Ukraine war, 1935 Mercedes-Benz 540K Streamline Roadster, Kodachrome Stories, UFOs, The Government, Russia, and other related nonsense

Gosh, it’s a strange time. The “news” is so full of bullshit that I really have a difficult time sorting through it. Apparently, there’s going to be a formal “disclosure” on UFOs. Don’t hold your breath. Very little will come out, and what will be presented will be wrapped in a need for more money, and in the importance of secrecy by people who really don’t care about anything other than making money from it. Here, instead, we will concentrate on tidbits, news and local history. I hope you all enjoy this article / post.

Reading the paper this morning.

Here, Peter is talking about how the news media reported the Ukrainian soldiers evacuated from Azovstal steel plant. A reader would get the impression of Ukrainian victory, not a rout and capture. -MM

There is deliberate ambiguity, particularly about who is doing what.

You would get the impression that Ukrainian officials were supervising the operation.

There is this note at the beginning:

“The Ukrainian military avoided using the term “surrender” to describe the effort to pull out of the steel plant to save as many lives as possible.”

Late in the article there is a statement that some terms of surrender may have been negotiated.

Allowing the word “surrender” to be avoided and “evacuation” to used to describe only what happened after the surrender.

But the article just uses the rest of the spin:

- - Beyond hope = “Efforts to rescue”
  - Accept Surrender = “Rescue”
  - Surrender = “Pull Out”
  - Russian Military Command = “Officials”
  - Combatants Refusing to Surrender = “fighters who stayed behind”
  - Taken Prisoner = “evacuated to Russian controlled territory”
  - Prisoner of War = “unclear if.. would be considered prisoners of war”
  - Ordered to die but eventually surrendered = “Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes to be alive. It’s our principle,” – Z

Classic Meatballs

From Betty Crocker.

This homemade meatball recipe is a Betty classic, and for great reason! For generations, home cooks have relied on this hearty meatball recipe to show some skills the kitchen. All it takes to achieve this meaty main dish is eight basic ingredients. Got them? Great! Now, if you have 15 minutes to spare and a foil-lined 13×9 pan, perfectly browned and tender meatballs could be the answer to tonight’s dinner jam. Yes, delicious doesn’t take long! In the meantime, prepare spaghetti or rice, veggies or salad, because this recipe goes with anything!

Ingredients

1 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1/2 cup Progresso™ Italian-style bread crumbs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 small onion, finely chopped (1/4 cup)
1 egg

Steps

1

Heat oven to 400°F. Line 13×9-inch pan with foil; spray with cooking spray.
2

In large bowl, mix all ingredients. Shape mixture into 24 (1 1/2-inch) meatballs. Place 1 inch apart in pan.
3

Bake uncovered 18 to 22 minutes or until temperature reaches 160°F and no longer pink in center.

Baking, instead of pan frying, these meatballs allows you to speed up prep time and work on the rest of the meal while they’re cooking. Use the baking time to create a first-course antipasto platter of meats and cheeses. Then pull together a Caesar salad, warm up garlic bread (right in the oven in which the meatballs are cooking) or steam some fresh vegetables to accompany the meal. When it’s time for dessert, scoop up dishes of Neapolitan ice cream or fruity gelato, and you’ve created your own Italian feast. This baked meatball recipe has been a go-to classic for generations of home cooks, who rely on its precisely perfect proportions of meat, bread crumbs, milk, egg and seasonings. Once you’ve mastered the basics of how to make meatballs, you can try even more time-tested recipes and modern new twists from Betty’s best meatball recipes collection.

1935 Mercedes-Benz 540K Streamline Roadster

Mercedes commissioned Erdmann & Rossi to produce a special show car for the 1935 Barcelona exhibition based upon their 500K. One of the visitors was King Ghazi of Iraq, who expressed his desire to buy the car and MB built another (540K) car powered by a Straight 8-cyl 5018cc supercharged (180hp) engine with a 4/5-speed manual transmission as a special order and the car was shipped to Iraq.

Unfortunately the reign of the young king was short-lived as he died in a car accident in 1939. The car survived the Gulf war and World War II, and was found in an underground storage facility in Baghdad, but finally ending up in Jordon. In 1986 under the instructions of King Hussein of Jordon the car was shipped to Germany for restoration.

Japan freezes assets of Russia’s Sberbank, Alfa Bank

Orders from the United States, no doubt. This Asian “nation” with zero neighbours as friends (Russia, China, North and South Korea). Ah. It’s playing with fire. Japan has no future…

From HERE

And four additional banks…

From HERE

Japan froze the assets of 398 Russian citizens, including President Vladimir Putin’s daughters – Infobae

My goodness.

The “looting civilisation” of Asia:

From HERE

Slow-Cooker Meaty Italian Spaghetti Sauce

From Betty Crocker.

If you’ve been searching for “the one,” that is a reliably delicious spaghetti sauce that will please the family, freeze well and get better overnight, we humbly suggest this recipe. No hard-to-find ingredients here, just everything you’d expect to be in a basic red sauce. Before stewing to perfection in your slow cooker, this sauce does require a crucial couple minutes of skillet time. Taking the 15 minutes to brown Italian sausage and onions to golden-brown perfection doesn’t just bring out the best in these ingredients, it also leads to a sauce that’s considerably more delicious than it would be otherwise. And after you do it, it’s just a matter of tossing all the ingredients into the pot and letting them simmer together into a rich and savory red gravy!

Ingredients

2 lb bulk Italian pork sausage or ground beef
2 large onions, chopped (2 cups)
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms (6 oz)
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 can (28 oz) Muir Glen™ organic diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cans (15 oz each) tomato sauce
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Do you have a go-to spaghetti sauce recipe? If not, put this five-star favorite in your recipe box. It turns out meaty, robust and flavorful after cooking for eight hours. All you have to do is carve out 15 minutes in the morning to throw the ingredients in your slow cooker, and you’ll come home to a nearly complete spaghetti dinner.

We also love making a big batch and stashing it in the freezer, so we’re ready for those busy weeks when there’s no time for cooking or grocery shopping. And on the weekend when you have the time, you can make an extra special meal by serving this sauce with fresh pasta — try for yourself with Betty’s step-by-step instructions for making making homemade pasta.

Impressive Unique Art Dolls By Helena Oplakanska

This a World of fantastic dolls. Helena creates very special art dolls for collectors. It is unique and one-of-a-kind.

According to an artist’s sister: “Hi everyone, my name is Elena and I’m posting on behalf of my sister Helena, who is an artist. She has been creating dolls for the past 16 years or so. All of her dolls are handmade and one-of-a-kind. She does everything herself, from the hair itself to creating a hairstyle, shoes, and even dresses. Helena also makes the sculpture itself, so every face she carves out is unique.”

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Kodachrome Stories

We love Kodachromes and we love found photos.

These snapshots taken in the mid-20th Century show us people posing for the camera, smiling in readiness for whoever’s behind the thing to press the button and capture the moment. Others are relaxed, caught off guard, their eyes blinked closed or shut in asleep.

Iran has capacity to double oil exports if market needs more barrels: Official

Iran knows who its enemies are, and will not betray a friend: “capacity issue” is simply a diplomatic language:

2022 05 17: Iran has capacity to double oil exports if market needs more barrels: Official.

From HERE

2022 03 Iran’s Oil and Gas Exports Could Benefit From Russia’s International Isolation.

From HERE

The secret to great spaghetti? It’s all in the sauce

From HERE

IF YOU COOK spaghetti in a big pot of water, drain it, then toss it with sauce, you are pouring a lot of flavor down the drain, says Vendemmia chef Brian Clevenger.

“The trick to good pasta is cooking it in the sauce,” he says.

It was while working at Delfina in San Francisco that he really started to understand why. “Most places don’t do it because it’s so hard. It’s the most difficult ‘simple thing’ we cook in our kitchen.”

The technique is similar to risotto. After softening the noodles in boiling water, you finish cooking them in a saute pan with the sauce, adding ladles of the pasta water until they are done. “That’s flour, egg, flavor you’re adding,” Clevenger says. Vigorous stirring creates an emulsion that allows the sauce to coat each strand. As with risotto, the tricky part is stopping before the noodles overcook.

Clevenger says the technique works with any dried pasta (he prefers Rusticella brand) and with any sauce. They cook a lot of pasta this way at Vendemmia. “With all the starch that collects at the top of the pasta pot,” he says, “the best pasta of the night is the last one served.”

1935 Mercedes-Benz 540K Streamline Roadster

MENUDO ROJO | How To Make Menudo With Hominy | Simply Mama Cooks

A very traditional Mexican soup / stew.

Scoring Biden’s ASEAN summit | The Interpreter

This is the thought process out of Washington, DC. -MM

Busy? Just read the highlights in red:

Good for ties with Southeast Asia, but a so-so agenda suggests US influence in the region will continue to decline.

US President Joe Biden hosted ASEAN leaders in Washington last week for a special summit to commemorate 45 years of US-ASEAN ties. Such a meeting was long in the making, having been mooted under the Trump administration but deferred due to the Covid pandemic, and then delayed in 2022 due to scheduling difficulties. Five takeaways were evident from the meeting for US engagement with the region.

1. The Biden administration wants to focus on Southeast Asia.

That might seem obvious, but hosting the summit was in itself a huge investment of time and resources on Southeast Asia. The meeting’s scheduling shows the Biden administration wants to maintain momentum in its Indo-Pacific strategy, even despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The summit itself met expectations. Language in the joint statement was relatively strong on issues the US sees as priorities, such as Ukraine, and included a commitment to designate US-ASEAN relations as a “comprehensive strategic partnership” in November (the same level as relations with China and Australia).

1. The Biden administration wants to focus on Southeast Asia.

The summit also showed that the Biden administration is alive to the concerns and priorities of Southeast Asian countries. Biden’s nomination of an ambassador to ASEAN – a post left vacant for more than five years – is good. In remarks ahead of the summit at the US Institute of Peace, White House Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell repeatedly underscored that the US valued ASEAN’s role, and wanted to engage Southeast Asia on its own terms, not as a function of competition with China.

2. But it lacks a coherent narrative or cut through message.

The White House announced $150 million of new initiatives for ASEAN at the summit. This is only a small slice of the overall assistance provided by the United States to Southeast Asia – by Washington’s reckoning $12.1 billion since 2002, with $800 million in bilateral assistance requested in the 2023 budget.

A lack of bilateral meetings with the President clearly rankled some, and was especially notable given that Biden has not yet established rapport with many of his counterparts in the region.

Even so, the new initiatives were underwhelming. As regional experts pointed out, the $60 million of funding for maritime cooperation compares unfavourably with funding allocated under the earlier $425 million Southeast Asia Maritime Security Initiative.

And like the $102 million of funding announced at the virtual US-ASEAN summit in 2021, the US is investing small amounts of money in disparate initiatives, few of which will be delivered through ASEAN’s own institutions. Topics range from clean energy to infrastructure, forests, space, and education. While worthy, these disjointed topics, without an over-arching narrative suggest that the US lacks a vision for its partnership with ASEAN. Japan expert Tobias Harris usefully contrasted this with Tokyo’s clearer focus on supporting ASEAN’s economic development.

It’s not clear whether the weak outcomes are the result of a lack of timely attention to the summit from senior policy-makers, or a misjudgement about what is needed to deliver impact.

3. The US Indo-Pacific Economic Framework is not landing well in Southeast Asia.

At least three ASEAN leaders made comments that were to some extent critical of the US proposal to establish an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), and there was no reference to the IPEF in the joint vision statement.

Speaking ahead of the summit, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that the United States had identified four pillars of its Indo-Pacific economic framework, “But the concrete elements of that initiative is not yet set in – is not yet clarified.” He said Vietnam was ready to engage with the United States, but needed more time to study the initiative

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also implied that US engagement on this front had been lacking, saying publicly that while Singapore welcomed the initiative, it encouraged “greater ASEAN participation in the IPEF and we hope the US will directly invite and engage ASEAN member states in this endeavour.”

And Malaysia’s Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob called for Washington to adopt a “more active” trade and investment agenda. His trade minister said that Malaysia still needed to decide which of the IPEF’s pillars Kuala Lumpur would join.

The comments from the three leaders confirm that IPEF is not landing well in Southeast Asia. The US will need to work harder to ensure regional support before it launches the framework later this month in Tokyo.

4. US engagement with Southeast Asia still needs time and attention

ASEAN countries grumbled about a lack of time with the president at the summit. Compared to the 2016 Sunnylands ASEAN Summit hosted by Barack Obama, which comprised two retreat sessions and a dinner, Biden was present at just two of six summit events. A lack of bilateral meetings with the President clearly rankled some, and was especially notable given that Biden has not yet established rapport with many of his counterparts in the region. Since taking office, he’s only held bilateral meetings with Indonesia and Singapore, a sharp contrast to Obama at Sunnylands, who was already well into his second term and had already notched up visits to five ASEAN countries.

On the plus side, hosting the event in Washington enabled the leaders to have productive meetings with the Vice President, members of Congress and the secretaries of State and Defense.

5. The summit won’t shift the dial for the US in Southeast Asia.

In the end, the summit went well. But context matters, and overall, the US continues to lose influence to China in Southeast Asia. The so-so outcomes suggest that the US underestimates just how fast it is losing this competition. Washington needs to accept it will get no credit for its historical investments and contributions when these are seen as being in relative decline. The United States would need to bring more to the table than it did last week to reverse unfavourable regional trends.

From HERE

Kodachrome Stories

We love Kodachromes and we love found photos. Lee Shulman shares those loves, recognising what he calls “the emotional value of these slices of life”. Since 2017, Lee’s collected around 700,000 found photographs, and compiled them into his Anonymous Project.

EU Weighs Tapping Seized Oligarch Assets for Ukraine Rebuilding

Looting others to rebuild Ukraine? Is this so much EU commitment to rebuild Ukraine?

Scale of effort requires joint new issuance, draft says

Ukraine reconstruction may cost $1.1 trillion, Kuleba tells EU

EU Weighs Tapping Seized Oligarch Assets for Ukraine Rebuilding - Bloomberg

From HERE

1935 Mercedes-Benz 540K Streamline Roadster

Not less than 300 militants from Azovstal are being transported by buses.

About 300 militants left Azovstal Approximately 50 of them are wounded. They are being taken to the Central District Hospital of Novoazovsk, where they will receive the necessary medical care. The rest were taken away by buses towards Yelenovka, according to rt.com correspondent Maksim Touri.

The fighters of Azov are being taken to hospitals not just by civilian buses. These are buses for transporting prisoners of the Federal Penitentiary Service. And they will be treated not in civilian hospitals, but in closed hospitals of the Federal Penitentiary Service. Investigators have already started interrogating the prisoners

Kodachrome Stories

This is my FAVORITE!

Will Russia have enough “Caliber” for a special operation in Ukraine

From HERE

Will Russia have enough “Caliber” for a special operation in Ukraine

Is it true that Moscow is running out of high-precision cruise missiles and soon it will “have nothing to fight with”? These and other 12 “naive” questions are answered by the military observer of “KP” Colonel Viktor Baranets

So “Caliber” goes into the sky from the side of the patrol ship “Tatarstan”. But these cruise missiles can be hit both from the ground and from an aircraft.

The Caliber cruise missile has already become a real hit and a meme.

To “calibrate” the enemy is almost the most fashionable expression now in the troops. And the fact that this super-precise weapon is capable of reaching any military facility anywhere in the same Ukraine made Caliber one of the main striking forces of the entire ongoing special operation.

What is there to say! At the “Caliber” in the Russian headquarters and among military analysts, they literally pray.

And therefore it becomes uncomfortable when, with reference to Western military intelligence, you read that “Russia’s stocks of Caliber are depleted” and they “left for a couple of weeks.” And then “there will be nothing to fight.”

How about really? How long will we have enough “Caliber”? Who even came up with this miracle weapon? And do we have something else in stock besides him?

1. Missiles left for a month and then there will be nothing to fight with?

Recently, indeed, Western and Ukrainian media have been actively throwing in (with reference to their intelligence) “reliable data” that Moscow, due to active fighting in Ukraine, is running out of not only Calibers, but also other modern high-precision missiles. Therefore, they say, the Russian command is already “scraping the bottom of the barrel”, collecting everything that is left in the warehouses.

Here’s an example for you. As early as March 21, the “knowledgeable” American television channel CNN reported that, according to the Pentagon, Russia would run out of Caliber by March 24, when 1,200 of them would be produced.

So what?

The operation has been going on for the third month, and the “Caliber” does not end!

The fact is that Russia has been producing these missiles (and is producing) for a long time not only on the basis of one local military operation (as in Syria or Ukraine). The Russian General Staff, of course, keep in mind the huge combat potential of the entire NATO bloc. And, of course, in the production of missiles (including Caliber), this factor is taken into account.

To have enough for everyone.

The West does not know exactly how many Calibers Russia has. Although his estimates in recent days are beginning to change. Now it is claimed that Russia “has enough” Caliber “, which” will be enough for a long time “…

2. How do the factories producing these weapons work now?

The answer to this question is “closed”. In other words, it’s a state secret.

Foreign intelligence agencies in Russia are actively hunting for her.

Why?

To understand how long the military machine of Ukraine will be able to hold out and how the NATO command should plan its actions in this country during our attacks.

Unfortunately, some citizens do not know how to keep their mouths shut.

It has already flashed on social networks that some of our military-industrial enterprises that produce cruise and other missiles have allegedly switched to a three-shift mode of operation, and at one of these factories they suddenly announced 500 vacancies at once … Although I also heard from our defense workers: “Work is in full swing! We bake like pies…

3. How much does one Caliber cost? And is it cheaper or more expensive than NATO missiles?

Caliber’s main competitor is the American Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile. According to the Pentagon, its price is from $1.5 to $1.7 million (depending on the modification).

Approximately the same price and other US cruise missiles – “Harpoon”, “Jazm”, “Maverick”, LRASM.

Our Caliber (3M14) costs much less in mass production. Sometimes a price of $ 500 thousand apiece is called. But this is the cost of the export version of the rocket. The Russian army “Caliber” costs one and a half times cheaper – $ 300 – 350 thousand.

4. What are the grades of foreign specialists?

In the American military-analytical magazine The National Interest we read the opinion of local experts: “Caliber missiles have qualities that worry Western countries. First, these missiles fly low, almost skimming over the surface of the water or land, and avoid detection by the enemy. Secondly, Calibers are universal, they can be equipped with even the smallest warships, such as corvettes. US intelligence knows the characteristics of the Caliber. They are able (from the Black and Caspian Seas) to close the radius from France to Kazakhstan.

The range of “Caliber” – 2.5 thousand kilometers. They were first used against militants in Syria on October 7, 2015 ( see kp.ru website ). Then the missile ship “Dagestan” and small missile ships “Grad Sviyazhsk”, “Veliky Ustyug” and “Uglich” fired 26 cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea. And they all achieved their goal flawlessly.”.

5. And if you compare it with the American Tomahawks?

It’s easy to compare. Of the 59 Tomahawks launched by the Americans from the Mediterranean Sea, only 23 reached their targets in Syria.

They, in fact, did not complete the task of completely disabling Syrian airfields, hitting minor targets. Ammunition depots, taxiways and combat-ready aircraft of the Syrian Air Force remained intact …

As a result, the millions of dollars invested by the United States in this strike were literally thrown into the wind.

It is worth remembering the operation “Desert Storm”. American generals boasted there more than once of the “high efficiency of the Tomahawks.”

However, after the publication in the New York Times and the Washington Post of the report of the US Department of Defense on the results of the Gulf War, this bragging subsided. The report stated that out of 288 missiles fired from US ships and submarines, less than 50% hit their targets.

And what do American specialists write about the effectiveness of our “Caliber”? In the same military-analytical magazine The National Interest we read: “Our space intelligence monitors the launches of Russian missiles. It is amazing that they are capable of overtaking even moving targets for two thousand kilometers, not to mention stationary ones. It seems that the Russians have perfected the aiming of such weapons at the target. There was not a single case when the “Caliber” hit an empty place. There were only a few episodes when the deviation from the target was more than 10 meters. But for the powerful warhead of this missile (400 kg. – Ed.) This is a mere trifle. The target was hit by the blast.”

6. What else similar do we use in Ukraine?

Here we have a whole brood of relatives of “Caliber” – cruise missiles “Malachite”, “Mosquito”, “Onyx”, X-55, X-101. The latter, by the way, has an incredible range – it can be guaranteed to hit targets at 4.5 thousand km.

Of the other weapons involved in the special operation, it is worth mentioning the Kinzhal hypersonic complex first of all.

The first combat use of the “Dagger” occurred on March 18, when it was sniper hit in the west of Ukraine by a super-protected enemy ammunition depot (in a missile silo built back in the Soviet Union and designed to withstand a nuclear strike). The “Dagger” reduced this deep reinforced concrete shelter to fine rubble.

We also have the Iskander high-precision missile system. He is also capable of “falling into the window” hundreds of kilometers away.

Involved in the operation in Ukraine and “Bastion” – a coastal complex with a missile “Onyx” (“Yakhont”)..

7. Are Western intelligence agencies hunting for caliber secrets?

Judging by the testimonies of foreign intelligence agents arrested in Russia (among whom, alas, there were recruited Russians), they were most interested in the secrets of the Caliber guidance systems. And also – the possibility of jamming signals coming from our GLONASS system and drones.

8. Who created this miracle and what reward did he receive?

Back in 1983, the Novator Design Bureau (Sverdlovsk) began the creation of a new anti-ship cruise missile (the Turquoise project). This rocket was first shown in 1993. And it was on its basis that the 3M54 rocket was later created, which became the basis for the Caliber complex.

Many scientists, designers, engineers, technologists are involved in its creation. But there were “intelligent motors” among them – this is the general director, general designer of Novator Pavel Kamnev. He deservedly – Hero of Labor of Russia and twice laureate of the State Prize.

Among the creators of “Caliber” (or rather, the rocket engine) and the former director of the plant “Saturn” (Rybinsk) Yuri Lastochkin. According to him, Vladimir Putin is also involved in the fate of Caliber.

Here’s how he talked about it:

“The work was intense, there was very strong resistance from colleagues from Ukraine, who frankly did not want Russia to have its own engine for cruise missiles, and had strong lobbying positions in the ordering department of the Russian Ministry of Defense at that time. (These “colleagues” were from the Zaporozhye Motor Sich plant, they had fat orders for engines from the Russian military department and did not want to lose them. – Auth.)

It was clear to us that sooner or later Russia would need its own engine. The case helped. In 2000, Putin came to Saturn, and I reported to him that the creation of a Russian engine for a cruise missile was going slowly, because the main problem was the pro-Ukrainian position in the ordering missile department of our Ministry of Defense. To which Putin replied briefly: “Addresses? Turnouts? Let’s get wet!” I thought he was joking. But by the way the faces of the retinue changed – the profile Deputy Prime Minister Klebanov and the head of the then Roscosmos Koptev – it became clear that the result of this “conversation” would be. And so it happened. Fans of vodka and lard had to vacate their seats – and things got off the ground!

For solving this problem, the plant received gratitude from the president, and many employees received state awards and titles.

9. What other “surprises” do we have on the way?

We have the same accurate and effective weapon as the Caliber, but its development, of course, is kept secret. Although something is already lit.

These are, for example, the new Zircon hypersonic missiles. Until recently, they were considered sea-based weapons, and are now being transferred to land and aircraft systems.

They work on targets at a distance of more than 1000 km at a speed of 9 Machs (9 times faster than sound). They overcome any anti-aircraft defense and completely neutralize the superiority of the US Navy. Several Zircons are capable of destroying a $20-30 billion US aircraft carrier strike group in a matter of minutes.

There is also a cruise missile with a nuclear engine of unlimited action “Petrel” in the stash.

The missile itself can find gaps in missile defense.

A Russian MiG-31 fighter with an even more formidable weapon under its “belly” than the “Caliber” – the “Dagger” hypersonic missile.

10. Can you only launch from ships?

“Caliber” is a universal missile – it can be launched from diesel submarines (of the Varshavyanka type), missile ships, and from aircraft (for example, from a Su-35 attack fighter). There is also a land version of the Caliber (Club-K container missile system).

11. Is it intercepted by conventional air defense systems?

During the military special operation, the Ukrainians have never been able to bring down the Caliber.

Its unique property is its low flight altitude. As the experts say, “Caliber” can be seen, but cannot be shot down.

The capabilities of this missile allow it to deceive the enemy’s air defenses.

As for NATO, the United States has such an opportunity. Here is how the American experts themselves assess the situation: “Today, only Russian Kalibr missiles can reach the American military bases in Eastern Syria. Our Patriot systems, at least theoretically, can intercept them.” But there has not yet been a single real interception of the Caliber by the Patriot missile defense systems. If this happened, the Pentagon would happily trumpet it to the whole world..

12. Can it carry a nuclear charge?

Yes maybe. The special nuclear warhead created for the Caliber has a “limitedly small” yield of up to 1 kiloton (20 times weaker than the US bomb dropped on Hiroshima). When it explodes, the openly located enemy manpower will be destroyed by a shock wave at a distance of 700 meters.

Vladimir Putin, by the way, stated that theoretically, the nuclear use of 3M14 is possible. But he noted that “I hope it will not come to this.”

1935 Mercedes-Benz 540K Streamline Roadster

Ukraine Is in Worse Shape than You Think | Time

From HERE

Kodachrome Stories

1935 Mercedes-Benz 540K Streamline Roadster

Ultimate Refried Beans – How to Make Refried Beans for Nachos & Burritos

Easy to make, and fundamental to making very cheap and very delicious Mexican food.

Biden Orders US Troops Back to Somalia, Reverses Trump Withdrawal

Democrat party is the party of war.

From HERE

Kodachrome Stories

The Russian Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation publishes footage of the surrender of militants from Azovstal

Yup. Surrender. No question about it.

From HERE

Kodachrome Stories

The Nazis did not apologize, they were not afraid, but they could not look us in the eye. The enemy at Azovstal began to surrender

From HERE

The Nazis did not apologize, they were not afraid, but they could not look us in the eye. The enemy at Azovstal began to surrender

The KP special correspondent spoke with the Ukrainian military at the underground tunnel at Azovstal for several hours

Early in the morning, on May 16, the positions under the walls of Azovstal began to stir. A white flag poked out of a tunnel under the railway tracks, followed by people in a strange, dark sandy uniform with blue tape on their sleeves and ammunition. Together with the “factory inmates”, the boy Kolya got out – he looked to be 15-16 years old – for the last month he lived at Azovstal practically on the surface, in one of the factory supply rooms. As you might guess, the teenager testified to good will and readiness for dialogue. This dialogue has been long awaited. Both our negotiating group and the “Azovites” themselves, as the militias called them – “PSE” Azovstal “.

For a long four hours I sat in positions in some kind of administrative factory building unwound in the trash. It was very quiet, and for the first time I heard the toads yelling in the Kalmius River, they are now in spring love. We were waiting. They were waiting for this whole epic to end and someone to go home, at least for a few days on leave, so that later, if necessary, continue to fight further.

By one o’clock in the afternoon, the radio spoke clearly and sternly: do not open fire, sappers will start working from 13.00, open the mined passage for those who surrender and dismantle the rubble. Everyone take their positions, triple their vigilance, and prevent provocations. The exit of the first group with the wounded at 15.00.

It was lunch time, the fighters regretfully set aside or quickly scraped the cans with rations of meat and vegetable canned food. The fighter with the call sign “Borzoy” took the “Bumblebee” flamethrower and, fitting it behind his back, muttered: “You can expect everything from these. The positions will be cleared, our firing points will be copied and how they will go for a breakthrough … “. The place for the exit of the surrendered and the removal of the wounded was chosen wisely – a narrow passage under the tracks, along the embankment along the same narrow corridor between the buildings. Under the full supervision of “Borzoy” …

Barbecue at Azovstal

The passage for surrender turned out to be miraculous – a bomb hit between the tracks, throwing out several tons of earth. This hole, the Ukrainian militants threw rusty, bent iron and mined almost three layers. Now, these same people in a strange form, quickly and dexterously dismantled the blockage with shovels, and having disassembled, moved between the embankment and our building. Our fighter, who crouched near the loophole, took aim at the enemies – they were about ten meters away. The “Azov” were walking, sometimes stopping and squatting over some dark green boxes sprinkled with dust. These were improvised mines made of cartridge zinc stuffed with plastid. The calculation is that tankers will not pay attention to the usual military garbage – empty cartridge zinc. But, some mines were connected by wires – their “Azov” sappers cut them without hesitation. And all this happened in complete silence.

Clearing the way for future evacuation.

One of ours shouted out: “What, falconers, have you fought? And well, tell me how the stick is right? But no one supported the wit, the fervent cry withered in silence. The strangers were all with weapons, however, machine guns were thrown behind their backs, pistols in buttoned holsters. The “Azovites” reached the exit from the yard and stopped in some confusion. In front of them stretched the floodplain of the River, delightful in its greenery and width. And on the other side of Naberezhny Prospekt, the Sarmat restaurant nestled. Those who left the factory were, without exaggeration, shocked by the view. One of the strangers exhaled: “Oh, now would be a barbecue!”. And I, looking at this cafe long closed because of the war, thought the same thing …

“Azov” clear mine exit for the wounded, they will all be taken to the hospital

Military correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda Dmitry Steshin reports from Mariupol, where an agreement was reached on the removal of the wounded from the Azovstal plant

Mercy trait

THEY did not look into the asphalt, but they did not look into our eyes either. All young, up to twenty and a little more. Very cool gear, everyone. But the weapon is the same – our eternal Kalashnikov. They weren’t dirty, they weren’t haggard and scared. Rather tense. So far, they had all the required stripes – from yellow-black flags to “Azov” chevrons. And we, with my comrade, the militia Vlad, did not know how to behave. He held his gun almost at the ready. To be honest, I was ready to hang on Vlad’s shoulders. He lost everything in this war – his house in Poltava, relatives, fellow soldiers, health. Exchanged for the trenches the best years of male maturity.

I have not been separated from Vlad for the third month already and I know how sometimes fierce, terrible anger boils in him. But Vlad was calm. Probably, something happened to us that always happens to Russian people at the sight of a surrendering enemy. No matter what bestiality and cruelty he does, no matter what bloody battles the day before, there is such an invisible line beyond which mercy turns on. No, of course, prisoners can later be judged, but laying mounds of severed heads right on the battlefield is not in our tradition. Vlad spoke first, very calmly:

– Why are you so clean? Does that mean there is water?

The guy with the bushy beard, with Stechkin in his chest holster, seemed to be waiting for this question:

– There is water. Technical. There – “Azov” pointed with a hand in a tactical glove to the going black pipes – there are tons of it! And even tea can be brewed normally. But food has been a problem for a week now. We found apples here, a box, it was such a simple holiday.

I couldn’t resist:

– How many of you are there?

The guy with Stechkin answered both evasively and with soldier’s ingenuity:

You’ll be amazed how many of us are out there.

I took out the camera:

– This is probably your last chance to tell your relatives that you are alive. I can record videos, I’ll throw them in the evening.

But, they did not want to act, not one.

The guy with Stechkin turned out to be my namesake. Almost. Named Dmitro. We talked about the bombings. According to Dmitro, the jamming was terrifying, creepy, and only:

– To break the bunker, you need to put three FAB-500s in one place. The first collapses the building, the second makes a funnel, the third breaks through to the bomb shelter.

– And what did you do during the bombings?

– In “Counter-strike” they were cut along the grid …

Vlad once again examined the audience and issued a diagnosis:

– If we were all dressed … well, in tracksuits, and put on a bench in the park, no one would understand who is here for what and for whom …

There was a pause, and to fill it in, I remarked:

– It would still be interesting to understand why we are so bloody …

18-year-old “Azov” Nazar from Lviv broke away from another mine and for the first time in many months I heard the Ukrainian language live:

– Ztokhnuvshi people with people … (pushed people with people, in Ukrainian)

Dmitro noticed that “everyone got along just fine” and said that he was from Mariupol. But Vlad did not agree here:

– I am from Poltava, I left to fight in the fourteenth year, because I understood that I could not get along there. Here we all speak Russian. And they spread rot on the Russian, they adopted a bunch of laws!

Dmitro squeezed out:

– Well, yes.

One of the surrendering Nazis wears the chevron of the SS division “Galicia” on his right hand. The other is a stylization of the emblem of the 3rd SS Panzer Division “Totenkopf”. Denazification as it is. Well, fascism, which is not in Ukraine.

But he quickly gathered himself, saying that all these were our internal Ukrainian affairs, but why did Russia get into this? I did not expect such malice from Vlad:

– And what, you wanted you to just kill all of us, and no one would stand up? Now Europe and the USA are for you, and Russia is for us. Are you okay? And we’re fine. That is, it is not normal to ruin youth in the war.

Dmitro remarked:

– I, too, have been fighting since I was 14. Also youth … moreover. Has ended already.

Vlad perked up: “Where did you fight?” I left them to talk, and they talked for an hour.

Our officer showed up.

– Let’s move on to defuse mines.

There were still many mines – half of Naberezhny Prospekt.

An hour later, the first batch of “zahistniks” left the factory. Before passing under the tracks, they tore off their sweaty armor, threw off their helmets and weapons, and went into captivity. They didn’t feel defeated, more like losers. Lost one battle. And yet, they believed in our mercy and knew for sure that they would not shoot their legs and gouge out their eyes. How did the “Azov” with our prisoners.

The first party left, and … almost immediately returned – already with a stretcher. They carried the wounded away from the factory. The Azov people told us, they say, “we would sit at the plant until the New Year.” Perhaps, but the wounded, judging by their condition, would not have survived until next Sunday. And as one of our negotiators explained to me informally, “We started the surrender process with an act of mercy.” It was hard to argue with that. In general, I did not want to argue about anything, sitting on the loose earth, under the menacingly creaking exploded rails. An officer from Azov showed up. According to him, the core of the regiment is still in position, waiting for the first day of surrender to pass. They have the Internet, and they greedily catch every message on the Net. But one thing is already clear to everyone – “the evil Kyiv owner of the living” Azov “is not needed.” This is finally understood by everyone.

In general, by all indications, the war in Mariupol is over. At all!

Finally, Vlad surprised me:

– After the war, I would drink with this Dmitro.

– Did you forgive them?

– Not. But I liked it, we would have something to talk about.

– What did you like?

– He is the only one who has not pretended to be a cook and did not bustle. This is a worthy enemy.

But we defeated them.

– Yes. But it was very hard.

“Azov” clear mine exit for the wounded, they will all be taken to the hospital

Military correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda Dmitry Steshin reports from Mariupol, where an agreement was reached on the removal of the wounded from the Azovstal plant

It is worth noting that earlier information appeared that the wounded of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were being taken out of the basements of Azovstal for treatment in the DPR. Our observer Nikolai Varsegov comments on this news:

“To tell the truth, I initially had … a misunderstanding of this decision on our part. By accepting enemy wounded, including the Nazis of Azov, we, of course, make life much easier for those who hid under the plant. Now they do not have to share the meager remains of water and food with those who came out of No need to waste physical and moral strength to help them, and therefore the surrender of these basement warriors will drag on for some time, tying down our military over Azovstal.

I have no doubt that many Russians, who worry about our soldiers and wish for a speedy victory, think the same way.

But there is another, probably more valuable side of the coin – humanism. Most, I believe, the rescued Ukrainian wounded, as well as their loved ones, will change their minds to everything that is happening. They will turn on the mind, as happens with hundreds of other military Ukrainians who are in our captivity. Every now and then we see on TV screens absolutely adequate people who have surrendered to the Russian army, who sincerely declare that they do not want to fight for the crooks and bandits who have seized power in Ukraine. “The summons came, I was taken to the front. Where was it to go? Otherwise, prison … “.

One must think that among the wounded at Azrovstal there are a majority of such people. And humanly, and not for the picture, they feel sorry.

Ukrainian propaganda is trying its best to show the Russian army as barbaric. He calls it a horde that encroached on their exaggerated democracy. But the whole world saw how Ukrainian “democrats” in military uniform mock our prisoners of war with sadistic joy. Nothing like this happens on our side. On the contrary, we feed them normally, treat them, do not humiliate their human dignity. My personal opinion is that mocking prisoners of war is a sign of subhumanity. I am satisfied that in my civilized country, even in a mild form, there is no such disgrace with prisoners as is happening in Ukraine.

And this humane act of receiving Ukrainian wounded for treatment is important for us too, in order to feel like decent people. And I don’t give a damn what Ukrainian and Western propagandists are talking about us. We Russians are much higher morally than they are, as events show.”

The Kurtis Sport Car

It’s Kurtis Sport Car serial number KB003, the actual car that appeared on the cover of the very first edition of the Motor Trend magazine way back in 1949, in a photo taken by Motor Trend founder Robert E. Petersen. More than 62 years ago, this car helped launch the storied automotive media brand.

The Kurtis Sport Car was a product of the astonishing explosion of automotive creativity that occurred in California after World War II. After enduring a grinding depression and a grueling war, Americans were ready to celebrate as the booming economy provided jobs and prosperity. They’d had enough of cars for hard times — the somber and sensible Depression-era sedans and coupes they’d nursed through the war years on old tires and rationed gas. California was where the party started. And Frank Kurtis, the son of a Croatian blacksmith, was at its epicenter.

The Kurtis’s combination of easy, American V-8 muscle and European-style chassis tuning must have seemed sensational back in 1949. Frank Kurtis had demonstrated a compelling formula for an all-American sports car: The Kurtis Sport Car was well-engineered, well-detailed, and well-built.

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 4

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Master Index

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It’s a time of Ukraine war, Streamliners, Kodachromes, hushed voices, slow and careful movements, and serious thoughts.

Preparations and actions are being discussed. Systems are moving into place. Serious people, talking in hushed, serious mannerisms with disgust and determination on their faces are talking about BIG events; horrific events, and dangerous actions. Here, we look at the surface of some of the trivial matters that suggest a deeper level of activity.

I hope you like it.

We start with a reminder…

Describing the $762 billion National Defense Authorization Act of 2022 which received nearly total bipartisan support, analyst Michael Klare observed:

“The gigantic 2022 defense bill — passed with overwhelming support from both parties — provides a detailed blueprint for surrounding China with a potentially suffocating network of U.S. bases, military forces, and increasingly militarized partner states. The goal is to enable Washington to barricade that country’s military inside its own territory and potentially cripple its economy in any future crisis. For China’s leaders, who surely can’t tolerate being encircled in such a fashion, it’s an open invitation to… well, there’s no point in not being blunt… fight their way out of confinement.”

Scientists predict three COVID-19 scenarios over next five years

WHO says real COVID-19 death toll is almost 15 million people

Play Video

A “lost generation” of young people with impaired social skills will live in countries where trust in governments and science has plummeted, misinformation is rife and seasonal surges of new COVID-19 variants overwhelm hospitals, according to the worst of three scenarios predicted by a panel of international scientists.

The 110-page study, released today, maps out three potential realities for how humans might live alongside COVID-19 over the next five years, largely determined by how coronavirus evolves and global uptake of effective vaccines.

All three scenarios through to 2027 were “entirely possible”, the paper said, with the most likely future we face characterised by worsening global inequalities and COVID-19 becoming an endemic disease worldwide.

(Please exclude countries (read: China) with a fixed and firm zero Covid tolerance policy and zero use of the Pfizer “vaccine”. )

From HERE

Streamliners: Locomotives And Bullet Trains In The Age Of Speed And Style

A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor “bullet trains”. Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired recumbent bicycles.

As part of the Streamline Moderne trend, the term was applied to passenger cars, trucks, and other types of light-, medium-, or heavy-duty vehicles, but now vehicle streamlining is so prevalent that it is not an outstanding characteristic. In land speed racing, it is a term applied to the long, slender, custom built, high-speed vehicles with enclosed wheels.

And…

And…

Tortang Giniling – Filipino Food

Tortang Giniling is simply ground meat omelet. They can either be in round patty form or folded in half-moon shape.

Time to put an end to US hypocrisy – Opinion

Time to put an end to US hypocrisy – Opinion – Chinadaily.com.cn
.
From HERE

From Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan to Libya, Somalia and Syria, the US started 10 wars between 1989 and 2017 and caused 6 million casualties. From the end of World War II in 1945 to 2001, among the 248 armed conflicts that occurred in 153 regions of the world, 201 were initiated by the US.

A report from Brown University revealed that the wars launched by the US in the two decades following the 9/11 terrorist attack killed more than 900,000 people. In June 2018, the US pulled out of the Human Rights Council, calling it a “cesspool of political bias” and “hypocritical body” that “makes a mockery of human rights”.

As it rejoined the council this year, the US not only failed to reflect upon its own human rights record and take concrete steps to improve it, but instead expelled Russia from the body out of political bias and purpose.

Obsessed with its self-conceived “exceptionalism”, the US keeps criticizing others for violating international law while applying international rules selectively or placing its own “house rules” above international law.

The US asks others to follow the “rules-based order”, but tramples on international rules and withdraws from international organizations at will itself, as evidenced by its unilateral military intervention or wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, as well as its pulling out of UNESCO, JCPOA, and the Paris Agreement.

It also puts domestic law above international law, and has exercised long-arm jurisdiction and imposed economic sanctions against Russia, Iran and the DPRK, which seriously damaged the fair and just international trade environment.

The US is undoing its own credibility and reputation and undermining international order by bringing the world back to the era of a lawless jungle.

Just as Noam Chomsky pointed out, “We’re a rogue state, the leading rogue state by a huge dimension—nobody’s even close. And yet we can call for war crimes trials of others, without batting an eyelash.”

As the conflict in Ukraine continues, negotiation rather than confrontation is the only way out. US unilateral sanctions against Russia are illegal and not authorized by the United Nations.

Excluding Russia, a permanent member of UN Security Council and a nuclear power, from international organizations is by no means a constructive move.

The spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric once warned that such a move will set “a dangerous precedent.” After all, there are already enough lessons from the wishful attempts to provoke confrontation and division and preserve hegemony.

Queen of Hearts (Lyrics and Chords) Gregg Allman

A classic to share with all my other old timer friends…

Kodachrome Stories

“Japan Reveals Record Dump of US Treasuries” on YouTube

When an evil empire showing symptoms of dying, everyone including its socalled allies will begin to throw stones while it drowning. The Evil US empire will be like the evil roman empire, once disintegrated, no one will miss it.

Cheers, Chua

Japanese investors dump record amount of foreign bonds after …

4 Mar 2021 — TOKYO, March 5 (Reuters) - Japanese investors sold a record amount of foreign bonds late last month, with banks seen dumping U.S. bonds, ...

https://finance.yahoo.com › news
Biggest Treasury Buyer Outside U.S. Quietly Selling Billions
2 May 2022 — Japanese institutional managers — known for their legendary U.S. debt buying sprees in recent decades — are now fueling the great bond …
Japan Reveals Record Dump of US Treasuries – YouTube

Streamliners:

Streamliners were a relatively late era development. The period in which trains ruled interstate transportation, the so-called “Golden Age,” occurred between the 1880’s and World War I. Into the 1920’s there was strong recovery, following federal takeover during the war, which persisted until the Great Depression and subsequent economic downturn of the 1930’s. Alas, that event proved a turning point.

And…

And…

It is a war

Following on the heels of Lavrov's statement made yesterday (newly published English transcript) at the 30th Assembly of the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy where he stated "The choice we have taken is made easier by the fact that the 'collective West' has declared a total hybrid war against us,"  today the MFA issued the following PR:

"On May 16, a meeting of the Board of the Russian Foreign Ministry was held, which considered the tasks of Russian foreign policy in the radically changed geopolitical realities that have developed as a result of the hybrid war against our country unleashed by the West – under the pretext of the situation in Ukraine – unprecedented in scale and ferocity, including the revival in Europe of a racist worldview in the form of cave Russophobia, an open course for the "abolition" of Russia and everything Russian. It is stated that Washington, having completely subjugated the "collective West", has passed the point of no return in its obsession at any cost to assert its total dominance in the world and suppress the objective process of forming a multipolar world order. Thus, the United States and its satellites directly violate the principles of the UN Charter, including respect for the sovereign equality of states, demand recognition of the right to interfere in internal affairs and use force anywhere in the world at their discretion.

"The aggressive revisionist course of the West requires a radical revision of Russia's relations with unfriendly states and the comprehensive strengthening of other areas of foreign policy.

"In this context, the issue of preparing a new edition of the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation in accordance with the instructions of the President of Russia was discussed.

"Following the meeting, a resolution was adopted." [My Emphasis]

Missing is verbiage invoking Article 51 as grounds for Russia to defend itself against this declared hybrid third world war, that's not just declared against Russia but the entire Multipolar world.

