. “It has gotten to the point where students should carry around a dictionary of words they cannot say.”

When the CSU student confronted the campus language commissars about the fact that nowhere in the country are phrases like “long time, no see” being regulated, she was given empty platitudes about making the world a better place where she stands.

Even if the world isn’t good, you should be good,” one superior told her. “CSU abides by the principles of community, and we want to make it an inclusive space.”

And no one is immune.

Such as this “Chinese man”…

And it affects everyone.

Did you know that Gordon Ramsay had a dwarf porn double? And that he died in a “Badger Den”? And that they had Badger Dens in Wales?

I’ll tell youse guys it’s an awfully strange world we are living in.

Next up should be a “Florida man” article. But no. Sorry.

It’s “Oregon Man”.

High on life, I’ll bet.

And some things just make me cringe.

And if you think that things just cannot get worse, well then you have this…

Let’s see.

Oh, yeah. Here’s a “Florida man”…

Florida Man Arrested For Attempting To “Barbecue” Child Molesters

Osceola County police officers arrested a Florida man after it was discovered that he attempted to “barbecue all the child molesters on fire and kill them.” Jorge Porto-Sierra, 50, confessed to investigators that he had attempted to kill several people who were at a motel in Kissimmee.

Witnesses say the suspect was carrying a cigarette and shouting threats such as “I’m going to kill you, child molester,” during the incident at the motel. He allegedly poured gas on several doors, broke a window to pour gas into a room. In addition, Porto-Sierra allegedly attacked two other individuals inside a car in the hotel parking lot, first by pouring gasoline into the car through an open window. When the driver attempted to flee, Porto-Sierra got into his black Ford Focus and started ramming their car.

Deputies then arrived on the scene, where they say Porto-Sierra surrendered right away. Waiving his Miranda rights, Porto-Sierra confessed and told the authorities, “they raped kids, they are child molesters that all live here and deserve to die.”

Sex offenders in Florida are required to publicly register their home address with the Sexual Offender and Predator System. That system shows more than 20 offenders are using the Friendly Village Inn & Motel as their home address.

When deputies asked why he didn’t flicker his lit cigarette at the gasoline he had poured, the old man simply said, “You got here too soon.”

But at least people are starting to trust the police more.

What’s next?

I mean it’s all getting pretty bad.

Maybe cats and dogs will start fighting, and mass hysteria will hit new York (a paraphrased quote from “Ghostbusters”.)

Some final thoughts

Question to the reader. Sure these are interesting, and curious “news” items. But do they really improve your life? Are you better informed in the world directly around you and that with you interact with? Or, as I allude to, it is all puzzle pieces thrown on the floor in disarray…

Some are just made up lies. Like the China nonsense.

Some are news items; regional, small-time strangeness that takes place far away in areas that you have no idea about, haven’t visited, and know nothing of the culture there.

Some are government related, and of course, anything out of the Untied States govenrment is scheduled, preplanned and presented as “leaked” info to give it legitimity.

Some are stores of fraudsters, crooks, and criminals who use a new angle or technique to fleece others for money, or sex.

So I must ask again. Is your life better for reading about this stuff? Did you really learn somehting that you can apply to your life right now?

I argue that it just wasted your time.

Like sitting in a circus tent and watching clowns juggle bowling pins. A curious waste of time. Novel, perhaps, but does not improve your lfie.

So what things can you do to improve your life, eh?

Well, for starters. Do what you love to do. Seriously. I am not kidding. Do what you like to do.

Just do it and let the rest of the world scream! video 3MB

Identify who your friends are. Sure you can and should have all sorts of friends. But you need to identify which ones are REAL, the REAL DEAL friends, video 3MB

Get started right now. Do little things. Like Make Your Bed.

Great video. Listen to the great words of wisdom from a Navy Seal. video 7MB

If you start being nice and kind, irregardless to what others think, and act better and smile more, you will be the Rufus.

And if you are the Rufus you will find that your world-line template gets easier to endure. You will find that things get easier becuase instead of your mind filled with the daily garbage from the “news” you will have good things, and tangible things in yoru life… generated by the good thoughts of all those around you.

Be the Rufus. video 18MB

Not only that, but being a Rufus means so much more.

It means being there and acting instantly. video 5MB

Go perform deeds of kindness.

Make the world a better place. video 17MB

American and Western society is predicated in a civilian population of spectators. Those that are being told how great they are for doing nothing more than sitting into little grey cubicle boxes and giving 50% of everything that they make to the government.

That is not living.

But you can change all that.

Maybe not the entire society, but you can change your little part of it. Perform your affirmation campaigns. Mesure your fate forecast. Perfrom centering exercises though Hemi-sync, and be the Rufus. Your life will change dramatically.

Not overnight.

Certainly years of programming and fear-induced habits will not disappear in a week or so, but if you keep up with the exercises and do the best with what you have, it WILL change.

I promise you that.

Do you want more?

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A glimpse at the post-American world

You know, all these actions by the United States against China, and Against Russia remind me of this following meme…

Here is a reprint of a translated Russian article regarding the collapse of the United States, and the dragging of it’s client “Western nations” into the black hole with it.

And the USA is actually collapsing.

Actually.

In fact, it has collapsed quite a bit, but it still has a long way to go yet. It will not be over until a new nation rises like a phoenix from the ashes of the former.

It’s a good read, though I had to conduct some serious editing to make it readable for English native readers.

I do hope that you enjoy it.

Despite the running assumption in Washington for some time that democratic backslides are linked to perceived adversaries such as Russia and China, the data actually seems to point back to the United States itself. 

Of all places, the news of this democratic decline was recently reported in the New York Times. According to data from V-Dem, the US and its allies (defined as countries with a formal or implied mutual defense commitment) have accounted for only 5% of worldwide increases in democracy in the 2010s while having 36% of the decreases.

In fact, it states, US-allied countries saw their democracies decline by nearly double the rate of non-allies.

This obviously raises the question: why?

Answering this is quite a tall order for even the most astute political scientists, but it’s obviously not as simple as blaming Trump. Let’s look at some of the possible reasons. 

First of all, contrary to a long-running assumption, American influence does not actually lead to countries wanting to be like America. A Pew Research Center study from November 1 found that only 17% of people in their survey countries viewed US democracy as worth emulating, against 23% who said it was never a good example. Why is this?

Well, US democracy sucks.

If democracy means that public opinion is supposed to decide policies, then the US is an abject failure.

Public opinion actually means next to nothing, considering the US is a functioning plutocracy – a government of, by, and for the wealthy.


- Mirna Miranda

Post-American world

.
Rostislav Ishchenko develops his theme first posted here: Russian World as a global project into global multipolarity and covers why and how the West ran into a dead end, and where the multipolar situation may lead.

Please note it is a machine translation with some human assistance, and it is not a perfect document.  It however makes his points clear enough, for the discussion on this massive global change.

Today we are in a unique situation – for the first time in the history of mankind, a global empire is breaking up.

Humanity is constantly living in an era of decay. At the same time, humanity is constantly living in an era of centralization.

The dialectic of history works simply: the centers of disintegration and centralization are constantly changing places both horizontally (some states are weakening, others are strengthening) and vertically (against the background of a weakening center, power in the shires is always strengthening, and the weakness of the regions leads to the strengthening of the center).

The art of leading a state is to correctly determine its internal and external state.

Accordingly, you need to move the control center of gravity from the regional level to the central level and back.

In the field of foreign policy, in an era of weakness, try not to be too active in order to suffer as few losses as possible (and it is better not to lose anything at all), while at the time of strength, try to carefully acquire additional resources.

Depending on the era, this resource can be nominated in terms of land, people, industrial power, market access, ideological leadership, information superiority, and other resources.

As a rule, several interrelated factors from among the above play an important role.

The Empire of the Collective West

Today we are in a unique situation. This has never happened before in the history of mankind.

For the first time, a global empire is breaking up.

We used to call it the American world, because after the collapse of the USSR, the United States remained the only superpower for twenty or twenty – five years (who thinks so) and became a symbol of Western dominance.

But in reality, it was the empire of the collective West.

The United States did not share the profits made by robbing the rest of humanity with Canada and Australia, New Zealand and South Korea, Japan and the EU out of a love of art or an innate desire for charity. It’s just that without the support of these vassal regimes, Washington was unable to manage the globalized world.

And, as has been known since classical feudalism, the vassal owes the master exactly the same amount as the master owes the vassal.

If a prince or duke does not dress his retinue luxuriously, does not provide it with expensive horses and weapons, does not feed it to the brim and does not drink it to the point of drunkenness, then the retinue has every right to abandon such a leader and look for a new master (the right to leave).

In politics, these relations are expressed in a change of allies.

For example, when the USSR could no longer provide Eastern Europe with an influx of additional resources (at the expense of its own population) The ATS and COMECON instantly disappeared in time and space, and their yesterday’s members lined up in NATO and the EU.

Next in line were the Union republics, which fled the Union in full confidence that they were feeding Russia and would live better on their own.

At the same time, the republics did not really think about any independence either. They took the queue “to the West” for Eastern Europeans, fully confident that they only need to join the EU and NATO and everything will be like in the USSR, only even more satisfying and better.

Some managed to join, some did not, but everyone was disappointed.

And not at all because, as some think, the West did not want to feed freeloaders.

The EU and the US were well aware of their responsibilities to their vassal countries, and they also understood that spending on their “weapons, horses, clothing, food and drink” would pay off by strengthening Western dominance around the world.

The annexation of Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet states (except for Russia and the Asian republics) was supposed to significantly improve the geopolitical position of the West, strengthen its military capabilities and make its political and economic dictates insurmountable.

When the West overestimated its strength

At first, it worked that way.

The costs of maintaining Poland and demonstrating the success of the Baltic Tigers were more than repaid by predatory exploitation of Russia.

 (in the 1990s, the West established direct or indirect control over most of Russia’s resources through local oligarchs) and outright piracy in the rest of the world (Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, and after it Serbia).

Economically booming, China was unable to stand up to the collective West militarily. Russia seemed completely destroyed and only temporarily preserved the appearance of unity. At this point, the West overestimated its strength.

In any society, there are always different groups that see the purpose and meaning of existence and the direction of development of the corresponding society in different ways. And as long as there is an obvious external danger, these groups reject internal contradictions, rallying against the external enemy. If, for some reason, the authorities lose the ability to reconcile and balance internal contradictions, a catastrophe of the 1917 model occurs.

In the 1990s, the collective West believed in the “end of history”, that the world is forever Westernized, that the roles of governors and governed are assigned to different countries forever.

Being in a state of euphoria, the Western left liberals launched an ideological offensive not only on the external front, but also on the internal one, trying to make their “tolerant new world” mandatory for everyone, not only in the conquered countries, but also among those who, in their opinion, “won the Third world war (cold war).”

As long as the leftists did not dig in, the resistance to their expansion in Western society was provided by certain marginal groups of conservatives, who were branded fascists by the” new left”.

Broad strata of Western society were virtually untouched by the confrontation between these groups until the mid-noughties of the third millennium.

Moreover, the main ideological expansion of the West was aimed at the development of “conquered territories”.

It was there that the most “advanced” “public organizations” were created, spreading the propaganda of equality of norm and perversion to Western grants, even the advantages of perversion over the norm, because it “suffered for a long time”.

There, on the” new lands”, the” Soros funds ” and their many similarities worked. And left-liberal ideas, having fallen into the post-communist ideological void accustomed to the presence of a” leading and guiding ” people, were in the greatest demand. The additional appeal of these ideas was given by the fact that their local adherents, due to the support of Western funds, instantly became super-successful people against the background of the rapidly impoverished (in the 1990s) post-Soviet society.

It is difficult to say how all this would have ended if the West had had the wit and patience to wait, not to immediately cut the post-Soviet “chicken”, but to give the liberals the opportunity to demonstrate at least some success.

Then it was inexpensive.

But, having invested in a thin layer of people temporarily in power, the West decided that all the problems were solved.

The elites will cope with educating the masses.

And it was seriously mistaken.

Split in the Western family

I don’t know if Russia and China would have had a chance to stand up to the united West, which by the end of the 1990s was totally superior to them in all indicators, except for Chinese industrial growth (but it is not enough to grow quickly, you need to have time to grow), if the expansion of Western neolithic ideas would have remained exclusively external.

But the left-wing liberals, sensing that they had significantly strengthened their positions due to external expansion, launched an offensive against conservatives inside the West.

This was the beginning of the end, for” Every kingdom divided against itself will become desolate; and every city or house divided against itself will not stand ” (Matthew 12: 25).

The West faced several divisions at once. First, there were divisions between conservatives and liberals within each individual country. Second, there is a split between conservative Eastern Europe and liberal Western Europe within the EU. Third, a split has emerged between the European bureaucracy and national Governments.

Moreover, since the European bureaucracy came out from radical left-liberal positions, in the fight against it, even liberal national governments were forced to seek the support of conservatives, which weakened the position of liberals in each individual country.

An increasing amount of Western resources began to be directed not to maintain the hegemony of the West, but to the internal struggle of liberals for an ideological monopoly.

The West has lost the ability to control planetary processes, but, being in euphoria, on the wave of success, it did not immediately notice this.

When it noticed, it was too late.

The divided Western society could no longer unite and was increasingly slipping into a state of cold, and then almost hot, civil war.

The struggle between liberals and conservatives, like any struggle of roughly equal forces, began to devour almost all available resources, and the West began to feel resource hunger.

Since the opportunity to pay off the resource shortage at the expense of Russia and/or China was lost (the West thought it was temporary, but in fact it turned out to be forever), cannibalism had to be engaged: the stronger countries of the West began to redirect resources that had previously been used to support weaker and poorer countries in their favor.

Immediately, the internal split deepened.

In Europe, in addition to the division into West and East, there was a problem of “rich North” and “poor South”. These two parts of the EU had different views not only on the prospects of economic and financial policy of the European Union, but also set different foreign policy goals for themselves.

Divisions between the US and the EU, the US and Israel, the US and Turkey, Turkey and Israel, Israel and the EU, and the EU and Turkey have emerged and begun to deepen.

Washington’s position began to weaken even in the traditionally loyal monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula.

Political laws are inexorable

The West is still trying to present a united front.

In particular, the United States is forming an all-Western coalition against China and is trying to bind Russia’s forces in the European direction by forming a single pan-European anti-Russian front.

In the statements of government officials, on the paper of signed agreements and according to the estimates of expert offices funded from Western budgets, it seems to work, but not so much in terms of the self-perception of the population of Western countries, which the press is increasingly forced to reflect with minimal objectivity.

The collective West still retains a sense of civilizational unity, but in the face of growing resource scarcity, this cannot help it in any way.

Still, the strong, in order to survive, is forced to withdraw resources from the weak.

At the same time, even if the weak does not rebel, but allows themselves to be robbed to the end, the weakening of the West will progress at an increasing pace.

On the example of Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria, and the former “Baltic tigers”, we see that sooner or later there comes a time when the robbed statehood loses the ability to support itself.

Starting from this period, it is necessary either to pump additional resources into it just for the sake of preserving it, or to accept that it will de facto disappear, first as an economic unit, and then as a political one, which will reduce the amount of available resources, respectively aggravating the problem.

Today, the West is already clearly divided into three clusters: the American one (the main one, torn apart in the United States by the struggle of right-wing conservative Trumpists and left-wing radical Bidenites); the European one (whose economic interests require cooperation with Russia, but the ruling elites of most countries are afraid that they will not be able to retain power if they leave the American umbrella); and the Asia-Pacific one (which has already fallen into the sphere of Chinese economic influence, but does not want to admit it for the same reason that modern Europe does not want to break with America).

Historical experience shows that political laws are inexorable.

If you try to slow down the development of natural processes, then the longer you delay, the more terrible the final catastrophe will be.

In the 1990s, the West could still win, in the noughties conclude a compromise peace, being in a favorable position, in the tenth it was still possible to talk about a compromise, but the main bonuses were already received by Russia and China.

At this stage, the West can only count on a complete and unconditional surrender. Further delay will lead to the fact that there will be no one to capitulate. People, houses and cities will remain, but the western system will disappear.

Yet the United States is trying to continue playing the game of victory, and its allies have no strength to step out of the American shadow.

Further decisions should be made in the next three to five years. Either the United States will risk starting a war against China (then it should be started as early as possible, since it may be too late), or they will have to admit defeat in the global confrontation.

For the collective West, this will be a greater shock than the one that shook the Soviet sphere of influence during the collapse of the USSR.

The wreckage of the collective West in the form of junior partners of the United States will start looking for new patrons even more frantically than the post-socialist countries did in the 1990s.

At this point, the question will arise: where is the new assemblage point, around whom will the new centralization take place?

The square trinomial and its political roots

So far, we believe that such an assemblage point can be the Russian-Chinese Eurasia based on the SCO, the EAEU, the CSTO and other structures created and being created by Russia and China.

However, China, which is trying to protect itself against a sudden (but more than likely) collapse of Western markets, has recently taken several cautious steps to establish its own control over the Trans-Eurasian trade routes under Russian control.

A possible clash of interests is in Africa and Latin America, where both powers are actively increasing their economic expansion.

Finally, while not yet obvious, but in the long run, the most dangerous contradiction is that the fragments of the collective West that fall into the Chinese sphere of influence (the Republic of Korea, Australia, and New Zealand), along with the Southeast Asian states already located there, have interests diametrically opposed to the interests of Europe that potentially falls into the Russian sphere of influence.

Plus, India and Japan are too big a prize for Beijing and Moscow to allow each other’s sole influence there.

These contradictions are objective, and whether they can be overcome depends on the collective will of Russia and China.

Today, we cannot say unequivocally that this will be achieved, if only because we do not know in what geopolitical conditions we will have to move on to building a “beautiful new world”.

One thing is clear: Washington’s belated recognition of multipolarity in the form of a statement that there are three centers of power in today’s world (Russia, the United States, and China), although formally true, cannot satisfy anyone, because the dynamics of global processes are negative for the United States, and they will still try to change it, which means that the three-member structure will not be stable due to American opportunism.

In general, [1] today the crisis is developing, [2] the catastrophe of the collective West seems inevitable, but [3] the subsequent catharsis does not promise peace.

Conclusions

What may come, may come. But don’t lose sleep over it. If you can still enjoy a fine pizza, then do so. If you can still go out and watch a funny movie then go do so. If you can go outside and play with your critters, please do so. And remember… Always be the Rufus. video. 130MB

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Sitrep China at the starting gate

Ah. I do love a good meal. I consider steak, done medium rare to be a fine delicious meal. Don’t you? Oh, and do not forget the dipping sauce or gravy. Don’t you know. It’s all around a taste treat.

A delicious steak. I like mine medium rare.

Especially with some alcohol. Most especially some fine tasty Shiraz. I like shiraz. It’s fruity, sweet, easy to drink and goes great with everything from peanuts to lasagna.

Wine. Nicely decanted. Served with fresh baked Italian or French bread.

You guys know that I have never ate so well as I am doing inside of China. This place is great. But judging from some of the comments when I post on LinkedIN, the rest of the world instead believe the hate-China fantasy.

Such as this guy…

China is short on energy, food supply and raw materials. It's fixed capital need overseas markets to break even. By geography, it is hemmed on all sides. It will suffer incredible loss of wealth and the regime will lose any credibility it may have left. 

-London Desa

He’s clueless.

Just absolutely clueless.

One of the things that is going on with myself (MM for you readers) is that my meals have taken a decidedly up-tick swing in food quality.

A few “affirmation campaigns” ago, I had an affirmation that went like this…

I eat healthy, delicious and tasty foods daily.

Well, without my knowledge, my wife has this great idea to take 10,000 RMB and get a VIP account in a local high-class vegetarian restaurant. Her idea was to feed our two year old with a selection of healthy food, prepared with cleanliness, and with an eye of being tasty. This all was the direct result of a rash that broke out on my daughter after we ate some Sichuan food a few weeks ago. (All is well, by the way.)

So now, I am eating healthy, delicious and tasty food daily.

What do you know…

Ah, it’s funny how those affirmation campaigns work. Now, I long to eat some meat. You know, I am a guy. A steak lover. A carnivore. But anyways, I am fine, the kid is finally eating, and I am actually feeling much healthier than before. You would be amazed how you feel once you change your diet.

Ma Po Dou Fu

Like the one follower (Alice) who wanted youthful skin like when she was young, and ended up having zits and acne breakout. Ask her about it some time.

LOL.

Anyways, life is what you make it. If you are thinking one thing… “China is bad, people are starving, child labor”… so on and so forth it will start to manifest in your life. Well, goodness! Don’t allow that.

Think good stuff.

Here’s a cute kitten. She’s napping. Shucch!

Life is hard, then you nap.

Think good stuff.

Here’s a classic car. I always wanted one of these beasts once I watched the 1980’s comedy Adventures in Babysitting. I remember watching it while I was in training at China Lake. Did you know that it snowed that year? Yes. One inch of dusty snow on the evaporate cooler in the middle of the High Desert. Who would figure?

Think good stuff.

1950 Cadillac Series 62.

Think good stuff.

Here’s a craftsman home. It’s one of my favorite designs. I really love the nice interiors. It’s sort of a post-modern art-deco version of a “Hobbit hole”.

Laurelhurst 1912 Craftsman living room

Christmas is coming. Well, after Thanksgiving, that is. Are you ready for it? I am. MM has his tree up and little mm has her presents all wrapped up and hidden awaiting the “big day”. Though Ms. Mm can’t help herself and unwraps one every few days or so. Sigh.

Think good thoughts.

Goldie Hawn & Kurt Russell
The Christmas Chronicles 2.

Think good thoughts.

Oh, maybe I didn’t make myself clear. I really think, and believe that what you think about affects the life that you live. And thus to that end, you all need to…

…think good thoughts.

Bread done right.

This post is all about China, and it is a situation report or “sitrep” for short. Since the entire Western “news” is simply the propaganda outlet for the Washington DC monied interests, we have to perform our own investigations and sleuthing.

Not that it matters though. Our non-compliance with the approved media narratives tend to get our works banned, shadow banned, or completely cut off. But not here in MM land.

The following comes from The Saker, and it was edited for the tender sensibilities of the MM readership. As well as my “superior” editing ability. LOL. All credit to the author, the source, and the venue. I hope you all like it and appreciate it.

 

Here Comes China: Xi Jinping’s speech, Major geo-political events, Joint naval patrol, Shangri-La was a novel

by Amarynth for the Saker Blog

There has been a slight pause in these sitreps. This writing became overshadowed with current events, fully covered in the Saker Blog by other writers.  Because of the length, we will upgrade this one today from sitrep to guest analysis.

A shortlisting of four major events since the Sitrep paused:

1

Meng Wanzhou’s triumphant return to China and a win against the Long Arm of the Law.  Meng is back at work this morning.  https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202110/1237211.shtml

2

The failed visit (yes another failed diplomatic visit) which resulted in this comical and humorous tweet from Escobar

@RealPepeEscobar

US-CHINA IN 30 SECONDS

Jake Sullivan – “We wanna talk about Uyghurs, Hong Kong, Taiwan, human rights.”
Yang Jiechi – “No.”
Jake Sullivan – “Climate change.”
Yang Jiechi – “No.” “Maybe. If you listen.”
Jake Sullivan – “So we’re coming after you big time.”
Yang Jiechi – “Bring it on.”

Uhm, how did that climate change maybe thing work out?

Well it turns out not so well. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are among several world leaders who will not be attending the big climate summit COP26 scheduled to begin this week in Britain. The two leaders will not even give it a pretense of legitimacy.

Now, that is how to give a perfect diplomatic snub!  Or is it only a diplomatic snub? 

I think both China and Russia are expressing that any attempt to do productive work with a naked insane emperor is now futile. 

We will probably see light speed changes from now on into multipolarity to hopefully gain a world that is now insisting on decent human values and most of all, peaceful resolution of differences.     

3

 

The other big event was the forming of Aukus, obviously in an attempt to create a mini-NATO against first China and Russia.

AUSTRALIAN SUBMARINES are indicative of the way our wonderful country is being governed. 

CANBERRA is dysfunctional with the state governments nationally and that is just a start.

Department of Defence (DoD) is clearly not thinking with logic but rather with the influence of the government of the day.

DoD appears to be doing national defence planning with votes in mind and not our national security.

From the very beginning, our submarines are a dud resource.

We were going to spend $220,000,000,000.00--- YES $220 BILLION on 12 submarines that were designed to be nuclear and we insisted they be designed backwards to be diesel.
That was bad enough.

Then we discover that of the 4 submarines we have now we only have CREW for 2 in 2021???

If we can only get crew for 2 now, why are we buying 12 and who will crew them in 20 years time when they are built?

NOW
We have nuclear subs from the US and UK at an undisclosed price, no plans and no idea when we will see them.

FRANCE needs CHINA a lot more than FRANCE needs AUSTRALIA so I am not surprised by France sidling up to China.

France and China have a number of daily trains from stations in France to Stations in China.

Last year there were 11,000 trains between the EU and China. That is one every 45 minutes.

That daily business is a lot more important to a nation in a pandemic than some subs half-built in Australia and half-built in France in 20 years time.

Back to the DoD in Australia.
They need an UPPERCUT for the pathetic way they are showing themselves to the world via CANBERRA.

They "appear" like they could not organise a sausage sizzle at Bunnings

What do you think of this mess?

How could it have been handled better?

Will submarines be relevant in 20 years time especially with NO CREWS?

-Peter Fennel

4

At the height of all of these were and are still the Taiwan issues and we will take a look at Xi Jinping’s speech a little later in this writing.

One soon finds that it becomes almost impossible to approach China from a generalist perspective. But, we have help.

On the economics side, we have Michael Hudson.

On the historical side, we have writers such as Godfree Roberts, Jeff J Browne and many others.

On the anti-China propaganda side, we have me and a number of reliable commentators on the Saker Blog and on the social, community.

On the humanity side, we have a host of excellent bloggers, documentary makers, and distributors of information as if one is walking in the streets and in the countryside with your own feet.

And of course, China is now taking its rightful place in the world as a leader and has improved markedly in information dissemination; they are taking their place on the world stage as wolf warriors, (Uhm, no, I did not mean to write that, of course, I meant to write ..) diplomats.

Sidebar:

China is a massive country and in landmass second only to Russia. But even in this simple measurement, the West tries its quibbling (and belittling) techniques. 

Read it and weep.

China is only second but Canada is bigger if we measure waterways. And really, China is really smaller than the US. Take a look at the quibble: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/largest-countries-in-the-world

A little story

This is from Jim Nelson that I found in my LinkedIN feed…

It was really a precious time in China in 1991. I taught English in Bengbu, Anhui for two years before deciding teaching English was not my career. Just the same, I treasure that time. 

The picture below is for the first party that the students had. They invited me and my teaching partner. They were freshman who had just finished newly instituted military training.  

Coming from America, I had some preconceived notions of what a college party could be like. The event I arrived at was beyond my imagination.

They had pushed desks to the side of the room to make space in the center. There were no decorations at all. They had no alcohol. If you look closely at the picture, we had one bottle of Huang Shan Cola each and a handful of pumpkin seeds. That is the whole story on the food and drink.

Who can remember Huang Shan Cola (translated that would be Yellow Mountain Cola.) It was a local Anhui Cola, and I do not know if it could ever be found outside of Anhui. Within 4 years, this cola could no longer be found as had been bought out by Coca Cola. It was a good soda. I would never have asked for Coca Cola.

The pumpkin seeds. Oh my, I was not even a sun flower seed eater in the US, so had no idea what to do with the pumpkin seeds. I saw the students open them and eat the seed inside. I awkwardly did the same. They were completely forgettable. I have never since tried to eat pumpkin seeds.
The planned activity was 3-step ballroom dancing with old style Western classical 3-step dancing music.  

The girls were glad to teach me how. Once I got the basic hang of it, one girl I danced with said I danced like a soldier, 1,2,3 1,2,3 by the numbers. She was completely right. It was a sweet and innocent event so different than the US that I can never forget it.

Man. China has really changed since that date.

100 Year Anniversary

In this year, the year of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, we experience an almost complete restatement and refinement of China’s goals in our world.

We see internal nomenclature such as…

  • “national rejuvenation”,
  • “a modern socialist country”, and
  • “continual reformation with comprehensive plans and strategy”,
  • and a “peaceful and united domestic environment”.

Toward the world, we see phrases such as…

  • “maintaining a revolutionary spirit”,
  • “the courage to carry out a great struggle with contemporary features”,
  • “courage, and skill”,
  • “safeguard sovereignty”, and
  • “protect security and development interests”.

We hear that China intends to assume a greater role in and for the world. 

Aggression and hegemony are not in the blood of the Chinese people and they will strive for a human community with a shared future. There are specific goals set out.

China will:

  • endeavor to improve the global governance system
  • engender peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom
  • work to strengthen solidarity of people of all other countries
  • engage in all efforts to oppose hegemony and power politics

What is the difference between Putin’s Optimistic Reasonable Conservatism and Xi’s Human Community with a Shared Future and moderately prosperous society

I cannot see too big of a difference. As the qualitative values expressed are similar although the civilizational socialization is different. 

As Putin expressed his non-acceptance of woke ‘values’ in his Valdai speech, so China in the last few months took real action

  • China threw the feminine men out of their television programs. 
The feminine men is an inheritance from Japan to a lesser degree and Korea, to a larger degree.  
  • China does not want girly men to become role models for their children.   
  • They pulled the rug out from underneath expensive additional schools, acting as funnels to expensive university programs, and tutoring that basically burdened the Chinese children. 
  • They have strengthened the Chinese schools to offer all additional education necessary, in order to have consistent educational standards. 
  • They simply stopped computer games for younger children and limited this to no more than 3 hours per week. 
  • They increased physical programs and education to get the kids out and about with healthy activities. 
  • And in stark contrast to the western sphere who wants to control the kids, China just put the responsibility by law, properly and correctly in the parents’ hands. 
“On Saturday, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee adopted a new law stating that China’s parents are responsible for family education.”

Taiwan

On Taiwan, we see Xi Jinping expressing the following:

“The Taiwan question arose from weakness and chaos and will be resolved with national reunification, the one-China principle, and 1992 resolution”.

Regarding military action; we see even Putin expressing that Xi Jinping does not need to take military action.  The verbose threats come from the US and Australia.

There are three aspects that Putin and Xi Jinping express as in one voice.

  • We are in a time of momentous changes in the world.
  • Both Russia and China are prepared and can ride the waves of change in a manner that is helpful, peaceful, and supportive in and for the world. 
  • The UN (and it has been said a number of times that it needs to be updated) is still the only venue where world problems can be discussed.  From Russia, our Law is the UN Charter and this is expressed by China as well.  The rules-based concept does not feature whatsoever.

These concepts are fully supported by Putin’s speech at Valdai, and Xi Jinping’s speech at the occasion of the 50th anniversary of China’s formal joining of the United Nations.

During the years since the cold war, another momentous alliance grew almost from a grassroots level.

This is the Russia / China treaty of Good Neighborliness.

Here, with subtitles is what the Chinese office of foreign affairs thinks of this treaty at its 20th anniversary.

China and Russia are not allies, but far, far closer than allies ever could be:

'China and Russia are not allies but closer than allies' 
– Spokesperson on Putin's remarks pic.twitter.com/uePzp2epIf


— Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) October 22, 2021

50th Anniversary of China’s seat in the UN

In this atmosphere of global chaos, Xi Jinping delivered a speech this morning at the occasion of the 50th anniversary of restoration of People’s Republic of China’s lawful seat in the UN:

(Translation)

Speech by H.E. Xi Jinping

President of the People’s Republic of China

At the Conference Marking the 50th Anniversary of the Restoration Of the Lawful Seat of the People’s Republic of China

In the United Nations

25 October 2021

Your Excellency Secretary-General António Guterres,

Your Excellencies Diplomatic Envoys and Representatives of International Organizations,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Friends,

Comrades,

Fifty years ago today, the 26th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted, with an overwhelming majority, Resolution 2758, and the decision was made to restore all rights of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations and to recognize the representatives of the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representatives of China to the United Nations. It was a victory for the Chinese people and a victory for people of the world.

Today, on this special date, we are here to review the past history and look to the future, and that makes our gathering all the more significant.

The restoration of New China’s lawful seat in the United Nations was a momentous event for the world and the United Nations. It came as the result of joint efforts of all peace-loving countries that stood up for justice in the world. It marked the return of the Chinese people, or one-fourth of the world’s population, back to the UN stage. The importance was significant and far-reaching for both China and the wider world.

On this occasion, I wish to express, on behalf of the Chinese government and the Chinese people, heartfelt gratitude to all countries that co-sponsored and supported UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, and to pay high tribute to all countries and people that stand on the side of justice.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Friends,

Comrades,

The past five decades since New China restored its lawful seat in the United Nations have witnessed China’s peaceful development and its commitment and dedication to the welfare of all humanity.