Again, Russia has announced that the Outlaw US Empire has de facto and de jure declared war against Russia although the Empire's Congress hasn't formally done so. Russia will in turn revise its overall Foreign Policy Concept given this new reality. I repeat, Russia has announced that a state of war exists between it and the Outlaw US Empire, which would include its NATO vassals. Finland and Sweden might want to consider what that state of affairs means for their interests.

- karlof1

Kodachrome Stories

Russia’s military defense pact with China

Military defense pact with China ought to pretty much put a block on any notion by the West (well, the idiots on the east side of the pond) that it can engage Russia militarily (with or w/o US weapons and or personnel).

As Andrei Martyanov says:

"...if you don't have the ability to win a conventional war you most likely don't have the ability to win a nuclear one (no matter how much you believe is possible). Even radioactive ground will require boots in order to control.."

Russia is on track for a record trade surplus

Imports have collapsed, but exports are holding up.

Within days of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s financial system seemed on the verge of collapse. The West imposed a range of financial sanctions, notably on the Russian central bank’s foreign-exchange reserves, that sent the rouble plunging and led citizens to withdraw cash frantically. Then the central bank raised interest rates, imposed capital controls and injected liquidity into the banking system, and some of these misfortunes reversed. Although a chunk of Russia’s currency reserves remains frozen, the country still generates about $1bn a day from its energy exports.

Russia has stopped publishing detailed monthly trade statistics. But figures from its trading partners can be used to work out what is going on. They suggest that, as imports slide and exports hold up, Russia is running a record trade surplus…. Pay wall:

From HERE

Streamliners:

As John F. Stover notes in “The Routledge Historical Atlas Of The American Railroads” (New York: Routledge, 1999), every year after 1929 the industry posted annual deficits on passenger services and the depression only worsened the situation. In Gregory Schneider’s book, “Rock Island Requiem,” the author points out that by 1936, 70,000 miles were in receivership or roughly 25% of the country’s entire network. As much as railroads tried, nothing slowed Americans from purchasing their very own automobile, an invention made affordable through Henry Ford’s mass-produced Model-T of 1908. To stem the losses, Union Pacific and the Chicago Burlington & Quincy came up with a new concept; the sleek, fast, and colorful train.

And…

And…

And…

The streamliner was born.

Russian Computer Hacker Group “Killnet” Announces “Global Internet attack”

World Hal Turner 16 May 2022

A group of serious computer hackers, allegedly based in Russia, have publicly announced they will commence a “Global internet attack” against the US, UK, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Ukraine. It is not yet known WHEN such attack will commence.

The group, known by the name “Killnet” issued a video announcement Monday. The announcement, in the Russian language, is presently being translated to English and when I get the translation, I will update this story.

Readers are advised that THIS web site (HalTurnerRadioShow.com) is based on servers in south America (Brazil) and as such, should not be adversely affected . . . but who knows.

The streaming audio servers for this web site, which carry the live radio show, ARE based in the United States, so depending upon what these Hackers actually do, there COULD be some issues with the streaming audio. It remains to be seen.

It is worth pointing out, that the United States has a long-established policy that a cyber-attack, if it damages property or results in the death of anyone, ___MAY___ be considered “an act of war.”

It is already being widely speculated that THIS may be the “false flag” perpetrated by the CIA or the Deep State” to provide an excuse for the US and NATO to go to actual war with Russia.

Prediction – France Will Veto Sweden / Finland NATO Entry

Preliminary Rationale
Thesis 1 – That Austin, Blinken, and Ritter are all suddenly expressing concern for RF difficulties suggests that there is a reason for all 3 taking the same line. Several posters at MoA have commented on this fact including me. Bemildred May 16 2022 13:08 utc | 392 thinks Mr. Ritter has been talked to. I agree.

Thesis 2 – The stated reason is American concern over the existential nature of the UA conflict for the RF. That recent RF reverses, coupled with the existential nature of the conflict, may cause RF employ nuclear weapons. Austin, Blinken, and Ritter seek to avert this escalation path. One MoA poster raised this as an explanation.

I believe this thesis is false. First the RF has from well prior to the SMO made it abundantly clear the issues were existential for Russia. This is well documented in the copious documents provided by karlof1 (Thanks karl). The RF sought a diplomatic solution ignored by NATO, all the EU states, UK, Canada, and US. Second I can perceive no recent RF reverses requiring nuclear escalation but I am certain if such action were necessary the RF would not hesitate to act in defence of its interests. This has also been made abundantly clear since well before the SMO.

Since this thesis is believed to be false there must be something else provoking near identical initiatives by Austin, Blinken, and Ritter. My interpretation of their conduct is that it is along the lines of “We are concerned for your difficulties. We would like to assist you.”

This thesis is also believed to be false. First, America is already known to be agreement incapable. Only an insane Scheissekopf would think otherwise. Second America never acts to benefit any party other than America. Only an insane Arschloch would think otherwise.

The question now becomes “what American concern would cause America to seeking assist RF?

I believe the answer to this question is that France has made known it will veto the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO. This would create a significant rift in NATO and undermine US control of European states. This is an outcome to be avoided at all costs and therefore becomes reason to assist RF with its purported difficulties.

Subsequent Rationale

1) France has a history of producing small men whose impact on history is disproportionate to their size. Macron is small man.

2) US & UK are angling to have NATO displace the UN Security Counsel as the enforcement arm of the “democratic rule based order.” NATO is far more malleable and already functions as an agent of US control (see the recent post by lawyer c1ue who noted the use of the conditional “may” as opposed to the imperative “must” in the NATO accession document.) If the French perceive this displacement as likely they will act to avert such an outcome as a reduction in the authority of the UN Security Council would diminish both French prestige and international influence.

3) IF you are resistant to the above rationale you should review the recent US UK AUS submarine deal. This “deal” gave clear sense of the degree of contempt accorded to France and French interests. France viewed this conduct as a “stab in the back.” This snub of France will come at a high price. A French veto would assert French authority in the international system and act to preserve the present role of the UNSC.

4) In January 2013 Mali turned to France, its former colonial ruler for help in facing an armed rebellion emerged out of the war in Libya and the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. This conflict will be remembered for the “We came. We saw. He died.” cackle of the US Secretary of State. France’s nine-year military intervention has proven costly on all fronts: 8 billion euros and the lives of 53 French soldiers. French interests in the Sahel are ignored in favour of US interests in Europe and Asia. This indifference will only increase if the US UK are able to undermine the UNSC and promote NATO as a global enforcement operation.

5) NATO serves as an anti-competitive trade restriction. NATO creates and imposes armament standards to enforce “interoperability.” But this also implies that those inside the club are preferred partners and those outside the club face trade barriers. SAAB is a Swedish producer of an extremely capable and inexpensive fighter aircraft which has the potential to compete with French products. Freezing out Sweden is to the economic benefit of France.

6) Europe’s second largest consumer of energy after Germany is France. France relies on imports to meet almost all of its oil and gas consumption. It will be impossible to immediately substitute for the refused RF supply. World demand for energy will quickly escalate and the price will follow. This will impose significant costs on French consumers largely reliant on NG for domestic heating. France is already facing significant social unrest due to the significant influx of immigrants especially since these can no longer the redirected to Dover. American adventurism in Ukraine will create energy and armaments profits for the US but will likely generate high cost social unrest in France.

7) In November 2019 The Economist French quoted Macron stating: “What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO”. Macron added Europe was on “the edge of a precipice”, and must start thinking strategically as a geopolitical power else “we will no longer be in control of our destiny.”

8) In 1966 De Gaulle took France out of NATO. In 1940 the British abandoned France to the Nazis. In 1841 Churchill invaded the French colony of Syria and then recreated it as an independent state over De Gaulle’s objections. Roosevelt distrusted De Gaulle removed him from the TORCH landings and subsequent operations within colonies. He was excluded from Allied summits and from the planning for post war France. De Gaulle never forgave the Americans for this series of humiliations which included American intervention in the Suez crisis and a failure to assist France in Indochina. De Gaulle was a big man. His boots would be impossible to fill. Napoleon’s are another matter entirely. What leader wants to be recorded in history as an American puppet when he can restore France to its former grandeur in world affairs, a return to an historic ranking most pleasing to the French public.

-Sushi

Kodachrome Stories

How to make an Authentic bowl of VIETNAMESE PHO

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the 30th Assembly of the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy

May 16, 2022 From HERE

Moscow, May 14, 2022

Mr Lukyanov,

Mr Karaganov,

Colleagues,

I am glad to be here again, at this anniversary assembly. Last time, we met in this room on October 2, 2021. But I have an impression that this was in a totally different historical epoch.

I would like to congratulate you on the 30th anniversary of the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy. Its activities are a fine example of Russian expert involvement in the foreign policy process. From the very start, the Council has brought together professionals, including politicians, state officials, journalists, academics, and entrepreneurs. Throughout these years, this has ensured an effective and rewarding combination of practical experience and impeccable knowledge of the subject matter. Therein lies the key to comprehending the most complex international processes, particularly at stages like the present one. Advice, analytical materials, and debates (occasionally heated debates involving a clash of opinions) are of much help to us. We invariably take them into consideration in our foreign policy activities.

It is a cliche to say that this meeting is taking place at a historical turning point. I agree with the experts (Mr Karaganov and Mr Lukyanov have written a lot about this), who say that we again have to choose a historical path, like we did in 1917 and 1991.

The external circumstances have not just changed radically; they are changing ever more profoundly and extensively (though not becoming more elevated, unfortunately) with each passing day. And our country is changing along with them. It is drawing its conclusions. The choice we have taken is made easier by the fact that the “collective West” has declared a total hybrid war against us. It is hard to forecast how long this will last. But it is clear that its consequences will be felt by everyone without exception.

We did everything in our power to avoid a direct conflict. But they issued a challenge and we have accepted it. We are used to sanctions. We have been living under one or another form of sanctions for a long time now. The surprising thing is a surge of rabid Russophobia in almost all “civilised” countries. They have thrown to the wind their political correctness, propriety, rules, and legal norms. They are using the cancel culture against all things Russian. All hostile actions against our country are allowed, including robbery. Russian cultural figures, artists, athletes, academics, businesspeople and just ordinary citizens are exposed to harassment.

This campaign has not bypassed Russian diplomats. They often have to work under extreme conditions, occasionally with a risk to their health or life. We do not remember anything like the current massive and synchronised expulsion of diplomats happening even in the grimmest Cold War years. This is destroying the general atmosphere of relations with the West. On the other hand, this is freeing up energy and human resources for work in the areas with which our country’s future development should be associated.

In accordance with the demands of the times, we are carrying out our professional duties conscientiously and to the fullest extent. There are no traitors among our diplomats, although such attempts have been made from abroad and within the country. We do our best to defend the rights and interests of Russian citizens abroad. When the West hysterically reacted to the beginning of our special military operation and all flights were cancelled, we immediately helped Russians who were abroad at the time to return home. The routine consular services to Russians (of which there have always been many) are provided as always. It is clear that the situation demands that the diplomatic service works in a special regime. This is required by the new tasks set by the country’s leadership to protect national interests.

This is not only and not so much about Ukraine, which is being used as an instrument to contain the peaceful development of the Russian Federation in the context of their course to perpetuate a unipolar world order.

The Americans started preparing the current crisis long ago, right after the end of the Cold War, having decided that the way to global hegemony was then open. NATO’s eastward expansion has been one of the key components of such a course. We tried hard to convince them not to do this. We showed where and why our red lines are drawn. We were flexible, ready to make concessions and look for compromises. All this proved futile. President Vladimir Putin reminded us of this once again in his speech on May 9 on Red Square.

Today Western countries are ready to oppose Russia, as they now say, “to the last Ukrainian”. At first glance, this is a very convenient position, especially for the United States, which is managing these processes from across the ocean. At the same time, they are weakening Europe by clearing its markets for its goods, technologies and military-technical products.

In fact, the situation has many layers. Russia, the United States, China and all others realise that it is being decided today whether the world order will become fair, democratic and polycentric, or whether this small group of countries will be able to impose on the international community a neo-colonial division of the world into those who consider themselves “exceptional” and the rest – those who are destined to do the bidding of the chosen few.

This is the aim of the “rules-based order” concept that they have sought to introduce into general circulation for years. No one has seen, or discussed, or approved these “rules”, but they are being imposed on the international community. As an example, let me quote a recent statement by US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, who called for a new Bretton Woods framework and said that the United States would practice “the friend-shoring of supply chains to a large number of trusted countries” that shared “a set of [liberal] norms and values about how to operate in the global economy.” The hint is absolutely clear: the US dollars and the “benefits” of the international financial system are only for those who follow these American “rules.” Dissenters will be punished. Clearly, Russia is not the sole target, all the more so as we will fight back. The attack is aimed at all those capable of conducting an independent policy. Take, for example, Washington’s pet Indo-Pacific strategy, which is directed against China. In parallel, it seeks to firmly and reliably harness India to the US and NATO. In the spirit of the Monroe doctrine, the United States wants to dictate standards to Latin America. The inevitable question is whether the Americans are really able to follow the key principle of the UN Charter, which states: “The Organisation is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.”

The “rules-based order” envisions neither democracy, nor pluralism even within the “collective West.” The case in point is the revival of tough bloc discipline and an unconditional submission of the “allies” to Washington’s diktat. The Americans will not stand on ceremony with their “junior partners.” The EU will finally lose all attributes of independence and obediently join the Anglo-Saxon plans to assert the unipolar world order, while sacrificing the Europeans’ quality of life and key interests in order to please the United States. Just recall how Victoria Nuland defined the EU’s place in Washington’s plans to reformat Ukraine in her conversation with the US Ambassador in Kiev in December 2013, at the height of the Maidan riots. Her prediction came true in its entirety. In security matters, the EU is also blending in with NATO, which, in turn, is making increasingly louder claims about its global ambitions. What defensive alliance? We are being told and assured to this day that NATO’s expansion is a defensive process and threatens no one. The Cold War defence line ran along the Berlin Wall – concrete and imagined – between the two military blocs. Since then, it has been moved east five times.

Today, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, and others are telling us that NATO has a global responsibility to solve security problems, primarily in the Indo-Pacific region.

As I understand it, the next defence line will be moved to the South China Sea.

It is being insinuated that NATO as the vanguard of the community of democracies should replace the UN in matters of international politics, or at least bring global affairs under its sway. The G7 should step in to run the global economy and from time to time invite benevolently the extras the West needs at this or that moment.

Western politicians should accept the fact that their efforts to isolate our country are doomed. Many experts have already recognised this, even if quietly and off the record, because saying this openly is “politically incorrect.” But this is happening right now. The non-Western world is coming to see that the world is becoming increasingly more diverse. There is no escaping this fact. More and more countries want to have a real freedom to choose their development ways and integration projects to join. An increasing number of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America are refusing to abandon their national interests and to pull chestnuts out of the fire for the former parent countries. An overwhelming majority of our partners, who have felt the effects of Western colonialism and racism, have not joined the anti-Russia sanctions. The West, which President Putin described as the “empire of lies,” has not been considered an ideal of democracy, freedom and well-being for a long time. By plundering other countries’ material assets, the Western countries have destroyed their reputation of predictable partners who honour their commitments. Nobody is safe from expropriation and “state piracy” now. Therefore, not just Russia but also many other countries are reducing their reliance on the US dollar and on Western technologies and markets.

I am sure that a gradual de-monopolisation of the global economy is not a distant future.

We have taken note of Fyodor Lukyanov’s article published in the newspaper Kommersant (on April 29, 2022), in which he writes, with good reason, that the West will not listen to us or hear what we have to say. This was a fact of life long ago, before the special military operation, and a “a radical reorientation of assets from the west to other flanks is a natural necessity.” I would like to remind you that Sergey Karaganov has been systematically promoting this philosophy by for many years. It is perfectly clear to everyone that the process has begun and not on our whim – we have always been open to an equal dialogue – but because of an unacceptable and arrogant behaviour of our Western neighbours, who have followed Washington’s prompting to “cancel Russia” in international affairs.

Forging closer ties with the like-minded forces outside of what used to be referred to as the Golden Billion is an absolutely inevitable and mutually driven process. The Russia-China relations are at their all-time high. We are also strengthening our privileged strategic partnerships with India, Algeria, and Egypt. We have taken our relations with the Persian Gulf countries to a whole new level. The same applies to our relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as other countries in Asia-Pacific, in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

We are fully aware of the fact it is at this juncture, which perfectly lends itself to be called a turning point, that the place for Russia and all other countries and forces in the future international architecture will be determined.

We believe the aim of Russia’s diplomacy is, on the one hand, to act with great resolve to fend off all adversarial attacks against us, while, on the other hand, to consistently, calmly and patiently reinforce our positions in order to facilitate Russia’s sustained development from within and improve the quality of life for its people.

There is much to be done, as usual. We always have a packed agenda, but in the current environment we are witnessing a serious shift in the mindsets of many of our comrades in all spheres of Russia’s life.

This makes meetings held by the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy especially useful because they help nurture ideas which make their way into Russia’s foreign policy.

Streamliners:

Pure, magnificent works of massive functional art…

And…

And…

Kodachrome Stories

Cynthia Chung on Geopolitics & Empire: The Esoteric & Eugenicist Roots of the Great Reset

I was invited to speak on Geopolitics and Empire about my four part series that dealt with the theme “Who Will Be Brave in Huxley’s New World?”, where I discussed the esoteric roots of the new age and the Great Reset.

You can find my four part series here:

Part one

Who Will Be Brave in Huxley’s New World?

No wonder that the Tavistock Institute and the CIA became involved in looking at the effects of LSD and how to influence and control the mind.

Part two

The War on Science and the 20th Century Descent of Man

Huxley makes it crystal clear that he considers the world to be overpopulated, and that science and progress cannot be free to advance without limits.

Part three

The Origins of the Counterculture Movement: A Gathering of Anarchists, Occultists and Psychoanalysts for a New Age

The third part of Cynthia Chung’s series discusses how Aldous Huxley’s form of ideological spirituality went on to shape the drug-counter-culture movement.

Part four

Huxley’s Ultimate Revolution: The Battle for Your Mind and the Relativity of Madness

The relevance of the Esalen Institute’s “revisioning of madness” needs to be acknowledged as having been entirely spear-headed by the Tavistock Institute, and clearly, not for our benefit.

Cynthia Chung is the President of the Rising Tide Foundation and a writer at Strategic Culture Foundation, consider supporting her work by making a donation and subscribing to her substack page.

Streamliners:

Pure, magnificent works of massive functional art…

And…

And…

Your (Western) Standard Of Living Is Being Systematically Destroyed

May 16, 2022 by Michael

Most Americans didn’t understand that the exceedingly foolish decisions of our leaders would eventually have a major impact on how they live their lives every single day. But there are some of us that did. Many of us literally begged our politicians to stop borrowing and spending trillions upon trillions of dollars that we did not have. But they refused to listen. And many of us literally begged the officials at the Federal Reserve to stop pumping trillions upon trillions of fresh dollars into the financial system. Of course they wouldn’t listen to us either. Now our standard of living is steadily being eviscerated, and most of the population seems quite surprised that this is happening.

Flooding our economy with money was inevitably going to create an inflation crisis, and that is precisely what has happened.

Back in May 2020, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States was $1.96.

One year later, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States was $3.08.

That was more than a 50 percent increase in just 12 months.

But that wasn’t the end of the story.

On Sunday, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States hit an all-time record of $4.47.

Then on Monday it hit another all-time record of $4.48 per gallon.

That means that the price of gasoline has risen almost another 50 percent since May 2021.

Has your paycheck gone up by 50 percent during each of the last two years?

Needless to say, most of you cannot answer that question affirmatively.

Of course some areas of the country are being hit harder than others. In California, the average price of a gallon of gasoline has now reached $5.92.

But just wait until the war in the Middle East starts.

Once that occurs, it won’t be too long before many Americans are paying 10 dollars for a gallon of gasoline.

Meanwhile, food prices in the U.S. are rising at a pace that is unlike anything that I have ever seen before. Just check out these extremely alarming numbers that the government released last week…

Thursday’s report showed a broad-based rise in the cost of food at the wholesale level, with grains up 41.3 percent from a year ago as Russia’s war in Ukraine raises world prices. Both Russia and Ukraine are major grain producers.

The cost of eggs skyrocketed 161.3 percent, driven up by a bird flu outbreak that has killed 10 percent of chickens in the US. Processed young chickens were up 24.1 percent from a year ago.

Fresh vegetables were up 45.7 percent and fresh fruit rose 17.3 percent.

Eating fresh vegetables is a very good thing to do.

But now they will cost you 45 percent more than they did a year ago.

Has your paycheck gone up by 45 percent over the past year?

Sadly, food prices have been going crazy all over the globe, and this is going to hurt those on the bottom of the economic food chain the hardest.

In fact, the head of the Bank of England is using the word “apocalyptic” to describe the impact that these prices will have on the poor…

The Bank of England governor has blamed the war in Ukraine for the highest inflation in the UK for three decades and warned that “apocalyptic” food prices caused by Russia’s invasion could have a disastrous impact on the world’s poor.

And the head of the UN World Food Program is warning that extremely painful food prices could lead to widespread civil unrest in many areas of the planet…

A perfect storm of war, extreme weather and Covid-19 will drive global food prices to levels that will cause social unrest in some parts of the world, according to David Beasley, head of the United Nations World Food Programme.

“If people can’t feed their children and their families, then the politics unsettles,” Beasley told CNN during a conference on Thursday.

If you have been waiting for everything to “go back to normal”, you can stop.

Because it isn’t going to happen.

Homes are becoming a lot less affordable too.

As a result of a “combination of rising home prices and higher interest rates”, the average payment on a new mortgage is now 38 percent higher than it was 12 months ago in the United States…

The combination of rising home prices and higher interest rates — driven largely by the Federal Reserve’s more aggressive efforts to curb inflation — hiked monthly mortgage payments on the typical U.S. home by 19.5 percent in the first three months of the year, according to real estate listing service Zillow. Payments are 38 percent higher than a year ago.

Has your paycheck gone up by 38 percent over the past year?

I keep asking questions like that to point out the fact that your standard of living is being systematically destroyed.

It wasn’t just an intellectual exercise when I penned long article after long article about the evils of debasing our currency.

This is real.

I wasn’t joking when I warned that we were committing financial suicide. Now a day of reckoning has arrived, and everyone is expecting the same clowns that got us into this mess to get us out of it.

It ain’t gonna happen.

Once the next major crisis comes along, our leaders in Washington will respond by borrowing and spending even more money, and the “experts” at the Fed will respond by pumping even more fresh cash into the system.

And ultimately we will have the kind of horrific inflationary meltdown that I have been warning about for years.

Things didn’t have to turn out this way.

But the American people just kept sending big spenders to Washington, and any political candidates that dared to be critical of the Federal Reserve were considered to be “fringe”.

Now we get to reap what we have sown, and it will not be fun at all.

UAE’s new president calls Russia” his second residence”

UAE’s new president calls Russia “second residence”.

The brand new president of the UAE spoke about his perspective in direction of Russia, recalling his current journey to Moscow:

“I take into account Russia my second residence and I wish to thanks on your hospitality (throughout my go to to Moscow),” stated Mohamed Al Nahyan. We remind you that in this assembly Putin confirmed the prince his limousine “Cortege”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin despatched a message congratulating al-Nahyan on his election as president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), information companies reported.

“I’m assured that your management will additional strengthen our pleasant relations and mutually helpful cooperation. I stay up for persevering with our constructive dialogue and our joint work on worldwide points,” the assertion stated.

From HERE

Kodachrome Stories

Death by a thousand cuts: where is the west’s Ukraine strategy?

The pounding, daily western narratives on ‘Ukrainian wins’ and ‘Russian losses’ underpins the lack of an actual, cohesive Grand Strategy against Moscow.

By Pepe Escobar

May 16 2022

While we are all familiar with Sun Tzu, the Chinese general, military strategist and philosopher who penned the incomparable Art of War, less known is the Strategikon, the Byzantium equivalent on warfare.

Sixth century Byzantium really needed a manual, threatened as it was from the east, successively by Sassanid Persia, Arabs and Turks, and from the north, by waves of steppe invaders, Huns, Avars, Bulgars, semi-nomadic Turkic Pechenegs and Magyars.

Byzantium could not prevail just by following the classic pattern of Roman Empire raw power – they simply didn’t have the means for it.

So military force needed to be subordinate to diplomacy, a less costly means of avoiding or resolving conflict. And here we can make a fascinating connection with today’s Russia, led by President Vladimir Putin and his diplomacy chief Sergei Lavrov.

But when military means became necessary for Byzantium – as in Russia’s Operation Z – it was preferable to use weaponry to contain or punish adversaries, instead of attacking with full force.

Strategic primacy, for Byzantium, more than diplomatic or military, was a psychological affair. The word Strategia itself is derived from the Greek strategos – which does not mean “General” in military terms, as the west believes, but historically corresponds to a managerial politico-military function.

It all starts with si vis pacem para bellum: “If you want peace prepare for war.” Confrontation must develop simultaneously on multiple levels: grand strategy, military strategy, operative, tactical.

But brilliant tactics, excellent operative intel and even massive victories in a larger war theater cannot compensate for a lethal mistake in terms of grand strategy. Just look at the Nazis in WWII.

Those who built up an empire such as the Romans, or maintained one for centuries like the Byzantines, never succeeded without following this logic.

Those clueless Pentagon and CIA ‘experts’

On Operation Z, the Russians revel in total strategic ambiguity, which has the collective west completely discombobulated.

The Pentagon does not have the necessary intellectual firepower to out-smart the Russian General Staff. Only a few outliers understand that this is not a war – since the Ukraine Armed Forces have been irretrievably routed – but actually what Russian military and naval expert Andrei Martyanov calls a “combined arms police operation,” a work-in-progress on demilitarization and denazification.

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is even more abysmal in terms of getting everything wrong, as recently demonstrated by its chief Avril Haines during her questioning on Capitol Hill. History shows that the CIA strategically blew it all the way from Vietnam to Afghanistan and Iraq. Ukraine is no different.

Ukraine was never about a military “win”.

What is being accomplished is the slow, painful destruction of the European Union (EU) economy, coupled with extraordinary weapons profits for the western military-industrial complex and creeping security rule by those nations’ political elites.

The latter, in turn, have been totally baffled by Russia’s C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) capabilities, coupled with the stunning inefficiency of their own constellation of Javelins, NLAWs, Stingers and Turkish Bayraktar drones.

This ignorance reaches way beyond tactics and the operational and strategic realm. As Martyanov delightfully points out, they “wouldn’t know what hit them on the modern battlefield with near-peer, forget about peer.”

The caliber of ‘strategic’ advice from the NATO realm was self-evident in the Serpent Island fiasco – a direct order issued by British ‘consultants’ to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaluzhny, thought the whole thing was suicidal.

He was proven right.

All the Russians had to do was launch a few choice anti-ship and surface Onyx missiles from bastions stationed in Crimea on airports south of Odessa. In no time, Serpent Island was back under Russian control – even as high-ranking British and American marine officers ‘disappeared’ during the Ukrainian landing on the island. They were the ‘strategic’ NATO actors on the spot, doling out the lousy advice.

Extra evidence that the Ukraine debacle is predominantly about money laundering – not competent military strategy – is Capitol Hill approving a hefty extra $40 billion in ‘aid’ to Kiev. It’s just another western military-industrial complex bonanza, duly noted by Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev.

Russian forces, meanwhile, have brought diplomacy to the battlefield, handing over 10 tons of humanitarian assistance to the people of liberated Kherson – with the deputy head of the military-civil administration of the region, Kirill Stremousov, announcing that Kherson wants to become part of the Russian Federation.

In parallel, Georgy Muradov, deputy prime minister of the government of Crimea, has “no doubts that the liberated territories of the south of the former Ukraine will become another region of Russia. This, as we assess from our communication with the inhabitants of the region, is the will of the people themselves, most of whom lived for eight years under conditions of repression and bullying by the Ukronazis.”

Denis Pushilin, the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, is adamant that the DPR is on the verge of liberating “its territories within constitutional borders,” and then a referendum on joining Russia will take place. When it comes to the Luhansk People’s Republic, the integration process may even come earlier: the only area left to be liberated is the urban region of Lysychansk-Severodonetsk.

The ‘Stalingrad of Donbass’

As much as there’s an energetic debate among the best Russian analysts about the pace of Operation Z, Russian military planning proceeds methodically, as if taking all the time it needs to solidify facts on the ground.

Arguably the best example is the fate of Azov neo-Nazis at Azovstal in Mariupol – the best-equipped unit of the Ukrainians, hands down. In the end they were totally outmatched by anumerically inferior Russian/Chechen Spetsnaz contingent, and in record time for such a big city.

Another example is the advance on Izyum, in the Kharkov region – a key bridgehead in the frontline. The Russian Ministry of Defense follows the pattern of grinding the enemy while slowly advancing; if they face serious resistance, they stop and smash the Ukrainian defensive lines with non-stop missile and artillery strikes.

Popasnaya in Luhansk, dubbed by many Russian analysts as “Mariupol on steroids”, or “the Stalingrad of Donbass,” is now under total control of the Luhansk People’s Republic, after they managed to breach a de facto fortress with linked underground trenches between most civilian houses. Popasnaya is extremely important strategically, as its capture breaks the first, most powerful line of defense of the Ukrainians in Donbass.

That will probably lead to the next stage, with an offensive on Bakhmut along the H-32 highway. The frontline will be aligned, north to south. Bakhmut will be the key to taking control of the M-03 highway, the main route to Slavyansk from the south.

This is just an illustration of the Russian General Staff applying its trademark, methodical, painstaking strategy, where the main imperative could be defined as a personnel-preserving forward drive. With the added benefit of committing just a fraction of overall Russian firepower.

Russian strategy on the battlefield stands in stark contrast with the EU’s obstinacy in being reduced to the status of an American dog’s lunch, with Brussels leading entire national economies to varying degrees of certified collapse and chaos.

Once again it was up to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov – a diplomatic master – to encapsulate it.

Question: “What do you think of Josep Borrell’s (Lavrov’s EU counterpart) initiative to give Ukraine frozen Russian assets as ‘reparations?’ Can we say that the masks have come off and the west is moving on to open robbery?”

Lavrov: “You could say it is theft, which they are not trying to hide … This is becoming a habit for the west … We may soon see the post of the EU chief diplomat abolished because the EU has virtually no foreign policy of its own and acts entirely in solidarity with the approaches imposed by the United States.”

The EU cannot even come up with a strategy to defend its own economic battlefield – just watching as its energy supply is de facto, incrementally turned off by the US. Here we are at the realm where the US tactically excels: economic/financial blackmail. We can’t call these ‘strategic’ moves because they almost always backfire against US hegemonic interests.

Compare it with Russia reaching its biggest surplus in history, with the rise and rise of commodity prices and the upcoming role of the stronger and stronger ruble as a resource-based currency also backed by gold.

Moscow is spending way less than the NATO contingent in the Ukrainian theater. NATO has already wasted $50 billion – and counting – while the Russians spent $4 billion, give or take, and already conquered Mariupol, Berdyansk, Kherson and Melitopol, created a land corridor to Crimea (and secured its water supply), controls the Sea of Azov and its major port city, and liberated strategically vital Volnovakha and Popasnaya in Donbass, as well as Izyum near Kharkov.

That doesn’t even include Russia hurling the entire, collective west into a level of recession not seen since the 1970s.

The Russian strategic victory, as it stands, is military, economic, and may even coalesce geopolitically. Centuries after the Byzantine Strategikon was penned, the Global South would be very much interested in getting acquainted with the 21^st century Russian version of the Art of War.

Streamliners:

Pure, magnificent works of massive functional art…

And…

And…

Kodachrome Stories

Streamliners:

Pure, magnificent works of massive functional art…

And…

And…

Pure, magnificent works of massive functional art.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Meeting of the heads of state of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation.

Part One – To be continued.

Something BIG is brewing. I expect to see "the other shoe drop", loudly within the year. -MM

May 16, 2022 From HERE

CSTO summit

Taking part in the meeting, timed to coincide with the 30^th anniversary of the Collective Security Treaty and the 20^th anniversary of the organisation, were the heads of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

The main focus of the summit was on key issues of cooperation within the CSTO, topical international and regional problems, and measures to further improve the collective security system.

During the meeting, the leaders signed a Statement of the CSTO Collective Security Council (CSC) in connection with the 30^th anniversary of the Collective Security Treaty and the 20^th anniversary of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. They also signed a resolution of the CSTO CSC to award the participants in the CSTO peacekeeping mission in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

* * *

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, good afternoon!

I am glad to welcome you all in Moscow.

At the suggestion of our chairman, and today Armenia chairs the organisation, we gathered in Moscow, because this is where 30 years ago the Collective Security Treaty was signed, and 20 years ago, on the basis of this Treaty, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation was created.

This means we have two anniversaries almost on the same day: on May 14 and 15 in 1992 and 2002, respectively. I congratulate you on this.

I hope that the organisation, which has become a full international structure over the years, will continue to develop, even through difficult times. I would like to note in this context that both 1992 and 2002 were difficult times; they never end.

The organisation plays a very important role in the post-Soviet space – a stabilising role. I hope that in this sense its capabilities and influence on the situation in our area of responsibility will only grow.

Here I would like to finish my welcoming remarks and give the floor to the Chairman [of the CSTO Collective Security Council], the Prime Minister of Armenia.

Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan: Thank you, Mr Putin.

Colleagues, I would like to welcome all of you!

I would also like to add my congratulations on the two anniversaries the President of Russia noted. The Treaty on Collective Security was signed on May 15, 1992, and the decision on establishing a Collective Security Treaty Organisation was made on May 14, 2002. We meet today partly in commemoration of both anniversaries.

I suggest we express our views on these anniversaries and on the current situation as always – in alphabetic order. Please hold your comments to 3 to 5 minutes – this is the open section.

Afterwards, we will sign the documents that are ready for signing, and will then continue our discussion behind closed doors.

I give the floor to the President of the Republic of Belarus. Go ahead, please.

President of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko: Mr Pashinyan, dear friends!

I will talk a bit longer than usual since I am the first to speak, and the current situation deserves attention.

Today’s meeting is taking place in a difficult time, as the President of Russia has just said – a time of repartitioning the world; the unipolar international system is irretrievably receding into the past, but the collective West is fiercely fighting to keep its position.

Anything goes, including actions in the zone of responsibility of our organisation: from NATO’s sabre rattling at our western borders to a full-scale hybrid war unleashed against us, primarily against Russia and Belarus.

NATO is aggressively building its muscles, drawing Finland and Sweden into its net, countries that only yesterday were neutral. This is based on the attitude, “those who are not with us are against us,” and, hypocritically, NATO continues to declare its defensive nature. The truly defensive and peace-loving position of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation is in contrast to this background.

The United States is building up its military presence on the western flank of the CSTO, its military infrastructure is being upgraded at an accelerated pace and many NATO exercises are taking place. The large-scale exercise, Defender Europe 2022, the likes of which we have not seen before, are now being held on the territory of 19 European countries, in part, near our borders in Poland. You can guess for yourselves whom they are defending themselves against.

Until now, there is a force of about 15,000 military personnel stationed at the Belarusian-Polish border, which were deployed there last year under the pretext of a migration crisis, in addition to the troops that are stationed there permanently. Last year, 15,000 troops, mostly Americans, were redeployed. The migrants left that area a long time ago, but the troops are still there. The question is why?

Clearly, no country is posing any threat to NATO today. Moreover, an additional force of over 10,000 military troops was brought there to reinforce the alliance’s eastern flank with 15,000 troops already deployed in Poland and the Baltic countries as part of the US armed forces’ Atlantic Resolve and NATO-allied Enhanced Forward Presence. For perspective, seven or so years ago, there were 3,500 troops in this location (addressing the CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas) on your watch, now there are about 40,000 troops right on the territory of Poland and the Baltic states. And I am not talking about Ukraine yet.

Our military interaction within the framework of the Union State of Belarus and Russia, and Belarus’ membership in the CSTO, are the very stabilisers that have a certain sobering effect on the hotheads on the other side of the border. This shows that if it were not for this, I am afraid that a hot war would already be underway in Belarus. By the way, they tried to do this in 2020.

Today, there is no more pressing or important issue than the Ukraine conflict. Since 2014, all of us have been assisting in every way possible in resolving it. In principle, all of us sitting at this table are ready to do this even now and in any format.

Clearly, Ukraine was fomented, incited and fed nationalism and Nazism. We saw that in Odessa, when people were burned alive. Ukraine was fed Nazism, Russophobia and weapons. They used every approach to poison it.

After the election in Belarus in August 2020, regarding interaction with us, Belarus, Ukraine completely succumbed to the West. We have constantly experienced unfriendly actions from our southern neighbour for over two years now.

Ukraine proactively imposed sanctions on us even before the West, including the Americans. Ukraine was the first to do so. Remember? Their airspace was closed, then railway service, and then they began to train militants and send them to Belarus and ship weapons across the border. Everyone knows that. Provocative actions were carried out with Ukrainian drones conducting reconnaissance missions in Belarus’ airspace.

The facts indicating a threat to our national security are indisputable. This is exactly why we were absolutely right to activate the support mechanism in the framework of our alliance with Russia.

Belarus paid attention to the unjustified growth of the Western military presence in Ukraine and the region as a whole even before the start of the Russian special military operation. We talked about this more than once and warned that a conflict was looming. We expected the West, primarily the US, to accept Russia’s proposal to enter into talks on security guarantees. This process will start eventually in the foreseeable future but what will remain of Ukraine and our region by this time is a big question.

Right now, we are seeing that the West, including Washington, is only interested in prolonging the conflict as much as possible. This is why Ukraine is being flooded with weapons. The goals are clear: to weaken Russia as much as possible by miring it in this war. The flames may reach beyond it – we are seeing this, too. If this is the idea, likely nobody will be able to sit it out.

Currently the most dangerous trend in Ukraine are the attempts to partition the country. Thousand-strong units have already been formed to enter Ukraine in the guise of peacekeepers to “protect” it.

Unity and solidarity among like-minded people are particularly important at a time when norms and principles of international law are being completely ignored. The CSTO member states displayed such solidarity and support in January of this year in a time of trial: you remember the events in Kazakhstan. By acting rapidly when needed, we graphically demonstrated to the entire world our close allied relations and the capacity of our organisation to ensure the security of its members. Nobody in the West even dared think about interfering in this situation because we are stronger together.

But is it possible to claim today that the members of this organisation are really united and bound by ties of solidarity and support as before? Recent events suggest probably not. This is from our perspective, and I may be wrong. But it is enough to recall the ban imposed by some of our CSTO partners on the flights to their countries by national airlines of other CSTO members.

The concepts of unity and solidarity are not always enough, given the brutal, rabid sanctions pressure by the consolidated West. Unfortunately, this is clear from the voting in international organisations.

With the tacit agreement of our partners, Belarus and Russia are being vilified and expelled from international organisations against all laws of international life, just on a Western whim. Yes, you, CSTO members are subjected to pressure – tough and unprincipled pressure – but this is where collective, mutual support is so helpful. We may not exist tomorrow if we do not unite as soon as possible, if we do not strengthen our political, economic and military ties.

Our enemies and detractors are systematically degrading our strongholds and allied ties, and we ourselves are partially helping the West in this regard. I am sure that if we had acted as a united front right off the bat, the hellish, as they say, sanctions would be out of question.

Look how united the European Union is when it votes or acts, and how strong its intra-bloc discipline is. It applies automatically even to those who disagree with its decisions. This begs the question: What is keeping us from using this bloc resource? We need to follow their example. If divided, we will simply be crushed and torn apart.

Back in January, I said that the main goal of certain external forces is to undermine stability and to disrupt the evolutionary path of development throughout the post-Soviet space. They started with Belarus, then the infection spread to Kazakhstan, and now it is Russia’s turn, as we see, and problems are being created in Armenia as well. Make no mistake, no one will be spared.

It is absolutely clear that, without united pushback from the CSTO allies and other integration associations in the post-Soviet space, the collective West will ratchet up its pressure.

What do we need to do to reinforce the CSTO in this unprecedented situation at hand? Off the top of my head, I can visualise the following top-priority steps, which are many, and the President of Tajikistan covered them at length when he talked about the challenge facing that region.

The first is to strengthen political interaction and coordination of the CSTO member states. It is important to improve the efficiency of the foreign policy and security consultation mechanism. We need to speak more often on behalf of the CSTO on international platforms so that its voice and position can be seen and heard, and this voice and position must be united as they are in the West.

Let our foreign ministers consider how best to go about this, and where. Let them think about our political response to a new wave of NATO expansion in light of the intentions declared by well-known states.

We must work out in advance the CSTO position on this matter and make our interests known to the international community. We must act as one in this. Russia should not be alone in voicing its concern and fighting the attempted NATO enlargement.

The second point is to increase the effectiveness of efforts to counter challenges and threats in the information space, including the fight against fake news and disinformation. It is clear that we are facing a hybrid war, the main part of which is an information war.

In order to counter this, we should make the most of the 2017 CSTO Agreement on Information Security Cooperation and actively promote the CSTO on social media, which our Western opponents intensively use, in order to effectively respond to fake news and planted information. Moreover, we need to think seriously and, perhaps, follow China’s policy in the information confrontation, especially on the internet.

Relevant tasks should be assigned to all foreign ministries, special services and the CSTO Secretariat.

Third, there is a clear need to strengthen the forecasting and analytical component in the CSTO Secretariat’s work. I am sure that there are similar departments in the UN, the European Union and NATO. It might be worth considering creating a unit responsible for analysis and strategic planning at the CSTO Secretariat. I think the Secretary-General needs to study this issue.

Fourth, it is worth thinking about combining the potential of the analytical centres of the CSTO member states and forming a network of these centres to assist in the development of conceptual documents on current issues on the international agenda.

Dear friends,

I am offering such seemingly simple proposals at these extremely difficult times because we may not immediately agree on more complex ones. Therefore, these may be the first steps, but we need to go further and deeper, as we used to say in the past

Colleagues,

Everyone understands that the historical era that existed before is ending, and there will be no return to the previous international order. We cannot allow the creation of a new international architecture without us, while the West is already planting false stories and holding talks about it.

I believe that the CSTO should firmly strengthen its status in the international system of checks and balances. The organisation has a powerful collective potential for further progressive development, but it depends only on us today, it is up to us, how effectively the CSTO will use this potential and whether it will continue to exist in the next 10, 20 or 30 years.

After Armenia, the CSTO chairmanship will rotate to Belarus. In addition to the promising areas of work outlined above, we are already seriously considering new proposals aimed at the further development of our organisation, and you will learn about them in the near future. We hope for maximum support and constructive work from all of you, our colleagues. We have no other choice.

Sorry for such a long speech.

Thank you for your attention.

Nikol Pashinyan: Thank you, Mr Lukashenko.

I will give the floor to President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev: Mr Pashinyan, colleagues!

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to President of Russia Vladimir Putin for organising this anniversary summit of the Collective Security Council. It is true that our summit today is distinct in marking two CSTO anniversaries.

Over the years our organisation has proven to be an effective mechanism of multilateral cooperation with serious potential for further development.

Once the CSTO was established, a reliable system for collective security was built in the vast expanse of Eurasia. The main goals are to strengthen peace and stability as well as international and regional security, and protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of its member states.

The CSTO’s permanent working bodies operate successfully; there are various formats for close cooperation and interaction. The CSTO’s authority, law enforcement and peacekeeping potential are being strengthened.

We focus on countering international terrorism and extremism, illegal drug and weapons trafficking, and illegal migration. In this context we attach great importance to the developments in Afghanistan. The unstable situation there as well as the unrelenting activity of armed groups on the territory of Afghanistan continue to threaten the security and stability of our states. I believe the CSTO must consider every potential threat while paying even more attention to ensuring the security of the southern borders of Central Asia.

In the mid-term, developing the organisation’s peacekeeping potential is an unconditional priority. Active work is underway in this area. CSTO peacekeeping forces have been created and are being improved every year; a plan is being developed to equip them with modern weapons, equipment and special tools.

As you know, the institute of Special Representative of the CSTO Secretary-General for peacekeeping has been established, at Kazakhstan’s initiative. This means that all the necessary tools have been created, and we suggest that it is time to set the goal of getting the CSTO involved with the United Nations’ peacekeeping activities.

This step would promote the legal status of the CSTO and ensure the organisation’s participation in international peacekeeping operations.

Colleagues,

Our assessments of the CSTO’s development and common view of the current aspects of international and regional security underlie the anniversary statement of the Collective Security Council. I would like to thank Armenia for its productive chairmanship and Russia for its timely initiative to hold this forum.

Thank you for your attention.

Nikol Pashinyan:Thank you, Mr Tokayev.