For these 50 years, the Chinese people have demonstrated an untiring spirit and kept to the right direction of China’s development amidst changing circumstances, thus writing an epic chapter in the development of China and humanity. Building on achievements in national construction and development since the founding of New China, the Chinese people have started the new historical era of reform and opening-up, and successfully initiated and developed socialism with Chinese characteristics. We have continued to unleash and develop productivity and raise living standards, and achieved a historic breakthrough of leaping from a country with relatively low productivity to the second largest economy in the world. Through much hard work, the Chinese people have attained the goal of fully building a moderately prosperous society on the vast land of China, and won the battle against poverty, thus securing a historic success in eradicating absolute poverty. We have now embarked on a new journey toward fully building a modern socialist country and opened up bright prospects for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

For these 50 years, the Chinese people have stood in solidarity and cooperation with people around the world and upheld international equity and justice, contributing significantly to world peace and development. The Chinese people are peace-loving people and know well the value of peace and stability. We have unswervingly followed an independent foreign policy of peace, stood firm for fairness and justice, and resolutely opposed hegemony and power politics. The Chinese people are a strong supporter of other developing countries in their just struggle to safeguard sovereignty, security and development interests. The Chinese people are committed to achieving common development. From the Tazara Railway to the Belt and Road Initiative, we have done what we could to help other developing countries, and have offered the world new opportunities through our own development. During the trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has been active in sharing COVID response experience with the world, and has sent large quantities of supplies, vaccines and medicines to other countries, and deeply engaged in science-based cooperation on COVID-19 origins tracing, all in a sincere and proactive effort to contribute to humanity’s final victory over the pandemic.

For these 50 years, the Chinese people have upheld the authority and sanctity of the United Nations and practiced multilateralism, and China’s cooperation with the United Nations has deepened steadily. China has faithfully fulfilled its responsibility and mission as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, stayed true to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and upheld the central role of the United Nations in international affairs. China has stood actively for political settlement of disputes through peaceful means. It has sent over 50,000 peacekeepers to UN peacekeeping operations, and is now the second largest financial contributor to both the United Nations and UN peacekeeping operations. China has been among the first of countries to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals. It has taken the lead in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, accounting for over 70 percent of global poverty reduction. China has acted by the spirit of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and earnestly applied the universality of human rights in the Chinese context. It has blazed a path of human rights development that is consistent with the trend of the times and carries distinct Chinese features, thus making major contribution to human rights progress in China and the international human rights cause.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Friends,

Comrades,

The trend of the world, vast and mighty, prospers those who follow it and perishes those who go against it. Over the last 50 years, for all the vicissitudes in the international landscape, the world has remained stable as a whole, thanks to the concerted efforts of people of all countries. The world economy has grown rapidly, and innovation in science and technology has kept breaking new ground. A large number of developing countries have grown stronger, over a billion people have walked out of poverty, and a population of several billion are moving toward modernization.

In the world today, changes unseen in a century are accelerating, and the force for peace, development and progress has continued to grow. It falls upon us to follow the prevailing trend of history, and choose cooperation over confrontation, openness over seclusion, and mutual benefit over zero-sum games. We shall be firm in opposing all forms of hegemony and power politics, as well as all forms of unilateralism and protectionism.

We should vigorously advocate peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, which are the common values of humanity, and work together to provide the right guiding philosophy for building a better world. Peace and development are our common cause, equity and justice our common aspiration, and democracy and freedom our common pursuit. The world we live in is diverse and colorful. Diversity makes human civilization what it is, and provides a constant source of vitality and driving force for world development. As a Chinese saying goes, “Without achieving the good of one hundred various schools, the uniqueness of one individual cannot be achieved.” No civilization in the world is superior to others; every civilization is special and unique to its own region. Civilizations can achieve harmony only through communication, and can make progress only through harmonization. Whether a country’s path of development works is judged, first and foremost, by whether it fits the country’s conditions; whether it follows the development trend of the times; whether it brings about economic growth, social advancement, better livelihoods and social stability; whether it has the people’s endorsement and support; and whether it contributes to the progressive cause of humanity.

We should jointly promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and work together to build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity. The human race is an integral community and Earth is our common homeland. No person or country can thrive in isolation. Humanity should overcome difficulties in solidarity and pursue common development in harmony. We should keep moving toward a community with a shared future for mankind, and jointly create a better future. To build a community with a shared future for mankind is not to replace one system or civilization with another. Instead, it is about countries with different social systems, ideologies, histories, cultures and levels of development coming together for shared interests, shared rights and shared responsibilities in global affairs, and creating the greatest synergy for building a better world.

We should stay committed to mutual benefit and win-win results, and work together to promote economic and social development for the greater benefit of our people. As ancient Chinese observed, “The essence of governance is livelihood; and the essence of livelihood is adequacy. Development and happy lives are the common aspirations of people in all countries. Development is meaningful only when it is for the people’s interest, and can sustain only when it is motivated by the people. Countries should put their people front and center, and strive to realize development with a higher level of quality, efficiency, equity, sustainability and security. It is important to resolve the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development, and make development more balanced, coordinated and inclusive. It is also important to strengthen the peoples capacity for development, foster a development environment where everyone takes part and has a share, and create a development paradigm where its outcome benefits every person in every country more directly and fairly. Not long ago, at the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly, I proposed a Global Development Initiative with the hope that countries will work together to overcome impacts of COVID-19 on global development, accelerate implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and build a global community of development with a shared future.

We should step up cooperation, and work together to address the various challenges and global issues facing humanity. The international community is confronted by regional disputes as well as global issues such as terrorism, climate change, cybersecurity and biosecurity. Only with more inclusive global governance, more effective multilateral mechanisms and more active regional cooperation, can these issues be addressed effectively. Climate change is Natures alarm bell to humanity. Countries need to take concrete actions to protect Mother Nature. We need to encourage green recovery, green production and green consumption, promote a civilized and healthy lifestyle, foster harmony between man and Nature, and let a sound ecology and environment be the inexhaustible source of sustainable development.

We should resolutely uphold the authority and standing of the United Nations, and work together to practice true multilateralism. Building a community with a shared future for mankind requires a strong United Nations and reform and development of the global governance system. Countries should uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core, the international order underpinned by international law and the basic norms of international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. International rules can only be made by the 193 UN Member States together, and not decided by individual countries or blocs of countries. International rules should be observed by the 193 UN Member States, and there is and should be no exception. Countries should respect the United Nations, take good care of the UN family, refrain from exploiting the Organization, still less abandoning it at one’s will, and make sure that the United Nations plays an even more positive role in advancing humanitys noble cause of peace and development. China will be happy to work with all countries under the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits to explore new ideas and new models of cooperation and keep enriching the practice of multilateralism under new circumstances.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Friends,

Comrades,

A review of the past can light the way forward. Standing at a new historical starting point, China will stay committed to the path of peaceful development and always be a builder of world peace. China will stay committed to the path of reform and opening-up and always be a contributor to global development. China will stay committed to the path of multilateralism and always be a defender of the international order.

As an ancient Chinese poem reads, Green hills immerse in the same cloud and rain. The same moon lights up towns however far away. Let us join hands, stand on the right side of history and the side of human progress, and work tirelessly for the lasting and peaceful development of the world and for building a community with a shared future for mankind!

Thank you.

http://www.news.cn/english/2021-10/25/c_1310267311.htm

China, Russia and Japan…

To my great surprise, Xi Jinping did not say one word about Taiwan, but sketched out the past as a harbinger of the future while cementing the legal status of China, which is not the legal status of Taiwan. 

I guess he feels that the contretemps with Taiwan is not important enough.

On the speeches, we may say that those are lofty ideals. But we also see practical and real interaction between China and Russia.

The two countries just completed a first joint naval patrol in waters of the West Pacific,  between October 17th to the 23rd, according to the Chinese Ministry of Defense. The patrol was held right after China and Russia wrapped up a joint naval exercise in the Sea of Japan from October 14th to 17th.

5 Chinese vessels and 5 Russian destroyers and frigates accompanied by six carrier-based helicopters made passage through the Tsugaru Strait (which caused Japan to run for the Prozac).

Yet this Strait is not territorial waters, and warships from any country have the right to transit, which means the transit of the Chinese and Russian vessels was in line with international law.

The Tsugaru Strait is narrow, only 12 miles wide at its narrowest point from the Sea of Japan to the Pacific Ocean.  This RT link has the photography and videos:  https://www.rt.com/news/538265-russia-china-pacific-patrol/

What is also very interesting is that it is said that the sea lane between these two islands is specifically maintained for quick access of US submarines to the Pacific Ocean. 

A Chinese expert opined as follows:

Encircling Japan, particularly sailing to the east side of Japan, is of significance because many key military installations are located on that side, including the US Navy base in Yokosuka, a Chinese military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times.

Many US military provocations on China in places like the Taiwan Straits and the South China Sea were launched from these bases, the expert said, noting that the joint patrol by Chinese and Russian vessels could be seen as a warning to the US and Japan, which have been rallying up to confront China and Russia, serves the goals of US hegemony, and undermines regional peace and stability.

“The joint maritime patrol is aimed at further developing the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era, elevating the joint action capabilities of both nations and jointly maintaining international and regional strategic stability. It’s a part of the annual cooperation plan between the two nations …”

In bold are the most important words, and this is not a lofty ideal, but a very hard challenge to the western powers and of course Japan.

Also, if one looks at that area with a strategic eye, it breaks up the supposed ‘ring of fire’ to keep China contained.

American war-mongering neocon “wet dream” plan on “containing” China.

In addition, it is also a warning for Japan, which has been dragging its feet to come to an agreement with Russia on islands further North in the island chain.

So, we have to ask, was this a threat?

No, not at all on the surface of it, but it was a stark reminder that the so-called freedom of navigation game that has been constant in the South China Sea and the Straight of Taiwan can be played by more than one player. Not just the United States. It’s a new world and everyone must play by the same rules.

It is also notable that from 2019, air forces from China and Russia have conducted annual joint strategic air patrols over the East China Sea and Sea of Japan.

We are now seeing very visibly one of the aspects of the development of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era.

Did you see that coming?

Did you see the evolution of the Russia / China treaty of Good Neighborliness to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership?

Chinese GDP expansion

As is usual, we look at a few of the China data points and I want to remind that you the Chinese governance is always refining, always testing, and prototyping new methods and systems across the spectrum of modern life, and always this is done on a grassroots level.

"China is in trouble, clapped-out economically, and is going to bring the west down with it."

This is the message that we see with monotonous regularity. 

The reality is different.  

Chinese GDP expanded a whopping 9.8% in the first three quarters of 2021, and major indicators are within a reasonable range.

Evergrande

Evergrande – caused by poor management and that is all and the Chinese government will both let them burn, and also make them take responsibility to Chinese people first. 

There will be no monopolies or other behemoth-type business structures in China that can challenge the state. 

The Chinese people come first.  

(Evergrande has no option but to resume work and they did so today on 10 projects.  There is no quick bankruptcy for them, and certainly no bail-out).

China’s Strong Economy

Chinese banks have foreign-currency deposits of $1 trillion for the first time, an opportunity for Beijing to liberalize the country’s capital account.

A resilient economy and strengthening currency have attracted record foreign purchases of bonds and stocks while surging demand for goods meant exporters brought back more dollars.

The pace of the influx has tested the authorities’ tolerance for a strengthening yuan, with the currency now near a five-year high against a basket of its peers.

China’s exports grew 20%!

Exports grew 20% in September, up from 15.7% in August. September’s gain was higher than the median estimate of 13.3% in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Growth in imports slowed to 11% in September from 23.1% in the previous month.

Korean IC Chip Manufacturers building factories in China

China-Korea semiconductor industrial complex starts construction amid Beijing’s push for tech self-reliance. The municipal government of Wuxi and memory chip giant SK Hynix have teamed up to develop the China-Korea Integrated Circuit Industrial Park. 

The city is expected to become home to 19 new semiconductor-related projects with a combined investment of US$4.7 billion.

A Herbal solution for Coronavirus

A Chinese herbal formula for coronavirus patients is undergoing clinical trials in the US for possible approval for people with mild-to-moderate symptoms of the disease. Qingfei Paidu, most commonly called QFPD, is a 21-herb formula whose name literally means lung cleansing and detoxification.

Zero-tolerance to COVID remains in place

China, which pioneered controlling Covid-19 with lockdown orders and tight border rules, will  “wait and see” about adjusting its zero-tolerance policy.

“We are discussing about the new strategy in China … everything is dynamic. We are ready for any possible reassessment”.  

(Please do not consider this comment and the previous as an open sesame to start discussing Covid on the Saker Blog.  You all know the blog policy).

Chinese getting taller

Between 1985 – 2019, the average height of a 19-year-old Chinese increased 3.5 inches, or 9 cm, supporting President Xi Jinping’s declaration in July that the country had achieved its goal of establishing a “moderately prosperous society” in time for the Party’s centenary.  This is a result of a relentless project to bring the Chinese people out of abject poverty.

Vehicular KTV

An important question in auto showrooms: Can I sing karaoke in this car? The only acceptable answer is yes, as Nio and XPeng know well. Western rivals are scrambling, “We’ve identified this as a challenge,” said BMW’s Christoph Grote, “Chinese consumers are the most demanding when it comes to digital technology in the car.”

Social Credit System

The dreaded Social Credit System which is abhorred in the West by most that do not have an idea what it is about.

China’s social credit system is more of a bureaucratic interface for existing legal and regulatory systems.

It is not the widespread Western perception of a dystopian algorithm that uses “big-data collection and analysis to monitor, shape, and rate individual’s behavior”.

Social credit includes new enforcement mechanisms.

However, it is but an extension of the law rather than an independent rule-making authority, and all data collection and penalties require a legal basis.

USA Universities moving to China

This was mentioned before but as a reminder.

When the Chinese students started being hunted and haunted specifically in the US, all the major universities opened campuses in China (they could not afford to lose the Chinese money).

For Harvard, it did not take too long to become part of the propaganda war on China and they are moving their Chinese language program from Beijing to National Taiwan University, replacing a partnership with Beijing Language and Culture University.

Harvard’s Jennifer Liu said the decision was made because of a perceived lack of friendliness from the host institution, Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU).

Just a taste

This gives a taste of what is happening in China and now we need to give the regular shout-out to Godfree Roberts’ Here Comes China newsletter that supplies these data points. Subscribe here – it is worth it!: https://www.herecomeschina.com/#subscribe

In the next few China Sitreps, I will post a selection of documentaries and information on those aspects of China’s history that remain western talking points, whether correct or not.

This is Tibet, Tiananmen, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and the border skirmishes with India as a shortlist. Today we start with Tibet.

Tibet

Tibet – if you have the romantic western mindset about Tibet, let’s revise that. Your knowledge most certainly comes from a book, movies, and a whole Shangri-La industry spawned in the wake.

.

Tibet was a dramatically brutal theocratic serfdom and never-ending debt peonage. Under the Dalai Lama in Tibet before China’s takeover:

  • 98% of the population were serfs or slaves or kept in debt peonage.
  • Disobedient serfs endured torture
  • The 14th Dalai Lama’s family owned 6,000 serfs
  • 95% of the population were illiterate
  • In 2015: 0.52% were illiterate
  • And in 2020: extreme poverty was eliminated in Tibet

From this documentary, you will learn that Tibetan Buddhism was not the sweet, and romantic Buddhist religion based on peace and high ideals and spinning colorful prayer wheels and praying in monasteries.

It was based on the Indian Caste System where an extreme minority controlled the vast majority and kept them in abject poverty.

You will also learn why, on the death of a Dalai Lama (meaning God on earth), the successor, the soul boy was always found and appointed from a very poor family, in order to avoid any power struggles between the very few rich families. 

The connection with the Roman Catholic Pope will astound you.

And then you will see brutal sights of religious and shamanic powers whipped into inhumane forces.

You will learn that Dalai Lamas regularly fled Tibet, sometimes to flee British Forces.

Tibet was the first lever that was used by at that time British forces, and this lever was seamlessly taken over by the rest of the west, to break up China, even after some territory had to be given to Japan and some even to Korea.

You will learn how the Brits just simply carved out pieces of Chinese land from the Indian side.

This effort to break up China is still in full swing today, by the current hegemon in its frenzied dying attempts to own the whole world using weapons, war, lawfare, internal destabilization, the appointment of external presidents, propaganda, kidnapping of high officials, outright assassinations, drugs, biological substances, and poison.

Of course from the 1950s, CIA involvement around Tibet is well documented even to training ethnic Tibetans in Colorado for a planned Tibetan revolution.

You will also see one of the reasons why China will not let itself be hegemonized today, specifically with its history of never fighting a war of conquest in its 4,000 years of existence.

The population stands firm and resolute.

Never aired footage in the west will have you take part in the joy when religions serfdom and debt peonage was abolished in 1959 and the Tibetan Religious Serfs could burn their debt peonage documents.

If your stance in life is ‘Free Tibet’, which mine was, once upon a time before I did my homework, consider if you were romanticized by the CIA and a novel called Lost Horizon (1933) by English writer James Hilton.

Two movies followed (Frank Capra directing one), a Broadway play, and the world’s first mass-produced paperback, all called Lost Horizon, set in a fictional utopian lamasery called Shangri-La, high in the mountains of Tibet.

‘Free Tibet’ for you may just as wll be based on the fiction of Shangri-La.

Conclusion

Think good thoughts. Here’s a video 31MB

Be the Rufus

Be the Rufus. Get the most out of your life. video.

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Why are Chinese skies so pristine blue all the time? What happened to all the air pollution?

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 the articles. Jeeze!

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 HERE about 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.

What started this discussion

Here’s the videos and images that started this entire discussion…

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….

Near my house. Video 2MB

Downtown Gongbei Zhuhai at sunset. Video 2MB

Video Again. 2MB

But then again, let’s be real.

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 my ride in the DD. video

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

Here’s another nice girl. video. 6MB

I took this video as I walked to my office in the morning. video 10MB

And another nice woman outside. video 3MB

Here’s the park outside the bridge near my house. video. 7MB

And, yet another girl. video. 4MB

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

 

Let’s be real

Video 6MB

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

Air Pollution Control Air pollution is arguably the most egregious environmental problem plaguing China. The central government has placed improving air quality as a priority on its agenda for the next several years, with China’s Premier Xi Peng pledging in March 2017 tobring back blue skies” and work faster to address air pollution. 

- China - Environmental Technology

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.

Blue skies everywhere

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. 

-UNZ

China is a nation of Rufus’s…

We don’t want even one politically unqualified person sneaking into the Party, fishing for personal gain. 

-Xi Jinping.

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.

Video 2MB

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…

China

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More Links

Master Index

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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 by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
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          .

MM factory trip into the heartland of China November 2021 (Real deal reporting)

According to all the “experts”, China is a polluted wasteland of child workers, trash, poor unsanitary facilities, and gloom. Well it is not. I had to take a business trip into a heavily industrial zone in the Guangzhou industrial corridor, and here’s my story and pictures. So this is just going to be another quick article on MM life, banging around some factories on a day trip. I think you all might find it interesting.

About the “Nay Sayers”

About two weeks ago, we had a jerk-off place a comment here confirming / stating the nonsense that China is ugly, filthy and corrupt. He provided his “expert” status by prefacing his comment that he taught in medical universities for ten years, twenty years ago.

Ah, that standard boiler plate; “being an “expert” because he was teaching in China for ten years”.

He’s not the first, and won’t be the last. You can make good money having a small “cottage industry” churning out hate-China articles. They pay $1000 per article as of this year. Just follow the template. But you know, I saw through all that.It’s “easy pleasy, lemon squeezy”. So simple a child could do it.

Three reasons…

  • Six month changes. Anyone who has lived in China KNOWS that it changes every six months. I mean it. It changes so friggin’ fast here it is amazing. If you are gone for ten years, then you are clueless about  what it is now today. Heck, ten years ago people still used paper money. There weren’t any drone police, robot scanning didn’t exist, no one knew what a QR access was, and no one conducted thermal scans!!!!!
If we compare China’s 31 provinces with the 214 sovereign states that compose the “international community”, every Chinese region has experienced the fastest economic growth rates in the world. -UNZ
  • Talking Points. Don’t give me all the hate-China talking points. The comment read like something from the “National Review”. Mix it up some. Don’t regurgitate talking points. After all I am HERE, inside of China reading you trying to convince me of things that I can verify by sticking my head out the window.
  • Lonely guy. Anyone who has lived in China for ten years and didn’t find a partner and get married is a truly miserable person indeed. It’s not impossible, just highly unlikely. Which says something about your personality, personal body care,  hygiene, and social skills. If you cannot build a relationship in China, after one year, you have a problem. At ten years; you just have to be one Hell of a seriously disgusting person. Especially when you are SURROUNDED by attractive marriage age university women.

The trip overview

I had to visit the factory as it is a “new” factory that replaces our normal factory for a New Zealand customer. This factory needed to be instructed on what quality points and checks needed to take place to make the part.A day trip was in order. Drive up, visit the factory and have lunch, drive back. The distance was roughly comparable to driving from Boston to Albany, New York. Not close, but not too far either. The factory was near Shaoguan. You can see it at the top of the map below…

Factory location.

The ride up to the factory

"You must live on the coast, the inland is terribly polluted."

The trip itself was pretty uneventual. We traveled for about four hours. We rode up major highways, crossed massive bridges and went through long tunnels to reach our destination. In all cases, 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

Arrival into the tiny village

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.

Arrival at the factory

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

What the factory does

The factory is a casting and machining operation. They cast the part out of stainless steel, then they machine it, and finally check for quality and box and ship. Casting operations are typically dirty everywhere. It doesn’t matter where you are; the United States, China, Afghanistan… a casting factory is hot, dusty, dirty and greasy. Here’s an American casting factory in Cincinnati, Ohio…

American casting factory in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Machining operations are better, but not by much. Usually they include polishing operations and the like that typically result in dust and grime everywhere. These are hard core, basic operations, that made cities like Pittsburgh and Detroit famous. But we are not in America. We are in China. And, you know, things are different here.

Out of the car and into the factory

So we parked outside the gate, and met the factory boss at the gate who did the mandatory Coronavirus QR scans, the GPS positioning history, the temperature checks, and supplied us with fresh face masks and we went inside. video

Frenzied pace at the factory

" China employs slave labor, child labor, and indentured poverty stricken people who are yearning for freedom and democracy to unchain them from their shackles..."

Here’s a video that I took from outside the QC building. Sorry it’s kind of boring, but it illustrates the pace of life here. It shows that people are not upset, worried or working a frenzied pace. They are not afraid of losing their jobs on a layoff on Friday, or having to scramble to make ends meet. The factory, by law, must provide them with three free meals a day, free housing, free wifi and television access, and free transportation to and from town. Do they look like they are all yearning for American “freedom and democracy”? video. 14MB

This and that

While my engineer took care of the details, I hung out in the office, drinking tea and smoking cigarettes. We had a nice lunch, and then continued on our work. We ended up inspecting all of the parts, and then then left satisfied for lunch.

Dimensional fit checks.

Of course, I would check in with him from time to time.

All parts must meet the specifications on the drawing, but not all the customer requirements are listed in the specifications.

Lunch

"...starvation and famine are rampant inside of China. It's just that the evil CCP regime won't allow people to see the truth."

We broke for lunch. As always, the factory hosted us and we ate in a private room (which is normal in China). I had a few beers. They wanted to give me a bottle of red wine or 52° white wine for myself, but I declined. Ugh! Then about half way though the meal, I remembered to take some pictures. Because, after all, I did want to record this visit for MM. So I took pictures of the food mid-meal. We ate well…

Shellfish.
Local steamed fish in a nice peanut / ginger sauce. It’s eyes are covered by the garnish.
Greens.
Pigeon. Tasty little buggers, but hardly any meat.
Shrimp and snow peas with sweet cashews and sesame. A real favorite of mine. The white leafy things are lotus, not onion.

Inspections

"Child and slave labor is rampant all over China."

We spent the rest of the day inspecting the product. As you can see the factory workers were inspecting and packaging the product for shipment.

Rework and inspection.
Rejected parts.

Final packaging

"China only makes cheap Wal-mart junk. We don't need their bullshit."

The approved parts were recorded, marked and packaged by the ladies int he factory. Everything was 100% inspected to print from the customer. Here’s what that looked like…

Finishing up.
Packing the parts.

Conclusions

After all this, we hopped into the car and drove home. I arrived home, and immediately found my home to be in the kind of chaotic shambles that only a two-year old can accomplish. So I helped feed her, clean up, bathe her and put her to bed, then I churned out a post on Affirmation Campaigns. And this was my day. When I woke up, I opened up my normal news feeds to discover that Yahoo! would not longer be accessible inside of China, but used my indexes to see what articles they were pushing. And low and behold it was non-stop hate-China fest. I guess they wanted a piece of that 300 million dollars from the United States federal budget to push that narrative. Whores for money. Sheech! But you know, there are better things in this world. Like this Rufus doggie that saves his master… video 4MB

Do you want more?

I have more posts like this in my China index here… China .

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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.

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          .

It has started. Has President Biden lost control of the American Military forces?

The American news feeds are talking all about how President called Xi Peng of China. And that is all buried in the seemingly endless muck and grime that amounts to “news” in the West. But something else actually occurred. A United States Naval guided missile destroyer violated China’s 12 mile border and started conducting missile drills at one of the Chinese island Naval bases.

If you look at the time stamps, we see the following train of events;

  • US Naval Destroyer violates the Chinese border.
  • The Chinese military goes into full alert and “chases” the Destroyer away.
  • The American “news” media denies that the entire event happened.
  • The Chinese Navy then sends a flotilla between Taiwan and Japan.
  • President Biden calls Xi Peng

Now you are NEVER going to see these events displayed in sequential order like I have presented here. Nor are you ever going to see any link between the actions of the US Navy off the Chinese coast, and President Biden.

But war is brewing, and America is becoming more and more provocative. It’s only a matter of time before missiles start flying.

What occurred?

From the Global Times.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command on Wednesday 8 September 2021 vowed to stay on high alert and safeguard China’s sovereignty and security, and protect peace and stability in the South China Sea, after it warned off a US destroyer that trespassed into Chinese sovereign waters in the region on the day, a few days after a US aircraft carrier entered the region for a provocative deployment.

On Wednesday, the US guided missile destroyer USS Benfold trespassed into areas adjacent to the Meiji Reef in the South China Sea without China’s permission, and the naval and aerial forces of the PLA Southern Theater Command conducted whole-process tracking and monitoring of the US destroyer and warned it off, said a PLA Southern Theater Command spokesperson in a written statement.

Chinese military base on the reef.

The spokesperson, Air Force Senior Colonel Tian Junli, pointed out that the US move seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security. It was the latest ironclad proof of US’ navigation hegemony and militarization of the South China Sea.

“More and more facts have proved that the US is the biggest risk maker and the biggest breaker of stability and peace in the region,” Tian said.

Tian stressed in the statement that China has sovereignty over the islands and nearby waters, and the troops of the PLA Southern Theater Command will stay on high alert. The troops will firmly perform their duties and missions to safeguard China’s sovereignty and security, and protect peace and stability in the South China Sea.

According to monitoring by the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI), a Beijing-based think tank, the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier entered the South China Sea via the Bashi Channel on Monday. The carrier’s deployment was confirmed by the US Pacific Fleet later on Tuesday in a tweet.

USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier.

It was the sixth time a US aircraft carrier entered the region this year, the SCSPI said.

Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military expert, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the US destroyer’s trespassing into Chinese sovereign waters and the US aircraft carrier’s deployment in the South China Sea are provocative moves aimed at China, and they could be coordinated with the UK’s HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, which was operating near Japan.

UK’s HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier.

The USS Carl Vinson carried the US Navy’s first fully integrated air wing to deploy overseas with both the F-35C fighter and the new CMV-22B tiltrotor, according to a report published on August 2 on the website of the US Naval Institute.

As the first carrier to get the F-35C, the USS Carl Vinson went straight to the South China Sea with the aim of deterring China, but China has already developed a number of anti-stealth radar systems, so the F-35C can be detected, Fu said, noting that China also has countermeasures against the vertical take-off and landing-capable CMV-22Bs, which could land on islands and reefs in the region.

F-35C.

China is fully capable of and confident in dealing with such provocations, Fu said. “The PLA cannot be defeated within the second island chain.”

The American excuse…

Sep 08, 2021 · Sept. 8 (UPI) -- USS Benfold conducted a freedom of operation exercise near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea to uphold the rights, freedoms and lawful uses …

USS Benfold asserts freedom of operation in South China

And…

The U.S. Navy is disputing a claim from China that it chased an American warship out of the South China Sea after the U.S. vessel performed a freedom of navigation exercise.

USS Benfold (DDG-65) on Wednesday sailed near the Spratly Islands – which China has staked a claim to – according to a news release from U.S. 7th Fleet.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) quickly criticized the FONOP and claimed it chased the U.S. guided-missile destroyer out of the waters, according to a report in state-owned media outlet CGTN.

Tian Junli, a spokesman for the PLA’s Southern Theater Command, said it “remain[s] on high alert,” CGTN reported.

The U.S. Navy denied China’s claim and maintained it performed the FONOP within the constructs of international law.

“The PRC’s statement about this mission is false. USS Benfold conducted this FONOP in accordance with international law and then continued on to conduct normal operations in international waters. The operation reflects our commitment to uphold freedom of navigation and lawful uses of the sea as a principle. The United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, as USS Benfold did here. Nothing PRC says otherwise will deter us,” 7th Fleet said in a statement.

“The PLA(N)’s statement is the latest in a long string of PRC actions to misrepresent lawful U.S. maritime operations and assert its excessive and illegitimate maritime claims at the expense of its Southeast Asian neighbors in the South China Sea. The PRC’s behavior stands in contrast to the United States’ adherence to international law and our vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region. All nations, large and small, should be secure in their sovereignty, free from coercion, and able to pursue economic growth consistent with accepted international rules and norms.”

Benfold’s FONOP comes shortly after a new Chinese law that calls for ships carrying certain materials to provide specific information, like their call signs, went into effect, according to a recent report in CNN.

-Destroyer Performs FONOP, U.S. Navy Disputes Chinese Claim That It Ousted Warship

Ah. It sounds so reasonable…

“The PLA(N)’s statement is the latest in a long string of PRC actions to misrepresent lawful U.S. maritime operations and assert its excessive and illegitimate maritime claims at the expense of its Southeast Asian neighbors in the South China Sea. The PRC’s behavior stands in contrast to the United States’ adherence to international law and our vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region. All nations, large and small, should be secure in their sovereignty, free from coercion, and able to pursue economic growth consistent with accepted international rules and norms.”

But it is a lie.

The United States REFUSED to sign the international maritime agreements. As well as recognizing the sovereignty of the 12 mile limit around Chinese land.

The USA government requires a dumbed-down population to exist

As we used to say in the ‘States, “Don’t piss on my legs and tell me that it is raining”. Let’s take a look at a globe to see what is going on.

The excuse is that the United States is conducting “freedom of navigation” exercises near major shipping lanes. Granted you can’t get any closer than outside the Chinese port of Qingdao. But that is why the Chinese have their own Coast Guard. They don’t need American military warships sailing up and down the Chinese coastline.

Chinese coast guard vessel.

Then China sent their flotilla to Japan

A flotilla of destroyers, of the same equivalency of the American destroyer that violated Chinese national borders sailed to Japan from Taiwan.

From HERE.

A destroyer flotilla of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reportedly sailed in the waters between the island of Taiwan and some islands of Japan in the past week. Chinese analysts said the move sent a warning to Japanese right-wing forces and Taiwan secessionists, at a time when the two have been colluding to sabotage peace and stability in the region.

A Chinese flotilla.

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force spotted a PLA Navy flotilla consisting of the Type 052D destroyer Zibo and the Sovremenny-class destroyer Hangzhou, as they sailed through the Miyako Strait, which is between Okinawa Island and Miyako Island, and then headed south into the Pacific Ocean on September 3, according to a press release from Japan’s Ministry of Defense Joint Staff on Wednesday.

On Sunday, these warships joined up with the Type 052C destroyer Zhengzhou and sailed north through the waters between Island of Taiwan and Yonaguni Island, returning to the East China Sea, the Japanese press release said.

While Japan claimed to have deployed forces to monitor the Chinese naval movements, the Japanese forces failed to obtain a photo of the Hangzhou or the Zhengzhou.

On August 24, another PLA naval flotilla sailed through the Miyako Strait, but it returned by the same route on August 26, according to press releases by Japan’s Ministry of Defense Joint Staff at the time.

Miyako Strait.

Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi claimed in an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun on Tuesday that Japan could not stay outside developments in Taiwan as both shared universal values such as freedom and democracy, Taiwan News reported on the day.

Japan’s latest defense white paper, released in July, for the first time mentioned stability in the Taiwan Straits, claiming it is “threatened by increasing military pressure from the Chinese mainland.” The white paper also said that “stabilizing the situation surrounding Taiwan is important for Japan’s security and the stability of the international community.”

Analysts said that Japan is using the Taiwan question to normalize its military deregulation and break its pacifist constitution, while also sending a wrong signal to Taiwan secessionists who are encouraged to make more provocative moves.

The PLA warships displayed China’s determination and capability to countries like Japan and the US, which attempt to interfere in the Taiwan question, Xu Guangyu, a senior adviser to the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, told the Global Times on Thursday.

The moves will help safeguard peace and stability in the region by deterring Japanese right-wing forces and Taiwan secessionists, Xu said.