Next to speak is President of the Kyrgyz Republic. Mr Sadyr Japarov, please, take the floor.

President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sadyr Japarov: Good afternoon.

Mr Putin, Mr Chairman of the CSTO Collective Security Council Nikol Pashinyan, Messrs heads of state,

I am happy to meet with you in hospitable Moscow.

I would like to begin with congratulations. First, I want to extend my congratulations to our fraternal peoples on the 77^th anniversary of the Great Victory. On May 9, many thousands of people across Kyrgyzstan took part in the Immortal Regiment march carrying the slogans “Eternal Glory to the Heroes” and “Nobody Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Forgotten.” The republic holds this holiday sacred, as it epitomises the defeat of Nazism and Fascism by the Soviet people and invariably pays a sincere tribute to the memory of the heroic deed of our fathers and grandfathers.

Second, I want to extend my congratulations to all of us on the 30^th anniversary of signing the Collective Security Treaty and the 20^th anniversary of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. We fully support the political statement to be adopted today in connection with these two historic dates.

The international events taking place in recent years show that the strategic decisions taken to ensure shared and collective security from Brest to Vladivostok were right.

At the same time, I am pleased to note that throughout its existence the Collective Security Treaty Organisation has fulfilled the responsible mission assigned to it and developed as an institution, with its potential becoming ever stronger. In this connection, I would like to express my gratitude to CSTO Secretary-General Stanislav Zas, all his predecessors in the post and the CSTO Secretariat staff for their loyal service in the interests of the security of the Organisation’s member states.

Colleagues,

The current international situation does not offer cause for optimism, in terms of both global security and the world economy. Threats to security and military and political tensions have come too close to the borders of the CSTO zone of responsibility. Attempts are being made to interfere from the outside in the internal affairs of the CSTO member states.

For example, earlier this year we had to help a CSTO member state get out of a security crisis it had unexpectedly found itself in. Our response was quick and effective. I fully support the decision to award participants in this peacekeeping mission.

The situation at the southern borders of the CSTO remains alarming, primarily due to the unhindered activities of radical religious terrorist groups in some Afghan provinces. The external sponsors of these groups have far-reaching plans for Central Asia. I think we should keep focusing our attention and analysis on the Afghan issue. It is necessary to carry out an entire package of political-diplomatic and military-technical measures to ensure security in this area. At the same time, it is important to provide humanitarian aid for the Afghan people. Our fellow countrymen are among them.

Colleagues,

We are seriously alarmed by the sanctions war. The Kyrgyz economy has not yet recovered from the coronavirus pandemic, and now the sanctions are already creating a threat to food and energy security, macroeconomic sustainability and social stability.

Under the circumstances, we must discuss and draft a common approach to alleviate the consequences of sanctions and prevent the deterioration of the socioeconomic situation in our countries. We will soon have an opportunity to do so at the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council and the First Eurasian Economic Forum in the city of Bishkek.

Colleagues, I hope for your personal participation as heads of your delegations, in which I am asking you to include heads of sectoral ministries and business structures.

In conclusion, I would like to congratulate you again on the Day of the Great Victory and the two anniversaries of the Collective Security Treaty.

I sincerely wish you and the friendly nations of the CSTO peace, stability, wellbeing and prosperity.

Thank you for your attention.

Nikol Pashinyan: Thank you, Mr Japarov.

I am giving the floor to President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.

Mr President, go ahead, please.

Vladimir Putin: Friends and colleagues,

I will agree with the previous speakers – indeed, in the past few decades, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation has become considerably stronger and won a well-deserved reputation as an effective regional defence structure that ensures security and stability in the Eurasian space and reliably protects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its member countries.

Importantly, cooperation in the CSTO has always been built in the spirit of true allied relations, on the principles of friendship and neighbourliness, respect and consideration of each other’s interests, mutual assistance and support. The same principles guide our cooperation in the current difficult situation.

The CSTO’s successful peacekeeping operation, held in Kazakhstan in January 2022 at the request of its leaders, showed the maturity of our Organisation and its real ability to adequately withstand acute challenges and threats.

The contingent of the collective CSTO forces, sent into Kazakhstan for a limited period of time, prevented extremists, including those directed from abroad, from seizing power and helped to quickly stabilise the internal political situation in the republic.

The use of peacekeeping forces at the request of the Kazakhstan leadership was the first operation of this kind in the CSTO’s history. The operation revealed the strong points of practical cooperation between our military structures and security services, and, at the same time, showed what we should work on to improve it.

Today, we will sign a joint statement reaffirming, taking into account the experience gained, among other things, during the afore-mentioned operation, the resolve of our states to continue acting as partners in different areas of military and defence development, and building up our coordinated actions in the world arena.

At the same time, it is quite logical that our current high-priority task is to further improve and streamline the work of the CSTO and its governing bodies. We will also provide the collective CSTO forces with modern weapons and equipment, we will enhance the interoperability of their troop contingents, and more effectively coordinate the joint actions of our military agencies and secret services.

We streamline the relevant operations all the time during CSTO exercises, and we are set to expand such exercises. This autumn, there are plans to hold an entire series of joint CSTO exercises in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. I am confident that these measures will boost the combat readiness of our states’ military agencies and improve their coordination, as well as increase the entire peacekeeping potential of the CSTO.

We also believe that the CSTO should continue its efforts to counter terrorism, drug trafficking and organised crime. Law enforcement agencies of our countries interact rather effectively in this field, so as to prevent the recruitment of people and to neutralise the resource potential of international terrorist organisations.

Efforts to maintain biological security also require the most serious attention. For a long time, we sounded the alarm about US military biological activity in the post-Soviet space.

It is common knowledge that the Pentagon has established dozens of specialised biological laboratories and centres in our common region, and that they are by no means merely providing practical medical assistance to the population of the countries where they are operating. Their main task is to collect biological materials and to analyse the spread of viruses and dangerous diseases for their own purposes.

Now, during the special operation in Ukraine, documentary evidence was obtained that components of biological weapons were developed in close proximity to our borders, which violates the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, and possible methods and mechanisms were worked out to destabilise the epidemiological situation in the post-Soviet space.

In this regard, we count on our colleagues supporting the earliest possible implementation of Russia’s initiative to operationalise the designated CSTO council. Once again, I would like to note the importance of close coordination between CSTO members in matters of foreign policy, coordinated actions at the UN and other multilateral platforms, and promotion of common approaches to the multiplying international security issues.

In this context, it is important to build up cooperation with our “natural” partners in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Commonwealth of Independent States. By the way, we think it would be appropriate and correct – we will discuss this – to grant the CIS observer status in the CSTO.

I would like to highlight our priority task of jointly defending the memory of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the feat of our peoples who saved the world from Nazism at the cost of enormous and irreparable sacrifices, and to counteract any attempts to whitewash the Nazis, their accomplices and modern followers.

This is extremely important particularly now, when monuments to the heroes liberators are being barbarously demolished in a number of European countries, laying flowers at memorials is forbidden, and cynical attempts are being made to rewrite history, while praising murderers and traitors and insulting their victims, thus crossing out the feats of those who selflessly fought for Victory and won the war.

Unfortunately, in our neighbouring country, Ukraine, neo-Nazism has been on the rise for a long time now, to which some of our partners from the “collective West” turn a blind eye, and thus actually encourage their activities. All this goes hand-in-hand with an unprecedented surge in frenzied Russophobia in the so-called civilised and politically correct Western countries.

Indeed, we hear, and I hear people say that extremists can be found anywhere, which is true. Extremists are everywhere and one way or another they are leaving their underground hideouts and make themselves known. Nowhere, though – I want to underscore this – nowhere are Nazis being glorified at the state level and not a single civilised country’s authorities are encouraging thousands of neo-Nazi torchlight processions with Nazi symbols. This is something that is not practiced anywhere. But unfortunately, this is happening in Ukraine.

The expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance is a problem that, in my view, is being created in an absolutely artificial manner because it is being done in the foreign policy interests of the United States. Generally, NATO is being used, in effect, as the foreign policy tool of a single country, and it is being done persistently, adroitly, and very aggressively. All of this is aggravating the already complex international security situation.

As for the expansion, including the accession of two prospective new members, Finland and Sweden, I would like to inform you, colleagues, that Russia has no problems with these states. No problems at all! In this sense, therefore, there is no direct threat to Russia in connection with NATO’s expansion to these countries. But the expansion of its military infrastructure to these territories will certainly evoke a response on our part. We will see what it will be like based on the threats that are created for us. But generally speaking, problems are being created from nothing. So, we will respond to it in a fitting manner.

Apart from everything else, apart from this interminable policy of expansion, the North Atlantic Alliance is emerging beyond its geographical destination, beyond the Euro-Atlantic area. It is increasingly active in trying to manage international issues and control the international security situation. It wants to wield influence in other regions of the world, but its actual performance leaves much to be desired. This certainly demands additional attention on our part.

In conclusion, I want to reiterate that Russia will continue to contribute to deepening relations of strategic alliance with all CSTO member states. We will do our best to improve and develop effective partner cooperation within the CSTO and, of course, we will support the Armenian chairmanship’s ongoing work in this area.

As for Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, we will certainly discuss this, and I will inform you in detail about its causes and the current combat effort. But, of course, we will do this behind closed doors.

Thank you for your attention.

Nikol Pashinyan: Thank you, Mr Putin.

President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon is our next speaker. Please go ahead.

President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon: Colleagues,

First of all, I would like to congratulate you on the occasion of the 30^th anniversary of the signing of the Collective Security Treaty and the 20^th anniversary of the creation of the CSTO.

I would like to thank the President of Russia for convening today’s meeting dedicated to these milestone events that are important for all of us. Anniversaries are a good opportunity to reflect on the path traveled and the development of the CSTO and to identify prospects for multilateral cooperation seeking to strengthen the common collective security system in light of new realities.

Over the period under review, the CSTO has established itself as an important factor in strengthening peace and ensuring regional security and stability. The organisation’s successful peacekeeping mission earlier this year clearly showed it.

We have created an extensive legal framework, the necessary working and coordinating bodies, as well as mechanisms aimed at fulfilling the organisation’s goals.

In practice, due attention is paid to strengthening and consolidating mutual trust within the CSTO. The CSTO’s international ties are expanding. Last year, we completed the ratification procedure and launched the institutions of observers under the CSTO and the CSTO partners as part of the Tajik chairmanship.

Field and command-staff exercises are conducted on a permanent basis, and measures are being taken to supply modern weapons and military equipment to the collective security system’s forces and means. All this helps maintain a high degree of combat readiness, mobility, training and skills of command and service personnel for bringing joint solutions to common tasks.

Today, the CSTO is an important platform for equal dialogue and cooperation between member states in all three basic dimensions: political interaction, military cooperation and joint efforts to counter modern challenges and threats.

The CSTO Collective Security Strategy to 2025, which reflects the principles of our interaction in the mid-term, is an important document that is guiding our organisation along its own path of development. Our common assessment of the state and development prospects of the organisation is reflected in a joint statement that we will adopt following the summit.

Notably, today we are facing no less important tasks to strengthen our common security. Given the manifold growth of challenges and threats to security, we will have to step up joint efforts to strengthen the Organisation’s potential and capabilities.

For example, we can see that negative factors have been accumulating in Afghanistan over the past 40 years, and they have worsened the military-political and socioeconomic situation in that country. In this regard, the CSTO needs to be prepared for various scenarios on the southern borders.

Tajikistan plans to continue to actively contribute to ensuring common security in the organisation’s regions of responsibility.

Thank you.

Nikol Pashinyan: Thank you very much.

Colleagues, I will now speak in my national capacity, if I may.

First of all, I would like to thank the President of Russia for hosting the anniversary CSTO summit in Moscow and the warm welcome. Of course, our organisation’s anniversary is also an excellent occasion to sum up the intermediate results and to discuss prospects for the further development of our organisation.

The President of Belarus raised important questions about interaction between the CSTO member countries and touched on, frankly, rather problematic issues. In general, there are a lot of positive developments in the history of the CSTO, because in reality it was, is and will be the most important factor in ensuring security and stability in the region.

But, as we see, we are discussing not only anniversary-related issues at this anniversary summit, because the situation is fairly tense in the CSTO area of responsibility. I want to touch on some of the issues that the President of Belarus mentioned.

Regarding voting by the CSTO member countries, this issue does exist, indeed. Often, our voting is not synchronised, but this is not something new. This has been typical of our organisation for a long time now. Armenia has repeatedly raised this issue, and we have repeatedly discussed it in the regular course of business. Clearly, this issue needs to be further discussed as well.

With regard to interaction as well as response and rapid response mechanisms, this is also a critical issue for Armenia, because, as you are aware, last year on these days, Azerbaijani troops invaded the sovereign territory of Armenia. Armenia turned to the CSTO for it to activate the mechanisms that are provided for in the Regulations governing the CSTO response to crisis situations of December 10, 2010 which is a document approved by the Collective Security Council. Unfortunately, we cannot say that the organisation responded as the Republic of Armenia expected.

For a long time now, we have been raising the issue of sales of weapons by CSTO member countries to a country that is unfriendly to Armenia, which used these weapons against Armenia and the Armenian people. This is also a problem.

Frankly, the CSTO member countries’ response during the 44-day war of 2020 and the post-war period did not make the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people very happy, but I want to emphasise the special role played by the Russian Federation and President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin personally in halting the war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

I would like to reaffirm that Armenia remains committed to the trilateral statements of November 9, 2020. I am referring to the trilateral statements by the President of the Russian Federation, the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia, as well as the trilateral statements of January 11, 2021 and November 26, 2021.

I think it is critically important to sum up the results, but Armenia, as a founding member of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, is committed to the organisation’s further development and considers it a key contributor to stability and security in the Eurasian region, as well as the security of the Republic of Armenia, and is positive about providing its full support for the organisation’s further development.

BREAKING NEWS: Ukraine “Azov Brigade” (Nazis) Agree to SURRENDER

World Hal Turner 16 May 2022

This is reported in Western media as a successful Ukranian military  "breakout" from Russian encirclement. Yeah. Crazy twisting of facts.  HERE. -MM

Ukraine Territory Defense Forces (Azov) Steel Works Regiments in Mariupol, Ukraine, have reached an agreement to surrender 300 seriously wounded Ukraine Solders, so they can get hospital treatment. 2,000 others will surrender tomorrow & lay down their arms.

Literally within MINUTES of the agreement, Azov wounded and sick began being brought out from the catacombs beneath the steel mill:

The Russian Army had Ambulances and Red Cross-Type Emergency vehicles at the ready to take the most severely wounded, sick, and injured to nearby field hospitals:

The forces at the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol, have been surrounded for about a month. Recently, secret tunnel entrances from the catacombs beneath the steel mill, were located and sealed by Russian forces surrounding the mill. This completely cut off those troops from food and water.

Skirmishes between those troops and the surrounding Russian Army forces, depleted Azov ammunition supplies, which could not be refreshed.

Azov repeatedly asked Ukraine leadership in Kiev for permission to surrender, and that permission was repeatedly DENIED.

Today, it appears the NAZI troops, starving and thirsty, have no choice.

It is widely rumored that NATO troops – or “advisors”- are among those 2,000 or so troops, but this has only been rumored for months. Tomorrow, the world finds out if it is true.

UPDATE 6:58 PM EDT —

300 Azovites, 50 of whom are wounded, have now been taken to a hospital in Novoazovsk.

UPDATE 7:03 PM EDT —

Ukrainian government is now CONFIRMING THE SURRENDER OF AZOV.

Ukraine confirmed the evacuation of soldiers from Azovstal According to the General Staff of Ukraine, 53 seriously wounded servicemen were taken to a medical facility in Novoazovsk. Another 211 people were evacuated through the humanitarian corridor to Yelenovka.

Below is the official confirmation:

So why did AUSTIN call SHOIGU?

Now confirmed by one of my top intel sources.

The call was a direct consequence of PANIC. The USG by all means wants to scotch the detailed Russian investigation – and accumulation of evidence – on the US bioweapon labs in Ukraine.

As I stressed in a previous post, Shoigu had refused to pick up calls from weapons peddler retrofitted as Pentagon head Lloyd “Raytheon” Austin since the last week of February and the start of Operation Z.

This phone call happened EXACTLY after an official Russian statement to the UN: we will use articles 5 and 6 of the Convention on the Prohibition of Bioweapons to investigate the Pentagon’s biological “experiments” in Ukraine.

Shoigu cold see the call coming eons away.

Reuters, merely quoting the proverbial “ Pentagon official”, spun that the one-hour-long call led to nothing. Nonsense.

Austin allegedly demanded a “ ceasefire” – which must have originated a Siberian cat smirk on Shoigu’s face.

Shoigu knows exactly where the dire facts on the ground – for the Ukros and UkroNazis – are leading. Especially in Donbass: it’s a military disaster the USG cannot possibly spin.

Now, in parallel, we can also expect full exposure – on overdrive – of the Pentagon bioweapon racket.

The only “offer you can’t refuse” left to the USG is to REALLY offer something tangible to the Russians to avoid an investigation.

Not gonna happen.

Sorry USA… All will be revealed.

From HERE

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New Beginnings 4

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Ukraine war, Russia, 1955 GMC L’Universelle Dream Truck, 1950s Kodachromes, and beautiful girls from the past

I hope that you all aren’t getting too tired of these “new beginnings” articles. I know that they are long, and overly detailed. I will eventually phase them out. But for now, please endure along with me.

Sorry about the lack of MM on Sunday and Monday. The server had an “explosion” and the physical server hardware needed to be replaced, and the old server slag hauled off to the dumpster.

Ah something like this…

If you can believe it!

Sheech!

Meanwhile, the uploads of MM videos on you-tube slowed down to a crawl, and what was posted had mysterious video editing…

…Yeah. No shit…

Key segments were edited out, and no longer exist. For instance, the segment that has the text “In China, military training begins in first grade” is completely edited out of the video. As is the closing segment, “Be part of the community“.

In the future, I will need to be very careful on making sure that things are not omitted from my videos, whether unintentionally, or by design.

We start off with an American truck.

The 1955 GMC L’Universelle Dream Truck

What a beauty!

One of the most popular General Motors design concept models designed under the direction of Harley Earl was the 1955 GMC L’Universelle show van. The name “L’Universelle” is French and means “The Universal.” The model was a part of the Motorama shows during the 1950s, which created a huge buzz among crowds at the time.

In January of 1955, GM debuted its ’55 L’Universelle show van at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, at the opening of that year’s Motorama. Though not a conventional “dream car” as one would normally find at the Motorama, it nonetheless shared the same level of innovation as the one-offs displayed by the General’s other divisions. Moreover, the bronze-colored van shared many of the same Harley Earl-inspired design elements used on both production and non-production GM cars of the time.

Max Headroom about Censorship

Jesus H. Christ! I simply cannot beleive that we all collectively believed that this guy was “so cool” back in the 1980s. Ugh! It’s a reminder of the mass insanity of the sheeple.

‘Slovakia’s food is for Slovakians,’ Slovakia’s trade restrictions leave EU fuming – TFIGlobal

Another good development for the world.

The Chinese word for “currency” is 货币。货 is stock (products) , 币is money. That means, in Chinese, a currency can only be useful when it can be used to exchange products.

So, when the United States (and their proxy nations) confiscated other nations reserve currency at will, their currency lost the trust of the world. So , Putin is right and proper to declare the US dollar / European currency illegitimate and has since refused to sell Russian products using these fake currencies.

The world also has begun to dump their USD currency treasury debt and reduce holding of the United States currency reserve. This is helping to speed up the collapse of the US and EU currency as world reserve currencies.

As a result, US can no longer continue to print money without causing inflation at home because they world no longer trust their currency.

As a result, all the printed money is now staying inside United States.

As the world biggest trading nation, China is inevitable having huge amount of the US dollars, so in the past decade, China decided to use them for their Belt and Road project, and use them to buy a heck of lot of raw materials such as food and oil and gas from the US, and (in the process) gives the dollar back to the US.

Of course China also canceled export subsidies and imposed export tariffs on certain strategic products with high demand in US.

That is also part of the reason why there is enormous inflation in the United States. And this situation will damage US ability to continue to print money and continue to suck up the world resources at will as it is it’s want.

US is heading straight towards a massive “great depression”.

Now more and more countries have begun to say “no” to the USA.

The latest is Turkey.

And they are using their role within NATO to veto it from accepting Finland and Sweden entering it.

And let’s not forget the Solomon Islands. They, went straight ahead and signed a deal with China despite Australia’s anger, and the threat of US military annihilation.

Meanwhile, the Saudi’s decided not to take a phone call from President Biden, and is maintaining very high oil prices to US and EU but have reduced their prices for Asia.

Very soon, Japan and Germany may want to be a normal country again. And they will accomplish this by asking the US military to leave.

The Roman empire collapsed when it no longer generate enough income to maintain its organizational expenses, the USSR was the same. Now, the US is heading toward such destruction as well.

From HERE

American actress from the silent movie era, actress Marie Doro, 1902

Ham & cheese egg toast – Korean street food

Great video.

Liberalism and the Rise of the Self Hating Chinese in China.

Liberalism is an ideology of turncoats.

In any country, everything liberals do is under the guise of freedom, equality, democracy, and human rights, but the ultimate result is the collapse of the state, the annihilation of social cohesion, and the breaking apart of the collective, whether if that was the original intention or not.

In a summary:

1. Liberalism is the belief in the ultimate freedom of the individual over the collective, usually without limits or with little regard for the well-being of the collective society.

2. Liberalism uses the guise of “human rights”, “equality”, “freedom”, “reform”, and “democracy” to mask its ulterior political purposes.

3. Liberalism rigidly forces the majority to show unnecessary and excessive tolerance for behavior that violates the generally accepted norms and rules, even if the majority opinion is against this tolerance. Often this leads to crime and antisocial behavior, the loss of family values, and the loss of cultural roots.

For example, let’s study the forced acceptance of a criminal subculture in the United States. In the United States of America, the criminal subculture has been directly responsible for the wave of anti-Asian hate crimes, looting, and robberies. Within this criminal subculture, Gangster rap music occasionally contains lyrics specifically instructing their listeners to target Asian American families. Make no mistake about it. The existence of this criminal subculture and glorification of crime has consequences. In the city of San Francisco, a burglary crime spree occurred in early 2022. 27 households were burglarized. All homes were Asian households.

Most American people, of all races, are decent people and are opposed to crime. However, liberal politicians, media, and their political machines have been able to support the rise of liberal district attorneys in cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. These district attorneys refuse to prosecute crimes under the guise of “criminal justice reform”, reinforcing this criminal behavior. Opponents who speak out against this program are labeled as racists or fascists. Isn’t this a forced tolerance of the criminal subculture by the liberals?

The same phenomenon is occurring in Western Europe and even in some parts of China. More and more Chinese people in Asia are becoming attracted to this liberal ideology, which promises a great degree of individual freedom, at the cost of selling the country. Forced tolerance of certain abnormal behavior, like the niangpao phenomena, is becoming more and more apparent.

China is different from the West. Our Chinese civilization is founded on 5,000 years of our own unique tradition and culture. Western liberalism and the imposition of the forced tolerance of abnormal behavior contrary to the norms that are contrary to Chinese values, norms, traditions, and beliefs have no place in the country of China.

Furthermore, Chinese people have to remember that at the geopolitical level, Liberalism has been used as a tool to manufacture consent for wars and imperialism in the developing world.

Western liberal intellectuals, politicians, and media often accuse foreign people and nations in the developing world, who refuse to accept liberal values, of being undemocratic or uncivilized. Westerners ignore the reality that developing countries may have different historic or social circumstances and cannot be compared to their Western values. Consent is then manufactured to conduct regime change.

Who benefits once the regime change is successful? It is not the native people in these developing places, it is the Western mega-corporations and the big business interests who move in and loot the land, labor, and resources of the developing world. No wonder why so many large Western corporations parrot liberal talking points.

How to Spot A Chinese Liberal

“In 100 years of colonialism, Hong Kong has changed to what we see today. With China being so big, of course, it would require 300 years as a colony for it to be able to transform into how Hong Kong is today. I have my doubts as to whether 300 years would be enough”. – Liu Xiaobo

Liu also said in response to criticisms: “‘If you say I’m a traitor, then I’ll betray the country!… I am an unfilial descendant who dug out my ancestor’s graves, I am proud of it”!!! (你要說我叛國，我就叛國！就承認自己是挖祖墳的不孝子孫，且以此為榮)

This man was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

A true Chinese liberal always rejoices at failures in his country and is worried about the success of the country.
A liberal starts giggling happily and rubbing his little hands contentedly, whenever there is bad news of a natural disaster or some kind of emergency in China. Every failure in China is automatically the result of the actions of the “Evil Communist Party”.
A real liberal is upset whenever a new high-speed railroad or a new warship is commissioned. He or she would mumble under his breathe about how long it will take for a train to crash or the ship to sink.
A real liberal always admires the West, the West can do no wrong in their eyes.

Everything is dear to the heart of a Chinese liberal in the West. A liberal always admires Western “democracy”. When a liberal is asked about cases of human rights violations in the United States or the liberal would react furiously.

For example, Chinese liberal Liu Xiaobo once praised the illegal U.S. invasion of Iraq. “Victory to the Anglo-American Alliance” he proudly declared.

A Chinese liberal considers Chinese people to be hopeless cattle

A true Chinese liberal sits and rolls his eyes. He talks about how stupid and hopeless the Chinese people are. That Chinese people are slaves and deserved all the misfortunes that happen to them and happened in the past. “Next life I do not want to be Chinese” the liberal will declare to the entire world.

Socialist Patriotism is the pride and shield of the Chinese nation.

There is and has been no other unifying force that has been more beneficial to the prosperity and unification of China than the ideal of socialist patriotism. Socialist patriotism is and has always been the force that provides a unity of purpose for the masses of Chinese people. Socialist patriotism is the antithesis of liberalism, as it is a force that places the overall collective interest over the individual interest. The two concepts are mutually exclusive after all.

Chinese workers (1958)

During the period from 1949 to 1976, it was socialist patriotism, not liberalism, which inspired the Chinese workers and peasants of our parent’s generation to break their back in the fields, carve roads, and build bridges with nothing but their bare hands. Most people today do not comprehend the extreme poverty which existed in China during that time. In 1949, China was in every sense a medieval country. The nutrition, healthcare, sanitation, social services, and infrastructure of a modern civilization were nonexistent. Life expectancy was 36 years old for the average Chinese person. That’s the same life expectancy as medieval Europe.

So Mao Zedong during this time, mobilized the entire Chinese nation to modernize the country. Every single man and woman, of all occupations, was on duty day and night: Peasants, soldiers, workers, doctors, intellectuals, teachers, and scientists all did their part to build the country. They did their jobs for little or no pay. Even if some money was to be made, there was nothing to buy.

So-called “barefoot doctors” volunteered to live in the rural countryside to treat the residents there. Teachers volunteered to teach children in rural places for free. Peasants and workers plowed the fields and broke their backs. Food was oftentimes scarce and oftentimes there was none to be had.

Millions of lives perished under these austere conditions.

Barefoot doctors traveled to the countryside to treat peasants for no pay.

A modern Chinese liberal would have scoffed and called this an abuse of human rights or a form of slavery. However, the mindset of the Chinese socialist patriot at the time was the complete opposite. The Chinese patriot understood the totality of the circumstances. He knew that his country was poor because it was a victim of 100 years of Western imperialism. That he starved not because his country wanted to use him as a slave, but it was because the material means, the food, the resources, and capital, simply did not exist at the time. China then had just exited one hundred years of colonialism, over thirty years of endless civil wars and foreign occupations. Infrastructure was nonexistent. Faced with such extreme poverty, the Chinese patriot knew that complaining would solve nothing and that only through sheer determination could the foundations of a New China be established.

So the Chinese workers, soldiers, scientists, and peasants all selflessly sacrificed because they had nothing else. Their only dream was to see China become strong enough so that it cannot be colonized again.

And look at what the Chinese socialist patriots created. Life expectancy, literacy rate, and living standards almost doubled from 1949 to 1976. Life expectancy which was at 36 years old in 1949 reached 64 by 1976. This would not have been possible in a country the size of China if improvements to nutrition, social services, infrastructure, and healthcare had not been made on a large scale.

By 1976, China was a nuclear power. China had launched satellites into space, commissioned nuclear submarines, detonated nuclear weapons, and built rockets. This nuclear status guaranteed that China will never again become occupied by foreign powers.

All of these accomplishments were achieved despite China’s poverty and the crippling sanctions imposed on the nation by both the Soviet Union and the United States.

Today, China moves forward as a powerful country that is now on the verge of becoming the world’s largest economy. China’s success story is one of the most epic tales of human history and was achieved completely due to the sacrifices made by the Chinese workers, soldiers, peasants, and patriotic people from all walks of life, who brought life to China. Such people are unconquerable.

Turncoat liberals like Liu Xiaobo are traitors. Liu humiliates 25 generations of his ancestors. God damn him. God damn that man.

Comments by readers:

Our Chinese ancestors were our models and angels. They had nothing, had no food, no clothes, and lived in hardships. But they worked hard anyways, brought life back to a dying China. Chinese workers, soldiers, teachers, scientists and peasants all selflessly sacrificed themselves for the benefits and betterment of the nation and the Chinese people in general.
Barefoot doctors volunteered to heal patients in rural places and teachers to teach children for free or little pay, workers and peasants worked for little pays and foods with their bare hands under the most difficult conditions and hardships.
Their only dreams were to see China rising up and becoming strong again so that she would not be subjugated or colonized by the greedy, aggressive and unmerciful foreigners any longer.
I really admire the courage and determination of our ancestors, grand parents and parents in handling and overcoming their hardships, difficulties, backwardnesses and misfortunes brought about by foreign aggressors.
If Chinese people did not have these courage and determination, China would still be a failed state today.

American actress Ethel Clayton, 1910

Gregg Allman – These Days

Very appropiate for my current “state of mind”. I hope you all appreciate the music selection in this article.

Modern American women

Not everyone for certain. Only the loudest.

India announces immediate ban on wheat exports

India wants to keep it’s food for itself. It’s following the Chinese model.

From HERE

China is the only country with a traditional policy for food security. Since ancient times, the state has routinely stocked up certain crops for emergency use. Then, they released the food to the market with stable prices, as well as to provide assistance to the population whenever there is a nature disaster.

Kodachrome Stories

We love Kodachromes and we love found photos.

The US wants to keep its status as a superpower at any cost

By Zamir Awan for the Saker Blog

The US is desperate to sustain its hegemony and supremacy. It is taking extreme measures and can go to any extent to keep its hegemony and supremacy. Its Petrodollars policy has been playing a significant role, but, facing challenges recently and the US is getting nervous and crazy.

The petrodollar is any U.S. dollar paid to oil-exporting countries in exchange for oil. The dollar is the preeminent global currency. As a result, most international transactions, including oil, are priced in dollars. Oil-exporting nations receive dollars for their exports, not their own currency.

In addition, most oil-exporting nations own their oil industries. That makes their national income depends on the dollar’s value. If it falls, so does their government’s revenue. As a result, most of these oil exporters also peg their currencies to the dollar. That way, if the dollar’s value falls, so does the price of all their domestic goods and services. That helps these countries avoid wide swings in inflation or deflation.

The petrodollar system is tied to the history of the gold standard. After World War II, the United States held most of the world’s supply of gold. It agreed to redeem any U.S. dollar for its value in gold if the other countries pegged their currencies to the dollar. Other countries signed this deal at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference. It established the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

On February 14, 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the alliance with Saudi Arabia.1 He met with Saudi King Abd al-Aziz. The United States built an airfield at Dhahran in return for military and business training. This alliance was so critical that it survived subsequent years of differences of opinion over the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The 1945 agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia cemented the relationship between the dollar and oil. The petrodollar was born. In 1971, U.S. stagflation prompted runs on the dollar. Many countries asked to redeem their U.S. dollars for gold. To protect the remaining U.S. gold reserves, President Richard Nixon removed the dollar from the gold standard. As a result, the value of the dollar plummeted. That helped the U.S. economy as its export values also decreased, making them more competitive. A falling dollar hurt oil-exporting countries because contracts were priced in U.S. dollars. Their oil revenue dropped along with the dollar. The cost of imports, denominated in other currencies, increased.

In 1973, Nixon asked Congress for military aid to Israel in the Yom Kippur War. The newly-formed Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries halted oil exports to the United States and other Israeli allies. The OPEC oil embargo quadrupled the price of oil in six months. Prices remained high even after the embargo ended. In 1979, the United States and Saudi Arabia negotiated the United States-Saudi Arabian Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation. They agreed to use U.S. dollars for oil contracts. The U.S. dollars would be recycled back to America through contracts with U.S. companies. These companies improve Saudi infrastructure through technology transfer.

The United States uses the power of petrodollars to enforce its foreign policy. But many countries don’t fight back. They are afraid it would mean the collapse of the petrodollar system.

However, there was strong thinking against the Petrodollar concept and few Arab leaders declared to trade oil; in local currencies or any other currency, de-linking from dollars. The leading role was played by President Sadden Hussain, Col. Qaddafi of Libya, and the Syrian President. The US has punished them and changed the regimes in such countries.

China called for a replacement of the U.S. dollar as a global currency. Although, it is one of the largest foreign holders of the dollar. China influences the U.S. dollar by pegging its currency, the yuan, to it. China has signed a currency swap agreement with more than twenty countries and already trading with them in Yuan or local currencies. China is importing oil and gas from a few Arab nations in Yuan.

Russia has demanded to settle Gas bills in Rubles and a few European countries are already agreed to pay in Rubles. EU has also no objections if any member state pays in Rubles instead of Dollars. Russia is trading with few other nations in Rubles or local currencies instead of Dollars.

Russia has slashed the value of the dollar and the euro by 30% in a jiffy by linking the Russian Ruble to the value of gold and declaring to supply oil only against the Russian Ruble. Russia’s move means that now the entire world, especially Western Europe and Japan will buy the Russian Ruble by selling dollars in huge quantities, as the Russian Ruble has become the world’s most stable currency overnight after being linked to gold.

America, which does not mass-produce anything other than weapons and ammunition, is caught in a terrible economic crisis. In the event of a shrinking dollar, the US cannot cover its 306 billion budget deficit. This will cause severe unemployment and adversely affect the social safety net. This is the economic atom bomb that Joe Biden was aware of when he was talking about the removal of Putin in Poland.

Putin orders European countries to make payments of Gas and Oil in terms of Rubble and open the account in Russian banks. It will weaken the American sanctions on Russia. Although Russia has not retaliated against the American sanctions so aggressively, introduced its policies to counter the sanctions successfully.

The rapid decline of the US has made its leadership nervous and crazy. They are taking all possible measures to sustain their hegemony and supremacy. Even, though the Ukraine war is only a phenomenon, the objective is to maintain status-co. unfortunately, the US is not interested in global peace, stability, or saving human lives. The only priority is to maintain its hegemony and supremacy. To achieve this goal, the US can sacrifice Ukraine, Europe, or any heavy price. The US policy in the Ukraine war is to add fuel to fire, there is no will to stop the war, ceasefire, or save human lives. They are providing weapons, and arming civilians to lead toward a prolonged civil war, to bleed Russian and keep many countries over-engaged and let the US maintain its monopoly and the upper hand.

Russia was reluctant to attack Ukraine and has been observing restrains for quite along. Showing its genuine security concerns and alarming the US with serious consequences, but, the US kept its policy to encircle Russia.

The haphazard joining of NATO by Finland and the defense agreement with the UK is also equally a genuine threat to Russia. Russia and Finland share a long common border. Joining NATO, means, the deployment of NATO forces along the Russian border, which is a direct threat. Joining NATO by other Scandinavian nations is also a serious and matter of deep concern for Russia.

It seems the US has only one priority which is to sustain its position in the geopolitics, it ignores the genuine concerns of other nations. We are scared of the future of geopolitics and afraid the days to come may be harsh for humankind.

In history, many nations rose to the status of superpowers and ruled the world for a certain period of time, then, meltdown and passed the status of superpower to other rising nations. Like Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire, Greek Empire, British, and French empires, etc. But, The US is not willing to accept the natural cycle of superpowers and can go to any extent to keep its status of superpower forever, which is not rational nor natural, it might cause irrecoverable loss to humankind. Unfortunate!

The 1955 GMC L’Universelle Dream Truck

The L’Universelle concept model was designed under the direction of Charles Jordan, a creative and talented automotive/truck designer. Jordan, who had worked in the GMC studio, became one of GM’s youngest and brightest designers, creating many successful projects during the 1950s. The L’Universelle project started out as a box design with the engine positioned up front followed by a big box interior design for the driver and cargo area. The interior was designed around the engine, which had allowed a certain separation of the cargo area from the driver’s cab area.

American movie and theater actress Maude Fealy, the 1900s

Modern Woman

Not everyone. But you know, unfortunately, this has become more or less the norm. Damn ugly. Or, in the ‘states we say “fugly”. Which means “fucking ugly”.

50 billion in Lend and Lease, Or why the US is doomed.

A ‘Word Cartoon’ by F(unny)MAN for the Saker Blog

Today, after some weeks on a Hospital recovering from a severe intoxication that almost killed me ⁽¹⁾ and which have keep me between life and dead due to the secondary effects of such event (I mean the intoxication) the doctors found the medical solution to heal me, applied it and… voila 20 minutes later I am at home again reading that the US Government is preparing to give aid under the Lend and Lease Act to the Ukrainian Satrapy (AKA Country 404) in order to maintain it afloat, rebuild its army, and of course launch a counteroffensive that will push Russia beyond the Urals, and surely for 50 billion more, beyond the Kolyma Mountains.

Everybody knows that the Americans do this because they live in a country of abundance, a functional post scarcity society, where money is not an issue, and the Populus in general are only dedicated to their personal advancement thanks to education, philosophical and scientifical research, et cetera. A country where politicians only think on how to improve the wellbeing of their fellow countrymen, and work unstoppable to do it, no matter the costs…

uh oh … looks like another seizure… yes? No? No, false alarm. Just some after effects of the intoxication still.

As I said, 50 Billion Dollars! Any normal country can do quite a lot with that money! If it is only invested in the Army, then Hell! They can have an army as well equipped and efficient as some of the best armies⁽³⁾ in the World

But, lets ask ourselves: what can a country like 404 do with such amount?

First, we must apply Mathematics to know how much of that 50 billions really get to 404. Yes sorry, it is another Essay with Mathematics, because they never lie.

For this we are going to apply a Formula:

R₄₀₄= B*(1-(f₁+f₂+f₃+…+*f_n))

Where the Terms are

R₄₀₄ is the Real amount of MoneyMoneyMoney that the Country 404 really gets

B is the planned Lend and Lease amount to be throw away through the window given

f_n are Reality Modifiers Factors such as:

f1 : Us Congressmen racket percentage, which vary between 3 and 50%

f2 : Financial handlers theft Fees; usually not smaller than 10%

f3 : 404 Congressmen bribery salary percentage, usually a Term called ATCS⁽⁴⁾

f4 : 404 Oligarchic shakedown Percentage, usually a Term called ATCSFWL⁽⁵⁾

f5 : Military Industrial Complex CRAP ⁽⁶⁾ brazen robbery Overpricing Factor

when the Formula is worked

R₄₀₄ = 50.000.000.000*(1-(0,5*0,1*0,14*0,14*0,1) = 1000.000.000

R₄₀₄ = 1 billion Dollars.

Taking into account the effectivity of such investments in past events⁽⁷⁾after some months the Country 404 should surely muster a 10 men Army, equipped with hundredths of (obsolete) Tanks, APC, Planes, Artillery systems, anti-tank and anti-air rocket launchers (no warranty that any of these functions properly) with millions of tons of ammo (no warranty to be the appropriate ones for the mentioned weapons before). Of these men, half of them in Ironman suits and the other half dressed in Batman suits… that would terrorize the Russian people, Army soldiers, general Shoigu, minister Lavrov and Pres. Putin himself. And that would revert the Tide of Russian Hordes, destroying them in the process, and reach the Urals (and surely for 50 billion more, even reach the Kolyma Mountains as mentioned before)

Meanwhile, in Country 404, elites⁽⁸⁾ and whomever can, is trying to leave the country to survive the reckoning in perspective.

In the US… same Shit as every day.

1. 1. The intoxication was caused accidentally when my television entered in a Zapping Cycle which exposed me to MSM reporting of the Events in Ukraine for about 4 minutes. Watching the News of CNN, BBC, CNBC, and such started a process of severe laughing that combined with the brain seizures were almost mortal.
  2. The medical solution has been around for quite a long time, it is a product that taken in small (or big, it doesn’t really matter) quantities makes you immune to Covid, poisoning, dementia and other maladies. Fact is, it makes you immortal! The Product is the (in)famous NOVICHOK. As all those who have taken it can testify about its efficiency.
  3. Best armies in the world with a budget close to 50 billion annually.

Reader Discretion is advised, this information about the best armies can cause severe laughing, and diarrhea once understood.

La France ca. 56 billion annual budget
Das Germany ca. 56 billion annual budget
Saudi Barbaria ca. 55 billion annual budget
Japan ca. 54 billion annual budget
South Korea ca. 50 billion annual budget

ATCS = All They Can Steal
ATCSFWL= All They Can Steal From What is Left

Please Note that ATCS and ATCSFWL are interchangeable and have a mathematical tendence to be as high as possible percentually, and catch me if you can.

The products of the Military Industrial Complex, also known as CRAP, an Acronym for Concoptions Really Absurdly (over)Priced. As effective as those charlatan potions for hair growing,
Wart removers and various maladies alleviators, et al. Sold in the Far West in the nineteen century.
The 5 Syrian Rebels… yes, those trained for 500 million Dollars.
By elites we all know I am referring to those oligarchs, politicians, and banderites that have done an ATCS or ATCSFWL to improve their personal advancement as exiles in other countries.

Kodachrome Stories

We love Kodachromes and we love found photos.

Nice.

The Secret for better Coffee – Birds and bees

From HERE

The combined positive effects of birds and bees on fruit set, fruit weight, and fruit uniformity — key factors in quality and price — were greater than their individual effects, the study shows. Without birds and bees, the average yield declined nearly 25%, valued at roughly $1,066 per hectare.

Linear, categorical thinking that reflects the perspective of the individual turns out to work OK for manufacturing and laboratories but terrible in more complex environments, where ecosystems — flexible, mutual systems based on natural selection and niche-seeking — consistently enhance quantity and quality of output.

The 1955 GMC L’Universelle Dream Truck

Jordan along with many other GM design team employees, created a monospace form with large chrome bumpers and a compact style. Some automotive historians have said that the L’ Universelle show model offered a strong character line wrapped around the front and continuing along the sides before curving down to the rear wheels. The model also offered a panoramic windshield design, which became very popular on many vehicles during the 1950s. The front-end design offered the same look that found on passenger vehicles. The show truck also offered twin side doors which could open in a gullwing design for the driver or passengers.

A Victorian era woman getting photographed for the first time, the 1890s

A real beauty.

Modern United States woman

Not everyone is fat, but many, many are. Personally this chick is fugly on a new scale.

Genetic study confirms Sarin Nerve gas as a cause of Gulf War Illness

From HERE

Dr. Haley’s research group not only discovered that veterans with exposure to sarin were more likely to develop GWI, but also found that the risk was modulated by a gene that normally allows some people’s bodies to better break down the nerve gas. Gulf War veterans with a weak variant of the gene who were exposed to sarin were more likely to develop symptoms of GWI than other exposed veterans who had the strong form of the gene.

“Quite simply, our findings prove that Gulf War illness was caused by sarin, which was released when we bombed Iraqi chemical weapons storage and production facilities,” said Dr. Haley, a medical epidemiologist who has been investigating GWI for 28 years. “There are still more than 100,000 Gulf War veterans who are not getting help for this illness and our hope is that these findings will accelerate the search for better treatment.”

So much for the “there were no WMD” trope.

Kodachrome Stories

We love Kodachromes and we love found photos.

Social Media identifies the clerk behind the Supreme court abortion law leak

From HERE

As a Yale student, Jain blasted Yale for supporting Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Jain was quoted in a 2017 Politico piece by Josh Gerstein.
Today, Gerstein published the draft SCOTUS opinion on Roe.

If true, it has ominous implications for how the diversity will run a Supreme Court.

“My beautiful grandmother, 1949”

Sweet.

The 1955 GMC L’Universelle Dream Truck

Another person that was a part of the L’Universelle project was Philip Monaghan, the vice president and general manager of the GMC division at the time, who said, “The basic design of the L’Universelle is a panel delivery; minor manufacturing changes can convert it into a small bus, taxi, station wagon, or sportsman’s car.”

Australia says that a “Chinese spy ship” has been hugging the West Coast

From HERE

He said it was without precedent for a Chinese warship to venture so far south and that authorities were monitoring the ship closely with planes and surveillance techniques. He said he wanted to be open and honest with Australians about the situation.

“I think it is an aggressive act, and I think particularly because it has come so far south,” Dutton said.

If I were China, I’d do the same thing. I’d be monitoring the shit out of the military bases in Western Australia.

Breaking Bad – Half Measures Speech

The television show “Breaking Bad” has many, many lessions and stories of great signifigance; ones that can be taken out and used to illustrate situations. This is one of the best.

It follows the 48 Laws of Power. No half-measures. Go all in, or don’t bother doing anything. Watch this five minute segment.

Kodachrome Stories

Monte Cristo sandwich Recipe

One of my all-time favorite sandwiches. If you have never tried this, then boy-oh-boy are you missing out!

Algerian girl, around 1905

The 1955 GMC L’Universelle Dream Truck

Although the concept truck was unveiled at the Motorama show in 1955, it never saw production. However, the L’Universelle concept did influence other Chevrolet truck designs during the 1960s. For example, the first passenger compact van by Chevrolet, the Greenbriar Corvair model, used a lower interior space design for passenger comfort and safety that came from the L’ Universelle.

“My great-great-grandmother, late 1910s”

I love her dress.

Glen Campbell – Wichita Lineman (Live Goodtime Hour)

I hope that this brings back memories. Happy ones.

Kodachrome Stories

We love Kodachromes and we love found photos.

U.S. Begins Nuclear War Exercises

Nation Hal Turner

Chilling scenes show the United States preparing for nuclear war. The Guardian Response 22 homeland emergency exercise features role-players displaying horrific injuries, as hazmat-suited personnel attempt to handle the fall-out.

Taking place at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, Indiana, U.S. Army Soldiers are evaluated based on how they apply occupational skills to a notional nuclear event. Sgt. Jermaine Jackson, 300th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, said: “What are your plans if a 5-ton nuclear device detonates in your city?

“While unlikely, the U.S. Army trains to assist communities in these worst-case scenarios and enhance mission readiness during homeland emergency response exercises such as Guardian Response 22, which is hosted by the U.S. Army Reserve’s 78th Training Division.”

During the exercise, multiple units, which fall within the Defense Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Response Force, such as the 63rd Chemical Company, the 581st Area Support Medical Company, and the 2nd Battalion, 3rd General Support Aviation Battalion, work to test unit readiness and responsiveness.

Staff Sgt. Francisco Vasquez, leader of 4th Squad, 2nd Platoon, 172nd Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Company, participated in Guardian Response for the first time with his unit.

Vasquez and his unit have trained since February to be evaluated on Mass Casualty Decontamination, but he said he is able to use his spare time to ready his soldiers, ensuring they are quicker and more precise when it comes to setting up a decontamination tent.

Vasquez and his team are responsible for decontaminating anyone contaminated in this nuclear scenario. Their hard work made them capable of setting up a decontamination tent within thirty-six minutes which is twenty-eight minutes faster than required.

“The soldiers and I, once we found out our roles, needed to learn how to conduct this (exercise) at one hundred percent. Not cutting corners. We built team cohesion, we worked together real well. They know what’s expected of me, and I know how much I have to give to them,” said Staff Sgt. Vasquez, during the decontamination tent set-up evaluation.

“I’m always drained at the end of this, because I’m always giving them one hundred percent.”

Kodachrome Stories

We love Kodachromes and we love found photos. These young men look great in their “great coats”.

American actress Julia Marlowe, 1899

Julia Marlowe’s career began fortuitously in 1879. A theatrical manager in Cincinnati, Colonel Robert E.J. Miles, undertook to stage the popular comic opera, Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore, in Vincennes, Ohio, using children from the local public schools in Cincinnati (such children’s productions were very popular at that time).

The Contrast…

It is disturbing.

French dancer Cléo de Mérode, 1902

Disturbing scene from America

Yikes!

Supertramp – Take The Long Way Home (Audio)

I was in High School when this was a popular song, but it wasn’t until decades later, when I was in my mid-30s, when the lyrics really hit home. I think everyone can relate to what the song is all about.

Middle-life crisis.

Maude Adams, American theater actress, 1890

Disturbing American “citizen”…

“She” needs a shave.

85291384

Top Russian Official Says NATO Risking ‘Full-Fledged’ Nuclear War

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the deputy of Russia’s Security Council, warned Thursday that the US and NATO risk a direct conflict with Russia and a “full-fledged” nuclear war by pouring weapons into Ukraine.

“The pumping of Ukraine by NATO countries with weapons, the training of its troops to use Western equipment, the dispatch of mercenaries and the conduct of exercises by the countries of the Alliance near our borders increase the likelihood of a direct and open conflict between NATO and Russia instead of their ‘war by proxy,’” Medvedev wrote on Telegram.

“Such a conflict always has the risk of turning into a full-fledged nuclear war,” Medvedev added. “This will be a disastrous scenario for everyone.”

While it’s widely believed that a direct war between the US and Russia could quickly turn nuclear, the risk doesn’t appear to be factored into the Biden administration’s Ukraine policy. Over the past few months, the US has significantly escalated its support to Kyiv in its war against Russia through increased military aid, training, and expanded intelligence sharing.

President Biden has maintained that he won’t send US troops into Ukraine to fight Russia directly, but the proxy war still risks provoking a response from Moscow. Despite the risks, some ultra-hawks in Washington favor a direct conflict with Russia, including Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL).

Kinzinger introduced a bill that would give President Biden war powers if he determined Moscow used chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons in Ukraine, but the legislation failed to gain a single cosponsor.

Kinzinger is also a proponent of the US enforcing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which would require shooting down Russian warplanes and bombing surface-to-air missiles inside Russia.

Minnie Ashley, American actress, 1896

Another very disturbing American “person”…

A true “it”.

Democrat Majority Leader: “We are at war”

Nation Hal Turner 14 May 2022

The Democrat Party Leader of the United States House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer (D-MD) took to the floor of the US House of Representatives last night and told that body “We are at war.” He was referring to . . . Russia.

Here’s the 30 second video where he complains “I know there’s a lot of politics here, but we are at war:

This man is the leader of the political party that has actual control over the House of Representatives. As such, his words carry a LOT of weight.

How do you think Russia will interpret this when they calculate whether or not they have to launch a nuclear attack at the United States to put an end to the meddling in Ukraine?

This man and his political party, are sleepwalking directly into world war 3, and he’s going to get you and your family, killed with his comments.

Ione Bright, Broadway actress, 1912

A United States woman

I’m pretty sure. But, you know, I could be wrong.

Karate Kid Final Fight. Dre Parker vs Cheng. // Kung fu Fight // Jackie Chan.

A great scene. Worth a rewatch.

Finland defaults on debt for electricity, Russia Shuts them off!

The country of Finland has defaulted on debt for electricity to Russian supplier, RAO.

As of Saturday, May 14, Russia halted electric supply to Finland due to the unpaid debt, reducing Finland’s national electric supply by a full ten percent.

RAO Nordic, a subsidiary of the Russian company Inter RAO, announced its intention to cut off the supply of electricity a day earlier.

(You don’t pay your bill you don’t get the product. -MM)

Bread – The Guitar Man LIVE FULL HD (with lyrics) 1978

I’m entering middle school in the 1970s. And this song is my life. I’m wearing bell-bottom jeans. I have a “choker” collar, and a MIA bracelet.

Do you want more?

New Beginnings 4

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The full extent of biological weapons use by the United States in Ukraine, with 1965 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, Kodachromes, Glamorous Vintage Camper, the death of both Xi Peng and Putin.

Well, the captured Canadian NATO general in charge of the bioweapons program in Ukraine has “spilled the beans”, the resulting is a true horror. What the United States has been doing makes Nazi Germany look like amateurs. But first, let’s present some various articles and thoughts designed to throw off the troll-bots, the sniffer bots, the vault 7 DOSA, and other systems that suppress this information and opinions from entering the Western Internet…We have to cut through all the lies.

This is too good not to be credited to Brian Berletic:

The United States (and small collective west) is refusing to choose the option that makes sense. This option is coexistence with the rest of the world. Their objective of maintaining primacy over the rest of the world is no longer attainable.

I cracked open the “Drudge Report” for shits and giggles! Did you know that Russian President Putin is going to die of blood cancer, any day now? Oh, yeah! Oh, and Chinese leader Xi Peng is going to die of a brain aneurysm! Yes! What do you know…?

The bullshit is so very deep in the United States these days. You have to be an absolute moron to actually believe the nonsense.

Gonzalo Lira calculated the current rate of attrition:

At the current rate of attrition, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will see 10,000 soldiers die by the end of this month, another 20,000 dead by the end of June. This war cannot be won by Ukraine—it’s over. The only solution is to sue for peace. But the US won’t allow this.

War in Ukraine map – 14MAY22

It’s pretty good.

Marshall Tucker Band “Can’t You See” @Epcot 05/10/2019

Here’s a shout out to all the “old timers” here on MM…

Russia To Halt Electricity Exports To Finland On Saturday | OilPrice.com

The crusaders asking for it:

Following Thursday’s report that Russia threatened to cut the flow of gas to Finland, Russia—through its entity RAO, will suspend imports of electricity to Finland as of 1:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 14, Fingrid said on Friday in a statement on its website.

The Finnish transmission system operator, Fingrid, claims that the security of Finland’s power supply is not under threat, with 10% of its electricity consumption imported from Russia.

Reima Paivinen, Senior VP of Power System Operations at Fingrid, said that whatever electricity is typically imported from Russia “will be compensated by importing more electricity from Sweden and by generating more electricity in Finland.”

From HERE

BREAKING NEWS: TURKEY MAY VETO ENTRY OF FINLAND & SWEDEN INTO NATO

World Hal Turner Hits: 9042

Turkish President Recypt Erdogan signals his country may VETO entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO. Erdogan claims Finland hosts “terrorist” organizations that are against Turkey . . . .

Erdogan also says Greece return to NATO in 1980 with Turkey’s approval, was a mistake.

Developing . . .

1965 Cadillac Coupe DeVille

Cadillac was “Standard of the World” in motoring pleasure and owner loyalty. “So new, so right, so obviously Cadillac!” This editorial is dedicated to those who regard their motorcars as prized possessions. Once one has been in the driver’s seat of a new Cadillac… it is difficult to become content with any other car.

Here is another classic DeVille encore performance… in the continuing saga of “As the Standard of the World Turns.”

Another body change gave every 1965 Cadillac a longer, lower silhouette. Rear fenders were now planed ruler-flat in profile, though a hint of fin was preserved via a recontoured rear deck. Also new were a straight back bumper and vertical lamp clusters.

Up front for the 1965 Cadillac line, the headlight pairs were switched from horizontal to vertical, making for an even wider grille. Curved side windows appeared, six-window hardtop sedans disappeared, and pillared sedans returned in Calais, DeVille and Sixty Special guise. The Special also reverted to its exclusive 133-inch wheelbase (last used from 1954 to 1958).

The 1965 Cadillac Series 62 was renamed Calais, but its roster was thinned to just two hardtops and a pillared sedan. The convertible moved to the midrange DeVille series, which had been gaining popularity since its 1959 inaugural.

At the top of the 1965 Cadillac line, the Eldorado convertible and Sixty Special sedan officially became Fleetwoods, adopting the “carriage trade” Series 75 models’ nameplates, wreath-and-crest medallions, broad rocker-panel and rear-quarter brightwork, and rectangular-pattern rear appliqués. A new Fleetwood Brougham sedan (actually a Sixty Special trim option) came with a vinyl roof and “Brougham” script on the rear pillars.

Despite an unchanged V-8, the slightly lighter 1965 Cadillac lineup boasted the luxury field’s best power-to-weight ratio. A new “Dual driving range” Turbo Hydra-Matic transmission and full-perimeter frames (replacing the X-type used since ’57) were adopted except on Series 75s, and all 1965 Cadillac models came with a new “sonically balanced” exhaust system. Amazingly, prices weren’t too far above what they’d been back in 1961.

Cadillac had a resounding 1965, producing close to 200,000 cars. But it was a great year for all Detroit, so that volume was only good for 11th place.

And…

And…

And…

United States Navy Capability 2022

USN amphibious capability is slowly rusting away and not enough Marines can be recruited to staff them. Annually, the Heritage Organization publishes a report on the Outlaw US Empire’s Military Readiness in several very distinct categories that’s widely respected for its objectivity. There’s a large mass of material to wade through from that initial page. Although it says this is the 2022 assessment, you’ll note that most articles and assessments are dated October 2021. There’s one page that sums it all up and this is it.

After the narrative and tables we read the following:

“In the aggregate, the United States’ military posture is rated ‘marginal.’ The 2022 Index concludes that the current U.S. military force is likely capable of meeting the demands of a single major regional conflict while also attending to various presence and engagement activities but that it would be very hard-pressed to do more and certainly would be ill-equipped to handle two nearly simultaneous major regional contingencies.” [Emphasis Original]

What I’ve read over the last 6-7 months since that was published doesn’t provide any facts that would allow for any improvement in the Marginal rating while others would argue a slight worsening, particularly in the Air Force. And when you look at the massive sums of money spent for such mediocre results and more now being thrown at it, there’s very little grounds for improvement by the next assessment.

– karlof1

Travel out of China halted as Xi Jinping doubles down on zero COVID

Saving the lives of Chinese citizens.

"China has banned its citizens from leaving the country for non-essential travel as Xi Jinping ramps up efforts to stamp out COVID-19 despite the rising economic costs..."

Economic costs? China is doing great. Sheech!

From HERE

Victor Berlemont, a French publican working in an establishment of London’s Soho, circa 1939.

China making it’s place on the globe

Not only is China trouncing the US in Asia, but also in much of the rest of the world. Picking two areas:

Africa has provided the best fit for and has been the most receptive to China’s development-focused economic diplomacy. China claims a historic solidarity with developing countries in the region, which has bolstered intensified trade, investment, and financial relations.

China’s role in Latin America is mostly defined by commodity trade and investment. Its economic and political influence in Latin America will be only as strong as its commodity-based links to the region. Yet, given that the United States has frequently been a fickle partner for Latin American countries, their government and business leaders will continue to look for alternatives. . .here

Kodachrome Stories

How to Make Butter-Basted Fish Fillets with Garlic and Thyme

This is NOT common knowledge. You all need to learn how to cook fish, especially the fish that you catch yourself.

“POLAND NEXT?”

World Hal Turner Hits: 10976

A Russia State Duma (Parliament) deputy proposed to put “Poland next in line for denazification after Ukraine.”

The Polish leadership’s statements about Russia “as a cancerous tumor” and about indemnities to Ukraine prompt the Russian Federation to “put it in line for denazification,” said Oleg Morozov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Control.

“By its statements about Russia as a ‘cancer tumor’ and about the ‘indemnity’ that we must pay to Ukraine , Poland encourages us to put it in first place in the queue for denazification after Ukraine,” Morozov wrote in his Telegram channel.

Earlier, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in a Telegraph column that he considers the Russian world “a cancer that poses a deadly threat to the whole of Europe.” in his opinion, it needs to be “eradicated.”

Also, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that Russia would be forced to pay indemnity to Ukraine.

Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal “the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.”

For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out “demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine”, to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for “bloody crimes against civilians” in Donbass .

Briefing: analysis of documents related to the military biological activities of the United States on the territory of Ukraine May 11, 2022

33789 Views May 11, 2022

From HERE.

Ideologues of US military-biological activities in Ukraine are the leaders of the Democratic Party.

▫️Thus, through the US executive branch, a legislative framework for funding military biomedical research directly from the federal budget was formed. Funds were raised under state guarantees from NGOs controlled by the Democratic Party leadership, including the investment funds of the Clintons, Rockefellers, Soros and Biden.

▫️The scheme involves major pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Moderna, Merck and the US military-affiliated company Gilead. U.S. experts are working to test new medicines that circumvent international safety standards. As a result, Western companies are seriously reducing the cost of research programmes and gaining a significant competitive advantage.

▫️The involvement of controlled nongovernmental and biotechnological organisations, and the increase in their revenues, allows the leaders of the Democratic Party to generate additional campaign finance and hide its distribution.

▫️In addition to US pharmaceutical companies and Pentagon contractors, Ukrainian state agencies are involved in military bioweapons activities, whose main tasks are to conceal illegal activities, conduct field and clinical trials and provide the necessary biomaterial.

▫️Thus, the US Department of Defence, using a virtually internationally uncontrolled test site and the high-tech facilities of multinational companies, has greatly expanded its research capabilities, not only in the field of biological weapons, but also in gaining knowledge about antibiotic resistance and the antibodies to specific diseases in populations in specific regions.

Not only the US, but also a number of its NATO allies are implementing their military-biological projects in Ukraine.

▫️The German government has decided to launch a national biosafety programme independent of Washington, D.C., starting in 2013. Twelve countries, including Ukraine, are involved in the Programme.

▫️On the German side, the programme involves the Institute for Armed Forces Microbiology (Munich), the Robert Koch Institute (Berlin), the Loeffler Institute (Greifswald) and the Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (Hamburg).

▫️New documents reveal that between 2016 and 2019 alone, three and a half thousand blood serum samples of citizens living in 25 regions of Ukraine were taken by military epidemiologists from the Bundeswehr Microbiology Institute.

▫️The involvement of institutions subordinate to the Bundeswehr confirms the military orientation of biological research carried out in Ukrainian laboratories and raises questions about the goals pursued by the German armed forces in collecting biomaterials of Ukrainian citizens.

▫️The documents obtained also show the involvement of Poland in Ukrainian biolaboratories. The participation of the Polish Institute of Veterinary Medicine in research aimed at assessing the epidemiological threats and spread of the rabies virus in Ukraine has been confirmed. Characteristically, the research in question was carried out jointly with the US-based Battelle Institute, a key contractor for the Pentagon.

▫️In addition, Polish funding for the Lvov Medical University, which includes a member of US military biology projects, the Institute of Epidemiology and Hygiene, has been documented. The organisation has been running a retraining programme for specialists with experience of working with dual-use materials and technologies since 2002.

We have received new information revealing details of the Pentagon’s inhuman experiments on Ukrainian citizens in Psychiatric Hospital No 1 (Streleche village, Kharkov region).

◽️The main category of subjects was a group of male patients aged 40-60 years with a high stage of physical exhaustion.

◽️In order to conceal their US affiliation, the biological research experts travelled via third countries. Here is a photograph of Florida native Linda Oporto, who was directly involved in these works.

◽️In January 2022, the foreign nationals conducting the experiments were evacuated in an emergency and the equipment and drugs they were using were taken to western Ukraine.

Evidence of emergency destruction of documents confirming work with the US military establishment was obtained.

◽️ A preliminary analysis of extant documentation indicates the use of Mariupol as a regional centre for cholera pathogen collection and certification. The selected strains were sent to the Public Health Centre in Kiev, which is responsible for the onward shipment of biomaterials to the United States. These activities have been carried out since 2014, as evidenced by the transfer of strains.

◽️ An act of destruction of the pathogen collection dated February 25, 2022, according to which cholera, tularemia and anthrax pathogens were handled there, was found in the sanitary and epidemiological laboratory.

◽️ Part of the collection of the veterinary laboratory was not destroyed in a hurry. In order to ensure safety and secure storage, 124 strains were exported by Russian specialists and their study was organised.

◽️ The presence in the collection of pathogens that are uncharacteristic of veterinary medicine, such as typhoid, paratyphoid fever and gas gangrene, is a cause for concern. This could indicate the laboratory’s misuse and involvement in a military biological programme.

◽️ We will continue to examine the full volume of material received from the Mariupol biolaboratories and will inform you about the results.

2. Full Briefing

The Russian Defence Ministry continues to study materials on the implementation of military biological programs of the United States and its NATO allies on the territory of Ukraine.

We have already mentioned Robert Pope, director of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Programme and author of the idea of the Central Depository of Highly Dangerous Microorganisms in Kiev.

In his statement of April 10, 2022, Pope said that “…there is no reason to claim that research related to the development of biological weapons is taking place in Ukraine…”. He previously claimed that “…the Americans did not find biological weapons when they first started working with Ukraine, and they still haven’t. In addition, Ukraine lacks the infrastructure to develop and produce biological weapons…”.

I would like to recall that the term “biological weapons” includes biological formulations that contain pathogenic micro-organisms and toxins, as well as the means of delivery and use of said formulations.

While the priority for Ukrainian healthcare is socially significant diseases such as HIV, poliomyelitis, measles and hepatitis, US customers are interested in a completely different nomenclature: cholera, tularemia, plague and hantaviruses.

As a result of the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine, facts of work with the specified pathogens, which are potential agents of biological weapons, have been revealed. At the same time, it was noted that Ukraine had sent a request to the manufacturing company regarding the possibility of equipping the Bayraktar drones with aerosol equipment.

In addition on March 9, three unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with 30-litre containers and equipment for spraying formulations were detected by Russian reconnaissance units in Kherson region. At the end of April, 10 more were found near Kakhovka.

All this information calls into question the statements of American experts.

We have previously provided a scheme for US coordination of biological laboratories and research institutes in Ukraine. Its preliminary analysis suggests that Ukraine is essentially a testing ground for the development of biological weapons components and the testing of new samples of pharmaceuticals.

The Russian Ministry of Defence was able to clarify the said scheme.

It should be noted that the ideologues of US military-biological activities in Ukraine are the leaders of the Democratic Party.

Thus, through the US executive branch, a legislative framework for funding military biomedical research directly from the federal budget was formed. Funds were raised under state guarantees from NGOs controlled by the Democratic Party leadership, including the investment funds of the Clintons, Rockefellers, Soros and Biden.

The scheme involves major pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Moderna, Merck and the US military-affiliated company Gilead. U.S. experts are working to test new medicines that circumvent international safety standards. As a result, Western companies are seriously reducing the cost of research programmes and gaining a significant competitive advantage.

The involvement of controlled nongovernmental and biotechnological organisations, and the increase in their revenues, allows the leaders of the Democratic Party to generate additional campaign finance and hide its distribution.

In addition to US pharmaceutical companies and Pentagon contractors, Ukrainian state agencies are involved in military bioweapons activities, whose main tasks are to conceal illegal activities, conduct field and clinical trials and provide the necessary biomaterial.

Thus, the US Department of Defence, using a virtually internationally uncontrolled test site and the high-tech facilities of multinational companies, has greatly expanded its research capabilities, not only in the field of biological weapons, but also in gaining knowledge about antibiotic resistance and the antibodies to specific diseases in populations in specific regions.

It should be noted that not only the US, but also a number of its NATO allies are implementing their military-biological projects in Ukraine.

The German government has decided to launch a national biosafety programme independent of Washington, D.C., starting in 2013. Twelve countries, including Ukraine, are involved in the Programme.

On the German side, the programme involves the Institute for Armed Forces Microbiology (Munich), the Robert Koch Institute (Berlin), the Loeffler Institute (Greifswald) and the Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (Hamburg).

New documents reveal that between 2016 and 2019 alone, three and a half thousand blood serum samples of citizens living in 25 regions of Ukraine were taken by military epidemiologists from the Bundeswehr Microbiology Institute.

The involvement of institutions subordinate to the Bundeswehr confirms the military orientation of biological research carried out in Ukrainian laboratories and raises questions about the goals pursued by the German armed forces in collecting biomaterials of Ukrainian citizens.

The documents obtained also show the involvement of Poland in Ukrainian biolaboratories. The participation of the Polish Institute of Veterinary Medicine in research aimed at assessing the epidemiological threats and spread of the rabies virus in Ukraine has been confirmed. Characteristically, the research in question was carried out jointly with the US-based Battelle Institute, a key contractor for the Pentagon.

In addition, Polish funding for the Lvov Medical University, which includes a member of US military biology projects, the Institute of Epidemiology and Hygiene, has been documented. The organisation has been running a retraining programme for specialists with experience of working with dual-use materials and technologies since 2002.

The special military operation by Russian troops succeeded in obtaining additional information about bio-incidents in Ukraine.

For example, materials indicating the intentional use of a multidrug-resistant tuberculosis pathogen in 2020 to infect the population of the Slavyanoserbsky district of the LPR were examined.

The flyers, made in the form of counterfeit currency notes, were infected with the tuberculosis agent and distributed to minors in Stepovoe village. The organisers of this crime took into account the behaviour of children, who have a habit of “putting everything in their mouths” and taking food with unwashed hands.

The results of bacteriological studies have confirmed the resistance of the isolated bacteria to first- and second-line anti-TB drugs, meaning that the disease caused by them is much more difficult to treat and the cost of treatment is much higher.

According to the conclusion of the Lugansk Republican Sanitary and Epidemiological Station,

 “…the contamination of the notes was most likely carried out artificially, as the material contains extremely dangerous strains of the pathogen in concentrations capable of ensuring infection and development of the tuberculosis process…”.

In his conclusion, the chief doctor of the Lugansk Republican TB Dispensary also notes that

“…there are all signs of deliberate, man-made contamination of the flyers with highly pathogenic biomaterial…”.

We previously reported on trials of potentially dangerous biological drugs on one of the least protected categories of people – patients of the Kharkov Regional Clinical Psychiatric Hospital No 3.

We have received new information revealing details of the Pentagon’s inhuman experiments on Ukrainian citizens in Psychiatric Hospital No 1 (Streleche village, Kharkov region). The main category of subjects was a group of male patients aged 40-60 years with a high stage of physical exhaustion.

In order to conceal their US affiliation, the biological research experts travelled via third countries. Here is a photograph of Florida native Linda Oporto, who was directly involved in these works.

In January 2022, the foreign nationals conducting the experiments were evacuated in an emergency and the equipment and drugs they were using were taken to western Ukraine.

Russian Defence Ministry specialists have carried out work directly in two biolaboratories in Mariupol.

Evidence of emergency destruction of documents confirming work with the US military establishment was obtained.

A preliminary analysis of extant documentation indicates the use of Mariupol as a regional centre for cholera pathogen collection and certification. The selected strains were sent to the Public Health Centre in Kiev, which is responsible for the onward shipment of biomaterials to the United States. These activities have been carried out since 2014, as evidenced by the transfer of strains.

An act of destruction of the pathogen collection dated February 25, 2022, according to which cholera, tularemia and anthrax pathogens were handled there, was found in the sanitary and epidemiological laboratory.

Part of the collection of the veterinary laboratory was not destroyed in a hurry. In order to ensure safety and secure storage, 124 strains were exported by Russian specialists and their study was organised.

The presence in the collection of pathogens that are uncharacteristic of veterinary medicine, such as typhoid, paratyphoid fever and gas gangrene, is a cause for concern. This could indicate the laboratory’s misuse and involvement in a military biological programme.

We will continue to examine the full volume of material received from the Mariupol biolaboratories and will inform you about the results.

The Russian Ministry of Defence has information that provocations are being prepared to accuse the Russian Armed Forces of using weapons of mass destruction, followed by a “Syrian scenario” investigation to fabricate the necessary evidence and assign blame.

The high likelihood of such provocations is confirmed by requests from the Kiev administration for personal skin and respiratory protection equipment that provides protection against toxic chemicals and biological contaminating agents. The supply to Ukraine of organophosphorus poisoning antidotes raises concerns. In 2022 alone, more than 220,000 ampoules of atropine, as well as preparations for special treatment and disinfection, were delivered from the USA at the request of the Ukrainian Ministry of Health.

Thus, the information obtained confirms that the United States is implementing an offensive military-biological programme in Ukraine to study the possibility of forming controlled epidemics in specific territories.

The special military operation of the Russian Armed Forces has crossed the US military-biological expansion in Ukraine and stopped criminal experiments on civilians.

MM Comments

This is pure evil.

The information has been shared between Russia, China and the SEO.

You can well expect that there are going to be some very INTERESTING responses to these validations of Chinese and Russian accusations.

Gregg Allman – Laid Back Era

Ah. Such memories. I haven’t heard this song in over 50 years. And yet, still, it resonates with me. I hope you all enjoy it.

Kodachrome Stories

We love Kodachromes and we love found photos.

The Number Of Rich Americans Buying Second Passports Has Skyrocketed 300% The Last 3 Years

Saturday, May 14, 2022 – 07:20 AM

In another note of optimism for our country, Americans with money are officially starting to stockpile second passports as “Plan B” for their families.

In fact, Americans who are citizenship or residency in foreign countries “has skyrocketed” over the last 3 years, according to a new report from Insider/Yahoo News. The report says that billionaires and entrepreneurs, along with celebrities, are all looking for a backup plan to the red, white and blue, should the proverbial stuff hit the fan.

Among the worries of the rich remain Covid, climate change and political turmoil, the report says.

Hum…

Coronavirus?
Climate Change?
Domestic Political Turmoil?

Yeah. Sure…

There are more than a dozen countries that offer what are called “golden passports” and visas, the report says. These passports allow foreigners to get citizenship solely for investments in the country.

For example, Malta has a program where you can receive citizenship for investing $1.1 million. In Austria, that number is $9.5 million.

Latitude Residency & Citizenship helps guide high net worth individuals through the application process. They say inquires from the U.S. are up 300% between 2019 and 2021. Another firm, Henley & Partners, has said that sales to American nationals were up 327% over the same time period.

One partner at Henley said there are “four C’s” driving his citizenship industry right now: COVID-19, climate change, cryptocurrency, and conflict.

So…

Coronavirus?
Climate Change?
Cryptocurrency?
Conflict?

Hum. Let me help you all out here. It’s Global Thermonuclear War initiated by a lunatic United States.

The executive told Insider:

“In the very strict lockdowns there was a point where if you only had an American passport, you could not enter Europe. I think that made a lot of particularly ultra high net worth individuals realize that they’re potentially a little bit more fragile than they thought.”

Reaz Jafri, CEO of Dasein Advisors, told Insider that he had seen more inquiries from Americans in the last 3 years than he had in the 20 years prior to that, combined.

“We’ve all lived through the past two and a half years. It all just reminded us how vulnerable and frail we are, and people who have means are accepting that it will happen again — and they don’t want to be caught off guard,”

Jafri said.

Ezzedeen Soleiman, a managing partner at Latitude, commented:

“We see these programs as an insurance policy. We’ve had some billionaires approach us and ask what’s the best place to live if there’s a climate catastrophe, or if there’s another storm, or another global pandemic.”

LOL.

Gimme Shelter – Apocalypse Now Music Video

Pretty darn well done. Check it oout.

Kodachrome Stories

We love Kodachromes and we love found photos.

Easy, Fall-off-the-Bone Chicken Wings Dinner | 鸡翅这样做太香了，全程小技巧

A friend of ours makes these, and OMG, the meat really does fall off the bone. It is so damn delicious. The video is in Chinese, but the subtitles and the actions are very clear, and in no time, you will be able to have the most amazing and delicious chicken wings that you have ever eaten… and I am NOT kidding. So very delicious.

‘An Engine That Does Not Work’: F-35 Program Office Lambasted For Stealth-Jets Poor Performance

Another one of the most advanced and expensive US weapon systems, I wonder what will happen when the American F-35 meets the Chinese J-20 in the South China Sea…

‘An Engine That Does Not Work’: F-35 Program Office Lambasted For Stealth Jets Poor Performance

The F-35 Joint Program Office came under fire from US lawmakers who questioned the under-performance of ‘America’s pride’ – the F-35 stealth fighter jets, during the nearly two-hour hearing of the House Armed Service Subcommittee on Readiness on April 28.

From HERE

United States eyes Cambodia

Previously three US senators tore into Cambodia. Senators Romney, Markey, Menendez and Risch introduced a resolution last October, on the 30-year anniversary of the Paris Peace Agreements. The resolution notes that the promise of the Paris Peace Agreements remains unfulfilled due to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s violations of Cambodia’s Constitution and effective one-party rule since 1993.
Back in November: US turns new screws on Cambodia’s Hun Sen Washington imposes new sanctions, threatens to lift GSP privileges and warns US companies against doing business in the kingdom .
For years, US officials have accused Phnom Penh of secretly agreeing to allow Chinese troops access to the strategically situated base. Chinese access to the Ream Naval Base could shift security dynamics in the South China Sea, giving Chinese vessels a new southern flank in the hotly contested waterway.
And lest we forget: Back fifty years ago: Cambodia was bombed with over 500,000 tons of ordnance until August 1973. About 600,000 deaths followed, mostly civilians, helping Khmer Rouge elements gain power in 1975.

Kodachrome Stories

Metals Access

It looks like the Trump trade war with China will continue with all subsequent administrations. Come the revolution…..

Have the geniuses at the Pentagon and Russell Hill, Canberra, noticed that China and Chinese interests are among the top 20 shareholders of many critical mineral ASX miners the Pentagon proposes to finance , like Lynas? [Lynas rare earth are used in the F35]

Or in true neo-liberal/robber baron behaviour on display of late, will they simply seize the Chinese holdings?

“Boost for ASX critical metals players as US Defense Department seeks to fund mining and processing in Australia”….

From HERE

It looks like neoliberalism carries the seed of its own destruction.

Empire of Bioweapon Lies

12373 Views May 13, 2022 50 Comments

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

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow / Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, / You cannot say, or guess, for you know only / A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, / And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, / And the dry stone no sound of water. Only / There is shadow under this red rock, / (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), / And I will show you something different from either / Your shadow at morning striding behind you / Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; / I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land: I. The Burial of the Dead, 1922

This glimpse of “fear in a handful of dust” already ranks as one the prime breakthroughs of the young 21^st century, presented this week by Chief of Russian Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection Force Igor Kirillov.

The provisional results of evidence being collected about the work of U.S. bioweapons in Ukraine are simply astonishing. These are the main takeaways.

1. U.S. bioweapon ideologues comprise the leadership of the Democratic Party. By linking with non-governmental biotechnology organizations, using the investment funds of the Clintons, Rockefellers, Soros and Biden, they profited from additional campaign financing – all duly concealed. In parallel, they assembled the legislative basis for financing the bioweapons program directly from the federal budget.
2. COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna, as well as Merck and Gilead – of Donald “known unknowns” fame, and affiliated with the Pentagon – were directly involved.
3. U.S. specialists tested new drugs in the Ukraine biolabs in circumvention of international safety standards. According to Kirillov, acting this way “Western companies seriously reduce the costs of research programs and gain significant competitive advantages.”
4. According to Kirillov, “along with U.S. pharmaceutical companies and Pentagon contractors, Ukrainian government agencies are involved in military biotechnology activities, whose main tasks are to conceal illegal activities, conduct field and clinical trials and provide the necessary biomaterial.”
5. The Pentagon, Kirillov pointed out, expanded its research potential not only in terms of producing biological weapons, but also gathering information on antibiotic resistance and the presence of antibodies to certain diseases among the population in specific regions. The testing ground in Ukraine was practically outside the control of the so-called “international community”.

These findings, amply documented, suggest a vast “legitimized” bioweapon racket reaching the highest levels of the American body politic. There’s no doubt the Russians plan to thoroughly unmask it for the benefit of world public opinion, starting with a War Crimes Tribunal to be set up this summer, most probably in Donetsk.

An ongoing U.S. bioweapons program in Ukraine was one of the Top Three reasons that led to the launch of Operation Z, side by side with preventing an imminent NATO-managed blitzkrieg against Donbass and Kiev’s desire to re-start a nuclear weapons program. These are Top Three red lines for Russia.

The strength of the collected evidence may directly correlate with what was largely interpreted as a carefully measured Victory Day speech by President Putin. The Kremlin does not bluff. It will certainly privilege the meticulous presentation of – bioweapon – facts on the ground over grandstanding rhetoric.

The return of Nord Stream 2

Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyaniskiy announced Russia’s demand for an open meeting of the UN Security Council to present further evidence related to U.S. biolabs in Ukraine. Even if the meeting would be vetoed by the U.S., the evidence will be entered by Russia on the UN records.

These developments provide an extra indication there’s absolutely no space left for diplomacy between Russia and the U.S./collective West, as Polyaniskiy himself suggested when commenting the possible accession of Ukraine to the EU: “The situation has changed after Mr. Borrell’s statement that ‘this war should be won on the battleground’ and after the fact that the European Union is the leader in deliveries of arms [to Ukraine].”

It gets worse. The next chapter is Finland’s drive to join NATO.

The Americans gamble that Finland – and Sweden – joining NATO will totally discredit Putin’s Operation Z as having accomplished next to nothing strategically: after all, in the near future, potential U.S. hypersonic missiles stationed in Finland and Sweden will be very close to Saint Petersburg and Moscow.

Meanwhile, Russian unmasking of the bioweapon racket will drive a toxic section of American political elites to turbo-charge their warmongering. It’s all following a carefully calculated script.

First, these bioweapon-supervising “elites” ordered the massive Kiev shelling of Donbas in early February. That forced the Kremlin’s hand, pushing it to launch Operation Z.

We should always remember that the ultimate goal in the U.S. plan of training Ukrainians for war since 2014 was to alienate Germany from Russia – as Germany de facto controls Euroland economically.

Imperial control of the oceans allows the Empire to strangle Germany at will into subservience by cutting them off from Russian energy – as the British did to Germany in WWII when Britannia ruled the waves. The Wehrmacht could not supply their mechanized army with fuel. Now, in theory, Germany and the EU will have to look to the seas – and total U.S. dependency – for their natural resources.

The remote-controlled Kiev regime dominated by SBU fanatics and Azov neo-Nazis is making it even harder – by shutting off all natural gas from Russia through Ukraine into Europe, reducing the flow by more than one third.

That translates as U.S.-enforced blackmail to force the EU to increase the Ukro-weaponizing against Russia. The practical consequences for Germany and the EU will be dire – in terms of shut down industries and cost of home heating and electrical power.

Russia, meanwhile, will rely on a bolstered Pipelineistan maze to China and East Asia as well as high-speed rail to transport all its natural resources.

Blowback against the Americans though is not off limits. Stranger things have happened. If gas transit to Europe via Ukraine is totally cut off, there are no alternatives. And that – assuming there are working IQs in Berlin – would open the way for a renegotiation on the future of Nord Stream 2.

As the head of the Energy Development Center Kirill Melnikov notes, “the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline is practically idle and one of the Nord Stream 2 lines is also ready for operation though the German regulator has not issued permission for its launch yet.”

That prompted Melnikov to a priceless comment: “If purchases remain the same, Germany will probably need to urgently allow the launch of one of the Nord Stream 2 lines in order to replace the Ukrainian transit route.”

No one ever lost money betting on the astonishing stupidity permeating EUrocrat decision levels. Even facing economic suicide, the EU is desperate to “abandon” Russian oil. Yet a full ban is impossible, because of energy-deprived Eastern Europe.

Every impartial energy analyst knows replacing Russian oil is D.O.A., for a number of reasons: the OPEC+ deal; the ghastly divide between Washington and Riyadh; the never-ending JCPOA renegotiation, where the Americans behave like headless chickens; and the crucial fact – beyond the understanding of EUrocrats – that European oil refineries are designed to use oil from the Urals.

So just when we thought we could enjoy the summer by watching Europe commit hara-kiri, it’s time to stock up on those Aperol Spritz. Get ready for a new hit series, season 1: Inside the American bioweapon racket.

Kodachrome Stories

This is the tastiest chicken breast I’ve ever eaten! Simple, cheap and very juicy!

Come on!

Ukraine Tonight: “Most Violent Rocket and Artillery Attacks in 8 years”

World Hal Turner Hits: 1066

Word is coming out of Luhansk, Ukraine tonight that battles between the Independent Luhansk Republic troops along with Russian troops, against Ukrainian troops are so ferocious tonight, the vibrations from the artillery and missile barrages are causing ground trembling 50km away.

A source inside Luhansk tells me

“There are powerful night battles on the front line in the LPR.

50 km away in Lugansk, the earth shudders from terrible explosions.

Fights with the use of artillery of the largest calibers can be heard from the direction of Pervomaisk-Stakhanov.

Something terrible is happening on the front line, you can hear it all the way in Lugansk.

There at the front line, probably, the earth is boiling.

You can also hear heavy work from us, we are hitting them with volleys of MLRS, and the arrivals are thumping, the earth is trembling,”

We are hearing the most violent and intense artillery and rocket attacks that we have ever heard since the start of the conflict 8 years ago!”

Kodachrome Stories

‘Easy Target For Chinese Subs’ – Why China’s New Attack Submarine With VLS Could ‘Deeply Endanger’ IAF Bases

Military experts believe that a vessel spotted in a Chinese shipyard in recently obtained satellite photographs could be a new or upgraded class of nuclear-powered attack submarine. The submarine is seen in a dry dock in Huludao Port in Liaoning province, as per images obtained by Reuters from private satellite imagery supplier Planet Labs and others circulating on social media. However, it is unclear whether the submarine seen in the images is a brand-new design, an improvement of an older vessel, or something entirely different.

From HERE.

Comments:

How about those sanctions? European Gas Buyers Switch to Ruble Payments – It’s reported another 14 firms – on top of the existing 20 – have requested the paperwork to set up accounts too. Italy and Germany – huge consumers of Russian gas – are among those that have switched. Draghi Says “Most Gas Importers” Have Opened Ruble Accounts With Gazprom

Ukrainian refugees are showing their mettle by knifing and killing a man in Poland who stepped up to defend a young woman that was harassed by the refugees. Other stories are coming out of Europe of refugees refusing to live next to people that are not white and four of them just decided to grab a villa in France, belonging to a Russian, and they moved right in. This trend can only continue.

A further trend: All of the reliable commentators on the SMO indicate that it is soon over. We do not know the shape that it will take though. Martyanov speaks about a definite trend on accelerating demoralization of VSU and the pronounced trend on the collapse of the VSU defenses as we can see from lack of equipment, ammo and very high losses. Ritter in his last video, talks about days or weeks. Larry Johnson talks about a Ukraine headed for defeat.

Glamorous Vintage Camper

A rare and fully restored ‘Holiday House Geographic’ midcentury trailer is for sale – and it offers a taste of modernist living on the open road. Only seven of the fibreglass caravans – designed by industrial engineer Chuck Pelly in 1962 with an original price tag of $8,500 – were ever made and only two thought to still exist.

Following its renovation by Oregon-based Flyte Camp, the four-berth Model X trailer is now for sale, priced at $250,000. It features an aluminium and wood frame, in a champagne and moss green colourway. Interiors meanwhile feature walnut surfaces and aluminium details, and moss-coloured upholstery and teak flooring.

And…

And…

Inside, the trailer features a black walnut skin that gives it a dark, cozy feel. The cabinetry and hardwood floors are also black walnut with custom aluminum detailing and LED strip lighting to add a bit of glamor. A sleek kitchen includes a stainless two-burner cooktop, a stainless-steel fridge, and a shiny sink with a built-in drain board.

And…

And…

And…

Heading To Scrapyard! US Navy To Discard Its ‘Brand New’ Warships Designed To Hunt Chinese Submarines

Apparently, US latest (so-called) advanced and most expensive war ships promoted years back are total BS in font of the latest PLA submarines and warships.

At a time when the US has acknowledged that it has fewer ships compared to its rival China, America’s naval chief Admiral Michael Gilday told the House Armed Services Committee that approximately nine ships should be scrapped, some of which were commissioned very recently.

Admiral Gilday justified the plans to discard nine relatively new warships in the 2023 fiscal year despite trying to outmatch China’s burgeoning fleet. Three of the littoral combat ships that are proposed to be decommissioned are just three years old.

Admiral Gilday told the House Armed Services Committee that the anti-submarine ships could not perform their primary job.

“I refuse to put an additional dollar against a system that would not be able to track a high-end submarine in today’s environment,”

Gilday said.

According to the Navy’s projected FY23 budget, retiring the ships will save the service about $391 million. However, this would only cover a small portion of the $3.2 billion costs of the nine littoral combat ships.

Having said that, the US Navy intends to decommission the warships to allocate resources for investing in a more robust and combat-ready fleet.

“The US Navy cannot outpace an increasingly capable PRC by retaining platforms that are decreasingly relevant in modern naval warfare.

While some of these platforms may have day-to-day utility in permissive environments, the Navy’s first obligation is to deliver a ready, combat-credible fleet with the funding Congress appropriates. Simply maintaining the capabilities of today’s fleet will be insufficient to both preserve our long-term interests and protect America. Quantity is not synonymous with quality. We must modernize to maintain our maritime edge”, said Admiral Gilday.

The USS Indianapolis, USS Billings, and USS Wichita were all commissioned in 2019, which indicates that ships that are barely halfway through their anticipated service lives are to be sent to the scrap.

Additionally, the US Navy intends to decommission six more littoral combat ships, all of which are single-hull Freedom variants rather than the trimaran Independence variants. Both the variants can reach speeds of more than 40 knots (74 kilometers per hour).