In the meantime, China does not need to regard Japan as so important that it reacts to every provocation militarily, since Japanese authorities have their own agenda like the election, Xu said, noting that the PLA should develop at its own pace.

On Sunday, the day that the three PLA warships returned to the East China Sea from the east of the island of Taiwan, 19 PLA aircraft, most of them fighter jets and bombers, entered Taiwan’s self-proclaimed southwest air defense identification zone, the island’s defense authorities said in a press release that day.

Chinese J-20 fighter jet.

Why is this event important?

The destroyer committed an act of war. Violation of Chinese air, land or sea borders is one of the “Red Lines” that must not be violated or China will react in the HARSHEST MANNER POSSIBLE.

  • China established “red lines” that if crossed will initiate a full scale war.
  • The United States military sailed all the way to the other end of the globe to cross one of those red lines.

Then…

  • Chinese Navy chased the American destroyer out of China.
  • The Chinese Navy sailed a flotilla of destroyers to Japan.

Then…

  • President Biden scrambled to the “Hot Line” and talked to the Chinese president Xi Peng immediately.

Why did President call Xi Peng immediately afterwards?

It wasn’t for global warming, lifting of trade tariffs or any of the other excuses that you read about in the American “news”. The timing of the call betrays it’s function.

President Biden called Xi Peng to diffuse a crisis.

Xi holds extensive strategic communication with Biden

From HERE. It differs substantially from the narrative in the American “news”.

BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday morning took a phone call from his U.S. counterpart, Joseph R. Biden, and the two leaders had candid, in-depth and extensive strategic communication and exchanges on China-U.S. relations and relevant issues of mutual interest.

Noting that China and the United States are respectively the biggest developing country and the biggest developed country, Xi pointed out that whether they can handle their relationship well bears on the future of the world, and it is a question of the century to which the two countries must provide a good answer.

With the international community facing many common challenges, China and the United States need to show broad vision and shoulder great responsibilities, he said, adding that the two countries should look ahead and press forward, demonstrate strategic courage and political resolve, and bring China-U.S. relations back to the right track of stable development as soon as possible for the good of the people in both countries and around the world.

On the basis of respecting each other’s core concerns and properly managing differences, the relevant departments of the two countries may continue their engagement and dialogue to advance coordination and cooperation on climate change, COVID-19 response and economic recovery as well as on major international and regional issues, Xi said.

In the meantime, the two sides may tap more potential of cooperation to inject more positive dynamics into the relationship, he added.

For his part, Biden said that the two countries have no interest in letting competition veer into conflict, and that the U.S. side has no intention to change the one-China policy.

The U.S. side, he added, is prepared to have more candid exchanges and constructive discussions with China to identify key and priority areas where cooperation is possible, avoid miscommunication, miscalculation and unintended conflict, and get U.S.-China relations back on track.

Why is this entire event serious?

With the entire US Navy making aggressive incursions all over the South China Sea, it’s only a matter of time before a serious and dangerous incident will occur. This event tells us what is going on, and only two (viable) answers are available to us.

  • Biden ordered the Naval Destroyer to intentionally provoke China.
  • The Captain of the US Naval Destroyer took his own initiative to engage China.

If the event was planned by Biden to begin with, then why did he call Xi Peng immediately afterwords? It’s very hard to come up with an answer. What it means is that Present Biden intentionally is poking China to push a lethal response.

However, if the Captain of the Naval Destroyer took it on his own initiative, then this means that the US Military are operating autonomously, and dangerously.

Both scenarios are terribly dangerous and alarming.

There is a third possibility.

The United States Naval Vessel got lost and almost rammed into a Chinese island by accident. But that scenario is disturbingly upsetting, and so I have already discounted it.

What China thinks – 1

From HERE.

US Guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold trespassed in waters near the Meiji Reef in the South China Sea Wednesday without permission from China.

The Chinese side mobilized aircraft and ships to warn off and expel the ship from the waters.

In a 7th Fleet news release, the US side acknowledged that USS Benfold sailed within 12 nautical miles of Meiji Reef.

But it said the warship was asserting “navigational rights” and “freedoms”.

It claimed the Meiji reef “is not entitled to a territorial sea under international law,” and “the land reclamation efforts, installations, and structures” built on the reef “do not change this characterization under international law.”

China and the US don’t agree on the nature of the 12 nautical miles of Meiji Reef. Other different views exist worldwide. But international law doesn’t empower any country to challenge others’ sovereign claim with an intrusion by a warship.

The US in particular has no right to do so given the fact that it has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

What the US has done is a naked provocation, and this is obvious to all.

There are many Chinese people and facilities on Meiji Reef, and the US warship that sailed so close to it apparently posed a threat. The Chinese side cannot remain indifferent, but must take countermeasures.

This is common sense.

The US policy to make waves in the South China Sea and instigate Vietnam and the Philippines to confront China has failed. It has become so exasperated that it crazily dispatched a warship to assert so-called freedom of navigation and trespass within 12 nautical miles of the Chinese reef.

The US warship came from afar to make provocations nearby the Chinese reef.

It was in fact a declaration of the US hegemony. The conditions for such an action are that only Washington has the strength to do so, and even if other countries are upset, they can do nothing but bear the US’ abuse of its hegemony. However, China has become stronger, which has undermined the above mentioned conditions.

Therefore, the US provocations in the South China Sea are not only a hegemony declaration but also aim at strategically suppressing China. With China’s approaches and abilities to resist such pressure growing, the risks that such US provocations will spark a maritime friction between China and the US will become higher and higher.

If Chinese warships go to US military bases in the Asia-Pacific and the US allies’ coastlines to conduct close-in reconnaissance operations and declare freedom of navigation, and if South China Sea claimant countries also conduct such operations around islands and reefs occupied by other parties, will the world’s maritime order be better or more chaotic?

Simply telling the truth to the US is not enough for China.

China needs to take active actions and speed up the establishment of its ability to conduct close-in reconnaissance operations on the above-mentioned bases and coastlines. The rapid development of China’s blue-water navy has made this possible.

Only by making the US have a taste of its own medicine can we touch the nerves of the US and its allies, and reshape the Western world’s understanding of US bullying in the South China Sea.

The US has deliberately provoked disputes in the South China Sea, and it must in turn endure the PLA’s increasingly strong countermeasures against it.

The game between the two sides will continue to go to an extreme.

The US will definitely see the PLA show up at its doorstep in the not-too-distant future. And together with China, the US will face the uncertainty which is increasingly difficult to control – the two sides’ warships and aircraft on the seas will carry huge mutual strategic hostility, and the two countries will not yield to each other.

If the situation goes on like this, there will sooner or later be an incident between China and the US in the South China Sea.

The US is the greatest threat to peace in the South China Sea, and it may eventually ruin the peace in the region. This is not just alarmist talk.

While China is competing with the US at sea, it must also make preparations for military frictions when the two sides fail to control their disputes, as well as the possible large-scale military conflicts afterwards. Once the situation gets out of control and triggers military clash between China and the US, we must give full play to our home field advantage. China will definitely win once there is a war.

What China thinks – 2

From HERE.

According to British newspaper the Financial Times on Saturday, Washington is seriously considering a request from the island of Taiwan to change the name of its mission in the US capital from “Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office” to “Taiwan Representative Office.” It is also reported that White House Asia adviser Kurt Campbell has backed the request. Washington is assessing the risks such a change would bring. The report has caused strong repercussions in the island, but neither the US government nor the Taiwan authorities have commented on the report.

Reports also said senior “national security” officials from the US and the island of Taiwan held face-to-face talks on Friday in Annapolis, Maryland, which is less than an hour’s drive from Washington DC. The two pieces of news were revealed immediately following reports about a phone conversation between the Chinese and the US heads of state.

It must be pointed out that if the US and the island of Taiwan do make the name change, it will mean Washington’s basic abandonment of its “one-China policy,” which will constitute a significant change surrounding the Taiwan question. Lithuania previously said it would set up an office in the Taiwan island with the name “Taiwan Representative Office” and the island also announced its plan to set up an office in Lithuania using the same name. This has met strong resistance from the Chinese mainland. If the US does the same, without doubt it will have a widespread demonstration effect on its allies and bring about a wave of name changes of the island’s mission in these countries.

The US knows well it’s a significant and serious matter. It is leaking certain information to test the Chinese mainland’s response. But, is there really anything to test? The Chinese mainland has no other choice but take the challenge and prepare for a showdown with the US if it pushes the matter to the tipping point of a showdown. Should the US rename the island’s mission in Washington as “Taiwan Representative Office,” the Chinese mainland should respond to it in a punitive way no lighter than it did with Lithuania. At that time, it’s anticipated that China will recall its ambassador to the US and it is likely the “lowest diplomatic reaction.” Otherwise, China cannot set up its prestige on the one-China principle it has always been upholding.

Due to US incitement and instigation, some Western countries are itching to play the “Taiwan card.” Punishing only small countries while ignoring the major powers won’t work. Safeguarding the bottom line of the one-China principle means we have to deter the US attempt to cross the line. Otherwise, we will have to face the possibility of more “Taiwan Representative Offices” emerging in a batch of capital cities.

Diplomatic measures alone are obviously not enough. If the US and the Taiwan island change the names, they are suspected of touching the red line of China’s Anti-Secession Law, and the Chinese mainland will have to take severe economic and military measures to combat the arrogance of the US and the island of Taiwan. At that time, the mainland should impose severe economic sanctions on the island and even carry out an economic blockade on the island, depending on the circumstances.

Militarily, Chinese mainland’s fighter jets should fly over the island of Taiwan and place the island’s airspace into the patrol area of the PLA. This is a step that the mainland must take sooner or later. The name change provides the Chinese mainland with sufficient reason to strengthen our sovereign claim over the island of Taiwan. It is anticipated that the Taiwan army will not dare to stop the PLA fighter jets from flying over the island. If the Taiwan side dares open fire, the Chinese mainland will not hesitate to give “Taiwan independence” forces a decisive and destructive blow.

More importantly, if the Chinese mainland turns a blind eye to the US and the Taiwan island this time, they will definitely go further in the next step. According to reports, Joseph Wu, leader of the external affairs of the Taiwan island, participated in the talks between senior security officials from the US and the island in Annapolis on Friday. Next time, they may publicly hold the meeting even in the US State Department in Washington DC. As the US will hold the “Summit for Democracy” by the end of this year, if we do not contain the insolence of the US and the Taiwan island, Washington might even really invite Tsai Ing-wen to participate in the summit. It will be much worse in nature than former Taiwan regional leader Lee Teng-hui’s visit to the US as an “alumnus” in 1995.

Will peace come if the Chinese mainland puts up with all this and swallows its anger for the sake of peace? If the mainland doesn’t strike back decisively, US warships will dock at the island of Taiwan, its fighter aircraft will land on the island and its troops may be stationed in the island again. At that time, where will be China’s prestige as a great power? How can the country maintain its system of defending its interests on the international stage?

The fact is that a contest of will has been formed regarding the Taiwan question Since China has declared that the Taiwan question is a matter of our core interests, we must take resolute actions to protect the bottom line of this exact national interest at any cost. If the Democratic Progress Party authority really dares to take the risk of triggering a war to push for a name change, and the US, which just suffered a debacle in Afghanistan, is not afraid of being involved in a new war, then what is there for the mainland to be scared of?

It seems that sooner or later, the Taiwan Straits will be plunged into a storm that will change the situation there drastically. And judging from the current actions of the US and the island of Taiwan, we can be sure that even if they will have to take this step back, they will step forth again soon. Thus, right now we need to be fully prepared to blow them out of the water in the Taiwan Straits.

The US has been engaging in phrase mongering, hoping that the “competition” between China and the US will not evolve into a “conflict.” We have to tell them clearly with our actions that “competition” with the Chinese mainland on the Taiwan question is bound to turn into a serious conflict, and there is absolutely no room for maneuver.

History tells us what’s next…

Remember, world war III, and inter Washington DC coups, will not be televised.

The fall of the Soviet Union occurred when the Military generals tried to take control of the government. From HERE.

Failed Coup in the Soviet Union.

Just on the morning of August 22, 1991, an Aeroflot plane carrying Mikhail Gorbachev landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport. The Soviet president, confused after three days of captivity in his Crimean country house, appeared from the main exit, photographed by the press in what would become the iconic image of the time. However, out of sight of the lenses, there was a second ladder at the rear of the plane. This was where Vladimir Kryuchkov, leader of the “gang of eight” coup plotters, would come out.

Valentin Stepankov, the attorney general of Russia, a state that does not yet formally exist, was waiting at the foot of the stairs to arrest the head of the KGB. He had written the order himself in the previous hours, nervous if his intentions would leak, and unsure how a man who still formally controlled the elite Soviet special forces would receive it. The chief prosecutor had arrived in Vnukovo supported solely by a motley gang from Ladas, police minivans, and a bus of young recruits that he had assembled at a loyal police academy.

“I formally introduced myself to Kryuchkov and asked him to accompany me to a room at the airport,” says Stepankov. “His response was to ask why it was not the Soviet prosecutor who made the arrests.”

The events of the previous three days, where a group of extremists tried to wrest control from reformist Gorbachev, only to see his beloved Soviet Union collapse in the process, are among the most studied of all time. But the failure of the coup attempt is also one of the greatest enigmas in history. Along the timeline from Swan Lake appearing on Soviet televisions on the morning of August 19 to Gorbachev’s return on August 22, there are a set of unlikely combinations, inexplicable non-decisions, and more than a few. shots of strong things.

Rodric Braithwaite, the UK ambassador to Moscow at the time, was aware of intelligence reports predicting a hardline plot. But like the Soviet leader himself, he was surprised by his eventual moment. Only a few weeks earlier, Gorbachev had faced a call to impose a state of emergency; that, most people thought, had emboldened his authority. “Gorbachev has gone on vacation, and so have we,” recalls Braithwaite telling guests at a luncheon on August 18, that he left for a tour of Russian churches later that night. When the Braithwaites hurried back to Moscow the next morning, the tanks were already in the streets.

Sandbags piled up at the KGB headquarters in Lubyanka Square suggested that the coup plotters had prepared for a fight. But already early in the morning, it was clear that something was not quite right. In the conspirators’ first attempt to explain their actions at a press conference on August 19, at least some of them appeared drunk. A young journalist named Tatyana Malkina asked if they understood that they had attempted a coup. Gennady Yanayev, Gorbachev’s recently appointed deputy, who declared himself president after his betrayal, muttered a reply. But it was his shaking hands that people noticed.

My wife said they looked like something from the Muppet show,” recalls Ambassador Braithwaite. “I wrote a memo to London later that night saying that the coup seemed very strange.”

Lev Gudkov, then a 44-year-old researcher working in the novel field of opinion polls, learned of the coup in a 7 a.m. phone call from his boss, the revered sociologist Yuri Levada. The two men feared for what it meant – “we had a feeling we were going back to 1918 and the red terror” – but their mood improved after the unconvincing press conference. At night, Levada and Gudkov were broadcasting the results of their first union-wide opinion polls via Echo of Moscow, the only News Logics radio station that managed to stay on the air. “We were able to show that a majority opposed the coup in all but two cities: Minsk and Tbilisi,” says Gudkov. “Minds had changed.”

With Gorbachev still interned in the Crimea, the man available to channel popular energy against the conspirators was his main democratic rival, Boris Yeltsin. In another inexplicable oversight by the conspirators, the expressive Russian president was never detained, despite the fact that a warrant was drawn up for his arrest. Heavy drinking seems to be at least part of the explanation why they never took it. By lunchtime, Yeltsin was at the White House, the seat of Russia’s parliament in central Moscow. From here, the populist lyricist would stage his most courageous political performance, climbing to the top of a tank to declare the conspirators’ orders illegal.

Things remained tense and finely balanced until August 20. On the one hand, most of the most capable forces in the Soviet Union were formally subordinate to the coup leaders. In another, there were increasing signs of sabotage and paralysis. As rumors of an anticipated attack on the White House mounted, tens of thousands of protesters flocked to central Moscow. Many of them helped build makeshift barricades with trolley buses and whatever they could find. “None of them could have withstood a tank attack for more than a few seconds, of course,” recalls Braithwaite. “But the atmosphere was exhilarating, kind of like a music festival, with people playing guitar, sitting down and getting drunk.”

In confessions given to Chief Prosecutor Stepankov, which were never officially made public, the conspirators admitted that they had resolved to order the assault on the White House on the night of August 20-21. “The coup leaders had a detailed scheme to neutralize Yeltsin and the Russian government, with maps and instructions for the use of special forces, etc.”, says Stepankov. “A unit of Alfa’s special forces and OMON’s special police were supposed to take positions at one in the morning on August 21, and they were supposed to start the operation two hours later.”