USS Wichita had conducted a bilateral maritime interdiction with the Dominican Republic earlier this month.

The Freedom-class variants were all homeported in Mayport, Florida, according to a 2016 Navy plan, and were mostly used in Atlantic Ocean missions, while the Independence-class ships were based in San Diego and primarily used in the Pacific.

The US Navy describes the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) as a type of Small Surface Combatant that is meant to enable access to joint forces in the littorals. LCS can operate independently or as part of a networked battle force that comprises larger, multi-mission surface fighters in high-threat settings.

The decision is an embarrassing acknowledgment that some of the Navy’s newest ships aren’t up to the task of contemporary warfare.

Despite the Navy’s plan to demolish the vessels, Congress has the ultimate authority over the military budget and has previously rejected pleas to decommission warships. As politicians focus on countering China’s ever-increasing navy and narrowing the gap between the US and Chinese fleets, scrapping the warships may become even more difficult.

Do You Have Jason Bourne in Custody? | The Bourne Supremacy

Great Hollywood. I never had to do anything like this, but it sure is enjoyable to watch. But, you know, trust me… you all don’t ever want to be in this kind of situation.

Watch “War of the Three Kingdoms Episode 1” on YouTube

"My son told me today he begun to watch the three Kingdom 2 weeks ago, and now get addicted to the history drama series. - <Redacted>"

During the Mao era, all the top leaders read this book. It is a mind opener with a wide range of knowledge that includes war strategies, human phycholgy, HR management, diplomacy, spy and intelligence, targeting individual human weakness etc.

Total 95 episodes. With English subtitle.

I am sure once you begin, you will have your ass glued on the seat.

Do you want more?

New Beginnings 4

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British cowboys, life in the 1950s, sexy Chinese girls, delicious food, geopolitical madness and Kodachromes

So many of the MM audience are undergoing strife and changes in their lives. This is the direct result of their affirmations. You cannot say that I didn’t warn you. This is what happens, the greater the changes, the greater the discomfort. Sigh. I really hate for my friends to deal with discomfort, but like a painful injection, you need to endure it to move forward in safety. In a like way, we discuss the geopolitics situation at this time…

British cowboys

Apparently, US has lost a lot of friends. This is just the latest:

Ankara (Turkey) could block the pair (Sweden and Finland) from joining the US-led military alliance, with unanimous agreement needed on new members.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/13/erdogan-says-turkey-opposed-to-finland-sweden-nato-membership

China’s partnership with Russia seen as serious problem for the U.S.

Well, the long-lasting stream of hate from the media is certainly a contributor. -MM

As war rages in Ukraine, Americans are acutely concerned about the partnership between China and Russia. Around nine-in-ten U.S. adults say it’s at least a somewhat serious problem for the United States, and a 62% majority say it’s a very serious problem. Unfavorable views of China are also at a new high – 82% of Americans have unfavorable opinions of the country, a 6-point increase in negative views from 2021, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in March.

From HERE.

Kodachrome Stories

Americans’ concerns about war in Ukraine: Wider conflict, possible U.S.-Russia clash

Hum. I was under the IMPRESSION that Biden had very LOW polling numbers. I guess that this poll must have obtained polling data elsewhere. -MM

As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine enters its third month, most Americans say they support actions taken by the Biden administration in response to the Russian invasion, such as placing strict economic sanctions on Russia, sending military equipment and weapons to Ukraine and stationing large numbers of U.S. military forces in NATO countries near Ukraine, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in late April.

From HERE.

Doorway on Mars? Photo by NASA rover stirs curiosity online

May 12, 2022

WASHINGTON — Is there a doorway on Mars? That’s the question being asked by conspiracists online after NASA released a new picture taken by NASA Curiosity rover.

Snapped by the explorer’s Mast Camera (Mastcam) on Sol 3466 (May 7), the grainy image appears to show a cleanly-cut hole in a rockface. There has been no official NASA explanation of the sighting, but that hasn’t stop debate online about just what it shows.

One social media user described the scene as “a formation on Mars which appears to be a portal and a wall nearby that looks artificial,” while another concluded “swear to God, there’s at least 5 Martians camouflaged in there.”

However, others were more practical, with one Reddit user stating, “it’s obviously not a little door, it’s just a flat piece of broken rock.”

The Mars discovery comes at a time that the U.S. Congress is to hold an open hearing next Tuesday about UFOs for the first time in over 50 years. The House Intelligence Committee’s Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee will tackle the subject.

“The American people expect and deserve their leaders in government and intelligence to seriously evaluate and respond to any potential national security risks — especially those we do not fully understand,” said Indiana Democratic Rep. André Carson, chairman of the subcommittee, in a statement this week.

Federal officials released a report on documented cases of so-called “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” (UAP) in Summer 2021. In it, the Director of National Intelligence examined 144 cases of UFOs, but could explain only one.

On Wednesday, UFO “watchdog” of sorts, “UFO of Interest” appeared to have debunked any talk of alien life. A tweet of theirs instead reveals the “doorway” to be a “little niche” in a much larger rock wall.

About this raw image (https://t.co/hZxiepGQXx), what's that? An entrance to a secret underground tunnel? Watching it in context as part of the whole mosaic, we can see that little niche in a rock w/ other blocks, fractures, shapes & other erosive features all over that rock face. pic.twitter.com/ou4Ze941HR

— ufoofinterest.org (@ufoofinterest) May 11, 2022

The actor Monica Vitti with the director Michelangelo Antonioni in Rome in 1958.

Chinese girls chosen randomly

By request. At random. video.

Kodachrome Stories

Fashion is confusing

Jungbauernkalender 2020

The new Jungbauernkalender 2020 is out and can be ordered now. This time 12 young men and 12 women come from Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, Upper Franconia, Swabia and Upper Palatinate. Six girls come from Austria. The calendar is a joint project of the Bavarian Young Farmers Association and the Austrian Young Farmers Association.

The calendar pictures the different side of farmer’s life: dressing for the wedding, feeding a newborn calf, working in the fields or swimming in the nearby lake. The pictures were taken by the photographer duo “Die Abbilderei” on the farm of the Wunderl family.

Chinese girls chosen randomly

By request. At random. video

The Princely County of Tyrol in 1890

Nations come and nations go.

It happened: Russia prohibits the export of its raw materials and products to unfriendly countries

From HERE

It happened: Russia prohibits the export of its raw materials and products to unfriendly countries

May 3

Russian President Vladimir Putin played ahead of the curve: while the countries of the European Union cannot reach a common opinion on the embargo on oil and gas, Russia prohibits the export of raw materials and products to unfriendly countries. An exact list of all those who fall under these sanctions will be ready in 10 days.

West, what do you say to that? (photo from open sources)

When conducting military operations, the main thing is not the number of blows and the number of shells fired at the enemy, but the strength and accuracy of a single, but crushing blow.

For two months the United States and the European Union were engaged in firing sanctions against Russia. Their number exceeded in general all conceivable scales. In the west, they themselves went astray, counting their number.

Russia did not answer for a long time, maybe even for a very long time. It was only in mid-April that a measure was announced to sell gas for rubles. This single step has sowed serious confusion and vacillation in the ranks of European states – the European Union no longer gives the impression of a single organism, each of its members is trying to pull the blanket over itself.

Today's Putin's decree is akin to a knockout blow against all of Russia's opponents without exception. Almost all resources mined in Russia, as well as all manufactured products, including agricultural products, are subject to a ban on export outside the country.

Russia puts on “stop” the export of its main export goods. How will the West respond?

Gas, oil, coal, uranium, palladium, titanium, aluminum, diamonds, wheat, corn, sunflower oil become inaccessible to unfriendly countries.

Moreover, if we proceed from the text of the decree, then existing contracts also fall under the ban. They have ten days to live. As soon as the lists of unfriendly and sanctioned persons are announced, their execution will be terminated.

I wonder how the West will react to this step of Russia? In turn, the markets and stock exchanges should already today respond with growth to the entire list of Russian products.

You can bet on how much oil, gas, coal and wheat will rise in price.

Most likely to fall under the sanctions and electricity, which Russia exports to the Baltic countries and Finland. It is worth noting that electricity supplies are quite impressive and occupy a significant share in the total amount of energy consumed.

Perhaps, with this decree of Vladimir Putin, a new era begins in Russia’s relations with the United States and the European Union (photo from open sources)

Here is a brief first impression of Putin’s decree on counter-sanctions. Tomorrow it will become clear how it will be implemented.

Kodachrome Stories

Chinese girls chosen randomly

By request. At random. video

The Microsoft staff in 1978

I feel old.

The Princely County of Tyrol in 1890

Nations come and nations go. And then, forgotten by all.

The Best Steak in Your Life and The World! – Authentic Picanha Steak from Brazil

Wonderful!

And a special message to the “haters”; if you don’t like the cooking and food sections on my posts / articles, you can read over them. If they “polute the content” so much, as you say, then you can leave. OK?

Check out this video!

Kodachrome Stories

Chinese girls chosen randomly

By request. At random. video

Disneyland employee cafeteria in 1961

Jungbauernkalender 2020

Scheer Intelligence

Here is an enlightening discussion between Professor Michael J Brennan & Robert Scheer (host of Scheer Intelligence) on Ukraine, Russia, China, US foreign policies and last but not least, the Sino-Russian partnership.

From HERE.

Chinese girls chosen randomly

By request. At random. video

Biden says White House could drop Trump China tariffs to lower consumer prices

Trump’s–and now Biden’s–trade war with China is a self-inflicted wound, an own goal, and picking up a rock to crush one’s own foot. Meanwhile, despite the tariffs and sanctions, China-US trade and US trade deficit with China nearly doubled.

Trade War is easy, for China, that is.

Since it is a trade war and not a hot war, China obviously has to win without resorting to arms. The principle that China used in this war is to make itself strong and resilient, so that all attacks will be useless, and will blow back with a whirlwind at the attackers. It also comes from Sun Tse: Immovable as a mountain. All China has to do is to stand firm and let the attackers destroy themselves.

From HERE.

Jungbauernkalender 2020

Famine Rides a Black Horse

Here’s a report on the situation inside the United States today. It comes from Jack Heart, and it’s a pretty decent enough blog / website. You all might want to consider tossing a subscription his way. -MM

"I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not damage the oil and the wine"

From HERE.

Tucker Carlsons April 21, 2022, rant about Americas food supply being under attack was met with a furious flurry of fact checks by the usual suspects claiming the fires were minor or didn’t happen at all and this was all just coincidence being overexaggerated. Of course, again, Carlson was unable to follow up, much as he never followed up on his originally sharp criticism of Americas involvement in Ukraine.

If he wasn’t a millionaire working for billionaires, Carlson probably would have done another show around May 2, explaining to his semi-conscious viewers that a mysterious avian flu suspected to be spread by wildfowl has appeared in Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. He would have told them that in Pennsylvania “3,825,800 birds — a combination of egg layers, meat birds and pullets — have died as a result of the infection or, more likely, were depopulated, a term used to describe the quick euthanization of birds in a flock…”

After John Kaminski sent me a chronological list of the carnage inflicted on Americas food supply since the latter part of 2019, I took the opportunity to check into it for my subscribers. It’s actually much worse than Carlson made it sound. There are a few small fires in the list below, of articles mostly linked to the wayback machine, but the vast majority of the fires are described as “massive.” Millions of birds and thousands of milk cows, pigs and cattle have perished in flames. Depots, plants and silos have been utterly destroyed along with the meat and grain they contained.

Some of the fires burned so hot it took days to put them out, causing fire tornados to shoot hundreds of feet up into the night sky. In Ontario Canada the fire marshal just outright refused to investigate one where damages could hit a million dollars and killed 100 cattle. It isn’t only fires. There is a beautiful female pilot who was killed in a kamikaze like crash into a potato processing plant in Idaho. In another incident commando style sabotage was employed on ten thousand acres intended to feed thousands of cattle. Aluminum and metal were affixed to cornstalks but when the farmer ran the stalks through the processor, he heard the metal grinding in the machine, and caught it before he fed the cattle. The mixture would have shredded their stomachs…

More (suggested subscribe to unlock the paywall) HERE.

How To Make: Asopao de Longaniza y Chuleta / Dominican Style Gumbo

This gal is GREAT! OMG! What a wonderful dish!

Kodachrome Stories

Jungbauernkalender 2020

The Ugly Americans

America has become the greatest force for evil that has ever existed

From HERE.

It’s hard to be an American these days. A ministry of truth under an incoherent president supported by a media hellbent on instigating WW III, while the clueless prattle on about abortion issues makes it a very lonely place for a writer. Americans should have revolted the day after they shot John F Kennedy so perhaps everything they’ve gotten since then, starting with Vietnam they deserve. But I can’t help thinking that if America had the free and open discourse envisioned by its founding fathers and enshrined in the first amendment of its constitution none of this would have happened.

Even before the printing press was invented oligarchs controlled the flow of information and in those days all dissention was regulated by the church. It worked somewhat. As Thomas Hobbs noted over four hundred years ago life is nasty, brutal and short but people still had enough time for joy untinged by the fear of being snuffed out without a moment’s notice in a war they had no stake in. It worked then because the oligarchs knew that any war they started amongst themselves would be fought with themselves or their sons at the front of their armies.

But with the dawn of the twentieth century came a new breed of oligarch, spineless and cowardly. Avoiding combat at all costs even as they instigated wars and carnage the likes of which were unimaginable using the technology of the past. Bombs that could incinerate cities and poisons that could be carried by the wind became the weapons of choice. Nothing was spared in the development of anything that could kill or maim their enemy without having to face them on a battlefield. This culminated with the weaponization of pestilence, biological warfare.

Science is not necessary to explain the inherent danger of trying to infect your enemy with a disease that is just as lethal to you as it is to them but with the advent of the Human Genome Project at the end of the twentieth century some felt this risk could negated by tinkering with DNA. Earlier, in the seventies, a world wary of mad scientists under the guidance of their cowardly oligarchs had insisted on coming to a moratorium against such weapons with The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), or Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC).

Participation in the Biological Weapons Convention as of August 2019 (most recently changed in August 14, 2019). Green is signed and ratified, darker green acceded or succeeded, yellow only signed and the red are those that didn’t sign.

The treaty entered into force in 1975 and agreed upon by practically every nation of the world was quite simple, originally consisting of only 15 articles, the most important of which in summary were:

Article I: Never under any circumstances to develop, produce, stockpile, acquire, or retain biological weapons.[1]
Article II: To destroy or divert to peaceful purposes biological weapons and associated resources prior to joining.[2]
Article III: Not to transfer, or in any way assist, encourage, or induce anyone else to acquire or retain biological weapons.[3]
Article IV: To take any national measures necessary to implement the provisions of the BWC domestically.[4]
Article V: Undertaking to consult bilaterally and multilaterally and cooperate in solving any problems which may arise in relation to the objective, or in the application, of the BWC.[5]
Article VI: Right to request the United Nations Security Council to investigate alleged breaches of the BWC and undertaking to cooperate in carrying out any investigation initiated by the Security Council.[6]
Article VII: To assist States which have been exposed to danger as a result of a violation of the BWC.[7]
Article X: Undertaking to facilitate, and have the right to participate in, the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and information for peaceful purposes.[8]

By 2003 the Human Genome Project was declared complete but included only about 85% of the genome.[9] Level “complete genome” was achieved in May 2021, with a remaining only 0.3% bases covered by potential issues.[10][11] The missing Y chromosome was added in January 2022. It’s been an open secret in military intelligence publications for over five years that in complete disregard of the BWC the pentagon has been ringing the Russian border with biological weapon producing facilities, starting in Georgia and working their way into the Ukraine after the 2014 coup. [12) [13] [14]

I am an American born and bred in New York City. I’ve been to every state east of the Mississippi and stayed for a while in more than just a few. From the hard scrabble pecan farmers of southern Georgia to the Texas beach bums of South Padre Island, to the hustlers pulling racks of clothes down Seventh Avenue in NYC I have always loved my people. Nothing pains me more than have to hope they are annihilated at the hands of a country I’ve been taught to hate since birth. But that is exactly what I must do as a man who has any empathy at all for the future of the human race.

I’ve lived in this world for sixty-two years, always a cynic but Vladmir Putin is the closest thing I have ever seen to a hero. He has thrown down the gauntlet and risks it all to quell the madness that the Anglo-American Empire has become. His actions may very well have saved at least half the world from dying horribly from a genetically engineered disease, yet he is lambasted daily in the western media as a psychotic killer.

The New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, FOX and the BBC are all dens of deranged demons. That should be a given by now for any sentient individual. They have helped tear the West down brick by brick starting with the World Trade Center. Yet most Americans are still listening to them as they shriek their lies. It is hard not to believe that God himself will not be fighting at the side of Vladmir Putin…

Below is an article that is making its way around the internet. It is the truth, just the type of truth that Americas new ministry of truth has been created to stamp out. Try to understand it and understand what must be done if America is to survive. Because I assure you we are no match for God…

Styles of Teenagers in the 1950s

Russia’s “Special Military Operation”
in Ukraine is a MORAL IMPERATIVE

Russia was forced to launch its “special military operation” in Ukraine to terminate the raging
biowar waged by the US-UK-UA-EU-NATO
bioterrorist group — from its secret underground operational headquarters located at the Azovstal
Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, Ukraine —
against the people of Donbass and western Russia.

~ END OF STORY ~

Here’s why Russia was forced to invade Ukraine.

The epic battle for Mariupol really concerned the Russian war on the Pentagon-sponsored bioweapon labs hidden in the bowels of the Azovstal Steel Plant, as well as the many other heretofore secret biolabs scattered across the country.

To date, the Russian military has shut down 30 plus bioweapon laboratories across the Ukraine. However, the main bioweapon lab being systematically used to carry out future bioterrorist operations in Donbass and western Russia is strategically located in Mariupol at the massive Azovstal complex.

KEY POINT: The city of Mariupol is situated less than 40 miles from the Russian border, which is why Azovstal was selected to house one of the largest bioweapon labs in the world. Not only was it based right in Donbass, but Azovstal was the closest biolab from which to launch bio-attacks against Russia.

See: Massive Bioweapon Lab at Azovstal Steel Works in Mariupol Exposed by Russian Military (Video)

This is why Russia is so determined not to blow up Avozstal or even neutralize the 1000 plus Azov Nazis holed up there behind human shields—innocent Ukrainian citizens. The women and children, in particular, were likely forced into the sprawling Azovstal plant as a defensive stratagem against an all-out Russian attack. But it’s the US and NATO military leaders, Western intel agents, AFU officers and Ukraine soldiers skulked in Azovstal that Russia really wants and is willing to protect, especially those who are privy to the bioterrorist operations.

Putin knows exactly what the Azovstal biolabs were up to. He also needs to preserve the evidence so he can show the whole world what the US-UK-UA-EU-NATO bioterror group was planning to unleash in both Donbass and Russia.

This is precisely why the Azov Nazis were given such free rein to terrorize the citizens of Mariupol. They were acting on orders from their NATO command, Pentagon masters and CIA overlords to exert absolute control over the Azovstal bioterror crime scene. Isn’t that why these hardcore Neo-Nazis are called the Azov Regiment and Azov Battalion (as in Azovstal)? These battle-hardened mercenaries were put there to provide brutal defensive and protective services for the Zio-Anglo-American bioterrorist operations.

What was the Kremlin to do?

Permit this bioterror group to continue their slow-motion genocide of the Donbass citizenry?! See: HARD PROOF that Zelensky’s Azov Neo-Nazis are committing genocide against the Ukraine citizenry (Video)

Not only did Putin strike first and hard to terminate the ongoing genocide and future biowar, he has also repeatedly told the world community of nations the purpose of Russia’s “special military operation”.

Kodachrome Stories

Styles of Teenagers in the 1950s

Any president or prime minster on planet Earth would be fully justified in taking the same military measures to shut down a genocide-in-progress.

The courageous decision made by Putin et al. to invade was most certainly the result of a broad collective agreement across the entire Kremlin leadership. After all, Moscow is only 280 miles from the Ukrainian border as the crow flies, so they knew they were facing dire existential threats of the highest order from NATO’s military expansion, and specifically form the much more dangerous bioterror group.

Extremely aggressive moves and maneuvers by NATO only confirmed Putin’s worst fears, as did the several overtures to expand NATO membership in order to further surround Russia. However, it was the expeditious uncovering of the Ukraine bioweapon labs that really proved Putin right in his mission to shut the whole genocidal enterprise down—FOR GOOD!

BOTTOM LINE: Russia had no choice but to invade Ukraine to carry out multiple “special military operations” to protect its sovereignty and safeguard it citizenry.

Not only that, but “Russia’s intervention in Ukraine is [PERFECTLY] legal under international law “.

Citations for The Ugly Americans

1. Article I, Biological Weapons Convention. Wikisource.
2. Article II, Biological Weapons Convention. Wikisource.
3. Article III, Biological Weapons Convention. Wikisource.
4. Article IV, Biological Weapons Convention. Wikisource.
5. Article V, Biological Weapons Convention. Wikisource.
6. Article VI, Biological Weapons Convention. Wikisource.
7. Article VII, Biological Weapons Convention. Wikisource.
8. Article X, Biological Weapons Convention. Wikisource.

9 – “Human Genome Project Completion: Frequently Asked Questions”. National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).

10 – “CHM13 T2T v1.1 – Genome – Assembly – NCBI”. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 16 June 2021.

11 – “Genome List – Genome – NCBI”. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 16 June 2021.

12 – Dean, J. (2016, January 21). Veterans Today. NEO – Bio lab in Tbilisi top suspect in weaponizing new diseases. Retrieved from https://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/01/31/neo-lugar-bio-laboratory-in-tbilisi-latest-its-getting-worse-by-the-day/

13 – E.S. (2017, November 23). Veterans Today. Pentagon Setting Biological Bombs Against Europe? https://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/11/23/pentagon-setting-biological-bombs-against-europe/

14 – E.S. (2017, August 20). Veterans Today. Pentagon’s biological bomb to target Russia, Iran and China. Retrieved from https://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/08/20/pentagons-biological-bomb-to-target-russia-iran-and-china/

Styles of Teenagers in the 1950s

How To Make Cuban Beef Stew/Carne Con Papas Receta Cubana

Makes me hungry! Come on, do you want to try something a little different? Try this!

The Princely County of Tyrol in 1890

Nations come and nations go. And then, forgotten by all.

Styles of Teenagers in the 1950s

The crew of Apollo 1 practicing their water landing in 1966. Unfortunately, all of them were killed on the launch pad in a fire.

Styles of Teenagers in the 1950s

Chinese girls chosen randomly

By request. At random. video

Bread and soup during the Great Depression

Many Americans might end up experiencing a SECOND “Great Depression”, only this time…

… the “news media” will constantly be telling Americans how great everything is, and will use low unemployment numbers, and a roaring stock market to convince the sheeple otherwise…

Do you want more?

New Beginnings 4

Articles & Links

Master Index

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The Princely County of Tyrol, missing baby formula turning up in the hands of illegals, Ukraine, Russia, Nuclear war and Kodachrome Stories

As the West collectively unwinds, the general opinion on the (true) alternative media websites is that the collective Western “leadership” are acting like psychopathic gambling / drug addicts that are high on “their own supply”, and are making grievous mistakes without care, concern or worry. The geopolitical situation is unwinding out of control, and NOT ONE leader in the West is trying to defuse the global situation. Indeed, the opposite is true…

From goading on Ukraine and a hot “military-technical action”, which could erupt into a full-scale hot global war at any minute… to goading China with alterations to the Untied States, state department website. No real leadership is occurring, and that bodes very bad for the rest of us.

Here, we consider the global changes with views of our collective pasts.

$40 Billion in Aid to Ukraine BLOCKED in U.S. Senate

Nation NewsDesk 12 May 2022

Fiscal conservatives are praising Sen. Rand Paul for blocking a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine – a bill that not a single person on Capitol Hill has been able to read.

Paul objected to a deal offered by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that would have set up votes on Thursday afternoon on the funding and on an amendment from Paul, who wanted to include language in the bill to expand an Afghanistan inspector general role to include oversight of the Ukraine funds.

“Our total aid to Ukraine will almost equal the entire military budget of Russia,” Paul said. “The cost of this package we are voting on today is more than the U.S. spent during the first year of the U.S. conflict in Afghanistan. Congress authorized force and the president sent troops into the conflict. The same cannot be said of Ukraine.”

Kodachrome Stories

A boxing match on board the USS Oregon in 1897

We Found All the Baby Formula . . . Biden Admin Sent it all to Southern Border for Illegal Alien babies

Nation NewsDesk 12 May 2022

For over a week, there have been widespread and growing reports of Baby Formula shortages all over the USA. Store shelves are bare of it in many places. Now, we know why: The Biden Administration has grabbed all the formula and sent it to the southern border to accommodate ILLEGAL ALIENS coming into the country with babies.

Here’s a small look at what shoppers in USA supermarkets find when they look for baby formula on store shelves:

And Here is what is piling-up at US Border Patrol facilities along the southern border:

According to Congresswoman Pat Cammack, pallets and pallets of baby formula are deluging the southern border.

So, under the Biden regime, American babies can go hungry, but ILLEGAL ALIEN babies must be fed at taxpayer expense, and the food is taken out of the mouths of American babies to achieve feeding the illegal aliens!

Stolen elections have consequences. THIS is just one more example of what illegitimate President Joe Biden is doing to wreck the country.

The Princely County of Tyrol in 1890

Nations come and nations go. And then, forgotten by all.

Kodachrome Stories

If the Empire of Lies and Chaos (United States) continues to escalate then nuclear war is inevitable.

How can America’s insistence on escalation be interrupted?

1) America runs out of ways to escalate. Since America has nukes that means nuclear war.

2) Uprising in the US… OK, you can stop laughing now.

3) Russia surrenders.

4) Russia does a significant but limited first strike to remind people in the Empire what the results of a real nuclear attack look like. My recommendation would be to take out NATO bases in Poland, Romania, and other Eastern European states, and perhaps Ramstein too just to drive the point home.

-William Gruff

Jungbauernkalender 2020

Lithuania Breaking Diplomatic Relations with Russia

World NewsDesk 12 May 2022

Lithuania will recall its Ambassador to Russia Eitvydas Bajarunas from Moscow on June 1, 2022.

The Lithuanian government also intends to shut down the consulate general in St. Petersburg on June 7.

(HT REMARK: When Diplomacy ends, wars usually begin. Lithuania is just right next door to Ukraine.)

MORE: Russia is now openly opposed to Ukraine’s accession not only to NATO but also to the EU. The Kremlin also does not currently see a diplomatic way to end the war.

Kodachrome Stories

Samurai warriors taken between 1860 and 1880

Diplomat: Negotiations for new Iran Nuclear Deal are “dead”

World NewsDesk 12 May 2022

French diplomat: The negotiations on the nuclear agreement with Iran have reached a dead end.

There is little chance of the United States agreeing to remove Iran’s elite security force from its list of foreign terrorist organizations any time soon, a French diplomatic source said on Thursday, casting a further pall over nuclear negotiations.

Talks to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers have been on hold since March, chiefly over Tehran’s insistence that Washington remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the list.

“The negotiations are at a dead end,” the source told reporters. “I am pessimistic on the possibility of resolving this subject quickly.”

Dominican Fried Cheese | Mangu Series Ep. 3 | Dominican Recipes | Made To Order | Chef Zee Cooks

Jungbauernkalender 2020

The Princely County of Tyrol in 1890

Nations come and nations go. And then, forgotten by all.

Biden told officials media reports about U.S. intel sharing with Ukraine are counterproductive

The world now knows that the USA is fighting Russia via proxy. One official said Biden conveyed that the leaks should stop. Apparently, not widely reported :

From HERE

Nagasaki, 20 minutes after the atomic bombing in 1945

Biden says White House could drop Trump China tariffs to lower consumer prices

President Joe Biden said that cooling prices are his top domestic priority, even as Wall Street braces for another inflation report north of 8%.
The president also said that the White House is in the middle of a review of tariffs imposed against China during former President Donald Trump’s tenure and could opt to drop them.
Wall Street is eager to read the Labor Department’s upcoming report on April inflation , which the government will publish Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m. ET.

From HERE

Steamboats on the Mississippi River in 1907

Finland to Breach 1947 Paris Peace Treaty by Joining NATO – Russia says Military Action Results

World NewsDesk 12 May 2022

The joint statement issued by the Finnish leaders said that NATO membership would strengthen Finland’s security. According to the head of government and the president, Finland’s incorporation into NATO will increase the defense capability and strengthen the alliance. They also said that Finland should apply to NATO as a matter of priority.

"We hope that the national steps that are still needed to reach this decision will be taken quickly in the coming days," the joint statement said.

At the same time, Finland will be able to officially apply to NATO after this step is approved at a meeting of the ruling Social Democratic Party, which is to be held on May 15, Ilta-Sanomat publication said.

It was earlier reported that Finland and Sweden wanted to submit their applications to NATO at the same time to thus express solidarity between the new applicants.

Russia responds to Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO plans

"Russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps, both of military and other nature, in order to curtail the threats that arise to its national security in this regard,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement commenting on the possible accession of Finland to NATO.

If Finland joins NATO, Russia will view such a move as a violation of international legal obligations, a message posted on the official website of the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Moscow has always assured Helsinki that Russia’s aggressive actions against Finland would never take place. However, Finland’s desire to join NATO comes in violation of the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty, according to which the parties undertook not to enter into alliances and coalitions directed against one of them.

Styles of Teenagers in the 1950s

Jungbauernkalender 2020

President of Switzerland: “We are also preparing for an escalation with nuclear bombs”

World Hal Turner 10 May 2022

Switzerland supports the EU sanctions against Russia. Federal President and Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis answered questions on Tuesday and explained why he is behind the sanctions and why he thinks Switzerland remains neutral.

The Ukraine war keeps Federal President and Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis busy. Are the sanctions fair and is Switzerland still neutral? What threats exist if the war escalates further?

On May 9, Russia celebrated “Victory Day” against Nazi Germany. How does Federal President Ignazio Cassis interpret the speech? “The most important information was that there were no surprises. There aren’t many positives today, but it’s good that nothing bad happened that day,” says Cassis.

When asked why Switzerland doesn’t remain really neutral? Cassis replied “We remain really neutral.” There are discussions about Switzerland’s neutrality in every war. “This time, however, Russia’s breach of the UN Charter was so great that we could not remain silent. We had to condemn it very loudly and strongly, otherwise the world would not be in order, »says Cassis.

Asked what escalations might occur in the ongoing conflict, Cassis replied “With an escalation of this war there is the possibility of atomic bombs. The Federal Council is also preparing for this case.”

British Add Nuclear Warheads to Submarines

On May 8, the “Express” newspaper in London reported BRITAIN has increased the number of warheads each Trident nuclear missile carries as part of a precautionary measure in the face of growing threats from Russia.

Britain’s continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent uses four Vanguard-class submarines, of which two are always on patrol, while a third is at operational readiness and the fourth undergoes maintenance.

Each armed boat is allowed to carry a maximum of 40 warheads to be distributed unevenly among eight D5 missiles. However, while details are classified, it is believed the V-boats have been carrying considerably fewer of both. Not anymore.

As of this week, British submarines are now fully loaded with at least forty (40) nuclear warheads each. Most of the warheads, which are manufactured in Britain, have a yield of 80-100 kilotons – the equivalent of TNT –five or six times greater than the “Little Boy” atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

France Puts THREE Nuclear-Armed subs to sea

Tuesday, France put all three of its nuclear-armed submarines to sea. For the first time in around 30 years, France has put three of its four ballistic missile submarines, or SSBNs, to sea at the same time, according to reports in the local media.

Normally, just one of the Triomphant class SSBNs, each of which can be armed with up to 16 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), with multiple warheads, is on patrol at any given time. The significant uptick in French nuclear deterrence activity seems to be intended as a signal to Russia

US Media M.I.A.

Of course, Americans are not hearing about any of this in their mass-media, which appears to be “Missing In Action (M.I.A.)” about the severe and dangerous developments taking place in the world. Americans have no idea at all that WHEN this conflict “goes nuclear” that WE IN THE UNITED STATES will be struck by nuclear bombs.

The reason Russia will very likely attack the US is the amount of interference we have done with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The Pentagon issued a report today outlining how extensive our interference has actually been. Here’s the list:

Given that ALL of this gear is being used to KILL RUSSIANS, how much longer do Americans think it will be before Russia puts an end to U.S. meddling by dropping nukes on our east coast port cities to disable such shipments?

We are very likely to be hit and yet the American people are left blissfully unaware by the US media.

Americans have no clue at all they’re about to be vaporized in a nuclear holocaust because the media is simply not reporting the facts.

No one is making plans to evacuate, no one is “prepping” with supplies to survive after such an attack.

When the bright, white flash hits, Americans will be killed en masse because the government interfered in something that was none of our business and had no national security implications for us, and the media covered it all up.

Nice folks, government and the mass media!

Document Orders Ukraine Border Guards to Allow Entry of 10,000 Polish Troops on May 22-24

World NewsDesk 12 May 2022

A document allegedly sent by the defense department of Ukraine to the head of the state border service of the country, orders Border Guards to ensure the passage of the joint Lithuanian-Polish “peacekeeping contingent” from Poland.

The document says that from May 22 to 24, four (4) battalions, including 9,500 military personnel and 279 units of military equipment, must cross the border.

Given the level of intense propaganda coming out of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, we CANNOT RULE OUT the published document could be a fake, but such an order fits perfectly into the plan allegedly adopted by Western countries to enter the war.

People in Ukraine are theorizing that this is an effort to seize and plunder Ukraine. But keen observers in the west say it fits perfectly into the West effort to enter the war, get attacked by Russia, then go to direct war with Russia.

Rumors of a joint Polish-Lithuanian military entry into Ukraine have been circulating for over a week. The Hal Turner Radio Show has not previously published those claims because they could not be verified.

Now, however, with what appears to be an official document to Ukraine’s Border Guards ordering them to allow such entry, and the providing of specific dates, the issue needs to be reported.

This is where things can get really dicey.

Russia has flatly and repeatedly warned that anyone interfering with what Russia is doing in Ukraine, will suffer consequences like they have never seen before. Would the entry of such “peacekeepers” be viewed by Russia as “interfering?”

Mark your calendars: May 22, 2022 seems to be THE date.

UPDATE 3:41 PM EDT —

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashencko stated publicly today “Belarus will enter the war if Polish troops enter Ukraine.”

Ferdinand Porsche (yeah, that Porsche) showing a model of the Volkswagen Beetle to Adolf Hitler in 1935

Kodachrome Stories

Florence de Changy shows that the official Western story of the missing MH370 airplane is a colossal lie

Always great information. Nothing can be found in the “mainstream media” of course.

From HERE

Styles of Teenagers in the 1950s

American democrats and bioweapons

Dem Party Leaders, Pfizer, Moderna Involved in US Biological Activities in Ukraine: Russian MoD – 11.05.2022, Sputnik International

From HERE

Medvedev: NATO Supplying Weapons to Ukraine Risks OPEN CONFLICT with Russia; Maybe Nuclear”

World Hal Turner 12 May 2022

One of President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies warned the West on Thursday that the increasing military support given to Ukraine by the United States and its allies risked triggering a conflict between Russia and the NATO military alliance.

Former president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, said such a conflict with NATO always carried the risk of turning into a full blown nuclear war.

Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands of people, laid waste to swathes of its former Soviet neighbour and raised fears of the gravest confrontation between Russia and the United States since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

“NATO countries pumping weapons into Ukraine, training troops to use Western equipment, sending in mercenaries and the exercises of Alliance countries near our borders increase the likelihood of a direct and open conflict between NATO and Russia,” Medvedev said in a Telegram post.

“Such a conflict always has the risk of turning into a full-fledged nuclear war,” Medvedev said. “This will be a disastrous scenario for everyone.”

Russia and the United States are by far the world’s biggest nuclear powers: Russia has some 6,257 nuclear warheads while NATO’s three nuclear powers – the United States, United Kingdom and France – have about 6,065 warheads combined, according to the Washington-based Arms Control Association.

Putin says the “special military operation” in Ukraine is necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and Moscow had to defend against the persecution of Russian-speaking people.

Putin, who says Ukraine and Russia are essentially one people, casts the war as an inevitable confrontation with the United States, which he accuses of threatening Russia by meddling in its backyard through NATO eastward enlargement.

Ukraine says it is fighting an imperial-style land grab and that Putin’s claims of genocide are nonsense. Kyiv says Putin’s invasion has only strengthened the Ukrainian people’s wish to turn westwards out of Russia’s orbit.

House Majority Leader Admits it . . .

Steny Hoyer, the House Majority Leader, said Biden wanted the $40 billion funding bill to “provide Ukraine with the type of arms it needs to shift from defensive to offensive operations.”

Hal Turner Editorial Opinion

They’re now openly admitting that the US is orchestrating an “offensive” war against Russia. How much longer do you think Russia will sit back and do nothing, while WE in the USA are orchestrating the killing Russian troops?

How long until Russia has finally “had it” with the United States, and begins bomb us directly?

I suspect, not long at all.

Americans would do well to prepare for being directly BOMBED by the Russian Federation, in response to the offensive war the USA is organizing and supplying, against Russia, in Ukraine.

If you do not prepare, then you are planning to fail.

Your family may not survive without YOU having a “bug-out” plan, to evacuate inland once hostilities start. Contact friends or relatives and arrange for your family to stay with them for awhile once hostilities commence.

Those of you already inland, must have emergency water, food, medicines, a generator for electric, fuel for that generator, communications gear (CB or HAM radio) flashlights, batteries, portable radios for news, a way to cook without electric, and a large first aid kit.

Without these things, you have no chance of surviving once the SHTF.

There is likely very little time left. Precious little time.

Plan now. Prepare now. Your life depends on it.

Jungbauernkalender 2020

How To Make Jamaican Jerk Chicken In The Oven Homemade Jerk Sauce

What a great woman! I can almost smell it a cooking from here!

Styles of Teenagers in the 1950s

‘Russia Started the War’ and Other Fallacies

Mike Whitney • May 10, 2022

On Monday, Putin delivered the annual “Victory Day” speech celebrating Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. The Russian president made none of the hyperbolic pronouncements the media had predicted but, instead, gave a brief recap of the events leading up to the war in Ukraine. There was none of the bravado you’d expect from a leader trying to gin up support for the ongoing war. Putin simply reminded the crowd that he had done everything he could to avoid the bloody conflict in which Russia is currently embroiled. Here’s part of what he said:

 “Last December we proposed signing a treaty on security guarantees. Russia urged the West to hold an honest dialogue in search for meaningful and compromising solutions, and to take account of each other’s interests. All in vain. NATO countries did not want to heed us, which means they had totally different plans. And we saw it.”

This is an accurate account of what took place in the months preceding the war. Putin tried to avoid a confrontation by repeatedly asking the US to address Russia’s reasonable security concerns. Unfortunately, the Biden administration brushed off Putin’s demands without even providing a response. The US and NATO insist that Ukraine has every right to choose whatever security arrangement it wants. But that’s clearly not the case. The United States and every nation in NATO have signed treaties (Istanbul in 1999, and Astana in 2010) that stipulate they cannot improve their own security at the expense of others.

The principle underlying these agreements is called “the indivisibility of security”, which means that the security of one state can’t be separated from the security of the others. In practical terms, that means that signatories to these treaties are not free to develop their own military capability to the point where it poses a danger to their neighbors. These terms are especially applicable to Ukraine which is seeking membership in a military alliance that is openly hostile to Russia. NATO membership has always been a “red line” for Putin who has stated repeatedly that he will not allow NATO bases, combat troops and missile sites to be located on Ukrainian soil where they’d be just a stone’s throw from Moscow. As one critic from Texas put it, “You wouldn’t let a rattlesnake make its home on your front porch, would you?” No, you wouldn’t, and neither would Putin. Here’s more from a speech Putin gave in 2007:

 “I’m convinced that we have reached the decisive moment when we must seriously think about the architecture of global security. And we must proceed by searching for a reasonable balance between the interests of all participants in the international dialogue.” Munich Security Conference, 2007

For Putin, security has always been the paramount issue. How do we create a world in which ordinary people can feel safe in their homes, their communities and their countries? How do we protect the weaker countries from the constant threat of intervention, invasion or regime change by an impulsive superpower whose behavior is guided by its own material interests and its own insatiable geopolitical ambitions? Concepts like the “indivisibility of security” might appeal to the sensibilities of idealists, but where’s the enforcement mechanism? And, how do we use these grand ideas to rein in an intractable hegemon rampaging across the planet?

These are questions that need to be answered, after all, if the United Nations actually worked the way it is supposed to work, Russia’s demands would have been thoroughly debated at emergency meetings before the first shot was ever fired. But that didn’t happen. International law and global institutions failed again. As everyone knows, most of these institutions have been hijacked by Washington which now uses them to provide a fig leaf of legitimacy for its serial depredations. That’s certainly how they are being used in the current war against Russia.

The western media is also being used as a weapon against Russia. For example, Russia has been universally blamed for starting the war, but Russia did not start the war and everyone on the Security Council knows it. Ukraine started the war, and the Observer Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has collected evidence to prove it. Check out this excerpt from an interview at the Grayzone with Swiss Intelligence officer and NATO advisor, Jacques Baud:

 JACQUES BAUD: “I think we have to understand, as you know, that the war in fact hasn’t started on 24 February this year… what led to the decision to launch an offensive in the Donbas was not what happened since 2014. There was a trigger for that…

The first is the decision and the law adopted by Volodymyr Zelensky in March 2021—that means last year—to reconquer Crimea by force…

(And,also,) the intensification of the artillery shelling of the Donbas starting on the 16th of February, and this increase in the shelling was observed, in fact, by the Observer Mission of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe], and t hey recorded this increase of violation, and it’s a massive violation. I mean, we are talking about something that is about 30 times more than what it used to be... On the 16th of February you had a massive increase of violation on the Ukrainian side. So, for the Russians, Vladimir Putin in particular, that was the sign that the operation—the Ukrainian operation—was about to start.

And then everything started; I mean, all the events came very quickly. That means that if we look at the figures, you can see that there’s…. a massive increase from the 16th-17th, and then it reached kind of a maximum on the 18th of February, and that was continuing.

… And that’s why, on the 24th of February when Vladimir Putin decided to launch the offensive, it could invoke Article 51 of the UN Charter that provides for assistance in case of attack.” (“US, EU sacrificing Ukraine to ‘weaken Russia’: fmr. NATO adviser“, The Grayzone)

You can see that by the time Putin invaded Ukraine, the war had already begun. The shelling of ethnic Russians had already intensified by many orders of magnitude. People were being slaughtered in droves, and tens of thousands of refugees were fleeing across the border into Russia. And, all of this had been going on since the 16th of February, a full week before Russia crossed the border. (Moon of Alabama has compiled the data on the bombardment that took place in the Donbas preceding the invasion: “The February 15 report of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine recorded some 41 explosions in the ceasefire areas. This increased to 76 explosions on Feb 16, 316 on Feb 17, 654 on Feb 18, 1413 on Feb 19, a total of 2026 of Feb 20 and 21 and 1484 on Feb 22.”)

So, why does the media keep repeating the lie that Russia started the war when it is clearly false?

The fact is, Putin sent in the troops to put out a fire not to start one. If ever there was a situation where the Responsibility To Protect (R2P) could be justified, it’s in east Ukraine prior to the invasion. 14,000 ethnic Russians had been killed before the shelling began. Should Putin have looked the other way and allowed another 14,000-or-so to be slaughtered without lifting a finger?

No, Putin did what he had to do to save lives and defend Russia’s national security. Even so, he has no territorial ambitions and no desire to recreate the Soviet Empire. His “special military operation” is, in fact, a defensive operation designed to remove emerging threats that could no longer be ignored. Putin’s 83% public approval rating proves that the Russian people understand what he is doing and fully support him. (A political leader would never garner that level of support if the people thought he had launched a war of aggression.)

Some readers might remember that –before sending in the tanks– Putin invoked United Nations Article 51 which provides a legal justification for military intervention. Here’s an excerpt from an article by former weapons inspector Scott Ritter who defended the Russian action like this:

 “Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing Article 51 as his authority, ordered what he called a “special military operation”….
under Article 51, there can be no doubt as to the legitimacy of Russia’s contention that the Russian-speaking population of the Donbass had been subjected to a brutal eight-year-long bombardment that had killed thousands of people.… Moreover, Russia claims to have documentary proof that the Ukrainian Army was preparing for a massive military incursion into the Donbass which was pre-empted by the Russian-led “special military operation.” [OSCE figures show an increase of government shelling of the area in the days before Russia moved in.]

..

The bottom line is that Russia has set forth a cognizable claim under the doctrine of anticipatory collective self-defense, devised originally by the U.S. and NATO, as it applies to Article 51 which is predicated on fact, not fiction.

While it might be in vogue for people, organizations, and governments in the West to embrace the knee-jerk conclusion that Russia’s military intervention constitutes a wanton violation of the United Nations Charter and, as such, constitutes an illegal war of aggression, the uncomfortable truth is that, of all the claims made regarding the legality of pre-emption under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, Russia’s justification for invading Ukraine is on solid legal ground.” (“Russia, Ukraine & the Law of War: Crime of Aggression”, Consortium News)

And here’s more on the topic from author Danial Kovalik in his article titled “Why Russia’s intervention in Ukraine is legal under international law”:

 “One must begin this discussion by accepting the fact that there was already a war happening in Ukraine for the eight years preceding the Russian military incursion in February 2022. And, this war by the government in Kiev… claimed the lives of around 14,000 people, many of them children, and displaced around 1.5 million more … The government in Kiev, and especially its neo-Nazi battalions, carried out attacks against these peoples … precisely because of their ethnicity. ..

To remove any doubt that the destabilization of Russia itself has been the goal of the US in these efforts, one should examine the very telling 2019 report of the Rand Corporation… entitled, ‘Overextending and Unbalancing Russia, Assessing the Impact of Cost-Imposing Options’, one of the many tactics listed is “Providing lethal aid to Ukraine” in order to “exploit Russia’s greatest point of external vulnerability.”…

In short, there is no doubt that Russia has been threatened, and in a quite profound way, with concrete destabilizing efforts by the US, NATO and their extremist surrogates in Ukraine….

It is hard to conceive of a more pressing case for the need to act in defense of the nation. While the UN Charter prohibits unilateral acts of war, it also provides, in Article 51, that “nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense… ” And this right of self-defense has been interpreted to permit countries to respond, not only to actual armed attacks, but also to the threat of imminent attack.

In light of the above, it is my assessment.. that Russia had a right to act in its own self-defense by intervening in Ukraine, which had become a proxy of the US and NATO for an assault – not only on Russian ethnics within Ukraine – but also upon Russia itself. A contrary conclusion would simply ignore the dire realities facing Russia.” (Why Russia’s intervention in Ukraine is legal under international law”, RT)

Assigning blame for the current conflict is more than just an academic exercise. It is the way that reasonable people weigh the evidence to determine accountability. That might be a way-off, but it’s a goal worth pursuing all the same.

Finally, it should be clear by now, that the war in Ukraine was planned long before the Russian invasion. At every turn, Washington has orchestrated the provocations that were designed to lure Russia into Ukraine, drain its resources and, thus, remove a major obstacle to US strategic objectives in Central Asia. The ultimate goal– as US war planners have candidly admitted– is to “break Russia’s back”, splinter the country into smaller pieces, topple the government, seize its vast energy resources, and reduce the population to a permanent state of colonial dependency. Washington knows that it will not be able to encircle and control China’s explosive growth, unless it crushes Russia first. That is why it has embarked on such a reckless strategy that could end in an unprecedented catastrophe. Our miscreant leaders believe that preserving their grip on global power is worth the risk of nuclear annihilation.

Ukraine – Congress Passes The Bucks, Realism Sneaks In, Poland Plans For More War

After a lot of talk about defeating Russia in the Ukraine and an alleged lack of Russian fighting abilities Congress passed another $40 billion fund for weapons and economic support. That brings the total to some $53 billion for Ukraine.

Most of the money will go to the U.S. weapon industry, the CIA and to various Ukrainian oligarchs. Hardly anything will be received by those in need.

With that packet now passed reality is allowed to sneak into U.S. media reporting on the issue.

Not one but two reports in the New York Times suddenly lament about the huge area of land the Russian troops have taken in east Ukraine:

From the later:

Nonetheless, the Donbas seizure, combined with the Russian invasion’s early success in seizing parts of southern Ukraine adjoining the Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, gives the Kremlin enormous leverage in any future negotiation to halt the conflict.

And the Russians enjoy the added advantage of naval dominance in the Black Sea, the only maritime route for Ukrainian trade, which they have paralyzed with an embargo that could eventually starve Ukraine economically and is already contributing to a global grain shortage.

I have often pointed out that the Ukrainian frontline will have a huge number of casualties from Russian artillery strikes. It is even worse than I had thought:

At the main hospital in Kramatorsk, a city in Donetsk, ambulances stream in day and night, carrying soldiers wounded at the front, who describe being pinned down by near constant shelling.

About 80 percent of the patients are wounded by explosives such as mines and artillery shells, said Capt. Eduard Antonovskyy, the deputy commander of the medical unit at the hospital. Because of this, he said, very few patients have serious injuries. Either you’re far enough from an explosion to survive or you aren’t, he said.

“We either get moderate injuries or deaths,” Captain Antonovskyy said.

Additional to those more realistic reports the NYT allowed one of it authors to write an opinion piece against the widening of the war:

America and Its Allies Want to Bleed Russia. They Really Shouldn’t.

At first, the Western support for Ukraine was mainly designed to defend against the invasion. It is now set on a far grander ambition: to weaken Russia itself. Presented as a common-sense response to Russian aggression, the shift, in fact, amounts to a significant escalation.

By expanding support to Ukraine across the board and shelving any diplomatic effort to stop the fighting, the United States and its allies have greatly increased the danger of an even larger conflict. They are taking a risk far out of step with any realistic strategic gain.
...
When I was in Ukraine during the first weeks of the war, even staunch Ukrainian nationalists expressed views far more pragmatic than those that are routine in America now. Talk of neutral status for Ukraine and internationally monitored plebiscites in Donetsk and Luhansk has been jettisoned in favor of bombast and grandstanding.
...
What’s more, the invasion has led directly to greater military spending in second- and third-tier European powers. The number of NATO troops in Eastern Europe has grown tenfold, and a Nordic expansion of the organization is likely. A general rearmament of Europe is taking place, driven not by desire for autonomy from American power but in service to it. For the United States, this should be success enough. It is unclear what more there is to gain by weakening Russia, beyond fantasies of regime change.
...
Diplomatic efforts ought to be the centerpiece of a new Ukraine strategy. Instead, the war’s boundaries are being expanded and the war itself recast as a struggle between democracy and autocracy, in which the Donbas is the frontier of freedom. This is not just declamatory extravagance. It is reckless. The risks hardly need to be stated.

Indeed. The current U.S. strategy will end in a catastrophe for Ukraine because it is based on false narratives. Lt.Col. (ret) Daniel Davis has consistently provided a more realist view of the military situation in Ukraine. His latest piece fits that record:

Russia’s Progress in Donbas Means Ukraine Likely Won’t Win the War

Over the past few days, a flurry of senior leaders in both Ukraine and Washington have issued defiant claims of not merely resisting Russian aggression, but pushing towards outright victory. While such aspirations are entirely understandable, it is unwise to set policy seeking a preferred outcome if there does not exist a rational path by which Ukraine could accomplish that objective. At present, most indicators, fundamentals of war, and current battlefield trendlines support the prospect of a Ukrainian defeat.

Davis correctly describes the current military situation on the ground and concludes:

By continuing to seek a military victory in Ukraine, Ukraine’s troops will continue fighting, no negotiated settlement will be realistically sought, and most likely Russian troops continue making progress. As a result, more Ukrainian civilians and troops will continue to be killed and wounded, more cities destroyed, and the economic and food crises – for both Ukraine and the world – will worsen. The most likely outcome will not change (a negotiated settlement, not a Ukrainian military victory), but the cost to Kyiv will be much, much worse.

Another former military man who has a realist view of the war is Col. Douglas Macgregor (ret). During the first Gulf war he led a unit in the Battle of 73 Easting:

Macgregor was the "squadron operations officer who essentially directed the Battle of 73 Easting" during the Gulf War. Facing an Iraqi Republican Guard opponent, he led a contingent consisting of 19 tanks, 26 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and 4 M1064 mortar carriers through the sandstorm to the 73 Easting at roughly 16:18 hours on 26 February 1991 destroyed almost 70 Iraqi armored vehicles with no U.S. casualties in a 23-minute span of the battle.

The previously quoted Lt.Col. Davis was wounded in the same battle. As both men have seen real mechanized war it is not by chance that they have come to similar conclusions.

Macgregor warns of a widening of the war through a Polish intervention in west Ukraine which would eventually drag NATO into the war:

The Threat of Polish Involvement in Ukraine
The war against Russia in Ukraine has evolved, but not in the way Western observers predicted.

Why would Poland, with the help of Lithuania, try to take western Ukraine? It is all about history:

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a country and bi-federation of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch in real union, who was both King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. It was one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th to 17th-century Europe. At its largest territorial extent, in the early 17th century, the Commonwealth covered almost 1,000,000 km2 (400,000 sq mi) and as of 1618 sustained a multi-ethnic population of almost 12 million.

Here is how that commonwealth looked on a map with current borders:

There have been talks for a while that Poland would send a ‘peacekeeping’ force to occupy Galicia in west-Ukraine. I for one predicted it on February 24, at the very onset of the war:

Thanks to Stalin's additions to the Ukraine three countries, Poland, Hungary and Romania, have claims to certain areas in the Ukraine's western regions. If they want to snatch those up again it is now probably the best time to do so. Despite being part of NATO, which likely would not support such moves, those three will have domestic policy difficulties to withstand the urge.

An official looking document now says that a Polish/Lithuanian operation will start on May 22-24.

Lord Of War @lord_of_war____ - 14:46 UTC · May 10, 2022
🇺🇦🇵🇱The document was sent to the President of the State Border Service of Ukraine, Serhiy Daynek, stating that it is 22-24. May joint "Lithuanian-Polish peacekeeping contingent" consisting of 4 battalions, 9,500 soldiers and 279 units of military equipment  [planned to enter the territory of Ukraine. Another confirmation of the development of plans for the occupation and further division of the country. Even if this particular document turns out to be false (which is not excluded), it does not change the general course of the West in relation to Ukraine.]
picture

9.500 soldiers are way more than fit into 4 battalions. A battalion has typically some 400-800 soldiers. These are more like three small brigades with 3-4 battalions each.

A Polish/Lithuanian move is exactly what Col. Macgregor is warning of:

Ten weeks after the conflict began, it is instructive to re-examine the strategic picture. The war against Russia in Ukraine has evolved, but not in the way Western observers predicted. Ukrainian forces look shattered and exhausted. The supplies reaching Ukrainian troops fighting in Eastern Ukraine are a fraction of what is needed. In most cases, replacements and new weapons are destroyed long before they reach the front.

Confronted with the unambiguous failure of U.S. assistance and the influx of new weapons to rescue Ukrainian forces from certain destruction, the Biden administration is desperate to reverse the situation and save face. Poland seems to offer a way out. More important, Polish President Andrzej Duda and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have both expressed the desire to erase the borders between Poland and Ukraine.

Unconfirmed reports from Warsaw indicate that after Washington rejected the proposals for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, along with the transfer of Polish MIG-29 aircrafts to Ukrainian pilots, the Polish general staff was quietly instructed to formulate plans for intervention in the Ukrainian conflict by seizing the western part of Ukraine. Naturally, military action of this scale would require Kiev’s approval, but given Washington’s de facto control of the Zelensky government, approval for Polish military intervention should not be a problem.

Presumably, the Biden administration may hope that a collision involving Russians and Poles in any form—including air and missile strikes against Polish forces on the Ukrainian side of the border—would potentially call for the NATO council to meet and address Article V of the NATO treaty.

It would mean that NATO, or at least major parts of it, would actively join the Ukrainian proxy war against Russia. While I believe that Russia has withheld forces from the current war to eventually defend against NATO, any entry of it into the war would significantly extend the fighting and the danger of a nuclear exchange would become imminent.

Posted by b at 15:43 UTC

Kodachrome Stories

Achieved: Russia introduces a total embargo on the export of goods

2 months after the introduction of restrictions by the West, Russia took appropriate measures. The other day, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree "On the application of retaliatory special economic measures in connection with the unfriendly actions of certain foreign states and international organizations." According to the document, the export of raw materials and products from Russia to such countries has been stopped.

The decree comes into force on May 13

From the very beginning of spring, Western states imposed restrictions against Russia and its citizens. Russia, in turn, only modestly stated that payment for the raw materials needed by these countries should now be made in rubles.

The new decree shows that Russia has decided to act proactively. On May 13, the government will publish two lists: a list of individuals against whom sanctions have been imposed, and a list of goods that will be subject to an export ban. Vladimir Putin did not begin to impose restrictions against a specific country, it was decided to “hit pointwise.”

Explicit and hidden reasons for signing the decree

Some time ago it became known about the ambiguous position of the EU countries and the United States in relation to certain Russian goods. The former openly stated that they planned to impose an embargo on the supply of Russian gas and oil. The second acted differently.

Despite the fact that the United States imposed financial and trade bans on Russia, they were confident that they would receive Russian fertilizers. Therefore, restrictions were removed from fertilizer producers, without which their agriculture is unlikely to do. Moreover, these goods have been added to the list of vital.

Russia expressed its response in a new decree. Now there will be no Russian fertilizers in the US or Europe. The list of prohibited goods will include almost everything that is produced and mined on the territory of the Russian Federation.

The economic confrontation continues

We also recall that the exchange rate has recently been “jumping” against the backdrop of rash steps by Western European countries, and in a favorable direction for the ruble. And at one point, the euro was even cheaper than the dollar.

Economic “battles” continue. For many goods, the demand is growing along with their cost, as people are afraid of rising prices. In such circumstances, Russia was forced to take retaliatory measures. The West, apparently, does not yet realize who is harmed more by economic bans. The market-based pricing mechanisms that the EU has insisted on for decades are subject to speculation.

From HERE.

Chicken Curry with coconut milk/ Easy Chinese Cooking Curry Chicken/ Singapore style curry chicken

One of my all-time favorites. I eat this dish about once a week. I’ll tell you what!

Kodachrome Stories

BIDEN ADMIN ANNOUNCES OIL AND GAS LEASE CANCELLATIONS IN ALASKA AND GULF OF MEXICO

World NewsDesk 12 May 2022 Hits: 9324

With gas prices soaring to all-time highs, it was announced tonight that the Biden Administration has issued fresh cancellations of oil and gas leases in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.

A top official with the American Petroleum Institute, the country’s largest oil and gas trade association, Frank Macchairola, called the cancellation of Alaska’s Cook Inlet lease “another example of the administration’s lack of commitment to oil and gas development in the US.”

Macchairola said that “The President has spoken about the need for additional supplies in the market, but his administration has failed to take action to match that rhetoric.”

“In the kind of price environment that we’re seeing, there are negative consequences to shutting off oil and gas development, both politically and practically,” Macchairola explained.

The Department of the Interior cited a “lack of industry interest in leasing in the area” for the decision to “not move forward” with the Cook Inlet lease sale, but canceling the sale would be in keeping with political promises Joe Biden made in the name of “halting global warming.”

As for the halting of two leases under consideration for the Gulf of Mexico region, the department said it was because of “conflicting court rulings that impacted work on these proposed lease sales.”

Breitbart’s Wendell Husebo suggested that “Gas prices to hit record highs again” once the news reverberates.

According to AAA, the national average price of regular gas hit an all-time high of $4.40 today.

HAL TURNER EDITORIAL OPINION

Gasoline and Diesel fuel have reached prices that are so high, they are unprecedented in American history. The law of supply and demand dictates that when supplies are low, prices are high. So what does Biden and company do? Cut off the drilling thereby keeping supplies low and prices high.

It’s almost as if the Biden people WANT to force high prices, to achieve their “environmentalist” goals of halting fossil fuel use.

This is the same crowd that warned us in the 1970 of “Global cooling” which then morphed in the 1990’s to “Global Warming” which then morphed in the 2010’s to “Climate change. Put simply, these environmentalists don’t know what they’re talking about and make it up as they go.

For all of you worried about “climate change” it may interest you to know that earth’s magnetic field, has moved farther west than ever before in recorded history. It has moved so far, and is moving so fast, that scientists are now wondering aloud if there may be a “pole shift” coming, where magnetic north and magnetic south, actually reverse!

It is the movement of earth’s magnetic field that has altered our climate. NOT fossil fuel emissions. Let that sink in.

Yes, our climate has been changing. It is noticeable. But the environmentalists tell us it is due to man-made activities, and they go on to claim that “greenhouse gases” are to blame.

Carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, they claim, hold heat and are thus causing climate change.

These claims are fraudulent.

Carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide do not hold any more heat than any other gas. The claim is a lie; the so-called science, is junk.

Now, I ask you: given the size of planet earth, versus the size of your car exhaust pipe, do you think your car exhaust is changing the climate, or is it the unprecedented move of earth’s own magnetic field that is altering the climate?

Most rational people, having just this moment learned that earth’s magnetic field has moved farther west than ever measured before, will instantly realize that the planet’s magnetic field is far more capable of altering our climate than a car tailpipe.

Most rational people will now also realize that these environmentalists, have “snookered” us. They snookered us with their false claims and their deliberately junk science.

Oh, and it wasn’t about preserving the environment, it was about selling their “green” energy.” Bottom line: It was about money.

Politicians jumped onto the bandwagon with their “carbon taxes” — never let a good crisis go to waste, gouge citizens for more money — and environmentalists pushed their “get rid of fossil fuels” mantra til they were blue in the face.

The whole thing was — and is — a fraud.

Civilization functions and prospers with inexpensive energy. Civilization requires inexpensive energy to progress. The environmentalists have lied to so many, for so long, they have ignored the basic fact that without inexpensive energy, civilization fails.

The best is, they want us all in electric cars. But our electric grid is so tightly balanced to supply and demand, that when summer heat extremes, or even winter cold extremes, strike vast areas, the electric grid cannot handle it. There are rolling blackouts and even brownouts.

Where do the environmentalists think all those electric cars will get power to recharge if the power grid can’t handle things now?

Wait, what? “Build more power plants” they say?????? Oh, power plants that use . . . . fossil fuels . . . . to make electric?????? Idiots. They contradict themselves!

And they are such obsessed fanatics about their beliefs, they’ve even convinced a sitting president to cancel oil drilling at a time when the price of energy is causing people to have to choose between driving, and feeding their families.

This environmental insanity must be stopped.

I support clean air, and we can still have clean air using fossil fuels.

It’s time to send the environmentalists packing, and tell them to take their dementia-addled, diaper-wearing, election thieving, illegitimate “President” with them.

The Princely County of Tyrol in 1890

Nations come and nations go. And then, forgotten by all.

BULLETIN: FINLAND OPENING, INSPECTING AND STOCKING NUCLEAR ATTACK BOMB SHELTERS

World NewsDesk 12 May 2022

The Finland Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense have begun to open and inspect, Nuclear War Bomb Shelters around the Country.Finland has one of the most robust and expansive Nuclear Bunker Systems in the World able to shelter nearly the entire Population.

It was announced earlier today that Finland intends to submit an Application to join NATO.

Russia says this is a violation of the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty which both Finland, Russia, and all the World War 2 nations, signed. That Treaty states emphatically “the parties undertake not to enter into alliances and coalitions directed against one of them.”

Intelligence Sources in Russia say “If the 1947 Peace Treaty is broken, then there is no longer Peace.”

Some of Finland’s Nuclear War Bomb Shelters are incorporated into the country’s subway system. Below is one such bunker, also being inspected, outfitted with food, water, medicine, tools, communications gear, and other supplies.

Do you want more?

New Beginnings 4

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Chinese swarm drone hand-grenades of the micro-Terminator T1000 series. Yikes!

There is so much craziness going on inside the United States today it just boggles the mind. And you know, it is so very easy to get all caught up in it. I was amazed to watch an interview by JudgeNapolitano interviewing Scott Ritter about the Ukraine. And he (the Judge) was actually believing the bullshit lies of the mainstream “news” media. I was astounded. You need not be. Here’s a look at what is going on, with a equal dose of our shared pasts. I hope you all enjoy it all.

Make sure that you stick around to the end of the article. The latest in Chinese robotic AI technology is truly a “game changer”.

American “Democracy”…

Caitlin Johnstone, maestra of metaphor and allegory, on American democracy:

"An elephant and a donkey fight in a puppet show and the crowd cheers for one or the other while thieves pick their pockets..." (thieves being the shows sponsors.)

"Democracy is when you get to vote on which oligarchic muppet will ceremonially pardon a turkey on Thanksgiving but not on whether your government should greatly escalate the risk of nuclear war."

France confiscated the money collected for the children of Donbass

French customs officers confiscated the money collected for the children of Donbass

May 14, 2022, 11:20

In France, customs officers confiscated funds collected for the children of Donbass by the humanitarian association “Save the Children of Donbass”, which were intended for transportation to Russia. The funds were detained under the pretext of a directive banning the import of money into Russia from Europe. This was announced on May 14 by the president of the association, Emmanuel Leroy.

He said that in addition to him, two more representatives of the association were sent to Donbass. French customs detained them at Charles de Gaulle airport. The group was taken to a special unit, where they were held for about 10 hours. According to Leroy, French customs officials charged them with supporting terrorism, as well as financing criminal circles and the terrorist regime.

From HERE.

Kodachrome Stories

U.S. Seeks ASEAN Proxy Willing To Poke China

On Wednesday, May 11, the Associated Press published a piece of the election in Philippine which included some dubious editorial assertions:

Marcos presidency complicates US efforts to counter China

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s apparent landslide victory in the Philippine presidential election is raising immediate concerns about a further erosion of democracy in Asia and could complicate American efforts to blunt growing Chinese influence and power in the Pacific.

Marcos, the namesake son of longtime dictator Ferdinand Marcos, captured more than double the votes of his closest challenger in Monday’s election, according to the unofficial results.

If the results stand, he will take office at the end of June for a six-year term with Sara Duterte, the daughter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, as his vice president.

Duterte — who leaves office with a 67% approval rating — nurtured closer ties with China and Russia, while at times railing against the United States.

The whole piece is much longer than the quote. But it nowhere explains why a free and fair election, like the one the Philippines just held, would lead to ‘a further erosion of democracy in Asia’. It also does not explain why anyone might doubt the results when indeed nobody really does.

What it does explain well is why Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will not become a U.S. puppet:

[A] 2011 U.S. District Court ruling in Hawaii finding him and his mother in contempt of an order to furnish information on assets in connection with a 1995 human rights class action suit against Marcos Sr.

The court fined them $353.6 million, which has never been paid and could complicate any potential travel to the U.S.

Marcos has said that he will keep the Philippines on the same neutral foreign policy line as Duterte did. Developing better relations with China is part of that.

That does not fit U.S. plans to use the Philippines as a proxy to poke the Chinese tiger.

Currently Biden is holding a summit with the leaders of countries that belong to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Myanmar was not invited to the summit and Duterte did not take part.

The agenda of the summit is astonishingly thin:

The summit, which concludes on Friday, is intended to cover an array of topics, including trade, human rights and climate change. But it is also part of an effort by Mr. Biden’s foreign policy team to highlight one of the president’s primary goals: assembling a united front against China as it increasingly demonstrates its economic and military might around the world. 

...

On Thursday evening, the White House announced new investments of about $150 million in the region as part of a series of agreements between the United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.

The investments by the United States include $40 million for clean energy projects in Southeast Asia. 
...
The United States also pledged to invest $60 million to deploy additional maritime assets — led by the Coast Guard — to the region, and to perform training and other activities in coordination with other countries aimed at enforcing maritime laws.

And the administration said it would spend $15 million to expand health surveillance programs in Southeast Asia and better detect Covid-19 and other airborne diseases in the region.

These numbers are stingy and will not move anyone to support the U.S. against China which spends billions on infrastructure in those countries.

They also include a Trojan hoarse program none of those countries is really interested in. More on that later.

The program for the summit looks a bit like a snub:

On Thursday, the leaders from the ASEAN countries met with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers before gathering at a Washington hotel to discuss business opportunities with Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary, and executives from American industries.Mr. Biden welcomed the leaders to the White House on Thursday evening in a brief ceremony on the South Lawn. The group posed for a picture before walking into the White House for dinner.

On Friday, the Asian leaders will meet with Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken in the morning, and then with Mr. Biden at the White House later in the day. According to the administration official, the group will discuss trading opportunities; transit through disputed waterways, including the South China Sea; and other topics.

These are presidents and prime ministers who are not really interested in talking with underlings like Raimondo and Blinken. They want to talk with the boss. But Biden seems to have little interest in making friends with them.

Was this summit intentionally designed to fail?

Anyway. Back to the Trojan horse for which the U.S. will spend $60 million in an attempt to poke the tiger.

A year ago Peter Lee wrote an excellent piece on the Philippine election that took place this week. It explains what the ‘additional maritime assets’ are supposed to do.

Will a New Philippine President Work with the US Coast Guard to Light Off World War III in the South China Sea?

For those of you who plan ahead, May 9, 2022 is the big one. Mark your calendars. That’s the date of the Philippine presidential elections.Recapturing the Malacañang Palace for a pro-American president is an obsession of U.S. strategists. And if I’m thinking about it now, they’ve been thinking about it ever since Rodrigo Duterte won the last election in 2016.
...
I expect that the old guard in Manila, in coordination with the United States, will do whatever is necessary to make sure that, no matter who makes it to the Palace, the embarrassment of a Duterte-style balancer presidency is not repeated.

A pro-US presidency means turning away from the PRC to deepen the security relationship with the United States and Japan and perfect the “First Island Chain” anti-China picket line.

And the Philippines will reassume its place at the center of US plans to confront the PRC in the South China Sea.

As we now know that plan did not work out. But it is interesting how it was supposed to be followed by tackling the People’s Republic of China in the South China Sea:

Post-Duterte I expect there will be continual poking at PRC vulnerabilities in the SCS as they relate to Philippine claims and can be construed to demand US support.These include Reed Bank, an energy play within the Philippines EEZ that the PRC tries to claim as inside its nine-dash line.

Then there’s the Scarborough Shoal, a fishing spot now controlled by the PRC but a flashpoint for Philippine nationalism.

And there is the aptly-named Mischief Reef.

China has made Mischief Reef into an artificial Chinese island within the Philippine’s economic zone. If the Philippine would reclaim the reef by force the ‘additional maritime assets’ the U.S. sends could come to its help:

If the Mischief Reef op goes down, that backing will probably come from, of all things, the US Coast Guard.The US Coast Guard’s scope of operations, despite its name, is not America’s coasts. It’s a global power projection arm in the realm of law enforcement, not warfare.

Or as the head of the Coast Guard himself puts it, the Coast Guard is “a maritime bridge between the Department of Defense’s lethality and the State Department’s diplomacy.”
...
The Coast Guard is in the process of basing three so-called Fast Response Cutters at Guam. They are armed with 4 machine guns and a cannon and are designed for extended duration patrols of 2500 nautical miles.

The stated Pacific mission for the Coast Guard is to offer logistics and escort i.e. armed US backup for the coast guards of friendly states in their enforcement activities in the Pacific in the realms of illegal fishing, drug trafficking, and “the threats these activities bring” mostly, I would think, from China.

Stage one is implementing this US-backed enforcement regime on behalf of Palau and the other Polynesian satrapies whose defense and foreign relations are managed by the US government.

Then, if conditions permit, you got the South China Sea.

Guam is too far from the South China Sea, so to operate in the SCS the US Coast Guard will have to rely on tenders—unless the cutters are permitted to operate out of the Philippines,

That’s something I think the US military would dearly love, and is undoubtedly on its wish list for any post-Duterte Philippine administration.

I am pretty sure that Peter Lee had that right. But with Marcos junior at the helm of Philippine that country will not agree to those plans:

Allowing the U.S. to play a role in trying to settle territorial spats with China will be a “recipe for disaster,” Marcos said in an interview with DZRH radio in January. He said Duterte’s policy of diplomatic engagement with China is “really our only option.”

The coast guard cutters to be stationed in Guam are the ‘$60 million additional maritime assets’ Biden promised to the ASEAN leaders.

Maybe some other country can be convinced to proxy-poke China to then ask for armed U.S. coast guard backup.

I doubt though that it is truly in anyone’s interest as China is certain to poke back – harshly.

Wanted:

Asian country to fight a United States proxy war aginst China.

We will make your oligarchs enormously rich and help you fight till your last citizen has been killed.

YouTube

This informed fellow did a youtube video about 9 days ago which explains it very well for anyone more interested…

US Can’t Find Indo-Pacific Nations to Host Anti-China Missiles

Ah. The youtube channel – the new atlas… check it out if you want to understand this dynamic the usa is working on more fully..

Marcello Mastroianni sips coffee in an undated image.

Kodachrome Stories

We love Kodachromes and we love found photos.

United States Marine Corp

Yes, the USMC is in turmoil right now, with the current commandant catching static because he got rid of tanks etc, whereas the old-timers would prefer that the USMC continue to be a mini-army and they are not quiet about it. . . .The Corps has no decent amphibious tanks.

They recently formed a “littoral regiment,” littoral meaning “shore,” and they worked out at 29 Palms, Southern California high desert!!

Their new policy is that Marine units will be secretly deploy to some island (somewhere in the western Pacific), nobody will notice, and then when discovered they will secretly transfer to another island…

. . .I’m serious! This is not a joke.

– Don Bacon

The Princely County of Tyrol in 1890

Nations come and nations go. And then, forgotten by all.

Jungbauernkalender 2020

6 52

Accelerated acquisition of Russian citizenship

Deputy of the State Duma Alexander Khinshtein stated…

Compatriots wishing to move to Russia will now be able to do so as quickly as possible. Alexander Gorovoy, First Deputy Minister of the Interior, informed me about this. 

Starting next week, a round-the-clock center for receiving documents for participation in the state program for the voluntary resettlement of compatriots will begin operating at the Main Directorate for Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (GUVM). Here they will accept and process applications from people from the CIS, the Baltic states and neighboring countries, for whom Russia is their historical homeland. 

It is important that applications can be sent not only by e-mail, but also by fax, since in a number of “friendly” countries access to Russian Internet resources, including the State Service portal, is blocked. 

Applications will be reviewed within 15 days. With a positive decision, compatriots will be able to immediately enter the territory of Russia, to the region of their choice, after which they will be able to apply for citizenship in an expedited manner. 

Police Colonel-General Gorov has already sent letters to the governors of the regions and the heads of the territorial bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs about the priority reception of such compatriots.

I think this decision is very correct, timely and fair. It is essentially about saving people who do not want to give up their origin and are exposed to real threats. The initiative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is a clear confirmation of the principle “we do not abandon our own”. Earlier, also at the initiative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the simplified procedure for participation (HERE) in the Compatriots state program was extended to refugees from the DPR and LPR

Kodachrome Stories

We love Kodachromes and we love found photos.

21 16

China’s 075

China’s 075 amphibious assault vessel, helo/VSTOL aircraft-carrier and hovercraft troop launcher, is indeed formidable. It’s fast, heavily armed, technologically advanced, and at 40,000 tons, has more than 3x the displacement of Russia’s lost Moskva. China has been rapidly modernizing it’s military at a pace similar to Russia’s — not coincidentally.

From Radio Free Asia 5/4/22:

"The Chinese Navy only officially started development work on the Type 075 in 2011 but has already launched three ships, two of which are fully operational and the third is on sea trials. A total of eight vessels are said to be on order for the PLAN, reported the Naval News portal."

"Chinese state media said the Type 075 'will play vital roles in possible operations on the island of Taiwan, as well as islands and reefs in the South China Sea.'”

"Experts said that the commissioning of the three ships will place China in the second rank in terms of global amphibious capabilities, second only to the United States.

"A U.S. Defense Department report released last November said China has the biggest maritime force on the globe with 355 vessels. The number is projected to increase to 420 ships within the next four years and 460 by 2030."

"A future Type 076 vessel could be equipped with electromagnetic catapults, which would enhance its ability to support fixed-wing aircraft, making it more like an aircraft carrier, according to CRS."

From HERE

Styles of Teenagers in the 1950s

I like it.

1a5

Is “Meltdown” The Correct Term To Describe The Current State Of The U.S. Economy?

May 11, 2022 by Michael

I have really been struggling to come up with an accurate way of describing the current state of the U.S. economy, because none of the traditional labels seem to apply. Inflation is out of control, and that normally happens when an economy is overheating. But of course the U.S. economy is not overheating. In fact, if U.S. GDP falls once again during the second quarter, that will officially confirm that we are actually in a recession right now. There are some that have suggested that “stagflation” is a good description of current economic conditions, but the truth is that what we are facing is so much worse than anything that we dealt with during the 1970s.

Let me give you an example. The Bureau of Labor Statistics just informed us that the consumer price index is 8.3 percent higher than it was a year ago…

Inflation rose again in April, continuing a climb that has pushed consumers to the brink and is threatening the economic expansion, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.

The consumer price index, a broad-based measure of prices for goods and services, increased 8.3% from a year ago, higher than the Dow Jones estimate for an 8.1% gain.

That is a really bad number, but it doesn’t accurately reflect reality.

If inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, the official rate of inflation would be well over 15 percent right now, and that is far worse than at any point during the Jimmy Carter era.

And if you can believe it, the real rate of inflation is now the highest that it has ever been in the entire modern history of the United States.

The term “meltdown” comes to mind, but I don’t think that completely captures what we are facing either.

Of course Joe Biden says he has a plan, and he insists that reducing inflation is his “top economic priority”…

President Biden, reacting to April’s consumer price index Wednesday, acknowledged that inflation is “unacceptably high,” and maintained that lowering prices for American families is his “top economic priority,” while again blaming the surging numbers on COVID-19 and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile, tens of millions of ordinary Americans continue to deeply suffer as prices spiral out of control.

Earlier today, I was stunned to see that even CNN is admitting that some Americans are “skipping meals” these days in order to make ends meet…

The price of groceries, gas, rent and utilities has marched higher over the past year; but wages have not kept up — and more than half of single parents make less than $15 an hour, according to recent research from Oxfam.

That has left many single parents skipping meals so their children have plenty of food, providing less healthy meals for their families, and culling expenses to the point where any unforeseen cost could mean more debt — or worse.

If people are skipping meals already, what will things be like a year from now when economic conditions are even worse?

Most people don’t realize this, but we are extremely vulnerable. When the next major downturn strikes, millions upon millions of Americans will be instantly wiped out.

According to a report that was just released, almost two-thirds of all Americans are currently living paycheck to paycheck…

As of March, close to two-thirds, or 64%, of the U.S. population was living paycheck to paycheck, just shy of the high of 65% in 2020, according to a LendingClub report.

“The number of people living paycheck to paycheck today is reminiscent of the early days of the pandemic and it has become the dominant lifestyle across income brackets,” said Anuj Nayar, LendingClub’s financial health officer.

Living on the edge is fine as long as a paycheck keeps coming in like clockwork.

But if things suddenly shift, millions upon millions of Americans could suddenly find themselves plunged into poverty.

Before I end this article, I would be remiss if I did not mention the fact that financial markets were way down yet again today.

In fact, the Nasdaq dropped another 3 percent.

But the big news is what is happening to the cryptocurrency industry. Cryptos are crashing harder than Hunter Biden after a drug-fueled night with a Chinese hooker, and Coinbase is coming apart like a 20 dollar suit…

The cryptocurrency brokerage reported a first-quarter loss late Tuesday and revenue that fell 27% from a year ago, missing Wall Street’s forecasts. Coinbase shares plummeted nearly 25% in early trading Wednesday morning and hit their lowest level ever.

Coinbase stock is now down more than 75% this year and is trading nearly 85% below its all-time high price from November. Shares have lost more than half their value in just the past week alone.

If you have money with Coinbase, you may want to consider your options, because it is being reported that “users might lose all the cryptocurrency stored in their accounts” if Coinbase actually goes bankrupt…

Hidden away in Coinbase Global’s disappointing first-quarter earnings report—in which the U.S.’s largest cryptocurrency exchange reported a quarterly loss of $430 million and a 19% drop in monthly users—is an update on the risks of using Coinbase’s service that may come as a surprise to its millions of users.

In the event the crypto exchange goes bankrupt, Coinbase says, its users might lose all the cryptocurrency stored in their accounts too.

I was absolutely floored when I first read that.

Right now, Coinbase is holding more than 250 billion dollars worth of assets for its customers, and there is a danger that all of it could become “inaccessible”…

Coinbase said in its earnings report Tuesday that it holds $256 billion in both fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies on behalf of its customers. Yet the exchange noted that in the event it ever declared bankruptcy, “the crypto assets we hold in custody on behalf of our customers could be subject to bankruptcy proceedings.” Coinbase users would become “general unsecured creditors,” meaning they have no right to claim any specific property from the exchange in proceedings. Their funds would become inaccessible.

So there are some people out there that currently believe that they are crypto millionaires that could literally end up with nothing.

At this point, the crypto industry is in the process of melting down.

But so are the financial markets.

And so is the overall economy.

The great unraveling that we have been warned about is here, and we are still only in the early chapters.

I would greatly encourage you to protect your assets while you still can.

A rush for the exits has now begun, and you don’t want to be caught holding the bag.

Chinese smart satellite tracks US aircraft carrier in real time, researchers say | South China Morning Post

Chinese smart satellite tracks US aircraft carrier in real time, researchers say.

AI-powered eye in the sky could identify a wide range of tactical or strategic targets, developers say

Previously, a huge amount of raw satellite data had to be analysed on the ground (note: it should be currently, in US, a huge amount of raw satellite data has to be analysed on the ground)

From HERE

Chinese girl

Most certainly looks like she’s ready for a nice evening, some talk, some great food, and a nice evening walk in the city. video 2MB

Kodachrome Stories

We love Kodachromes and we love found photos.

Google begins, 1999

I feel old.

Jungbauernkalender 2020

Chinese girl in a nice white top

I like her. Video 4MB

How to Cook Brazilian Feijoada: Traditional Black Bean and Pork Stew [ Legendas PT]

Now this is one great meal. Please check it out.

”]

Kodachrome Stories

We love Kodachromes and we love found photos.

Styles of Teenagers in the 1950s

I like it.

Chinese girl in two-tone jeans

I like this look. Video 2MB

Jungbauernkalender 2020

The Princely County of Tyrol in 1890

Nations come and nations go. And then, forgotten by all.

United States to setup more bioweapons labs in the pacific

“And the administration said it would spend $15 million to expand health surveillance programs in Southeast Asia and better detect Covid-19 and other airborne diseases in the region.”

According to Russian MoD, they have evidence US used bio warfare against what are now the republics in Ukraine in the form of fake money contaminate with a antibiotic resistant tuberculosis. Russia has another UN meeting scheduled – it may have already occurred – to present more evidence and have it recorded at the UN.

For the US to crap on now about health surveillance programs when the whole world knows that it develops and uses bio weapons…

-Peter AU1

Chinese Girl “Brickhouse” version

Yup. We’ve got ’em. video 3MB

George S. Patton’s dog mourning his master on the day of his death

24 18

Mischief Reef; some general observations

In 1995 China seized from the Philippines the atoll Mischief Reef in the Spratlys. Mischief Reef was submerged at high tide and lies just 125 nautical miles from Palawan. Today, after massive dredging, Mischief Reef is a 558-hectare artificial island, hosting China’s largest air and naval base in the Spratlys. The Chinese call Mischief Reef their Pearl Harbor in the South China Sea. The arbitral Award ruled that Mischief Reef is part of the EEZ of the Philippines. Mischief Reef image here

PRC vs. Vietnam & ROC
within the Spratly Islands:

Vietnam occupies and/or controls six islands, seventeen reefs and three banks,
ROC occupies and/or controls one island and one reef,
Malaysia occupies and/or controls one artificial island and five reefs, and
PRC occupies and/or controls eight reefs

The anti-China blather about the nine-dash line “that China uses to depict its claims in the SCS” is pure fabricated propaganda.

Here’s a live view of Marine traffic in the area . Most of it is to/from China and the South China Sea bases are needed to safeguard that traffic, especially with US warships’ frequent visits while claiming that they are there to protect a “free and open” western Pacific.

-Don Bacon

Styles of Teenagers in the 1950s

saaa18

Shipping: A Real-World Asset-Class… But Complex!

Authored by Bill Blain via MorningPorridge.com,

“I am leaving the sea. I shall walk inland with an oar on my shoulder. When someone asks what it is – there I shall bide.”

The ongoing pain in crashing financial asset markets demonstrates the need to diversify portfolios and decorrelated returns. Shipping is one such asset; returns have been boosted by scarcity as a result of the pandemic – the question is: can these returns be maintained?

Yesterday I promised I would look more closely at diversified non-financial assets. This morning I’ve going to start with Shipping… but let me caveat it’s a complex and expert-led market. While Shipping has massive investment potential – recent results from shipping funds have been stellar – I am not a shipping expert. Talk to shipping professionals before you risk anything in the sector.

Writing about subjects I don’t fully comprehend raises a credibility risk – but it’s worth highlighting Shipping and some other areas for the opportunities they present in terms of uncorrelated returns. One way to skip the looming crisis in financial assets will be to differentiate portfolios away from listed stocks and shares – and look to buy the real world; what we call alternative assets.

And, after yesterday’s miserable day in markets, these uncertain times means it’s absolutely necessary for investors to look outside their conventional comfort zones to generate returns. Wearing my day-job hat, I am Head of Alternative Assets at Shard Capital, so feel free to contact me on email (bill.blain@shardcapital.com) to ask questions – and who knows, I may have just the deal for you! (Sorry – qualified professional investors only!)

I remain convinced global stocks and shares are massively overpriced relative to the prospects for the global economy. That’s not just because of the deepening new Covid lockdown crisis in China (which threatens a catastrophic repeat of 2020-21 supply chain breakdowns), energy & food inflation, the Ukraine war, but also unravelling the consequences of 12 years of Monetary experimentation and cheap liquidity distorting markets.

Judging from the talk of capitulation trades I’m hearing, or more miserable tech results to come (Peloton this week), I’m not the only person thinking the crash, bang, wallop “moment” approaches.

For instance, there was a fantastic quote in Grants Interest Rate Observer last night about how DoorDash posted a 35% jump in revenues to $1.46 bln, but still didn’t make a profit – it now carries a $1.7 bln cumulative net loss. Grants’ quoted the former head of Dominos pizza: “In 60 years, we’ve never made a dollar delivering a pizza. We make money on the product, but we don’t make any money on the delivery. So, we’re just not sure how others do it.”

Which is why you should stay away from modern companies who don’t understand why successful companies never did it that way… DoorDash, and many others, will be remembered for inventing the Square Wheel…

Styles of Teenagers in the 1950s

Another typical Chinese girl

Nice. Thin. No tattoos. Not on drugs. No purple hair. video 37MB

Some thoughts on the Chinese Navy (PLAN)

here’s an update on the PLA’s Navy as its “second Type 075 amphibious assault ship” begins its first FTX. Here’s some commentary:

“Z-8 helicopters, Type 05 amphibious armored vehicles and Type 726 air-cushioned landing craft have started training together with the Guangxi, which is also dubbed a helicopter carrier, according to the CCTV.

“As a new-type combat force in the transformation and development of the Navy, the Guangxi is tasked with exploring tactics for maritime multidimensional landing combat and enhancing core amphibious combat capabilities, the report quoted Captain Xu Ce, skipper of the Guangxi, as saying.

“China has started to build and commission the Type 075 amphibious assault ships in numbers, as the ship is technically sophisticated and proven reliable, Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military expert, told the Global Times on Thursday.

“The second Type 075 will gain combat capability very fast, as the first ship has gathered many successful experiences, Wei said….

“With more main battle vessels entering service, the PLA Navy’s capabilities to safeguard national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and development interests are growing as well, experts said, noting that China is aiming to build a blue-water navy capable of not only coastal defense but also far sea escort.” [My Emphasis]

Target: Taiwan and Convoy Protection from USN. All that was from the April 12th article. That was updated yesterday with this item:

“Two Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy Type 075 amphibious assault ships recently sailed together in a dual ship exercise for the first time, a move analysts said not only showed that the recently commissioned second ship has achieved a high level of combat capability, but also provided the PLA with a powerful new instrument in amphibious landing operations, with the island of Taiwan being a key potential target.”

The article says a video was also released with the Wednesday announcement, but I wasn’t able to find it.

China’s shipyards are also building numerous commercial vessels too at a rate the Outlaw US Empire can’t even come close to matching, nor does it have the ability to rapidly ramp up production for a variety of reasons, most importantly being the lack of a properly trained workforce at all logistical levels.

– karlof1

Back to Shipping…

Shipping is an enormously complex sector. You need to understand what all the different classes of boats do, how their demand patterns work, to understand how the supply of new and old ships will affect prices, while overlaying everything with an understanding of global trade to work out likely returns. And even then, you will be swimming in an investment pool of players who will know far more than you…

Yet, the numbers are enticing. The returns from owning ships have gone skywards – charter rates have risen dramatically, ship values have trebled in some cases, and even the older ships are commanding high resale values. Funds set up to manage vessels have done exceptionally well.