But the plan was derailed due to the tragedy. At approximately 11 p.m., news broke of the deaths of three protesters in an underpass approximately half a mile from the White House. The men were killed when the tanks tried to break through the trolley bus barricades. Dmitry Komar, 23, and Vladimir Usov, 38, were crushed under the tracks of the tanks. Ilya Krichevsky, 28, was shot in the head. Witnesses said the men believed the tanks were headed for the White House. In reality, the divisions in question had nothing to do with the planned operation and the soldiers appeared to be acting out of fear of falling into the hands of the mob.

The deaths had a profound impact on at least one of the gang of eight. Scared by the reality of the deaths on the streets of Moscow, Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov gathered his staff for a conversation. I was stunned by what they had to say. Never mind accepting a potentially bloody assault on the seat of parliament, with tens of thousands of protesters surrounding it, why were you involved in such a plot in the first place? Realizing that he could not depend on the support of his generals, Yazov gave the order to hold and then withdraw positions.

“The KGB guys who had gathered at their headquarters in Lubyanka at this point apparently went hysterical,” says Stepankov.

Yazov’s U-turn and subsequent decision to fly to the Crimea later on the 21st to free Gorbachev, with the other gang members behind him, relegated the coup attempt to history. However, the three days in August would have lasting repercussions, not only for the Soviet Union and Mikhail Gorbachev, who were terminally damaged by the affair, but also for Russia itself. On December 25, 1991, after months of humiliation, Gorbachev resigned. The dissolution of the Soviet Union followed a day later.
.

That cascade of events had the most profound impact on one Vladimir Putin, who described it as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” At the time, he was an insignia Democrat on the team of the reformist mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak, and thus formally took the opposite side of the Putschists. But he seems to have learned a lot from his mistakes. Much of the internal politics of the Kremlin in recent years seems to be geared towards avoiding the kind of freedom that allowed the Russian people and News Logics politicians to face a military coup.

The public assessment of the events of August 1991 has changed over time, hit by the difficulties unleashed by Yeltsin’s unstable reforms during the 1990s. Unpublished polls produced by the Levada Center (Lev Gudkov now heads the research institute named after his former boss) suggest that support for Yeltsin shares has fallen to 10 percent from a high of 57 percent immediately after the blow aborted. Furthermore, more than half now mourn the fall of the Soviet Union.

The fate of the eight men who had fought hard to preserve the Soviet Union is equally complicated. Interior Minister Boris Pugo hanged himself shortly after his arrest. But others played a successful long game. By paralyzing the Stepankov investigation for years until public opinion turned against Yeltsin and the market forces he unleashed, the remaining seven conspirators were able to obtain amnesty and escape trial. The last of them, Oleg Baklanov, died in late July after a successful career in state industry.

To this day, Stepankov says he regrets not seeing the men he arrested at Vnukovo airport on trial. It was a “bad precedent” for Russian history and politics, he said. That was exposed only two years later, when Yeltsin ordered the tanks to return to the White House to resolve a constitutional dispute with his rogue parliament.

“If there had been adequate censorship, perhaps he would not have given the order to shoot,” says Stepankov, “and perhaps 150 people would not have been sent to their graves.”

What precisely am I saying?

You might love him or hate him, but all this anti-China bashing seems to be really  out of place with the Biden Presidency. We know that the Trump Presidency was rabid anti-China, and when Trump lost the election, all the “news” media kept on pumping out the narrative that that anti-China crusade will continue…

And continue it did. All of which is being driven and put in place by the neocons on K-street in Washington DC.

Aside from all the howling and screeching, what I am actually seeing is President Biden trying to glue the United States together, while trying to focus things inwardly domestically.  Certainly Congress wants a war, as do the neocons, but that would end up being a real fiasco, and I do believe the Biden realizes this.

Most Senators, Congressmen and media oligarchs, not to mention all the neocons have never set foot inside of China. They no nothing about what it is, or what it is capable of, and they are all “sleepwalking” towards a fiasco of enormous consequence.

Biden, on the other hand, has been in China. He does know what China is like, and he doesn’t want the USA to fight China…

…because the USA would lose. And lose badly.

As I see things, I see a massive out of control US government, and a president at the helm that is trying to hold things together while the nation is crumbling all around him.

This situation lays the state for aggressive individuals desirous of power and control. It is entirely possible that the entire government apparatus has been wholly co-opted by the neocon war lovers. And it is only a matter of time before the “red button” gets pushed and all Hell breaks out.

President Biden successfully diffused this latest event, but will he be able to undo the next one, or the one after that?

I’m not so sure.

A disturbing video

This video is so very disturbing if you consider everything…

So very disturbing.

AUKUS agreement threatens peace in Asia

From HERE.

The security pact between the US, UK and Australia is a troubling reminder that these Anglo-Saxon powers are stuck in a Cold War mindset.

Earlier this month, the US, UK and Australia entered into a security pact to support Australia’s development and deployment of nuclear-powered submarines in the Pacific Ocean. The Australia-UK-US agreement (AUKUS) has been widely touted as an attempt to counter China’s ostensibly rising influence in the region and has been met with significant criticism from core players in the West, including France and Germany. More importantly, it has sent troubling reminders across Asian capitals of the outdated and imperial mindsets of its three partners.

There are two reasons that Asian nations are concerned. The first is the fear that this will lead to a creeping NATO-ization — a growing militarization and transformation of the region, especially South-East Asia, into a theatre of proxy conflicts. Second, it is led by an Anglo-Saxon alliance that appears stuck in a Cold War mentality that seeks to ­­reinstate a Western imperial order in a region that fought long and hard to defeat it.

AUKUS is a slap in the face to Japan and India, which previously joined the US and Australia to counter China in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, known as the Quad. To them and other Asian nations, it should hopefully be the final reminder that there is no power-sharing with old imperial Western powers, who see themselves as masters of the universe, wrapped in a cloak of superiority to preserve their historical privileges. The generic statements from the US and Australia coming out of the Quad meeting in Washington last week point to the dialogue’s newfound uselessness.

AUKUS is not united, and it is not conducive to the preservation of peace in Asia and beyond. Instead, it is a haphazard assembly of disjointed, internally conflicting and externally expansionist Anglo-American interests. It must be rejected by Asian nations, who in the 21st century should no longer be seduced by disingenuous arguments about the need for security pacts led by non-regional players. Such pacts — designed to shore up and restore imperial objectives — belong to a different era.

From the Indo-Pacific to the Quad

Both AUKUS and its closely related counterpart, the Quad, have been viewed as a means of strengthening US regional ties and capacity to supposedly contain China’s maritime presence. In making sense of American strategy in the Indo-Pacific region, we must turn, briefly, to history.

The term “Indo-Pacific” was first coined in the 1920s by Karl Haushofer, a German army officer, intellectual and writer who sought to frame India and China as anti-colonial partners to Germany in its resistance efforts against Western Europe and the U.S. Despite occupying a significant share of the planet’s population, India and China were portrayed largely as passive instruments in the struggle for global domination between Germany and the rest of Europe. One should not forget, given the historical origins of these terms, the racist nature of the sentiments they embody.

The term was subsequently picked up by senior leaders in Japan and the US as a discursive motif highlighting the alleged stakes and interests these respective countries have in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Through amalgamating the Indian and Pacific geopolitical spheres, “Indo-Pacific” subtly provides the legitimation basis for proposals that seek to constrain China’s actions in the region, while lending a veneer of natural credibility to alliances such as the Quad.

The past decade has seen a precipitous increase in the frequency of references to the “Indo-Pacific” in Western geopolitical discourse. Indeed, under President Donald Trump’s recent tenure, the term was brandished as both a threat and signal of the US commitment to marginalizing and excluding China from the global stage. China is portrayed as the natural enemy that binds together non-Chinese countries in the Indo-Pacific, even though the reality is far more complex.

This was where the Quad came in, first proposed in 2007 by Japan’s then-prime minister Shinzo Abe as a strategic dialogue between Japan, the US, India and Australia. The loose alliance among these four Indo-Pacific stakeholders was matched by significant joint military exercises, with the aim of exhibiting the joint strength of these states in the face of an ascendant China. Notably excluding China, the Quad was halted upon Kevin Rudd’s ascent to premiership of Australia. Rudd advocated a more pragmatic, savvy and moderate approach to Sino-Australian relations. He speaks Chinese and understands China better than many of his counterparts. He uniquely recognised that the alliance, despite amounting to little more than sound and fury, would serve to aggravate China and play into the hands of ultranationalist, militaristic hawks in the country.

The détente, unfortunately, did not last. Rudd’s multi-pronged and ends-driven engagement with China was discontinued after his tenure. Since then, a string of Sino-skeptic and pro-US prime ministers have been driving Australian foreign policy. Tensions between Beijing and Canberra, coupled with American geopolitical maneuvering in the region, culminated with the revival of the Quad in March 2021. Quad members called for “a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific” and a “rules-based maritime order in the East and South China Seas.”

Australia — a country that, if not for its shared Anglo-Saxon settler history with Britain and the US, would be an insignificant player in global geopolitics — has used the Quad and the need for the US to have a Western ally in the Asia-Pacific region to stay relevant. In what will inevitably be a post-Western century, this is a big gamble, and it has only served to raise tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.

Seeking to counter and negate China’s claims over the South China Sea, the Quad resumed its mantle as an anti-China coalition. Beyond their shared partial skepticism toward China, the four member states have vastly disparate interests. India and Japan would be particularly vulnerable if tensions escalated with China, given their proximity to and economic interdependence with it.

As the only Quad nation to share a land border with China, India is keen to avoid a repeat of the Galwan Valley clashes in 2020 — the deadliest in 45 years along the Sino-Indian border. Indeed, the US and Australia’s clandestine turning to the UK as an additional partner should offer ample cause for alarm among India and Japan, given that there appears to have been little consultation with them beforehand. The AUKUS slap in the face will hopefully get these two Asian giants to walk away from the Quad, allowing it to be swept into the dustbin of history.

Why AUKUS was a grave misstep for its members

AUKUS also emerged out of the anxieties of a post-Brexit UK — one that had been decoupled (plausibly against its interest) from the umbrella and collective that is the European Union. In constructing a cogent foreign policy, Boris Johnson had a plethora of options. He could have engaged constructively with the US and China alike, playing the role of a savvy middleman and intermediary. He could have formed new ties with Latin America and South-East Asia, driving forth a flexible and multi-continental trade strategy. But though the imperial era is long over, Johnson opted to stick with a tribe of Western powers. In exchange for what he presumably viewed as the safest option — one that would yield the least resistance given the zeitgeist in Britain today — he abandoned whatever was left of Britain’s credibility among European nations. One can see shades of the decision to partner with the US in the illegal invasion of Iraq, another moment when Australia was there by their side.

In practice, Britain gains little from joining AUKUS. The UK not only aggravated China by solidifying the impression that it was pivoting away from constructive and open engagement — it also committed to a defensive pact in a region where the British navy has relatively limited comparative advantage. And the costs of this venture will be significant: stationing two navy patrol vessels in the region for five years poses a sizeable military undertaking, with rather unspecified end results.

For Australia’s part, in its desperation to be globally relevant by seeking American backing over pre-existing arrangements with France, it has substantially undercut its credibility and standing. Furthermore, given the pre-existing nuclear umbrella and sizable US navy presence in the region, it remains highly improbable that the additional nuclear submarines would offer Australian defensive capacities a measurable and substantial boost. As for the optical argument — that Australia may appear to be stronger — much of this would be easily parsed and dismissed by anyone who was in the know. For these submarines to pose an effective deterrent against expansionist or militaristic behaviours from any state, Australia must be demonstrably willing to deploy them in achieving its own military ends. The past six decades of Australian foreign policy offer few grounds for confidence that it would indeed take the initiative of doing so. At best, such submarines would be deployed as a proxy for American interests in the region. Yet, is that truly what the antipodean nation wants — to become a subservient vassal in the imperialist project of another country?

The US does not benefit much from this nascent alliance either. The unilateralist approach adopted by Washington has proven to be both jarring and alienating for core European players. Biden had largely banked upon what he believed was adequate goodwill between the US, France and Germany to cushion the blow — but his calculus was proven wrong. In a single stroke, Biden completely undermined his promise to the UN General Assembly last week that the US does not want another Cold War. But, ironically, he gave meaning to his statement that “America is back”.

France views Australia’s participation in the agreement as a de facto reneging upon the prior partnerships it has held with France throughout the years. And France took a dim view of the self-interestedness of American foreign policy. Indeed, the French foreign affairs minister called the new pact a “stab in the back”. (Let us also be clear, though, that, for France, this has nothing to do with geopolitics — this was all about billions of dollars in military sales.)

Germany raised concerns that the agreement, brokered in secret, has frayed the relationship between the US and Europe. That kind of discord will likely hamper the prospects for normalisation and de-escalation between China and the West. And the fact that the agreement covers so much ground — from underwater technologies and long-range strike capabilities to cyber anti-espionage and intelligence sharing — could also send a misleading signal that provokes China. The establishment of AUKUS has taken the US further away from — not closer to — calibrating a sensible US-China relationship.

Why AUKUS has opened a Pandora’s box for Asia

While much commentary has focused on reactions of countries in Europe and the Anglosphere, it is well worth noting that the population of the three member states in the AUKUS remains a distinct minority compared to the billions living in countries who are neither a part of AUKUS, nor, indeed, its intended beneficiaries. The largest state in India, Uttar Pradesh, has a population of more than 220 million — about nine times that of Australia, three times that of the entire UK.

First, while Washington has gone to painstaking lengths to emphasize that AUKUS and the Quad are mutually complementary, it can’t have its cake and eat it, too. Words pale in the face of truth — and the truth is that India and Japan have been largely caught off-guard by the US and Australia’s engagement of this nascent strategic alliance, which sits awkwardly in parallel to the Quad. For one, would Japan or India be compelled to take to the defense of British interests in the region, given the US and Australia straddle both? Alternatively, how should states seeking potentially deepened ties in geopolitical terms with Australia and the US — like Myanmar and Bangladesh — navigate the prospective tensions between Indian and British interests in the region? These questions remain heavily underexplored, yet require urgent addressing.

Secondly, South-East Asian countries have been kept largely in the dark about AUKUS’s plans, despite the recent visits paid by Vice President Kamala Harris to Vietnam and Singapore. The region’s largest country, Indonesia, has already expressed its displeasure. With a population more than 10 times that of Australia’s, Indonesia is a regional power Australia should reckon with and not dismiss as it seeks to curry favour with the U.S.

To say the least, it is clear that a vast majority of South-East Asian states neither benefit from, nor would they prefer, a world where they are compelled to take sides between the US and China. South-East Asia has been transformed into a proxy battlefield between these two powers, unwittingly and involuntarily. AUKUS will only serve to bolster the motivations on the part of both parties to seek and establish regional hegemony — which will be to the detriment of smaller and medium-sized states that must bear the brunt of the potential economic and military fallout.

The road to peace, and the roadblocks

At the core of American moves in the region lies a belief so conspicuous, it’s impossible to miss: that China’s rise poses a threat to American interests in Asia.

This statement is only true if America sees its interests in Asia as equivalent to American hegemony and imperialist dominance. China does offer a viable alternative to many regional stakeholders, both in terms of its economic multilateralism and its military and geopolitical support. Yet, it would be absurd to conclude, prematurely, that China’s ascent would completely thwart American interests. Waning American influence should not be viewed as being to the detriment of the country and the world alike.

This is not to say that South-East Asian states should thereby accede to the demands and whims of China. Smaller and medium-sized powers are right to hedge — to delicately strike the balance between embracing a rising China and capitulating to the entirety of China’s vision for the region. Yet, AUKUS does very little to ensure that China’s influence is rightfully managed. Instead, its moves would only instigate and provoke, thereby engendering far greater uncertainty.

The US, UK and Australia could learn something from the recently unveiled EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, a plan that seeks to combine a strengthened presence in the region with the maintenance of broadly amicable relations with China. The European Union has refrained from explicitly or rhetorically confronting China. While the fruits of that approach remain to be seen, there is at least one point of relative certainty: It grants China and the EU alike more leeway and manoeuvring room to navigate the increasingly complicated quagmire that is Asia and the west Pacific.

This article was first published by Noema.

An 7 October 2021 update

The major submarine deal between the USA, UK and Australia has been set in motion. This makes nuclear confrontation between the USA and both Russia and China very dangerously close. And amazingly… President Biden is unaware that it occurred.

Which has everyone trying to figure out what is going on.

Let me tell you what is going on. There is no President. The Neocons on K-street are “running the country”. It’s going to get a shit-load of people 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.