Be warned: shipping can get very messy. In the past it’s been an easy way to lose money quickly – and always there will be some very clever Greeks just waiting to scoop up the bargains. Typically, it’s a boom/bust industry – every time the global economy booms there is a shipping shortage, new vessels are ordered leading a glut of capacity just as the next downturn starts.

But, shipping is absolutely critical to making the global economy function. Take a look at the crisis in supply chains…

Two of most interesting leading indicators of how the global economy is really performing are the Shanghai Export Container Freight Index and the Baltic Dry Index. The first measures the all-important freight rate and volume of Containers being sent from China around the globe, while the Baltic Dry measures the flow and price of transporting raw materials. I’ve been watching the Baltic since I was a tiny wee banker back in the 1980s.

Since May 2000 – when global trade began to anticipate Covid recovery – the Shanghai leapt from a low of 836 to peak in January this year at 5094. Now the container index has fallen to 4163 – suggesting, perhaps, that global container costs are beginning to moderate. The Baltic Dry spiked from a May 2020 Covid low of 350 to over 5500 in Oct 2021 as the global economy re-opened – it fell below 1500 earlier this year but has recovered to 2831 reflecting slowdown in China.

Both indexes correlate to inflation – which is hardly surprising as they are leading indicators of global trade. The fact both are weaker than their peaks might suggest moderating inflation and increasing recessionary conditions. Both are probably better indications of the real economy than stocks. I find it fascinating how the Baltic Dry basically flatlined through the last decade of excessively low interest rates and a raging bull equity market, reflecting the utter detachment of the financial asset universe from the reality of a very slow stuttering real economy.

When I try to understand why shipping values have risen so much since 2020… it’s complex. It’s all been about blockages as the economy reopened. The price of shipping basically depends on the availability of ships. I am told the global fleet of handy-size freighters is over 5000 vessels, but there only 5-6 actually available for charter at present!

I came across an interesting example of cost “friction” while looking at shipping. When freight costs are so high, it infers demand must be high, therefore it’s an inflationary signal – people willing to pay more to get goods.

However, the current energy/oil shock means the price of bunker fuel is pretty much at an all time high. As a result, ships are slowing down. Slow steaming requires considerably less fuel – it’s called the “cube-rule”: slow a boat by half, and it will use 1/8th the fuel it would at full speed. In the past there has been a pretty close correlation between the speed of boats and the cost of freight. When its high, ships slow.

But… things are never that simple. Slowing a boat down means it takes longer to sail from A-B. That means it costs more to hire a ship as the rental is a daily charge – and charter rates have risen between 20-35%. This is where friction comes in; shipping costs have become a compromise between rising demand, the higher cost of fuel and crew, plus the rising costs of hiring ships.

That is great news for ship owners. First it means they get paid more because their boats earn a higher rental on longer voyages. Second, its reckoned for every 1 knot (a knot is the speed of boats, its not quite the same as miles per hour) global shipping slows, about 6% of the global fleet is taken out as not available – meaning slower ships mean fewer ships for hire, further pushing up charter rates. Shipping earns more, but goods reach markets slower, thus generating inflation!

The next problem is global ports. From Shanghai, Long Beach and Harwich global ports were swamped by the post-Covid reopening. This was exacerbated by shortage of lorry drivers, stevedores, and now renewed lockdowns in China. While Western Ports are full of empty containers, there are practically no empty TEUs (Twenty Foot Equivalent Units) anywhere in Asia. The result is massive delays unloading vessels. About 20% of the Global Shipping container fleet is currently queued waiting for entry to the big ports – again creating scarcity and pushing up charter prices.

All of which is great news for the owners of smaller Handysize vessels – we’re even seeing smaller bulk carriers carrying containers to smaller ports (many have their own cranes on board). It’s not particularly efficient, but it solves the immediate transport crisis.

There are other problems – about 3% of the global merchant marine is Russian flagged, but Russian sailors make up 10% of the 2 million odd global merchant sailors. Following the pandemic its clear many sailors have retired or have given up – many were effectively trapped on board for the duration of the crisis. There is a massive shortage of crew and officers building – by 2025 we could be short over 90,000 officers, particularly in engineering – a long term problem for the whole global economy.

The question for investors is this: will the current global supply chain problems which have driven up shipping prices ease, and mean prices, and therefore returns, continue to drive results? Perhaps, but the problems will be solved in the medium term. Its not necessarily bad for shipping – in many shipping classes the ships are getting older and less efficient, and new fuel and environmental regulations mean they need replaced.

The numbers are all out there.. but this is where you need the expert advice on which shipping types are likely to prove most valuable. I’ll be very happy to assist. For instance, I am reliably informed not to buy container ships, but handysize bulkers… and maybe some tankers…

Bouncy Chinese Girl

I’m a big fan of “the bounce”. video 11MB

Kodachrome Stories

The Race To Break The Russia-China Alliance & The “Ukraine Of The Asia Pacific”

Authored by Matthew Ehret,

There is a window of opportunity open for the west to recognize the total failure of the unipolar model before the point of no return has passed.

It has become commonplace western media and armadas of geopolitical think tankers to paint today’s Russia-China alliance as a matter of either “momentary convenience”, or as a strained partnership between two competing authoritarian regimes with global imperial aspirations.

However, if one simply looks at the facts as they are without the filter of “experts” telling you how to interpret reality, it becomes extremely clear that those cynical geopolitical assessments painted by geopolitical opinionators are doing little more than trying to analyze life through lenses that only see dead corpses. It isn’t that such analysts aren’t necessarily concerned with the truth (although more than a few aren’t), but due to their fundamental axioms, their limited minds cannot contemplate a system organized by a non-Hobbesian parameters either past, present or future. It is for this reason that such opinionators cannot understand the nature of the Russian-China alliance nor can they see or understand the stark parallels in the asymmetrical war efforts to destroy either Eurasian power.

Due to this intellectual blindness, even among many intelligent experts within the alternative media community, I will take this opportunity to briefly assess some of the key elements of the parallel features of both operations that have been deployed to destroy both Russia and China. We will begin by looking at the color revolutionary tactics, followed by ‘Gladio stay behinds’, military encirclement, biowarfare and finally the use of ‘fifth columns’.

Color Revolutionary Tactics

Over the past decades, both Russia and China have contended with obsessive efforts to carve up and destabilize their governments utilizing “democracy promoting/anti corruption” organizations tied to western intel have fortunately failed to Balkanize them as seen in the tragic case of Yugoslavia.

The late geopolitical guru Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote passionately of his vision of a carved-up Russia in his 1997 Grand Chessboard saying: “A loosely confederated Russia- composed of a European Russia, a Siberian Republic, and a Far Eastern Republic- would find it easier to cultivate closer economic regulations with Europe, with the new states of Central Asia and with East Asia, which would thereby accelerate Russia’s own development.”

Over the years, western funded movements in China have arisen calling openly for breaking up China into no less than five ethno-nationalist micro-states called ‘East Turkestan, The Free State of Tibet, Canton and Manchuria.’

Purged multibillionaire deep state operative Guo Wengui (aka: Miles Guo), now operating from New York, has gone so far as to establish an international insurrectionary organization called ‘The New Federal State of China’ with a shiny new flag, constitution and cheesy anthem for the post-CCP China which will undoubtedly happen any day within Guo’s wildest imagination.

The leaders of both nations have clearly identified “color revolutionary” tactics as an active form of asymmetrical warfare leading both states to ban a wide spectrum of western-funded NGOs (or if permitted to exist within their territories to be forced to register as ‘foreign agents’). While the color revolution financing king George Soros was banned from China back in 1989, Russia took longer to gain the power and confidence to ban the economic hitman’s Open Society operations which finally occurred in 2015.

Gladio-type “stay-behinds” on their borders.

The asymmetrical warfare tool basket doesn’t stop at color revolutionary tactics, but relies upon networks of provocateurs and extremists who often find their roots in the non-punishment of virulent war criminals in the wake of WW2.

Those second and third generation fascist stay-behinds who were incorporated into western intelligence under the helm of NATO after WW2 remains one of the most uncomfortable and dangerous secrets of the modern age.

Weaponized ideological groups carefully groomed by Anglo-American intelligence since WWII and who continued to glorify Nazi-collaborators as “great heroes” played a major role both during the Cold War, and also today’s Banderite-filled age with neo-Nazi battalions driven obsessively to carry out jihad against Russia as their spiritual forefathers had done during WW2.

This problem is not isolated to Eastern Europe, but persists in China’s own back yard where the American military colony of Japan still maintains a strong tradition of treating WWII fascist war criminals as heroes (much to China’s chagrin).

One of the largest parties occupying 30% of the Japanese parliamentary seats (and headed by former PM Shinzo Abe) is the Nippon Kaigi party which claims openly that “Japan should be applauded for liberating much of East Asia” during WW2.

Despite many anti-fascist impulses in Japan seeking to maintain peaceful coexistence with their Eurasian neighbors, the Nippon Kaigi goes so far as to deny that Japan committed any atrocities to the Chinese during WW2 while trying to maintain the thesis that Japan was on the side of justice by working with Hitler. Keep in mind that this is also the same colony (now hosting over 50,000 US troops) which saw former PM Shinzo Abe call publicly for acquiring US-owned nuclear weapons to defend against China one week after Zelensky made that same call on behalf of Ukraine in Munich on February 19th.

Chinese girl showing her side profile.

I like her. But the background is bland. video 1MB

Full Spectrum Dominance: Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific

Like Russia, who has watched “full spectrum dominance” wrap around her perimeter over the course of 20+ years, China has also been looking at ongoing efforts to create a “NATO of the Pacific” termed “the Quad” in her backyard.

This toxic idea has been championed by NATO-connected think tanks like the Atlantic Council and CFR for years and grows directly out of Obama’s 2012 ‘Asia Pivot’ strategy which saw a broad extension of missile systems, trident-bearing submarines, provocative “freedom of navigation” exercises, military bases and efforts to impose US-controlled governments hostile to China in the Pacific region.

The ABM-aspect of this program (which experts agree can be easily converted from “defensive” into “offensive”) is reflected in the THAAD missile system already stationed in South Korea which currently hosts over 28,000 US troops. Nominally justifying its existence to stop the “North Korean threat”, the reality is that this system has always been aimed at China.

Describing the $762 billion National Defense Authorization Act of 2022 which received nearly total bipartisan support, analyst Michael Klare observed:

“The gigantic 2022 defense bill — passed with overwhelming support from both parties — provides a detailed blueprint for surrounding China with a potentially suffocating network of U.S. bases, military forces, and increasingly militarized partner states. The goal is to enable Washington to barricade that country’s military inside its own territory and potentially cripple its economy in any future crisis. For China’s leaders, who surely can’t tolerate being encircled in such a fashion, it’s an open invitation to… well, there’s no point in not being blunt… fight their way out of confinement.”

Taiwan as Ukraine of the Pacific

Obviously within this entire mess, Taiwan (which has been an Anglo-American plaything since 1949) is currently acting like the “Ukraine of the Pacific” with many leading agents operating throughout the government calling openly for US military defense of China’s autonomous province from the “evil commie” mainlanders.

Biden himself has pledged that Taiwan can “count on America’s support” were an invasion to break out at any time. These supportive words were backed up with a $750 million deal to provide a Howitzer military system to Taiwan in August 2021, a $100 million deal to supply and upgrade Taiwan’s patriot missile systems on February 8, 2022 and another $95 million missile deal on April 6, 2022. After the second of these three deals, the Taiwanese foreign ministry sounded like it was trying to out-Zelensky Zelensky saying:

“In the face of China’s continued military expansion and provocative actions, our country will maintain its national security with a solid defence, and continue to deepen the close security partnership between Taiwan and the United States.”

China’s concerns over the vast expansion of US efforts to turn Taiwan into a Pacific Ukraine (including a doubling of military officials in the US embassy compound in the past year) are very real.

Biowarfare in the 21st Century

Then there is the serious issue of the Pentagon’s bioweapons infrastructure that has demonstrated an ethnic-targeting feature as outlined in the September 2000 PNAC manifesto “Rebuilding Americas Defenses”. In this bone-chilling neocon manifesto, its authors stated that in the 21st century “combat will likely take place in new dimensions: In space, cyber-space and perhaps the world of microbes… advanced forms of biological warfare that can “target” specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool”.

Today over 320 Pentagon-run biolabs are scattered strategically around the world with a very active program titled “Jupitr” and “Centaur” located in in South Korea. This later program has caused grave concern to both the Chinese and many Koreans since Obama launched inaugurated the program in 2010 with an executive order that stated “a robust and productive scientific enterprise that utilizes biological select agents and toxins is essential to national security.”

This was the same team that brought us the Obama-Lugar partnership that established a vast bio-laboratory infrastructure in Georgia while Obama was still just another Soros-controlled Senator with Presidential ambitions.

Work on some of the deadliest toxins in the world has been conducted within the US run biolabs which include work on botulinum, ricin, staphylococcal, anthrax, plague and more. In 2015 the US military was caught illegally shipping samples of live anthrax via FedEx to the US laboratory at the Oran Air base 70 km south of Seoul resulting in civilian protests across the nation although no evidence of any change in policy by the Americans.

Japan’s sordid past is again brought back into the story, as Finian Cunningham’s recent Strategic Culture Foundation study on the origins of US bioweapons complex zeroed in on the Military Industrial Complex’s absorption of the genocidal “Unit 731” under the control of Shiro Ishii. Cunningham wrote:

“Ishii’s Unit 731 is estimated to have caused up to 500,000 deaths during the war from the use of biological warfare by dropping pathogens from airplanes on Chinese cities in Hunan and Zhejiang provinces. The unit also carried out diabolic forced experiments on Chinese and Russian prisoners of war to study the epidemiology of diseases and vaccines. Inmates were infected with pathogens and subjected to horrible agonizing deaths… Shiro Ishii and his criminal network were never brought to trial following the war despite earnest Soviet requests. Instead, the Americans who occupied mainland Japan granted him and his team of doctors immunity from prosecution in exchange for exclusive access to the biological and chemical warfare experiments. The Pentagon assigned its experts from Fort Detrick, Maryland, to tap the Japanese trove of data.”

This list would not be complete without the last consideration…

Fifth Columnists in Russia and China

Leaders within both nations have been contending for years with World Economic Forum fifth columnists like Anatoly Chubais in Russia and WEF Trustee Jack Ma (and more than a few other Shanghai Clique connected technocrats and billionaires) both inside and outside of China. Some observations on those foreign influences still exerting relevant influence within China via Shanghai as a hotbed for international finance was Emanuel Pastreich who wrote:

“Shanghai is riddled with global financial interests, with the head offices (or certainly the major branch) for all major multinational investment banks and multinational corporations located there. Their impact on the Chinese economy remains immense.

Shanghai has a history of over a hundred years as a center for global capital with a parasitic relationship to the rest of the nation. It was Shanghai, after all, that offered extraterritoriality to citizens from imperial powers until the 1940s.”

Luckily, since the ousting of Soros, many of the worst elements of China’s deep state have been incrementally de-weeded in bursts starting in 1989, then 1997, and the largest robust purge begun in 2012 and continuing to this day.

Some of the biggest operatives purged by Xi’s crackdown on corruption include Ma Jian (former Deputy Director of China’s National Security Bureau), Zhang Yue (former legal affairs secretary of Hebei), Bo Zilai (former Communist Party Secretary of Chonqing), Xu Caihou (Vice Chair of China’s Military Commission), and billionaire Pony Ma (to name but a few).

There has been an obvious clash between these traitorous forces and genuine patriots in both nations committed to their peoples’ survival in opposition to the religious like commitment to depopulation, cultural mediocrity and global enslavement.

Beyond Simply Survival

Russia and China’s commitment to survival and cooperation goes far beyond utilitarian concerns as outlined by their February 4th joint statement for Cooperation Entering a New Era which called for the further integration of the EAEU and BRI, military intelligence harmonization under the growing SCO and broader international integration of the multipolar system.

Among its many important points, the statement read:

“The sides are seeking to advance their work to link the development plans for the Eurasian Economic Union [EAEU] and the Belt and Road Initiative with a view to intensifying practical cooperation between the EAEU and China in various areas and promoting greater interconnectedness between the Asia Pacific and Eurasian regions.

The sides reaffirm their focus on building the Greater Eurasian Partnership in parallel and in coordination with the Belt and Road construction to foster the development of regional associations as well as bilateral and multilateral integration processes for the benefit of the peoples on the Eurasian continent.”

There is still a window of opportunity open for the west to wake up and recognize the total failure of the unipolar model of imperial governance before the point of no return has passed. Whether or not the moral fitness to conduct this exercise in humility still exists remains to be seen.

Chinese Girl with a tattoo!

It is a truly rare thing. Video 4MB

Styles of Teenagers in the 1950s

Australian thoughts

ASEAN is run by oligarchs, but of late they seem more inclined to not choose sides. China of course is just as able to line their pockets as the US. More likely they’ll take kick backs from both sides and stay uncommitted.

The US now has Australia as its prime puppet, the current fool of a PM gave up decades of avoiding a choice, he dumped the profitable China trade in exchange for spending billions instead on useless US weapons. Reading online comments seems Australians have convinced themselves they are a military power and China and Russia need to be regime changed. Odd,never used to be like that, seems the corrupt media has shaped opinion.

This won’t end well for Australia, glad I left, not the great country it used to be. All its income derives from commodities, the WEF globalists have infected it with the climate change economic suicide as well. 100% locked into the two globalist cons of climate chane and the rules based order. Idiots.

-Organic

How to make Jamaican RICE and PEAS!

This is a MUST TRY!

Lighting The Gas Under European Feet: How Politicians & Journalists Get Energy So Wrong

Authored by Joakim Book via The Mises Institute,

“We live in a time where few understand how things get made. It is fine to not know where stuff comes from, but it isn’t fine to not know where stuff comes from while dictating to the rest of us how the economy should be run." 

- Doomberg

Eighty-five percent of human energy usage comes from burning things. Either plants or trees grown in a geologically recent past or plants or trees (and decomposed animals) from ancient times. Solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, etc.—all the things that occupy a climate-conscious citizen, activist, or politician’s dreams—are frizzles around the edges.

Human civilization is powered by combustion; human beings are a fossil fuel–burning civilization. You can take away the civilization part, which seems to be the end goal for some environmentalists, but bar that, you can’t take away the fossil fuel part.

If we listened only to our energy overlords’ preaching, we would get a very different impression of what the world is like. Wind turbines powering all those electrified vehicles on our roads, solar panels and batteries of immense capacities light and heat our homes. Dirty oil and polluting coal are out; green, clean, and smart machines on the way in.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Renewables don’t power our societies, they’re not about to any time soon, and the fact that they’re not isn’t a policy choice—or “greedy capitalism” preventing this utopian (dystopian) vision.

First, some housekeeping: Energy is not the same as electricity. Electricity is a secondary energy source, derived from primary energy sources through a conversion process—combustion or turbines spinning. The 85 percent figure above is for energy use. The bombastic figures in the press about the massive growth and expanse of renewables are for electricity, which is only a subset of all the world’s energy use (some 20 percent). Oil, coal, and gas for transport, heating, fertilizers, and construction dwarf the symbolic solar panels governments paid people to place on their roof.

Solar panels and wind turbines produce a minor part of the electricity needs, but do nothing to address the larger energy needs. In contrast, fossil fuels are energy-dense, reliable, on-demand sources of either energy or electricity, and we have excelled both at storing and transporting them.

Dreams of a green revolution, per the energy theorist Vaclav Smil, were always mirages:

We are a fossil-fueled civilization whose technical and scientific advances, quality of life, and prosperity rest on the combustion of huge quantities of fossil carbon, and we cannot simply walk away from this critical determinant of our fortunes in a few decades, never mind years.

Instead, suddenly facing an adversary rich in raw materials and fossil fuels, the West’s talking heads doubled down on their green dreams. From behind comfortable newspaper desks, heated and electrified by natural gas, it’s remarkably easy to say things like: “The new reality is that we have to go all the way to universal electrification even faster, powered by 100% renewable energy with green hydrogen filling the gaps” (Andreas Kluth, at Bloomberg).

For the New Yorker, John Cassidy recently told us that we must “prevent future Putins from trying to hold the world to energy ransom—at least one worthy outcome of the tragedy that is Ukraine.”

In a powerful speech in the middle of the Russia flurry in March, Isabel Schnabel of the Executive Board at the European Central Bank rallied for renewable power:

Every solar panel installed, every hydropower plant built and every wind turbine added to the grid are taking us a step closer to energy independence and a greener economy….

Our dependence on fossil energy sources is not only considered a peril to our planet, it is also increasingly seen as a threat to national security and our values of liberty, freedom and democracy.

Luckily, Schnabel is in control of nothing less than the Eurozone’s printing press. One-upped by a fellow German, the reality-challenged finance minister Christian Lindner taught us that renewable electricity is “the energy of freedom.”

What he failed to understand is that renewable electricity generation in Germany requires boatloads and pipe loads of Russian gas, Russian oil, and Russian commodities: the steel and cement to construct their precious wind towers are made from coal, not even counting the extreme heat needed to shape the steel and iron that makes up its body.

A single wind turbine uses thousands of kilograms of nickel in its shaft and gear, plus some rare earth minerals from some pretty unclean sources. The gigantic structures, hundreds of meters tall and much too clunky to easily transport, are erected and moved there by machines that swallow diesel by the gallon.

Fossil fuels are machine food, as Alex Epstein is fond of saying, and nothing drinks petrol like the machines that power a thirsty wind energy industry. When renewable sources are added to the electricity grid in large quantities, the cost of electricity goes up, not down, because their fickle reliance on weather requires them to be backstopped by thermal plants that run on coal or natural gas. The more renewables you add, the more natural gas you need.

Styles of Teenagers in the 1950s

Chinese girl fresh and clean

I just love the look. video 3MB

Actually, Fossil Fuels Aren’t Optional

The conclusion from much political and media messaging on climate is the same: burning fossil fuels for energy is a choice, a bad one, and we must choose differently. The moral case against Russia is just a cherry on top.

“Would you rather rely on Mr. Putin’s Russia?” The Economist asked in a recent cover story on energy security.

The very same Russia that Bloomberg News described as:

“a commodities powerhouse, producing and exporting huge amounts of materials the world uses to build cars, transport people and goods, make bread and keep the lights on.”

But the writers at The Economist insist:

“As the world weans itself off dirty fuels, it must switch to cleaner energy sources.”

When we listen to the political overlords in Brussels or Berlin, or the intellectual ones in think tanks, political parties, or at influential media outlets, we get the impression that relying on “Mr. Putin’s Russia” can be done away with—as optional and care-free as picking a different ice cream flavor.

To hammer home the “renewable revolutions are impossible” point, let’s use the poster child for renewables, Germany. Here is its energy use over the last half century:

Let me know if you can spot Germany’s revolutionary Energiewende in the early 2010s. With a microscope, I can detect a little bit of wind crowding out some nuclear—while gas keeps growing and coal continues its fifty-five-year decline. What sort of fairytale must one believe to think that the purple and yellow shares—almost invisible at the top—could in any way supplant the others, preferably before next winter when Putin’s withholding of gas would once again be disastrous for Europeans.

A prominent German think tank, Agora Energiewende, also thinks it’s perfectly possible. Its projections depend, not just on building and installing more wind energy plants than ever before, but raising that rate of construction by about one-third every year for years on end. To describe those plans as “optimistic” somehow doesn’t cut it:

The International Energy Agency (IEA), staffed with the same sort of reality-resistant dreamers, produced this wonderful graph that plans for the energy production in a net-zero future (NZE):

At great expense and inconvenience, the world can indeed increase its use of solar and wind—but remember: they destabilize grids and constitute a vanishingly small portion of world energy needs. To replace what we need, and accommodate growth for the billions globally who scrape by on a minimum of energy, the IEA says we must add solar and wind capacity at a vertiginous rate, never before achieved, at way faster than their own forecasts.

As Alex Epstein writes in the preface to his future book Fossil Future: a net-zero policy, actually implemented “would certainly be the most significant act of mass murder since the killings of one hundred million people by communist regimes in the twentieth century—and it would likely be far greater.”

If you believe, as so many politicians, activists, and deluded journalists do, that this is a mere policy decision, you are sadly mistaken. The impossibility of renewables is a technical and physical problem—not an economic, financial, moral, or political problem.

Jungbauernkalender 2020

Gaslighting Europeans

According to mental health site VeryWellMind, gaslighting is “a form of manipulation that often occurs in abusive relationships. It is a covert type of emotional abuse where the bully or abuser misleads the target, creating a false narrative and making them question their judgments and reality. Ultimately, the victim of gaslighting starts to feel unsure about their perceptions of the world and even wonder if they are losing their sanity.”

Consider the following combination of expert-led gaslighting:

The entire 2010s and beyond, politicians pooh-poohed nuclear: in words (rallying cries and moral suasion) and actions (strict regulations), they prevented any expansion and shut down capacity.
European environmental regulation and climate activists have stopped as much oil and gas extraction as they could. Most countries have banned or otherwise prevented “fracking,” the natural gas extraction method that turned America into an energy exporter.
For the last decade and more, climate warriors inside and outside governments have hauled boatloads of cash onto “green” energies—everything from wind and solar to experimental forms of tidal energy.
Green electricity sources, because of the unpredictable load that makes them unsuitable for modern civilization, have expanded in consort with natural gas because the dirty secret of the former is that they require rapidly available backup power—for which the latter is the convenient choice.
Because all things “carbon” are considered bad, politicians, journalists, and the Greta Thunbergs of the world have done everything in their power to sway more people into putting solar panels on their roofs and electric vehicles in their garages. That strains an already fragile grid by adding more demand and another variable supply: crucially, it requires lots more nickel, palladium, and silver—with Russia among the world’s largest supplier for those key commodities.

One would suppose that, on the back of the war in Ukraine, the strict Western sanctions on Russia, and energy prices going through the roof, the green-washed politicians and policymakers who rule our lives would offer excuses. Now that the Russian invasion had those very same policymakers cutting commercial ties to that despicable empire-building strongman, and energy prices and access suddenly rose to the forefront of everyone’s mind, we’d expect a bit of humility. Apologies are in order:

Fellow Europeans, against market prices, physics, and sanity, we pushed you into worse forms of electricity generation and endangered our energy security. Instead of doing what we should have done, we relied more and more on the commodities exported from countries like Russia. For making Europeans more beholden to Putin, we apologize.

Instead, we got gaslighting on a remarkable scale.

“Weaning off” Silly

The world isn’t weaning itself off fossil fuels—it can’t, and it shouldn’t. More importantly, “cleaner energy” aren’t options on a shopping menu, available as inconsequential choices the way consumers may choose Doritos over Pringles or a new toothpaste.

It’s becoming increasingly clear, to more and more people, that withdrawing from fossil fuels “for environmental reasons” is not a choice. A society and a world of 8 billion people more advanced than that powered by a horse and buggy, cannot do without the explosive power of fossil fuels.

Watch: US Intel Chief Acts Dumbfounded When Senator Warns Of “Poking The Bear” In Ukraine

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) warned Tuesday that the US is risking war with Russia by “poking the bear” in Ukraine. Tuberville made the comments during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing with Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier.

Tuberville told Haines and Berrier the US is risking escalating the war by bragging about intelligence sharing with Ukraine. In recent weeks, US officials claimed to the media that US intelligence has helped Ukrainian forces shoot down a plane carrying Russian troops, kill Russian generals, and sink a Russian warship.

“You know, we’re kind of poking the bear here… We’re bragging about it. Even President Biden said today, ‘Wait a minute. We got to cut back on this,’” Tuberville said. Biden reportedly told senior US officials that the leaks to the media on intelligence-sharing must stop.

Tuberville warned the US is also risking provoking Moscow by sending high-level officials to Kyiv. “We do not want to take that step forward to where we get a lot of our men and women involved in this. It looks like to me that we’re taking way too many chances of sending people over there for a photo op,” he said.

The senator said he favored supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia but warned there was no turning back if things escalated into a direct conflict between Washington and Moscow. “There’s a point of no return here if we cross that line,” he said.

While the US has sent billions in arms to Ukraine, restarted training Ukrainian troops, and expanded intelligence sharing, US officials still deny the idea that Washington is engaged in a proxy war against Moscow. When pressed by Tuberville, Haines said that Russia believes it’s fighting a war against both Ukraine and the West.

“Russia has historically believed that they are in a conflict, in effect, with NATO and the United States on a variety of issues,” Haines said. When asked directly if Russia believes it’s fighting the US, Haines said, “In a sense, their perception.”

During the hearing, Berrier and Haines described the war in Ukraine as a “stalemate” and said Russian President Vladimir Putin was preparing for a long-term conflict. Haines said over the next few months, the war could “see us moving along a more unpredictable and potentially escalatory trajectory.”

Ropa Vieja (Cuban Braised Beef) – Food Wishes

Now, don’t you all want to try making this? If you are the kind of person who just ignores the videos, please don’t for this one. Check it out. I hope that you are inspired to go forth and start cooking. OMG! what a darn meal!

The Princely County of Tyrol in 1890

Nations come and nations go. And then, forgotten by all.

Is this the fate of the United States? I wonder…

The Highlight of this article

This is BY FAR the most important point being made in today’s installment.

The Chinese have been developing many, many technologies, as after all, they lead in AI, and numerous other technologies. All of which have military applications. And while China is a very peaceful nation, they realize that there are very evil, psychopathic, ignorant, dug-addled, “leaders” in the West that desire their destruction, and they have been developing technologies to counter them, and their nefarious activities.

This is one (of many) such technologies.

It’s in mass, mass production. Right now. No shit.

It’s a swarm of small drones that work together and locate, track, surround and (if desired) kill a person. Of course, the Chinese are being very coy about how this technology will be used, saying that it has many civilian applications, but (you know) the United States Military is in hysterics over this.

Imagine each tiny drone held a grenade or a “matchbox” capable of firing bullets…

You just cannot run away from these swarms. If China wants to fuck with China, I can well imagine swarms of these little micro-Terminator- T1000’s swarming up and down Washington DC, on hunt and destroy missions against neocons, American “leadership”, and other targets, all worthy of China’s wrath…

Do you want more?

New Beginnings 4

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China and the fiasco in the Ukraine

This is a topical subject. It is something that is going on right now, and the outcome is not determined. The situation is indeterminate.

It is “funny” how the evil regime / military empire operates. Five months of “A war in Taiwan, A war in Taiwan”, followed by three months of non-stop “A war in the Ukraine, A war in the Ukraine”. China didn’t do anything. Russia didn’t do anything. But the facts don’t matter.

Today, the Ukraine started to attack it’s “breakaway” Eastern provinces. The United States fully expects that Russia will get involved, and they are so Hell Bent that Russia would do something, that they can then slap their “sanctions” on Russia and force Germany to abandon the Nordstrom Gas pipeline from Russia.

Why am I so confident that this is what the plan is?

Well, the CIA mouthpiece said so…

Yeah. So this one little article says…

USA LP gas exports will increase in 2022…
Due to the Northstrom gas pipeline from Russia stopped…
Because Germany will adhere to American sanctions…
Against Russia …
Because Russia invaded the Ukraine.
And that Russia will invade because TODAY the Ukranians started to kill their separatist groups in the LDR.

Except that…

Russia is not budging. It’s not making any military moves.
The Ukrainians must sort out their own issues.
Thus, there’s no excuse to sanction Russia.

And thus the entire American plot to seize control of energy into Europe has (so far) failed. I’m sure that they have a “trick or two up their sleeve“, so you cannot say that the situation is fixed in place. It isn’t. The United States evil empire is pushing and pushing and pushing for control of the world. It is flailing and failing everywhere. But it’s still in the ring fighting.

But…

Well…

The USA is mighty strange, don’t you know?

I am not the only one who believes this…

From UNZ…

Just after I published my first long article on the likely origins of the Covid outbreak in April 2020, our alternative media website was suddenly deplatformed, being banned from Facebook and with all our pages completely deranked by Google. For almost a decade, my article The Myth of Hispanic Crime had regularly been ranked #2 of some 200 million Google search results on that topic, but it now suddenly disappeared from the public discussion, a development that deeply rankled me.

Being blocked by the two primary gatekeepers of the global Internet has obviously had a serious impact upon our ability to reach potential readers, especially new ones. Nonetheless, our articles do still occasionally strike a spark and go viral, racking up many tens of thousands of pageviews, an encouraging situation. But the massive current media propaganda-bubble promoting an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine, which seems to be a ridiculous hoax, has apparently shifted that landscape, creating a huge demand for contrary perspectives.

Last weekend I published Mike Whitney’s piece arguing that the motive behind the sudden war-hysteria was actually to prevent the opening of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, which would have fostered their mutually-beneficial economic cooperation. Such peaceful Eurasian integration might be viewed as a major geopolitical threat by some American strategists, who thereby provoked the sudden war-scare.

The Crisis in Ukraine Is Not About Ukraine. It’s About Germany
Mike Whitney • The Unz Review • February 11, 2022 • 1,700 Words

The Ukrainian crisis has nothing to do with Ukraine. It’s about Germany and, in particular, a pipeline that connects Germany to Russia called Nord Stream 2. 

Washington sees the pipeline as a threat to its primacy in Europe and has tried to sabotage the project at every turn. 

Even so, Nord Stream has pushed ahead and is now fully-operational and ready-to-go. 

Once German regulators provide the final certification, the gas deliveries will begin. 

German homeowners and businesses will have a reliable source of clean and inexpensive energy while Russia will see a significant boost to their gas revenues. 

It’s a win-win situation for both parties.

The US Foreign Policy establishment is not happy about these developments. 

They don’t want Germany to become more dependent on Russian gas because commerce builds trust and trust leads to the expansion of trade. 

As relations grow warmer, more trade barriers are lifted, regulations are eased, travel and tourism increase, and a new security architecture evolves. 

In a world where Germany and Russia are friends and trading partners, there is no need for US military bases, no need for expensive US-made weapons and missile systems, and no need for NATO. 

There’s also no need to transact energy deals in US Dollars or to stockpile US Treasuries to balance accounts. 

Transactions between business partners can be conducted in their own currencies which is bound to precipitate a sharp decline in the value of the dollar and a dramatic shift in economic power. 

This is why the Biden administration opposes Nord Stream. 

It’s not just a pipeline, it’s a window into the future; a future in which Europe and Asia are drawn closer together into a massive free trade zone that increases their mutual power and prosperity while leaving the US on the outside looking in. 

Warmer relations between Germany and Russia signal an end to the “unipolar” world order the US has overseen for the last 75 years. 

A German-Russo alliance threatens to hasten the decline of the Superpower that is presently inching closer to the abyss. 

This is why Washington is determined to do everything it can to sabotage Nord Stream and keep Germany within its orbit. It’s a matter of survival

Strange American actions

It seems so straight forward, right?

Not so fast.

Biden cancelled the US pipeline his first week in office.
Now he’s cancelled the Israeli pipeline.
But he approved the Russia pipeline, through the Ukraine (no less).

So what the heck is actually going on?

From the American Energy Alliance…

Biden Abandons Israeli Pipeline In Favor Of Russian Gas Via Ukraine

President Biden is withdrawing U.S. support for the EastMed pipeline that would bring natural gas from Israel to the European continent.

Europe is currently in an energy crisis with record prices for natural gas and electricity, potential rolling blackouts, low supplies of natural gas, millions of citizens in energy poverty and increasing coal consumption, which the continent has wanted to end.

Increasing reliance on intermittent renewable sources that have not produced to their potential has put pressure on other sources the Europeans have discouraged.

The result of Biden’s most recent decision is making Europe even more dependent on Russia for its natural gas.

Currently, Western Europe gets over 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia via a pipeline that runs through Ukraine.

Russia wants to activate its Nord Stream 2 pipeline that runs under the Baltic so that it can avoid the current route through Ukraine.

Biden gave Russia the go-ahead in July 2021 for the continued construction of Nord Stream 2, which Russia predicted could go on-line by the end of the year. It is now completed.

Rather than helping an ally, Biden is helping Russia dominate Europe’s energy system and gain economic strength in doing so.

The only explanation that Biden’s administration has given to withdrawing support is: “Washington’s interest is now switching to renewable energy sources.”

While the White House is using its dogged support for the switch to renewable energy to justify its decision, the European Commission drafted legal text that pronounces natural gas and nuclear power as “transitional” green energy sources to be used to bridge countries away from coal toward technologies like wind and solar.

EastMed Gas Pipeline

The EastMed Gas pipeline is a 1,180-mile undersea pipeline project from Israel to southern Europe, set to be completed by 2025, which, when completed will ease Europe’s dependence on Russia and Turkey, which serves as a hub for oil and natural gas.

The pipeline will reach depths of 3 kilometers, and have a capacity of 10 billion cubic meters per year.

Construction of the pipeline is expected to cost approximately €6 billion ($6.86 billion).

The pipeline is being developed by IGI Poseidon S.A., a 50-50 joint venture between the Greek gas utility DEPA and the Italian gas utility Edison.

The EastMed Pipeline accord was signed in Athens by the leaders of Greece, Cyprus, and Israel on January 2, 2020.

Biden’s Political Decision

Biden is not only catering to Russia regarding the EastMed pipeline decision but also to Turkey, who is offended that it was left out of the EastMed pipeline accord.

Turkey believes that it should be part of the pipeline project amid claims over natural gas in the east Mediterranean.

Turkish president Erdogan declared that any future eastern Mediterranean “gas project must include Turkey.

This business cannot be done without Turkey. Because if [gas] is to be transferred to Europe from here, it will only happen through Turkey.”

According to an expert, the Biden administration is “attributing huge significance to Turkey,” and its future after Erdogan.

Biden’s Inconsistencies

MedEast is the second major pipeline that the Biden administration has put a damper on: the first being the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring oil from Canada and North Dakota to the Gulf States.

Canadian oil is heavy oil needed for U.S. refineries that retooled decades ago when U.S. light oil production was declining.

Keystone XL would also provide more oil to the United States from an ally rather than being dependent on OPEC and Russia for oil.

For several months since the pandemic began, Russia was the number 2 supplier of oil to the United States, competing with Mexico for that distinction.

When Biden blocked the Keystone XL pipeline by canceling its Presidential permit, he blocked a project that went over and above existing standards to address issues such as carbon emissions, safety standards, and cooperation with indigenous people impacted by the pipeline.

Biden’s Keystone XL and MedEast pronouncements both overturn decisions made by President Trump.

When Joe Biden agreed to set aside U.S. objections to the controversial Russian undersea Nord Stream 2 pipeline, he reversed former President Trump’s policy of opposing the project due to security concerns.

The 760-mile Baltic Sea pipeline allows direct Russian natural gas supply to Germany and other western European countries and allows Russia to dominate the European energy market, making Putin a power player in continental Europe, where Russia already supplies over 40 percent of its natural gas.

Conclusion

President Biden continues to overturn decisions made by President Trump regarding energy policy.

In the most recent case, he has withdrawn U.S. support for the EastMed gas pipeline project, which would transport natural gas from Israel to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea when completed in 2025.

The project would remove some of the continent’s dependency on Russia for natural gas supplies that Russia has used as a geopolitical tool at times in the past. Biden’s announced reasoning is that the focus in Washington is now on renewable energy, despite the European Commission seeing the necessity to allow natural gas to be deemed a “transitional green energy source”.

Biden has shown huge inconsistency on his pipeline decisions, with one major exception—they all overturn decisions made by President Trump.

What’s going on

It appears that Geo-political concerns and domestic green energy concerns are at odds. Alliances are at odds, and there are competing interests all backed by powerful corportations and individuals with competing interests. Thus making the United States a schizophrenic entity.

Oh, Great! A schizophrenic bully with the largest arsenal of nuclear and bioweapons in the world. What could go wrong?

It seems, to me at least, that the United States is desparately trying to control Europe, and Israel by energy. If you control access to energy, you can control them, and by dishing out access in measured doses, you can use them as pawns to do your bidding.

And that is what I think is going on.

An Evil Empire

Though it does seem rather mish-mash. Does the hand on the left know what the hand on the right is doing?

Do you want to know why the rest of the world calls it an evil empire?

The big fear right now is that sanctions against Russia will be ineffective. You slap sanctions on Russia and they will not work. Russia is pretty much autonomus.

So what are the American / UK “experts” saying?

Check out this horror…

Argument
An expert's point of view on a current event.

If Russia Invades Ukraine, Sanction China

Putin has found an economic lifeline in Beijing that only Washington can destroy.

By Aaron Arnold, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute’s Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies.

February 17, 2022, 3:06 PM

Faced with the threat of further Western sanctions against Russia if it invades Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been seeking shelter in China.

On Feb. 4, the opening day of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a new strategic partnership between their two countries.

A joint statement described the Chinese-Russian relationship as a “friendship” with “no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation.”

Putin expressed support for China’s opposition to Taiwanese independence, and Xi seconded Russia’s demand that NATO end its eastward expansion.

They also unveiled plans for broader economic cooperation, particularly in the oil and gas sectors.

The timing is no coincidence: At least in the short term, strengthened Chinese-Russian ties provide Putin an opportunity to lessen the blow from potential Western sanctions.

This puts the United States in a serious bind.

If Washington expects to convey a credible deterrent against a Russian invasion of Ukraine using financial and economic sanctions, it will need to signal its resolve to impose secondary sanctions against China in the same breath.

The problem is that the United Kingdom and the European Union, key U.S. allies, do not have the same legal or regulatory frameworks to impose secondary sanctions against Chinese banks or state-owned enterprises.

U.S. secondary sanctions, which target a third-party entity or country for conducting business with the primary subject of sanctions, rely on broad interpretations of jurisdiction.

To put it nicely; a very broad and liberal interpetation of the law; or to put it better; to make up the rules as you see fit. -MM

Most countries adopt some form of a territorial or nationality standard, meaning that its national borders define its jurisdictional reach.

The United States, however, considers its citizens, companies, and property as falling under its jurisdiction even if located abroad.

The United States considers the world to be it's territory. Not its borders.  -MM

Because the U.K. and EU lack this framework to apply secondary sanctions, it leaves Washington alone to flex its extraterritorial muscle against China.

And though the United States is unlikely to suffer any significant domestic economic blowback from imposing broad financial and economic sanctions against Russia, it is a different story with China.

At a Feb. 7 press conference following his meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, U.S. President Joe Biden said the United States was coordinating “a strong package of sanctions that are going to clearly demonstrate international resolve and impose swift and severe consequences if Russia violates Ukraine’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity.”

Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a key architect of the U.S. sanctions regime against Iran, is also working on a bipartisan bill that would apply what he described as the “mother of all sanctions” on Russia.

There are still significant disagreements in Washington on when to apply sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline linking Russia and Germany.

Well, you must realize that this is a project between Russia and Germany. The USA is not involved in it in any way, shape or means. -MM

The pipeline is owned by the Russian state-backed energy corporation Gazprom and has become a focal point among NATO allies because of its role in increasing Germany’s energy dependence on Russia.

Democrats, including Menendez and Biden, prefer to wait for Russia to invade Ukraine before putting sanctions in place, while Republicans are in favor of imposing sanctions on the pipeline immediately.

Republicans want to sanction Russia without reason. The Democrats are waiting for an excuse. -MM

Nevertheless, Menendez’s proposed legislation is sweeping and includes options to target Russia’s energy and finance sectors as well as key Russian government officials and even to boot Russia from SWIFT, the global financial messaging system that connects banks around the world.

The pieces for a broader, multilateral approach to sanctions are finally coming together.

This should scare Putin.

Responding to criticism that Germany was not doing enough to bolster Ukraine’s defenses, Scholz provided reassurances during his visit to Washington that Berlin is committed to imposing costs on Russia if it invades Ukraine.

It remains to be seen, however, whether that includes ditching Nord Stream 2.

That is the plan. Do not fool yourselves. -MM

Although Scholz has been vague about the pipeline’s fate if push comes to shove, he did note that Germany was prepared to take “all necessary steps” in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, noting the need for strategic ambiguity to head off an attempt by Russia to preemptively fortify itself against Western sanctions.

European leaders are fearful that an all-out barrage of sanctions against Russia could result in severe economic pain for their own economies.

Sanctions against Russia, whether with Russia alone or with China, will REALLY harm the EU. But the insane psychopaths in Washington DC do not care. -MM

Unlike the United States, many large European banks have close ties to Russia.

Europe’s energy sector is particularly at risk—relying on Russia for more than 40 percent of its imported natural gas.