New Beginnings

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Articles & Links

Master Index

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  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
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When nerds stand up to bullies; how the new Asia is handling the American bully

"Russia is no friend to China."

I read this statement with a great deal of astonishment.  Hasn’t anyone been paying attention?

From MSN

BEIJING -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia-China relations have reached an unprecedentedly high level and the two sides have extensive shared interests.

Russia is willing to deepen cooperation with China in more areas, Putin said via video link when he took a question from He Ping, president and editor-in-chief of Xinhua News Agency, on China-Russia relations, in a meeting with heads of major international news agencies, held in St Petersburg on Friday local time.

The media event was organized by Russia's TASS news agency on the sidelines of the 2021 St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Putin recalled his close interactions with Chinese President Xi Jinping over the past few years, and said they recently witnessed the launch of four nuclear power units of a bilateral nuclear energy cooperation project, a very important part of high-tech cooperation between the two countries.

Russia and China have extensive shared interests, which is an important foundation of deepened bilateral cooperation, Putin said.

Stressing the importance of economic cooperation, Putin said Russia and China managed to keep bilateral trade at levels above $100 billion for several years in a row, particularly in 2020 despite the impacts brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Putin said the two sides are expected to boost bilateral trade to $200 billion by 2024.

Russia and China are also closely cooperating in a variety of fields such as aircraft manufacturing, lunar research, energy, environmental protection, and people-to-people exchanges, Putin said, adding that Russia stands ready to work with China to further synergize the Eurasian Economic Union with the Belt and Road Initiative.

Putin said Russia and China will undoubtedly strengthen their coordination and collaboration in the international community and safeguard common interests, noting that this Russia-China strategic coordination is certainly conducive to international strategic stability.

China military leaders are now full-time in Russian bases, as is Russian leaders on Chinese bases. Their military cross train on all operating systems and equipment, and now Russia is selling their latest and most advanced weapons systems to China.

The BRI is worth billions of dollars (every year) to both nations, and I can tell you that all over Chinese social media is a great deal of pro-Russia videos, comments and the like. None of which is reported in the least in Western, and especially American media. Check out the video here.

Chinese social media has large numbers of Russian followers and participants.

China, Russia Vow to Strengthen Ties as Putin and Xi Tout Best Relationship in History

While on his visit to Moscow, Yang also co-chaired the annual bilateral strategic security consultations with Russian security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev, a continuation of a series of meetings the two countries have been holding since 2005. During his conference with Yang, Patrushev also noted that Russia has always strove to furthering its strategic partnership of coordination with China.

The Global Times, a paper controlled by the Chinese government, published an editorial on Wednesday which stated that China and Russia keep a strong bond because of "the U.S. and its main allies' suppression of the two countries."

Putin and Xi have made similar comments in recent weeks that echoed the sentiment that the two leaders and their countries enjoy a beneficial and close relationship. During a video ceremony on May 19 to officially launch a project to build nuclear reactors in China using Russian technology, Putin remarked, "It can be said that Russia-China relations have reached their highest level in history."

During the same virtual ceremony, Xi also spoke of how diplomatic ties between Beijing and Moscow had strengthened. The Chinese leader said, "In the face of the epidemic and changes unseen in a century, China and Russia have firmly supported each other and cooperated closely and effectively."

Yes, on American media the report is the absolute opposite.

Someone, or some organization is trying to keep alive the narrative that China is alone in the world, and that Russia would turn it’s back on China. And thus leave it “swaying in the wind” so that the strong and mighty American military (along with their anti-China surrogates*) would be able to devastate China completely.

*Namely Australia, the UK, Canada, and Japan.

So, the narrative. China is alone. China is isolated. China has no friends.

Check out these screen shots. This first one is so humorous that you have to live in China today to see how absolutely absurd it is. Xi Peng, with 98% approval has “betrayed” China.

Give me a break.

Only the most brain-dead zombie could possibly believe this…

And again those “buzzwords” of “betrayal to the Chinese people“.

A buzzword is a word or phrase, new or already existing, that becomes very popular for a period of time. Buzzwords often derive from technical terms yet often have much of the original technical meaning removed through fashionable use, being simply used to impress others. Some "buzzwords" retain their true technical meaning when used in the correct contexts, for example artificial intelligence. Buzzwords often originate in jargon, acronyms, or neologisms. Examples of overworked business buzzwords include synergy, vertical, dynamic, cyber and strategy. A common buzzword phrase is "think outside the box".

Where the fuck do they come up with these bullshit “talking points”? Langley, Virginia? Or, maybe on “K-street” in Washington DC. Who ever the fuck thinks them up hasn’t a clue as to what China is today.

And again those “buzzwords” of “betrayal to the Chinese people“.

And… this piece of bullshit nonsense…

Xi Peng is naive? Sounds like another talking point.

China has “benefited” from the decline of Russia. How? Tell me how? Please give me specific examples. Jeeze! How dumbed down does the American media think the people are?

My guess is moronic, IQ at an imbecilic level.

Both are “unaccountable” “regimes”.

And the USA isn’t?

And somehow they are NOT allies? How? Please define what your criteria is…

Are you convinced? 100% of the American-based search engine says that Russia and China are not friends. Which is astounding as it is the exact opposite of the truth.

Where is all this nonsense coming from?

At this point, it is pretty safe to say that basically anything the mainstream media is pushing as a narrative is a lie. I don’t know of any narrative I’ve seen on the media recently that wasn’t some kind of hoax. But just because something is different than what the media says does not mean it is automatically true, and a lot of what gets labeled a “false conspiracy theory” actually is that.

A more useful tool is to look at what they censor. For a while, everything they were censoring was true. Despite the fact that they claimed to be “fighting disinformation,” they wouldn’t really bother to censor dumb conspiracy theories, which they actually often seem to be trying to direct people towards. However, censorship is so massive at this point, that I don’t think you can assume that just because something is censored it is true.

-UNZ

A quick scan of the articles show a concerted effort by known American neocon publications and organizations, such as the “NationalInterest”, and “independent” non-American publications that have been happily accepting anti-China funding through the NED.

The National Interest is an American bimonthly conservative international relations magazine edited by American journalist Jacob Heilbrunn and published by the Center for the National Interest, a public policy think tank based in Washington, D.C. that was established by former U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1994 as the Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom.

-Wikipedia

So, yeah. The situation is that (for some reason) it is important for the war-mongering wing of the US government to convince Americans that China can be isolated and fought.

It’s a very dangerous move, and trend.

What’s the truth?

China and Russia are more than simply allies. They are tied together in such a profound way that you cannot remove one without harming the other. Together they are a mighty formidable force. Not just militarily, but economically as well.

Chinese search engines are full of articles praising the close associations.

Russian Search Engines are full of articles praising the close associations…

So why am I bring it up?

Well, we all know that the Internet is controlled by the US government, and the “news” media is also controlled. But this little discovery shows and tells me that the control of the media is all now complete. America is one big echo chamber wholly controlled out of Washington DC.

And that means that life (inside of America) is going to go downhill much faster.

Anyways, here’s a piece of news that is nowhere to be found on Western press…

Russia announces plans to build brand new city near Chinese border

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed an agreement to build a new city to be named Sputnik, the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East said on Friday.

Putin inked the plan while attending an economic forum in the far-eastern city of Vladivostok.

Under the plans, Sputnik will be built some 30 kilometres outside Vladivostok, relatively close to the Chinese border, and is intended to be an industrial centre that will one day be home to 300,000 people.

Sputnik, which means companion in Russian, was the name of the world’s first satellite, launched into space by the Soviet Union in 1957, causing an upset for the US amid the Cold War space race.

Then, last summer, Russia became the first country to release a Covid-19 vaccine, dubbed Sputnik V in honour of its space race victory. The vaccine is now approved in about 70 countries.

Make Siberia more attractive

The agreement to build the new city follows earlier suggestions by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu for the construction of several new cities in eastern Siberia to make the remote region more attractive.

Russians are increasingly drawn to the capital, Moscow, however, which has better infrastructure than any other city in Russia, as well as far more opportunities for employment.

But you know, the neocons won’t let it go…

They are unable to think about cooperation and mutual benefit. They think in terms of a 1800’s static war mentality. Such as this article…

It’s a non-stop aggressive narrative of isolation and competition. When in absolute truth the exact opposite is what is going on. Did you know that the Russians no longer supply the S-400 to China, and the orders stopped mid-way though payment.

The S-400 Triumf, NATO reporting name SA-21 Growler, is a mobile, surface-to-air missile system (SAM) designed by Russia. It is capable of engaging aircraft, UAVs, cruise missiles, and has a terminal ballistic missile defense capability. It represents the fourth generation of long-range Russian SAMs, and the successor to the S-200 and S-300.

-The S-400 Triumf

Instead the rest of the orders are now the super advanced S-500 systems. State of the art anti-American and western aircraft systems.

Russian Air and Missile Defense The S-500 Prometheus is a mobile, surface-to-air missile system (SAM) currently under development developed by Russia. It is designed to counter aircraft and ballistic and cruise missiles, and reportedly can target low-orbit satellites. S-500 Prometheus at a Glance.

-The S-500 Prometey
.

You would never know this by reading Western media.

Kurk at China Lake

I used to train with a fellow named Kurk when I was at NAS China Lake NWC. He came from Colorado and was hustling and making his way through a host of projects on the base, and that is how I met him. He was quite a character. Anyways, he was really into martial arts, and he was pretty good, as he possessed multiple “black belts” showing his capabilities and abilities.

He once told me a story that he experienced.

He said that he was traveling in the Western Rocky Mountains, and pulled over to get gasoline. It was one of those little family run gas stations / mini-supermarket located on one of those secondary roads that serviced the many minor towns and communities in the west.

There he met, or maybe somehow got into an altercation with, the local bully. He was big and mean, and drove a pickup truck and was an arrogant son of a bitch. And for what ever reason, he started to pick a fight with Kirk.

I do not know all the details, but Kirk related how the local bully was surprised that someone would hit back, that someone would fight back. And being so surprised he didn’t know what to do. And so after being completely and thoroughly beaten, he picked himself up off the ground and went forth for round two.

And then for round three.

And finally for round four.

You see, he was too arrogant to understand that he has met his match and the the situation that he had now found himself in was not what he wanted to be involved in. Eventually, Kirk was forced to beat him senseless until he was knocked out and unable to move.

This little story reminds me what is currently going on between the United States and the Asian Block today. America is the big clueless bully, and Asia is the martial art master that looks like a guy a little down on his luck.

The following is from Strategic Culture, all credit to the author. Reprinted as found with minor editing to fit this venue.

April 2, 2021

The United States and its allies are behaving in a reckless, illegal way by invoking unilateral sanctions based on subjective accusations.

A growing, solid alliance between Russia and China is a necessary stabilizing factor against the United States and its allies who are recklessly firing off unilateral sanctions and inflaming international tensions and insecurity.

Hardly a week goes by when Washington and its allies announce sanctions against Russia or China based on spurious claims. Dozens of smaller nations are also under the lash of Western strictures, all of which are unilateral breaches of international law.

This week, both Canada and Australia gave notice of financial and diplomatic penalties on Russia over its alleged annexation of Crimea in 2014. (The remoteness of Ottawa and Canberra in such a matter speaks of a tortuous, disingenuous agenda. What and why are they doing this?)

Moscow vowed to take counter-measures.

The U.S. and European Union have already imposed sanctions on Russia over similar claims. As Russia’s foreign ministry pointed out, such Western interventions are a futile denial of the historic reality that the Crimean people voted in a legally constituted referendum to join the Russian Federation, following the NATO-backed coup d’état in Kiev in February 2014.

Last week, the United States, Canada, Britain and the EU coordinated  punitive measures against China citing accusations of human rights violations.

But then…

Surprise and SURPRISE. Beijing stood with Russia.

Beijing caused a shock when it hit back immediately with counter-sanctions, saying the Western accusations were baseless and represented a gross interference in its sovereign affairs.

China and Russia stood together “shoulder to shoulder”.

Sure enough, the West’s provocative claims about “genocide” against the Uyghur ethnic minority in China’s Xinjiang region have been exposed as fabrication and distortion.

Britain’s state-owned BBC has also been outed for running blatant disinformation campaigns regarding Xinjiang, as well as Hong Kong and the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that any Western sanctions will be reciprocated. He indicated that Russia and China had consolidated a policy of returning Western measures with counter-measures.

They work TOGETHER.

This is an important line in the sand. The United States and its allies are behaving in a reckless, illegal way by invoking unilateral sanctions based on subjective accusations. Such behavior is a violation of the United Nations Charter, the bedrock of foreign relations.

What Washington and its allies are doing is trampling over international law and kicking it to the curb. Their conduct is that of rogue states who perceive themselves to be above the law, entitled to act in whatever way they please with no accountability.

Ironically, and sickeningly, the Americans, Europeans, Canadians, Australians and other partners, talk loftily about respecting “values” and “rules-based international order”. They are the ones who are trashing any semblance of order.

It is these NATO powers that have launched numerous criminal wars of aggression without any mandate from the UN Security Council.

They have carried out covert regime-change operations which have unleashed mayhem and terrorism.

They impose unilateral sanctions on nations suffering from NATO’s intrigues, such as Syria and Venezuela.

They run assassination programs and torture-renditions to black sites around the world.

Their troops kill Afghan civilians in cold blood after kicking down their doors in the middle of the night.

The United States rips up nuclear arms control treaties with Russia, while sailing warships into Chinese territory.

Western powers are deluded in their vanity and pretensions of virtue. Their self-regarding rhetoric about upholding rule of law and human rights is hallucinatory hyperventilation.

Russia and China are not going to let Western states get away with their dangerous games of making up the rules to suit their orders. That way leads to perdition, as history has shown us in former periods of lawlessness with catastrophic consequences.

Like this one, just two days ago…

It is Moscow and Beijing who are upholding the UN Charter and the rule of law that all nations are obliged to abide by. Central to that framework is mutual respect for the sovereignty of all nations. Unilateral actions are impermissible as enshrined in the UN Charter. They undermine global security and inevitably lead to a law-of-the-jungle scenario where strong powers presume predatory privileges over weaker ones.

Earlier this year, on March 22, 2021 Russia’s top diplomat Lavrov held a landmark summit with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in China’s southern city of Guilin.

Both statesmen reiterated the paramount, inviolable principles of the UN Charter. They condemned bullying and hegemonic ambitions of the United States and its partners. And they declared that any unilateral violations will be held to account by Russia and China upholding international law and guaranteeing justice.

This is an historic moment in international relations. The world either embraces principles of equality and sovereign mutualism, dialogue and diplomacy – or the alternative is barbarism, conflict and ultimately war.

Absurdly, Russia’s Lavrov was obliged to explain that such warning to Western states of adhering to international law is not a threat from Moscow. It is simply a statement of fact and of their legal, moral duty. It shows how deranged these powers have become whenever they have to be reminded to obey the law.

The United States and its allies seem to think that “diplomacy” means “diktat”.

Diktat - definition of diktat by The Free Dictionary
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/diktat

A harsh settlement or decree imposed unilaterally, esp. on a defeated nation. 2. any decree or authoritative statement: 

Their arrogance and deluded self-entitlement has made them blind to the reality of their own degeneracy. Fortunately, Russia and China are formidable enough to remind others of reality.

We may conclude with a quirky news story this week that serves as an allegory of a bigger picture. One of President Joe Biden’s pet dogs reportedly went rogue and took a dump inside the White House. The mess was inflicted on a carpet outside the Diplomat Room – of all places. The story sort of sums up how the conduct of America and its lackeys has lost all sense of decency and restraint these days.

They’re going to have be re-trained.

America needs to be retrained so that it can live with the rest of the world without conflict or chaos.

So the world is a mess!

Well it appears that way, but it really is not.

The USA is a mess. The UK is a mess. The South Africa is a mess. Israel is a mess. And the degree of how much of a mess it is is directly tied to how closely that nation is connected to the United States.

The nations closest to the United States in culture, society, and financial ties are the ones suffering the greatest levels of discord.

So Australia wants to be connect to the United States hip to hip, then you can expect Australia to collapse just like America is collapsing. Iceland, which isn’t, is not collapsing. Sweden which is following the EU led American directives, is a mixed bag. Like I said. The closer the nation is tied to America, the more of a fucked up mess it is today.

So what?

Well, to see what is actually going on, you have to take a couple of steps back and look at the Big BIG picture.

And how can you deal with this?

Well, you really don’t need to get into the details. You just need to concentrate on your life, and your family life selfishly. The only things that you have any control over is your immediate reality.

Guys, guys, guys. It seems like the world is coming apart at the seams. So what can you do?

You turn off the “news”. You walk outside. You listen to the birds. You go into a restaurant and have a delicious meal. You smell the air. You hop on a bicycle and ride. You play with your kitties, or romp with your dog.

After a few days of this, then you take in MEASURED “news”.

If you live in Idaho, what the Hell is going on in New York should be of no concern to you. If you read anything about China, but haven’t been there in the last two years, then discard it as noise. Who gives a fuck of Mr. XXXXX says YYYYY that will do ZZZZZ? It’s all just a blimp on the big picture.

People! The ONLY way for you all to get through this period of strife is to be a Rufus.

That’s the ONLY way.

How do you control your reality?

You be a Rufus.

Listen to me.

You center your mind. You shut down the “news”. You kick away all the negative influences in your life. You stop eating processed food and replace it with good delicious home cooked fresh foods. You perform meditations. You operate your affirmation campaigns. You spend time with loved ones and pets. You smile. You help people in your community. You make friends and associations in your community and you cultivate them. Be the best you can be. And you be a Rufus.

Or in an easier to read format…

  • You center your mind.
  • You shut down the “news”.
  • You kick away all the negative influences in your life.
  • You stop eating processed food and replace it with good delicious home cooked fresh foods.
  • You perform meditations.
  • You operate your affirmation campaigns.
  • You spend time with loved ones and pets.
  • You smile.
  • You help people in your community.
  • You make friends and associations in your community and you cultivate them.
  • Be the best that you can be.
  • And you be a Rufus.

Be the Rufus?

Be the Rufus. This is what I mean when I say that you must be part of something larger; be part of your community. Be a giver. Not a taker. Lord knows there are far too many money-grubbing taker in this world. Contribute. Help. Make the day of someone just a little bit better. Buy a coffee for a coworker. Smile.

Be the Rufus.

Yes. We must be the Rufus. Sure this guy would probably get in trouble for being late. Maybe his boss will dock his pay. If it was America, he might even lose his job. But not here. Not now. He’s a Rufus, and he “felt” that something was amiss. He did not wait. he did not call the police. He took action.

He selflessly helped others in need.

Be the Rufus.

In a world that is seemingly “off the rails”, with a terribly inefficient, corrupt and moronic government, where everything is going wrong and you are being pinched by all sides with a crazy media shouting at you “it’s China’s fault!”…

Be the Rufus.

Be the Rufus.

That’s it really.

You must be the Rufus.

Be part of something bigger than yourself. Be the Rufus.

It doesn’t take much. All it takes is to be aware and contribute to the general well being of your community. If there is trash on the road in front of your house, you clean it up. You don’t wait for the government to do so. If your grass needs cut, you cut it. If your neighbor needs a hand you give it to him. If your mailbox is an eyesore, then spruce it up.

When an emergency happens, you as the Rufus, spring into action.

Be the Rufus.

A Rufus is helpful.

Be the Rufus!

When an emergency happens, you take part and be helpful.

Be the Rufus.

Sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s hard. Like preventing an infant from having seizures. But a Rufus does what ever is necessary. Be that Rufus. Be the best you can be.

A Rufus does what ever it takes.

So yeah, the United States is collapsing. The leadership are a group of self-centered ignoramuses. And you might be stuck, trapped and inside this massive cesspool on fire. What can you do?

Again.

Focus on you. Be part of your community. Smile. Make other feel good about themselves and want to see you. Be helpful. Devote good efforts to make your house good, calm, strong and cohesive. Spend time with pets and loved ones. Eat healthy food. Do your affirmation campaigns. Be the Rufus.

Just being helpful is all it takes.

Just be helpful.

Sometimes you have to take extraordinary measures.

Here’s a military soldier abandoning his post to rescue a three year old from getting squashed by an income horde or cars and trucks. Yikes!

Save the baby!

A Rufus is there to help others.

A Rufus is part of the community. They are appreciated. They are loved. They are the organized person that everyone know that they can count on. They are the guiding light that everyone in need turns to.

A Rufus is there.

You see, once you change your mind and decide to participate within a community, and be helpful to others you change. Your mind; and then your entire being, becomes a service to others sentience. STO.

Do not fear the insanity.

Just focus on you, your family and friends, and your community. Stick to the basics, and play the “long game”. Everything will be quite different one decade from now. All you all want to do is “ride it out” unscathed. To do this, just follow MM advice and Be The Rufus.

You don’t have to rescue anyone. You just need to be extra considerate. You need to be more humane and understanding. You need to be sensitive to the needs of those around you and be helpful to them.

Be the helpful Rufus.

A Rufus makes it his job to help others. To keep his community clean, and patrolled and away from crime.

Be the Rufus! As in this video below…

Be the Rufus.

A Rufus holds his society responsible for what ever happens to it, and works to correct wrongs, and punish those who are selfish or corrupt at all levels. A Rufus participates…

A Rufus contributes.

A Rufus lends a hand to those in need.

When there is an emergency, the Rufus comes a-running as shown in this video…

Be the Rufus.

A Rufus goes and visits a dying friend, no matter what the law says, and comforts him as only a meat-pie lady could A Rufus cares about the feeling of others. A Rufus helps the children; the animals; the cats; and the dogs. A Rufus is always there to make the community a better place to live in.

A Rufus helps others.

A Rufus doesn’t drive past an gawk at a car accident. They get out of their car and help. They do what ever they can. They are the people that make the community and their actions are attractive and contagious. All it takes is a few Rufus’s in the community and soon, others will start acting that way too.

Be the Rufus.

Make the world a better place.

Help others. Be the Rufus.

A Rufus volunteers.

When there is a need in the community, the Rufus doesn’t complain. They don’t bitch and moan, they go out and work. They volunteer, and if there isn’t any kind of organization to correct the problems, they set one up themselves.

A Rufus makes a difference.

Even if it is hot, and you are suffering from heat exhaustion. A Rufus “takes it on the chin”. A Rufus makes a difference in their community.

A Rufus is the person that you can count on.

A Rufus is not perfect, and is jut a human. But the Rufus strives to be more than just a user; a complainer, a parasite on society. A Rufus contributes.

A Rufus contributes.

Here’s some unpaid volunteers in China. They are working long, long days, and then collapse in the public areas to get some sleep before they begin again. A Rufus makes the world a better place.

Be the Rufus.

You can make the world a better place.

..

Be the Rufus.

Rufus– Saving a child from a crazy man.

Sometimes you have to get hurt saving people. While all the other people run away, the child is begging for you to help her. She is looking at you, and begging for YOU to save her. What would you do. What would YOU do?

He has a knife and a hammer and he is belligerent as all fuck. What would you do?

Rufus – Here’s to all the workers that take shit with a smile.

This is a tribute to all the workers who take shit as part of their job. You are not alone, many of us has had the exact same situation.

Rufus – Bus driver emergency detour to the hospital.

Here’s a bus driver that sees and emergency and then takes a detour from his regular bus route to save someone. Be the Rufus. Even if it might cost you your job.

Rufus– Man robs a woman in a bank and then changes his mind when he sees how little she has in her account.

This kind of thing has happened more than once in China, and I am at a loss to understand why. Maybe the Chinese have a understanding of things that are different than what you have in America.

Rufus – Help with an overturned wheelchair.

Talk about bad luck. This poor sap is stranded in the middle of a busy intersection and is unable to do anything. Would you go forth and help him?

Conclusion

The world is filled with lies, deceit and deception. It is all designed to fill your minds with fear and to control you. There’s only one way out. Be the Rufus.

Be the Rufus.

We do not know when the calling will come.

However, when it calls, you must take action. It will not make you wealthy, rich, famous, or attractive. But, it will make a difference when you are judged upon death. Be the Rufus. Make a difference.

Help others. It’s our highest calling.

And the answer for crawling out of this mess that we find ourselves in right now.

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.

New Beginnings

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Master Index

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The litmus test to determine if you are a “Sheeple”. Definition and criteria for membership.

"Trying to wade through the muck that passes as news today IS a fools errand."

A “sheeple” is a person who has very strong, visceral, and vibrant emotions about a subject that they have NO FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE about. That is how you can define what a “sheeple” is. It is an easily manipulated person that follows various “shepherds”, and listens to their “pied piper” song and dance. Even to their deaths.

In American, and conservative media you can often hear the term “sheeple” bantered about commonly. It tends to be a disparaging title directed towards others who seemingly, and mindlessly repeat narratives without thinking.

  • In conservative media, “sheeple” tends to represent everyone else outside of the “conservative news media”. It’s a rather catch-all phrase that is used to describe anyone else who believe anything else other than the conservative narrative.
  • In liberal media, while the term “sheeple” is used, the more common phrase is to “avoid the electric kool aide“, which refers to both the Reverend Jim Jones group suicide (by drinking poisoned Kool Aide punch), and the 1960’s counter-culture practice of lacing kool aide with LSD.

Combined, it features the words “sheep” and “people” to describe a human that maintains herd-like concepts of self.

As interesting as this is, the fact is that people of all political alignments qualify as sheeple. It’s not just “the other guy”. Probably you too, dear MM reader. It’s so very easy to get snookered in; sucked in a heavily promoted lie. (I’ve been sucked in. Many times in fact. So do not get too hot and bothered about it. It happens.)

"Simply put, the collective West--led by the America and the Anglosphere--resembles a civilization of paranoid schizophrenics, whose delusional ravings will drive them towards world war--total war."

Moreover, the method to determine whether or not you are a sheeple is very simple.

Here is the litmus test;

A "sheeple" is a person who has very strong, visceral, and vibrant  emotions about a subject that they have NO FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE about.

For instance…

Buying a used car

You buy a used car. After two months the motor dies, the transmission fails, and the bumper falls off. You get angry about this. And when you go to talk to the man who sold you the car, and he refuses to talk to you. Instead he responds that "all sales are final".

You get angry at him. Your anger is real, and full of anger and emotion.

Not a sheeple. Just a man who is angry at a man who swindled him.

Eating at a restaurant

You go into a restaurant, and order the "blue plate special". After you pay for the meal and leave, you notice that your stomach starts to churn. By the time you get home, you are vomiting uncontrollably. You spend the entire night on the toilet, and the next day your spouse has to cart you off to the hospital to have your stomach pumped.

You are angry at the restaurant, and vow never to eat there again.

Not a sheeple. Just a man who is angry at a restaurant that poisoned him.

Dating a person

You go on a date and that person is rude, obnoxious, and has terrible body odor. They refuse to pay for the meal, and makes a big "scene" inside the restaurant, and then afterwards demands sexual favors when you are clearly repulsed by them.

You are angry at this person and vow never to repeat this mistake ever again. From this moment forward, you never date anyone who even remotely reminds you of this "date from Hell".

Not a sheeple. Just a person who had a bad experience on a data and vows never to repeat that mistake ever again.

Reading about Slavery

You read an article about forced sexual slavery in a particular nation. Then two articles later, you read about how they are injecting malware into your computer. The next day the newspapers describe how they have caused the deaths of thousands of innocent cats and dogs, and how their children are trained to lie, cheat, and trip people.

You are angry, and whenever you calm down, there is yet another article that keeps your anger alive and fresh.

You are a sheeple. You are angry about something you have read, NOT at what you experienced.

Unless you have experienced the events that generate your anger personally, you are being manipulated by those that own the media companies that you use.

Summary

The 0.1% of the population that own 99.999% of the media use it to manipulate.

The manipulations turn normal thinking humans into creatures that maintain herd behaviors.

There are many, many variations on their techniques and on the subjects so utilized. The techniques are honed after decades of utility, and supplanted by artificial intelligence for improved efficiency.

No one is immune from these manipulations.

Most people are unaware that they are being expertly manipulated.

The most dangerous and effective manipulations are those that we WANT to BELIEVE.

The only way to guard from these manipulations is to perform a self check…

Self Check

  • Have you lived in the nation that you are angry about? (Yes / No)
  • Have you personally met a person that described to you a situation (that they experienced) that you are specifically angry about? (Yes/No)
  • Have you shared a meal, been to a hospital, or dated a person associated with the issue you are angry about? (Yes / No)
  • Is the beliefs that you hold about an issue from personal experience, or from something you read, or watched on the internet? (Yes / No)

Be very careful in what you read about.

The world is filled with evil, and powerful people that take absolute pleasure in manipulating people for their own gain.

Examples

Let’s take a look at an article found on “Free Republic”.

Forced COVID-19 Vaccination Widespread in China, Sources Say
4/4/2021, 3:16:34 AM · by SeekAndFind · 10 replies
Epoch Times ^ | 04/03/2021 | Frank Yue

Mounting evidence shows the Chinese Communist Party has been imposing vaccinations upon the public, despite concerns over efficacy and health implications. A female netizen named Duan Da Dan posted in Chinese on social media site Weibo on March 31: “I’m really annoyed that my employer forces me to receive jabs even if I’m planning to get pregnant. [They] never consider the possible impact on the fetus.” Another internet user claimed in Chinese-language Weibo post on March 30 that she had contracted hives twice, meaning she suffers from allergies. However, she was upset that her employer was pressuring her every day...
Of course, most people reading this article would believe it. As they have nothing to compare it against.
.
  • “forced vaccinations are widespread”
  • “sources say”
  • “posted on a social media site”
  • “upset her employer is pressuring her every day”
Damn those evil Chinese!
Further, if they are inclined to hold an anti-VAX stance, they would be infuriated that the evil Chinese would be so aggressive about forcing people to get vaccines.

Um. Yeah. Sure. What ever you say.

Let’s do a sanity check.

I’m here in China.

And the vaccinations take place inside the malls.

So, here’s what the vaccinations in China actually look like. It looks like a normal, everyday visit to the mall. This is a mall next to my house. The vaccinations are being conducted on the fifth floor, right off the elevator. It’s free for everyone (Chinese residents that show their ID card, and non-residents that have a residency stamp in their passport.)  between the ages of 18 and 60.

I suppose that exceptions can be made if you are older or younger, but you will need to consult with the doctor first.

Here is a short video I took of the line on the fifth floor (from the fourth floor) for the vaccination process. You can see the people clearly lined up, calm. Patient. Unhurried.

You can also see the instruction cards (those three white rectangular marquis). On the other side would be the QR code that would automatically link your ID with the hospital and then log in your vaccination with your social scoring. ,You can see the registration counter and the injection area off to the right.

Do you see evil Chicom police forcing innocent people to get injections? Do you see people freaking out and “demanding their rights”? Do you see the horrors and anger that is so characteristic of how the Chinese are portrayed in American media?

Doe it resemble anything, at all, like the images you get in your “mind’s eye” regarding what China is like?

Are there crowds of hungry, starving, angry people? Is it dirty, filthy and disease ridden? Is the air so full of smog and filth? What about the infrastructure? Is it falling down? What about the police and military presence? Do you see police dogs, anyone with an AK-47?

I wish that I would have gotten a picture of one of those cute roving robots that are all over the place. But that’s the luck of the draw don’t you know. They respond back to you. If you go up to them you can see what they see on the video and they will ask you if you need anything. Then they will answer using your actual name! I guess the face recognition and the AI enables them to converse to you as a person.

And here’s another…

And for a strong comparison, let’s compare what my FIRST HAND, up front and personal video with what is written inside the American media…

"Chinese Communist Party has been imposing vaccinations upon the public, despite concerns over efficacy and health implications. "

Does the video, in any way what so ever, reflect what was written in America? Does the videos show people being coerced, being forced, or being made to do anything that they don’t want to do?

Can't see the videos? Then you can download a ZIP file of them HERE.

Conclusion

Most Americans are sheeple whether they like the title or not.

If you find yourself getting upset with something that you cannot verify with your own two eyes, or touch with your hands, or smell with your nose, then you are being manipulated.

If you believe those manipulations, then you are a sheeple.

Dangers of such manipulations

You might end up believing…

  • The President “has your back” if you decide to riot in Congress.
  • The United States is capable of fighting and winning World War III.
  • Using a 3G cell phone will not only give you brain cancer, but it will cause gasoline pumps to explode.
  • Social Security deductions from your pay are put in a “lock box”.
  • Unless you update your computer software with the new government approved version, the Y2K will rampage through your house and kill you.
  • Pizza is a vegetable. Coital silver supplements will give you a healthier life. And most vitamins are fake.
  • Eating a hamburger will turn you into a drooling moron though mad cow disease.
  • Using an e-cigarette will cause you to die of vaping.
  • Angry Zombie Killer Wasps (imported from China) will kill you.
  • Florine in your water is a way of altering your precious bodily fluids.
  • Senator Sessions is going to throw Hillary Clinton in jail, he has a plan with his enormous mind that is playing 54-d strategy.
  • The economy is roaring. Unemployment is way down, and America leads the world in satisfaction.

Do you want more?

I have more posts that might be of interest. Go ahead and check out my Happiness Index here…

Media News

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Articles & Links

Master Index

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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.

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