The United States is trying to prevent a potential energy crisis in Europe should Putin weaponize Russia’s oil and gas exports. Amid already rising energy prices, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been working to assure European leaders that the Biden administration is committed to easing “any disruptions to Europe’s energy supply.”

And so they believe him? -MM

Specifically, he pointed to discussions with governments and major global suppliers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to shore up supply.

The United States has ramped up its LNG exports to Europe as an alternative to Russian gas.

As of January, some 75 percent of U.S. LNG exports were bound for Europe. Last year, that figure stood at only 23 percent.

Meanwhile, this month, Putin unveiled his new oil and gas deal with China, worth more than $117 billion.

The terms of the 30-year contract call for Russia to supply an additional 10 billion cubic meters of gas to China per year via a new pipeline.

The implication is that deepening economic cooperation with China would help Russia absorb some of the shock if the West did impose severe sanctions against its banking and energy sectors. Russia is one of China’s largest oil and gas suppliers.

Russia is nearly and firmly isolated and sanctions of any types will not really affect it. -MM

But although these deepening economic ties might dampen the blow of U.S. sanctions, they are not completely out of reach of secondary U.S. sanctions.

To ensure its threats of sanctions remain credible, Washington needs to pressure Putin’s emerging economic lifelines by signaling that it is prepared to go beyond its standard sanctions package to impose secondary sanctions against Chinese banks and state-owned enterprises if Russia invades Ukraine.

There is precedent for such a move, but times have changed. China has become wise to the reach of U.S. extraterritorial sanctions and developed its own legal frameworks to push back.

In July 2012, the U.S. Treasury Department levied secondary sanctions against China’s Bank of Kunlun for knowingly facilitating transactions on behalf of designated Iranian banks.

This designation caught many experts and industry insiders by surprise, as it was an unprecedented escalation in the use of extraterritorial sanctions against a third party.

Under international UN laws, this action is ILLEGAL. Trust me, the Chinese will not forgive and forget. -MM

A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson chided the United States for “invoking its domestic laws to impose sanctions against the Chinese financial institution” and urged the United States to reverse the sanctions.

The argument is valid. Chinese businesses, citizens, and entities do not full under United States law. Further, neither does their trading partners. -MM

While the designation ruffled Beijing, the two countries avoided any substantial political or economic fallout, with China opting to isolate the small bank from broader financial markets.

Later, in 2017, the United States imposed a $1.19 billion fine against another Chinese entity for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran: China’s largest telecommunications company, ZTE.

In addition to paying the fine, ZTE would also be required to develop internal policies to avoid future sanctions violations and undergo a corporate restructuring, according to a settlement reached with company.

The company settled out of court, even though the pressure was illegally applied. -MM

To force ZTE to comply with the settlement terms, the U.S. Commerce Department threatened to place the company on its Entity List—effectively shutting the company out of U.S. markets.

When ZTE did violate the terms of its settlement, though, the Trump administration opted to issue a waiver despite objections from senior advisors, thereby tossing the company a lifeline and preventing it from going under.

Senior officials means John Bolton and Mike Pompeo. -MM

Although there are differing theories as to why then-President Donald Trump reversed the designation—whether for personal political gain or to entice China to remain engaged in trade negotiations—the cases show the reach of U.S. extraterritorial sanctions policy.

The U.S. dollar accounts for nearly 60 percent of global foreign currency reserves—and the Chinese renminbi does not.

That is true for NOW. And the Chinese realize that. But, as I have reported elsewhere, one day they are going to flick a switch and suddenly a staged withdrawl from the USD will occur and the USD will collapse in value. Like I said, the Chinese do not forget. -MM

China, however, has started to push back against foreign extraterritorial sanctions.

Last year, the country established an anti-sanctions law—similar to the EU’s “blocking statute,” which attempts to curb the extraterritorial application of third-party sanctions by prohibiting compliance with extraterritorial laws.

China’s law notes that the country explicitly opposes “hegemonism and power politics” and “opposes any country’s interference in China’s internal affairs under any pretext and by any means,” giving authorities broad powers to impose penalties against Chinese businesses that adhere to U.S. sanctions policies.

These penalties could include fines and even confiscation of assets.

The Chinese do not play. They could single handly destory the American automotive industry by sanctioning all of their factories inside of China and nationalizing them. Flick of a switch. -MM

Many see the law as putting multinational banks in a quagmire: caught in a legal limbo between violating U.S. sanctions and being held liable for adhering to them.

Large multinational banks comply with U.S. sanctions due to the hegemony of the U.S. dollar in the global financial system.

But that's the only reason. -MM

In 2014, for example, U.S. authorities levied a record $9 billion fine against the French bank BNP Paribas for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, among others.

Although China has yet to use its new anti-sanctions laws against U.S. interests, the opportunity will undoubtedly arise if Washington aims secondary sanctions at China.

In this case, banks may be forced to choose between U.S. fines for violating sanctions and Chinese fines for adhering to them.

So, if Washington is going to impose secondary sanctions against Chinese institutions, it must be prepared for retaliation.

In addition to the potential for putting scores of multinational entities in legal limbo, perhaps even forcing them to choose sides, more than $615 billion worth of bilateral trade will also be put in jeopardy. (China accounts for nearly 19 percent of all U.S. imports.)

By VALUE. Not by volume. 

90 - 95% of all medicines come from CHina. Are you ready to live without aspirin or antibiotics? How do you think your parents and grandparents will do when their blood pressure medicine and heart medicine is no longer available? -MM

Thus far, there have been no indications that Washington is considering specific secondary sanctions against China, beyond mere posturing.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price recently told reporters: “We have an array of tools that we can deploy if we see foreign companies, including those in China, doing their best to backfill U.S. export control actions, to evade them, to get around them.”

Deploying these tools against China will have repercussions for U.S. businesses and economic interests—a burden Washington has thus far not had to grapple with and has instead asked its European allies to bear.

Nonetheless, the United States must be prepared to cut off all avenues for Russia to escape Western sanctions.

This includes preparing to wield secondary sanctions against Chinese institutions as well as working to limit blowback to U.S. interests.

The simple truth is that the U.S. dollar accounts for nearly 60 percent of global foreign currency reserves—and the Chinese renminbi does not. That is a big stick to wield.

So what is this “expert” saying?

Well, the USA has its tenticles in just about every country. They are all in debt to the USA.

That gives the United States power.

Just like in prison. If you owe another inmate something, you must pay it back of become indentured. This technique has been used with great effect by the United States in controlling the world.

If the USA sanctions China, the nations will be forced to choose between [1] China or [2] their debt owed to the United States.

Of course, he argues, they would choose the United States over the “Worlds factory”. Right?

Ah.

Don’t be so sure.

The USA is dependent upon China for everything. And what it does not get directly out of China, it gets from countries that are / do.

90% of medicines come from China. What happens when there are no antibiodics? What about heart medicine? Pain killers?
99% of computers come from China. This includes monitors, IC chips (don’t let the Korean / Taiwan medi fool you otherwise), and all preferials.
80% of the world cellphones and much of their inner workings come from China.
95% of all household items, goods, and appliances come from China.
95% of automotive parts come from China. It doesn’t matter what car you are driving. All the spare parts are made in China.

Sanctioning China would be the most stupid blunder, of all the many stupid blunders to choose from, in all of history.

So let’s talk about China.

Now, China is really not like anyone in the “West” thinks. It’s really something different, and as time moves forward, it looks more and more like a sompletely different society that comes from another galaxy.

Let’s start with a few girls.

Chinese girl in a gym

Take a look at the screens on the wall behind her. Yes, this is normal. You can watch media while you exerise and your exercise stats are projected onto the screens as you exercise.

video

No wonder that the Chinese women are healthy, thin and free of ugly tattoos.

You know, I come from the United States.

Seriously, today, the ideas of beauty in the United States are different than from that inside of China. Darker skin, chubbier and shorter build, bigger asses, and tattoo decorations make for an attractive American woman…

…or so I have been told.

Personally, I like all women. Short, tall, robust, cute, athletic, big and small. But the ones that I favor all are [1] great talkers with [2] interesting thoughts and opinions, a [3] strong personality, and [4] great personal confidence and a [5] real pride in their actions and apperance.

Which is why, perhaps, I love China so much.

Robust Chinese girl in brown

I do admire a fine “robust” woman. That’s me, and I don’t expect anyone to share my tastes. Here we have a fine woman. This gal is a real “head turner”, and I find her very aluring. Most especially in this dress.

video

Houses are for living in

Here’s a clip from the violent anti-China “news” network FOX. They are so very anti-China that they have to preface this report with a disclaimer that they are going to say something positive about China, and that people should not think bad about them for doing so.

The segment is spot on. And yes, China is doing the right thing. Don’t you know.

video

A very casual Chinese girl

Women do not realize just how attractive they are when they are calm, comfortable and confident. Look at the expression on this woman. See the confidence? Man, oh man. What a sexy girl.

video

Chinese girls having fun at a bar

This is what it is like. Here you see a typical after dinner drinks with the girls and some dice game, and all that. Very typical China.

video

Chinese clothing model showing off shorts

She’s one of my favorites.

video

Chinese model with nice slacks

Here she is with the tan slacks. I do like her boobie movement, as well as the lines on the slacks. They look nice and trip and very comfortable.

video

A Traditional Chinese girl

In many of the upper-class Business KTVs the girls are expected to buy their display uniforms. Many of which are traditional such as what this woman is wearing.

video

Chinese girl in cute blue

There’s no question about this. She is a stunner. Actually, I really love her neck and shoulders. I almost want to get a pencil and a sketch pad and start sketching it out with a light orange wash and some white inking overlay.

video

Chinese girl in the front yard

This video shows the front common area / yard in front of the housing complex individual buildings. Many areas a paved like this, while others are manicured trees, shrubs and flowers.

video

Don’t step on a crack Chinese girl

I used to do this when I was in elementry school. I’m glad that the action did not die off and is kept alive inside of rural China.

video

No movie jitter

Note how the Huawei camera negates the handheld jitter while jogging and keeps the face and eyes absolutely centered throughout the video. Pretty cool technology.

video

White fashion sweater

In the cities, one of the fashion items is to wear a light topper sweater that fits over the tops of the boobies so that when you walk it accentuates the jiggle movement of the breasts. Personally I like it, but it does look a little bit strange to my older gentlemen sensibilities. Check out the style…

video

The Fiasco in the Ukraine

Listen to what the Russians say…

Russian FM site inaccessible, hacked or truly overwhelmed by the fact that the reply to the US reply has been published? In any case Cassad has it in Russian.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7446905.html

Posted by: Paco | Feb 17 2022 17:27 utc | 82
*********************************************
Yandex translation:
*********************************************

February 17, 17:46

The Russian Foreign Ministry has published a written response to the American written response to Russian claims on security guarantees in Europe.

Response to response

On February 17, 2022, US Ambassador John Sullivan, invited to the Russian Foreign Ministry, was given the following reaction to the previously received American response on the Russian draft treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of America on security guarantees.

TASS publishes the full text of the statement.

General characteristics

We state that the American side did not give a constructive response to the basic elements of the draft security guarantees agreement prepared by the Russian side with the United States.

We are talking about [1] the rejection of further expansion of NATO, [2] the withdrawal of the “Bucharest formula” that [3] “Ukraine and Georgia will become members of NATO”, and [4] the refusal to create military bases on the territory of states that were previously part of the USSR and are not members of the alliance, including [5] the use of their infrastructure for conducting any military activity, as well as [6] the return of military capabilities, including shock, and NATO infrastructure to the state of 1997, when the Founding Act of Russia — NATO was signed.

These provisions are of fundamental importance for the Russian Federation.

The package nature of Russian proposals has been ignored, from which “convenient” topics have been deliberately chosen, which, in turn, are “twisted” in the direction of creating advantages for the United States and its allies.

This approach, as well as the accompanying rhetoric of American officials, reinforces reasonable doubts that Washington is really committed to correcting the situation in the field of Euro-security.

The growing military activity of the United States and NATO directly at the Russian borders is alarming, while our “red lines” and fundamental security interests, as well as Russia’s sovereign right to protect them, continue to be ignored.

Ultimatum demands to withdraw troops from certain areas on Russian territory, accompanied by threats of tougher sanctions, are unacceptable and undermine the prospects of reaching real agreements.

In the absence of the readiness of the American side to agree on firm, legally binding guarantees of ensuring our security by the United States and its allies, Russia will be forced to respond, including through the implementation of military-technical measures.

In Ukraine

There is no “Russian invasion” of Ukraine, as the United States and its allies have been officially declaring since last autumn, and there are no plans, therefore, statements about “Russia’s responsibility for escalation” cannot be regarded otherwise than as an attempt to exert pressure and devalue Russia’s proposals for security guarantees.

The mention in this context of Russian obligations under the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 has nothing to do with the internal Ukrainian conflict and does not apply to the circumstances resulting from the actions of internal factors there.

The loss of territorial integrity by the Ukrainian state is the result of the processes that took place inside it.

The accusations of Russia contained in the American response that it “occupied Crimea” also do not stand up to any criticism.

In 2014, a coup took place in Kiev, the initiators of which, with the support of the United States and their allies, set a course for the creation of a nationalist state that infringes on the rights of the Russian and Russian-speaking population, as well as other “non-titular” ethnic groups.

It is not surprising that in such a situation, Crimeans voted for reunification with Russia.

The decision of the people of Crimea and Sevastopol to return to the Russian Federation was made by free expression of will in the exercise of the right to self-determination enshrined in the UN Charter.

Force or threat of force was not used. The question of Crimea’s ownership is closed.

If Ukraine is accepted into NATO, there will be a real threat that the regime in Kiev will try to “return” Crimea by force, dragging the United States and its allies, in accordance with Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, into a direct armed conflict with Russia with all the ensuing consequences.

The thesis repeated in the US response that Russia allegedly “ignited the conflict in the Donbas” is untenable.

Its reasons are purely intra-Ukrainian in nature.

The settlement is possible only through the implementation of the Minsk agreements and a set of measures, the priority and responsibility for the implementation of which are clearly spelled out and unanimously confirmed by UN Security Council resolution 2202, including the United States, France and the United Kingdom.

In paragraph 2 of this resolution, Kiev, Donetsk and Lugansk are named as parties.

None of these documents mention Russia’s responsibility for the conflict in the Donbas.

Russia, together with the OSCE, plays the role of mediator in the main negotiating format – the contact group – and together with Berlin and Paris – in the “Normandy format”, which formulates recommendations to the parties to the conflict and monitors their implementation.

To de-escalate the situation around Ukraine, it is fundamentally important to take the following steps.

This is forcing Kiev to implement a set of measures, stopping the supply of weapons to Ukraine, withdrawing all Western advisers and instructors from there, the refusal of NATO countries from any joint exercises with the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the withdrawal of all foreign weapons previously supplied to Kiev outside Ukrainian territory.

In this regard, we draw attention to the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a press conference following talks in Moscow with French President Emmanuel Macron on February 7, 2022, stressed that we are open to dialogue and urge “to think about stable security conditions for everyone, equal for all participants in international life.”

Force configuration

We note that in their response to the Russian proposals, the United States insists that progress in improving the situation in the field of European security “can only be achieved in terms of de-escalation in relation to Russia’s threatening actions directed against Ukraine,” which, as we understand, implies the requirement to withdraw Russian troops from the borders of Ukraine.

At the same time, the United States is ready to talk only about “mutual obligations … to refrain from deploying permanent-based forces with combat missions on the territory of Ukraine” and “consider discussing the problem of conventional armed forces.”

For the rest, the American side remains silent about our proposals contained in paragraphs 2 of Article 4 and paragraph 1 of Article 5 of the draft bilateral treaty and declares that “the current configuration of the US and NATO forces is limited, proportional and fully complies with the obligations under the NATO-Russia Founding Act.”

We proceed from the fact that the deployment of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on its territory does not and cannot affect the fundamental interests of the United States. We would like to remind you that there are no our forces on the territory of Ukraine.

At the same time, the United States and its allies were advancing their military infrastructure to the east, deploying contingents in the territories of new members.

They circumvented the limitations of the CFE Treaty and interpreted very loosely the provisions of the Russia—NATO Founding Act on the rejection of “additional permanent deployment of substantial combat forces.”

The situation that has developed as a result of these actions is unacceptable.

We insist on the withdrawal of all US armed forces and weapons stationed in CEE, SEE and the Baltic States.

We are convinced that there are quite enough national potentials in these zones.

We are ready to discuss this topic on the basis of art. 4 and 5 of the Russian draft agreement.

The principle of indivisibility of security

We did not see any evidence in the US response that the American side is fully committed to observing the immutable principle of indivisibility of security.

The general statements about the consideration of this postulate by the American side are in direct contradiction with Washington’s unwillingness to abandon a counterproductive and destabilizing course to create advantages for itself and its allies at the expense of Russia’s security interests.

This is precisely what is happening as a result of the unrestrained implementation by the North Atlantic Alliance, with the leading role of the United States, of the policy of unlimited geostrategic and military development of the post-Soviet space, including the territory of Ukraine, which is particularly sensitive for us.

All this is happening directly on the Russian borders.

Thus, our “red lines” and fundamental security interests are ignored, and Russia’s inalienable right to ensure them is rejected.

For us, of course, this is unacceptable.

Additionally, we remind you that this principle is enshrined in the [1] preamble of the Treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of America on [2] “Measures for Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms of 2011”, the [3] extension of which for five years [4] without any exceptions was [5] agreed by the parties in February last year, as well as [6] in a number of OSCE and Russia—[7] NATO basic documents adopted at the highest level: [8] in the preamble of the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, [9] in the Charter of Paris for a New Europe of 1990, [10] the Founding Act of Russia — [11] NATO of 1997, [12] the Istanbul Charter for European Security of the OSCE of 1999, [13] the Rome Declaration of Russia-[14] NATO of 2002 and the Astana Declaration of the OSCE Summit of 2010.

We note that the response received mentions Washington’s commitment to the concept of indivisibility of security.

But in the text, it boils down to the right of states “to freely choose or change ways to ensure their security, including union treaties.”

This freedom is not absolute and is only half of the well-known formula fixed in the Charter of European Security.

Its second part requires that, when exercising this right, not “… strengthen one’s security at the expense of the security of other States.”

We cannot consider the letter received from NATO dated February 10, 2022 as a response to the message sent by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on January 28, 2022 to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on this issue.

We asked for an answer in a national capacity.

Conclusion

The United States is playing a very dangerous game, and using everything in its power to wrest control of the energy through Europe. The battlefield is the Ukraine, and they are sponsoring the entire fighting and trying and forcing the blame upon Russia.

Russia will not have any of this.

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday endorsed Russia’s nuclear deterrent policy, which allows him to use nuclear weapons in response to a conventional strike targeting the nation’s critical government and military infrastructure.

By including a non-nuclear attack as a possible trigger for Russian nuclear retaliation, the document appears to send a warning signal to the United States. 

The new expanded wording reflects Russian concerns about the development of prospective weapons that could give Washington the capability to knock out key military assets and government facilities without resorting to atomic weapons.

In line with Russian military doctrine, the new document reaffirms that the country could use nuclear weapons in response to a nuclear attack or an aggression involving conventional weapons that “threatens the very existence of the state.”

But the policy document now also offers a detailed description of situations that could trigger the use of nuclear weapons. They include the use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction against Russia or its allies and an enemy attack with conventional weapons that threatens the country's existence.

In addition to that, the document now states that Russia could use its nuclear arsenals if it gets “reliable information” about the launch of ballistic missiles targeting its territory or its allies and also in the case of ”enemy impact on critically important government or military facilities of the Russian Federation, the incapacitation of which could result in the failure of retaliatory action of nuclear forces."

-Defense News

As a justification, the minions and toadies, and appratus inside the United States “news” are busily justifying their militaristic actions in order to gain popular and military advantage thought the region and now there are “experts” that are arguing that the United States seize the initative that this time, and take out both Russia and China at the same time.

China has warned the United States that it would “strike back” in response to any “reckless” actions, urging Washington to withdraw its recent passing of sanctions targeting people and entities tied to human rights abuses committed by Beijing.

-MSN

This is extraordinarily DANGEROUS.

All sorts of bad things can come of it. As I have stated earlier, of all the blunder-headed, stupid, ignorant, and dangerous foolhardy actions that the American dying empire could perform, this single action could be it’s worst.

But turhtfully, the “leadership” are so ignorant and stupid that they have no idea what the fuck they are doing nor dealing with.

Do you want more?

New Beginnings 3

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Hey someone is going to give me 18.5 million dollars! What do you know!

Wow! Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts. Eh?

"I am Mrs amelia freya, a widow suffering from a long illness. I have some funds I inherited from my late husband, the sum of (US$ 18.5 Million) my Doctor told me recently that I have serious sickness which is a cancer problem. What disturbs me most is my stroke sickness.

Having known my condition, I decided to donate this fund to a good person that will utilize it the way I am going to instruct herein. I need a very honest and God fearing person who can claim this money and use it for Charity works, for orphanages, widows and also build schools for less privileges that will be named after my late husband if possible and to promote the word of God and the effort that the house of God is maintained. 

I do not want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly manner.That's why I'm taking this decision. I'm not afraid of death so I know where I'm going. I accept this decision because I do not have any child who will inherit this money after I die. 

Please I want your sincere and urgent answer to know if you will be able to execute this project, and I will give you more information on how the fund will be transferred to your bank account."

Sometimes when something is too good to be true, it actually is.

The Trojan Horse

From HERE.

In the tenth year of the Trojan War, despairing at their inability to take the city by storm, the Greeks resorted to a cunning little stratagem.

Truth be told, “little” may not be the proper word for it, because the central part of the plan – devised by who else but Odysseus – included the construction of an enormous wooden horse.

Almost everybody knows why it had been built and who lay hidden inside the hollow belly of the statue.

However, the whole story is a bit more complicated than that; and it includes several memorable episodes you can find out more about below.

The Stratagem

Epeius and the Construction of the Horse

Now, for Odysseus’ plan to work, the Greeks needed a master-engineer; fortunately, they did have one in their ranks: Epeius.

True, he had the reputation of being a coward, but as far as architecture was considered, there weren’t many people on the planet who could rival him both in knowledge and vision.

He needed no more than three days and just a few helpers to build a huge hollow horse of fir planks, felled on Mount Ida.

Following the advice of Odysseus, Epeius also installed a trap-door on one side of the wooden horse, and engraved large letters on the other:

“For their return home, the Greeks dedicate this thank-offering to Athena.”

The Heroes in the Horse

Once the Wooden Horse had been built, Odysseus proceeded to persuade the bravest and the most skillful of the Greek warriors present at Troy to climb, fully armed, into its belly. Some say that there were 23 of them, while others speculate with numbers between 30 and 50.

Either way, we know for sure that, in addition to Odysseus, Menelaus, Diomedes, Neoptolemus, Acamas, Sthenelus, and Thoas were also there.

Even though hesitant and scared stiff, Epeius joined the party as well: he was, after all, the only one who knew how to operate the trap-door.

The Rest of the Plan

Once the night had fallen, the remaining Greeks burned their tents and, led by Agamemnon, sailed off to the nearby island of Tenedos.

The plan was to stay there for a night and then go back to Troy. Odysseus’s first cousin, Sinon, was the only one left behind; and for a reason: he was supposed to signal them the appropriate moment for their return.

Source: https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/The_Myths/The_Trojan_Horse/the_trojan_horse.html

The Discovery of the Trojan Horse

Priam, Thymoetes, and Capys

At break of day, the Trojan scouts were met with a sight that must have been beyond joyful: the camp of the Greeks lay in ashes, deserted and all but empty. Priam and his sons immediately went out to witness this miracle with their own eyes; and, of course, the only thing they could find there was a giant wooden horse dedicated to Athens.

They stood in wonder for some time, before Thymoetes suggested that they should take the horse into Troy and pull it up to Athens’ citadel. Capys, however, had other ideas.

“We should hurl into the sea this false Greek gift, or underneath it thrust a kindling flame, or pierce the hollow ambush of its womb with probing spear! Athene favored the Greeks for far too long...”

Priam was in favor of Thymoetes’ proposal: since the horse was an offering to a goddess, desecrating it didn’t seem to the king of Troy as such a great idea.

Laocoon’s Warning

At that very moment, hurrying down from the citadel and followed by a large crowd, the Trojan priest Laocoon started shouting from afar:

“O unhappy men! What madness this? Who deems our foemen fled? 

Think ye the gifts of Greece can lack for guile? Have ye not known Ulysses?... 

This is all a trap. 

Trust not this horse, o countrymen, whatever it may bring!

I fear the Greeks, even when they bring gifts.” Saying that, Laocoon whirled a spear in the direction of the Horse. Numerous cheers followed this fearsome act:

“Burn it!” 
“Pierce it!” 
“Hurl it over the walls!”

Sinon Clarifies His Presence

This argument was interrupted by the arrival of Sinon, brought in chained by a couple of Trojan soldiers.

Now, it is difficult to say whether Odysseus had planned for this part as well, or whether the Greeks merely had a stroke of luck; be that as it may, it was Sinon who eventually convinced the Trojans to roll the horse through the Gates of Troy.

He explained to Priam that the Greeks, weary of warring and downcast after the death of Achilles, had deliberated leaving Troy for a couple of months, and they would have done that much earlier if not for the bad weather.

Calchas, the most famous Achaean prophet, announced that the only way for the winds to be appeased was through human sacrifice; the scapegoat he pointed his finger at (in a nice touch to the story, supposedly “bribed by Odysseus”) was none other than Sinon himself.

However, the favorable winds sprang up before the ceremony took place, and Sinon managed to make his escape in the confusion.

Sinon’s Explanation of the Wooden Horse

“Let’s say that we believe you, Sinon,”

Replied Priam.

“But what’s with the horse?”

“Oh, that! It is merely a placatory gift to Athene, who stopped helping the Greeks after Odysseus and Diomedes stole a statue from her temple.”

…

“Nonetheless,”

Priam had a good follow-up question;

"Why make it so huge?”

But Sinon had an even better answer:

“So that you are unable to bring it into the city. 

For Calchas had prophesized that If you defile it, a horrible ruin – o, may the gods bring it on Calchas rather! 

– would come on your throne; however, if you manage to wheel it to your own citadel, then you will become a ruler of all Asia and invade Greece.”

The Death of Laocoon

“Lies, all lies,”

Cried Laocoon.

“Every word he uttered sounds as if invented by Odysseus! Believe him not, Priam!”

However, it is difficult for one to blame the king of Troy for not taking the Trojan priest seriously when, just as he was saying this, two serpents swam out of the sea and strangled Laocoon and his twin sons.

In reality, the snakes were sent by Apollo in punishment for when Laocoon once slept with his wife in front of Apollo’s image; to the eyes of the Trojans, however, they were a sign of the gods: Sinon had obviously spoken the truth, and Laocoon was punished for lying and throwing a spear at the Horse.

The Bloody Celebration

Helen and Deiphobus

With much effort, the Trojans dragged the Wooden Horse inside their Gates, consecrated it to Athene, and started wildly celebrating their victory.

During the festivities, Helen and Priam’s son Deiphobos sneaked to the wooden statue.

As Deiphobus was observing it in marvel and patting its planks, Helen amused him by calling out the names of the Greek heroes in the voice of their wives. It is not known whether Helen was a part of the plan as well, and this was a whim of overconfidence, or whether she was merely joyful, but, owing to either displeasure or eagerness, many Greeks were tempted to leap out of the horse at this point – especially Menelaus and Diomedes.

However, Odysseus restrained them all, patiently waiting for the proper moment for him to enact the final act of his devious plan.

The Attack

At midnight, just before the seventh full moon of that year had risen, Sinon slipped through the Gates of Troy and kindled a beacon – the signal Agamemnon had waited for to return with the Achaean fleet to shore.

An hour or so later, in the dead silence of the night, Odysseus raised his sword and ordered Epeius to unlock the trap-door.

Echion was the first one to jump out of the horse; being too eager and reckless, he fell and broke his neck; the rest used Epeius’ rope-ladder.

Soon enough, Agamemnon’s army stormed through the open gates.

Not even the gods could save Troy now.

The Trojan Horse Sources

Most of this story is told by Virgil in the second book of the Aeneid, which you can read here in Dryden’s rhymed version, and here in Theodore C. Williams blank verse translation; for a summary of the same events, consult the epitome of Apollodorus’ Library.

Source: https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/The_Myths/The_Trojan_Horse/the_trojan_horse.html

Conclusions

Throughout the West, people are using the “hook” of financial gain to manipulate others. We all know that this is a trick, but what kind of a trick? I argue that it is a hidden (potential) crime wearing the outer skin of respectability. Like the Trojan Horse.

You expect one thing, and then (once the strap is sprung) something else manifests.

Whether a wooden horse, a business proposition, an email promising to send you millions of dollars, or some other otherwise unusual benefit or arrangement.

Often the vices are used to spring the trap, with greed, lust and vanity being the most common.

Be very careful when anyone tries to appeal to one of your vices. It could very well end up being very dangerous.

So what do you do?

If something is unusual, like finding out you had a great uncle Metallicman that left you 50 million dollars, or to give a copy of your passport and bank information so that you can get a loan at 3%, or anything related, stop… just stop.

Go for a nice long walk.

Go all by your self into a lone cafe, or coffee house.

Sit down.

Look up at the menu.

See if there is a special, or maybe a daily special that you can eat. I tend to go for the specials, and the soups. But that is just me. Don’t you know.

Place your order with the waitress.

And forget about everything.

Eat a nice sandwich (maybe a blue plate special) wash it down with a cup of coffee, and forget about the “news” or anything else.

Typical diner fare; Three sunny-side-up eggs, buttered whole-wheat toast, hash brown potatoes, and country-style chicken-fried pork.

Then just go for a walk down the lane.

Most traps disguise themselves as “unusual events promising enormous profit“.

Ignore it all.

Move on.

Remember, the reason why Athens moved the Trojan Horse into it’s gates was because they believed that in doing so they would have the benefits provided by the God’s themselves.

Don’t allow others to hurt your by manipulating your mind by your propensity toward vices.

Finally…

One day after I wrote this article, I got this…

Liewe Gelukkige Wenner!

Dit is vir ons aangenaam om u in te lig oor die uitslag van die
Internasionale Aanlyn Loteryprogram op 1 Desember 2021, wat 'n poging
is om geesteswetenskappe te help van die ernstige globale ekonomiese
krisis as gevolg van (Coivd-19). Nommer: SMLL / 2021 / -968091 / 21,
wat die 1ste kategorie gewen het. U is dus geregtig op 'n enkelbedrag
van $2,000,000.00 (Twee miljoen Amerikaanse dollars). Ons moedig jou
aan om jou trustee te kontak deur die inligting hieronder te gebruik
vir bekragtiging en meer inligting oor die gebruik van jou prys.

Mnr Brian Luke
E-pos: usalotery2@gmail.com

Groete,
Mnr Williams Poker.
Internasionale Lotery (Koördineerder).


Dear Lucky Winner!

We are pleased to inform you about the outcome of the International
Online Lottery Program on December 1st, 2021 which is a bid to help
humanities from the severe global economic crunch as a result of
(Coivd-19). Number: SMLL / 2021 / -968091 / 21, which won the 1st
category. You are therefore entitled to a lump sum of $2,000,000.00
(Two million United States dollars). We encourage you to contact your
trustee using the information below for validation and more
information on redeeming your prize.

Mr. Brian Luke
Email:  usalotery2@gmail.com

Regards,
Mr. Williams Poker.
International Lottery (Coordinator).

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Silent Sound Demo schematics, circuit and operational theory documents

The following is extracted from “the Silent Sound Demo for the mind control machinery”. This come from the time (around 2000) when the patent was first granted and the inventor was trying to sell his device. It is extracted from historical archives and is useful in helping us design our own systems to conduct affirmations prayer campaigns.

This entire article lists the schematics, parts list and construction blueprints of a demo device that shows the principles of the Silent Sound Technology that is now in use by almost all of the United States government agencies, the mainstream media and advertisement companies.

This is for those who want to DIY their own system, or who want to experiment themselves. I am afraid that it is a bit technical, but I am a geek and this kind of stuff excites me so much.

It’s like a pretty girl wearing an awesome dress (with cute earrings, and a really nice set of high heels), some tasty shraz wine, and a super delicious pizza all together for a night of magic.

But that’s just me. I am such a sucker for a girl wearing a dress, high heels and really cute earrings. Not to mention pizza and shraz wine.

For those of you who are not geeks, please just skim the article and realize that it exists. Future articles will build upon the information provided here and make it very easy to hack into your own brain and biological systems so that YOU have control over your body and your MWI.

Great stuff actually. But sorry for the technical opacification.

The Schematic

Here’s a nice overview summary of the circuit schematic. Obviously, it is not an overly complex device; Four IC chips, a handful of capacitors and resistors and a transistor.

Use Chip Sockets

Do not go all in for hard-wiring and soldering everything. Use male and female connectors and attach using this convention. And Lordy, please refrain from wire wrapping.

An IC socket, also known as a chip socket, or a DIP IC socket is an electrical connector used in the field of electronic engineer. The pins of the integrated circuit (IC) connect into the socket making a robust electrical connection without the requirement of soldering.

-DIP IC Sockets - Peter Vis

Examples of various sizes of chip sockets.

The Drawings

The several Corel Draw 3 .CDR drawings referenced below will NOT display in most browsers. The idea is that you SAVE TO YOUR LOCAL HARD DRIVE each one, then print from a compatible graphics package. This method gives the clearest quality prints.

I HAVE ALSO INCLUDED .GIF DRAWINGS, HOWEVER, DUE TO THE COARSE RESOLUTION OF MY GRAPHICS SOFTWARE, THESE MAY OR MAY NOT PRINT TO MEET YOUR NEEDS.

An office services shop should be able to print the .CDRs – BE SURE THEY SELECT “FIT TO PAGE”. (Note that this instruction packet is dated from 2001. – MM) Most recent full featured graphics packages can read and print a Corel Draw 3 (VECTOR) drawing. The entire set of .CDR files will fit on one EMPTY 1.44 MB floppy diskette. (Thus dating this article. LOL.) Here are the clickable references, sizes, and paper orientation.

The Documents for the Large Version

vfmckt3.cdr (RIGHT click) 141K
vfmckt3.gif (LEFT click to view, RIGHT to download)
29K vfmckt3.exe (LEFT click) 26K, when downloaded, you will need to run vfmckt3.exe as a program, and it will unpack itself as vfmckt3.cdr. The zipped version will remain on disk too.
Schematic diagram, 2N2222 separate amp for spkr, LANDSCAPE orientation kitbotm3.cdr (RIGHT click) 292K
kitbotm3.gif (LEFT click to view, RIGHT to download)
36K Solder side wiring layout, 2N2222 separate spkr amp LANDSCAPE orientation

The Documents for the Small Version

SMALLER PERF BOARD VERSION – NO BOARD CUTTING REQUIRED ** >> DRAWINGS ABOVE ARE SUFFICIENT FOR SOMEONE WHO CAN DESIGN THEIR OWN CASE AND PANEL

vfmtest.gif, shows what the scope trace should look like when proper frequency modulation by voice is applied.
vfmpanel.cdr (RIGHT click) 54K
vfmpanel.gif (LEFT click to view, RIGHT to download) 28K
Panel illustration, LANDSCAPE orientation brd2panl.cdr (RIGHT click) 28K
brd2panl.cdr (LEFT click to view, RIGHT to download) 13K Shows mechanical details for mounting both the circuit board and 12-volt gel cell into a Radio Shack 270-1809 project box.
vfm3.cdr (RIGHT click) 22K
vfm3.gif (LEFT click to view, RIGHT to download) 37K Front PANEL layout if using the **MORE COMPACT** Radio Shack 270-1807 7″ x 7″ x 3″ plastic project case, if wanted

Questions and Answers

Q: Are the items in question expensive? I MIGHT be interested in paying for a demo unit. How large and heavy is it when finished

A: I estimate it could be done for about $200 US (year 2000 prices), though this would vary upwards if you had to purchase a tape recorder, say, or a frequency meter along with it. Tape recorder, a small one, is necessary. A frequency meter is not, subject to conditions below. With the largest Radio Shack plastic project box, it’s 8″ x 6″ x 3″. With the 12-volt gel cell inside, it weighs perhaps 3 lbs.

Q: Could you briefly describe how you demo it to curious onlookers?

A: I keep a tape recorder with sample ordinary voice with the unit, so I can demonstrate both the 1,500 Hertz normal speech center freq. then raise the center frequency up until it is not audible. At that point, the visitor is hearing “silent sound” carrying speech, using FM rather than nature’s AM.

I also unplug the attenuator / patch cable from the “earphone” jack on the tape recorder, which allows the visitor to hear the ordinary voice on the tape, which is AM (amplitude modulation). Also at that point, the brain is using “slope tuning” to recover the normal voice from the inaudible signal.

I tell them this is an unclassified device which can hypontize SILENTLY, show them the label with the U.S. patent #5,159,703, and tell them a unit like this was used in the 1991 Gulf War by the U.S. Army Psychological Warfare branch to persuade, silently, all those Iraqi troops to surrender so quickly.

That was DOCUMENTED on ITV, and you should have for your reference (one copy, not to hand out – it’s too long) the Judy Wall article at this link: http://www.raven1.net/silsoun2.htm.

I go on to tell them that this device gets it’s REAL destructive power when connected to a voice to skull transmitter, one of which is under construction here in Ontario. It can beam hypnosis silently into someone’s skull for years and they won’t be aware.

Q: Can you monitor the output?

A: You CAN use the Radio Shack sound level meter to show, when the frequency setting is high, that sound is coming out of the tweeter even though they can’t hear it. Due to having to use the bus, I’m restricted on how much I can carry, so I haven’t used this but once. (Doesn’t seem to be required, actually.) However, there are a couple of important caveats if you want to use a sound level meter:

Radio Shack’s sound level meters are calibrated to match the human ear response.
Since the demo unit can easily tune the center frequency up above 20 kHz (the meter’s upper limit) you must have a FREQUENCY COUNTER with you or your sound level meter may miss your then-ultrasound signal.
This demo unit, in order to pump out any kind of signal near the high end of human hearing (around 15 kHz) uses a small PIEZO tweeter, 2 inches dia.
The readily available, simple, LM386 audio amplifier chip will handle this frequency, but without much power to spare, so the actual amplitude is not great at 14.5 kHz, the Lowery patent specification.
Therefore, especially OUTDOORS, a demo to use a sound level meter needs an ADDITIONAL STAGE of amplification. That could be added on to the circuit board, but room is a problem with the 276-158 board, or, an amplified speaker, like the Radio Shack 21-541 would be needed for a reliably convincing sound level meter demo. (The 21-541 should also have it’s low-frequency speaker replaced with a 30,000 Hz PIEZO tweeter.)

The GOOD news is that so far, the sound level meter demo does NOT seem to be necessary, though I do have the equipment should that be necessary. The full demo would probably be used for a pre-arranged meeting with a group.

Demonstration Spiel for Silent Sound Demo Device September 28, 2000

DEMONSTRATION PROCEDURES THOROUGHLY go through the setup procedures first. You need to be completely familiar with the unit before attempting to demonstrate it to the public. Be sure your battery has been charged overnight.

Setup procedures Shortly before the demo, refresh yourself on: – U.S. Govt (NSA) admission mind control exists nsa1.gif – unclassified and commercial mind-weapons-capable devices uncom.htm – MKULTRA and the successful lawsuit against the CIA anat-1.htm

MATERIALS.

You need, when dealing with the public:

A printout of THIS SET OF INSTRUCTIONS
A printout of hypno2s.gif (see other below)
A printout of mkcover.gif (OPTIONAL)
! picket sign (if outdoors without a pre-arranged meeting with visitors)
Some handouts, one sheet of which MUST be nsa1.gif (This has proven very compelling to those who read it)
For YOUR reference, a printout of Judy Wall’s article on silent sound, including Gulf War use, silsoun2.htm
! copy of these instructions and spiel script
A small flip-nozzle container of water for your voice and perhaps throat lozenges
Sunscreen and sun hat if outdoors
A small tape recorder with a voice-ONLY cassette, normal sound
A patch cord between the “ear” jack on the recorder and the MONO 1/8″ jack on the demo unit (keep volume low or use an attenuator from Radio Shack. Excess volume results in garble.)

Some may find this image explaining silent sound WITHOUT the extra clutter from the voice-to-skull attachment easier to use:

A printout of voicefm.gif (OPTIONAL) Some may wish to hand out schematics. I recommend this schematic and matching solder-side component placement image:
vfmckt3.gif, schematic
kitbotm3.gif, solder-side layout

Components

Here’s some info on the components. And forgive me, but I am fundamentally a geek at heart.

LM386

This is a standard part.

And here's another pinout.

Lot's more in the PDF.

XR2206

This is a well known, if not standard, part.

Of course, there are complete modules that you can buy that makes construction of the units so much easier. Such as this one…

ICE-BREAKER.

Mine is a picket sign that carries this message: “GOVT-MEDIA TELL THE PUBLIC ABOUT ELECTRONIC MIND WEAPONS” poster9.gif

SPIEL.

The words below VARY according to the person I’m talking with, and for best effectiveness you will need to judge just how interested the visitor is. I’ve had SHORT visits like:

VISITOR: What is this? (Pointing to the demo unit)

DEMONSTRATOR: This is a device which takes ordinary human speaking voice and does two things to it: – converts it from natural AM (amplitude modulation) to FM (frequency modulation); this garbles the voice – raises the average frequency from around 1,500 Hertz, which is normal, to around 15,000 Hertz.

At 15,000 Hertz, young people with good hearing can hear a slight “ringing in the ears” from this device, while many adults hear nothing at all. But the brain CAN HEAR THE WORDS, even though the ear cannot.

This allows a hypnotist to program an individual over months and years without the target being aware. There is no resistance to the hypnosis because the target doesn’t hear it.

This can be beneficial, but it can also do severe damage to a person’s well being. This is why our group is out here demonstrating. We want government to earn their salaries and perks by placing controls on who can possess such devices and what can be legally done with them.

VISITOR: Thank you (and leaves.) LONG visits start out as above. If questions keep coming, you will need to answer them. Below are some typical questions and answers:

DEMONSTRATOR: (Continuing from the “short” spiel above) ** AT THIS POINT, YOU MAY WANT TO DROP DOWN THIS SCRIPT TO ITEM #6, THE ACTUAL PHYSICAL DEMO OF THE UNIT. I HAVE FOUND THAT A GREAT MANY VISITORS DO NOT WANT TO HEAR THE UNIT. I NEVER PRESS THAT ISSUE WITH THEM, AND ONLY START IT UP WHEN ASKED.

This device as it is here is harmless, unless used on someone who has already been programmed with trigger words or phrases. It becomes very invasive and dangerous, though, if connected to a voice-to-skull projector.

A voice-to-skull projector is a modified radar transmitter in which the human voice controls how close together the radar pulses occur.

In 1974, Dr. Joseph Sharp, of the Walter Reed Army Institute of research, announced his successful transmission of speech directly into the human skull with no receiving device.

By connecting this “silent sound” device to a voice-to-skull transmitter, it is possible to transmit hypnotic phrases silently into a target’s bedroom, every night, for years, without the target’s being aware.

By programming enough “Pavlovian triggers” into an individual, that individual’s personality can be changed substantially. Using pre-programmed trigger phrases, a “handler” of that individual can literally use him or her as a “living robot”, in cases where the individual has high susceptibility to hypnosis.

The process of programming enough triggers into an individual for purposes of control is called “creating a Manchurian Candidate”, after two books of that title. The formal program of the CIA, begun in the 1950s, started out as 149 separate experiments, and was in response to cold war fears and the apparent “brainwashing” of Allied POWs in Korea. This group of “behavior modification” experiments bore the code name MKULTRA.

MKULTRA did include electronic mind control devices, but the best known electronic mind control device of the early days was the Russian LIDA machine. The LIDA, one of which is in possession of Veterans’ Administration researcher Dr. Ross Adey, “entrained” or electronically coerced a target in the path of it’s signal to be relaxed and more susceptible to hypnosis.

A few Korean War vets claimed to have seen the LIDA in use at the POW camps. The MKULTRA code name ceased in the late 1970s when the U.S. Senate’s Frank Church Committee investigated MKULTRA experiments and found that serious atrocities had been committed on people in the military, prisons, or in mental hospitals.

However, not one single perpetrator from the MKULTRA programs was ever brought up on charges. We know that electronic mind control experimentation did not cease, and this “silent sound” technology was used in actual military combat in the 1991 Gulf War.

The United States Army connected a silent sound voice converter like this one to an FM broadcast transmitter, broadcasting on a frequency of 100 Megahertz, and the silent hypnotic commands were carried right on top of normal voice in the Iraqi language.

The normal voice carried confusing information, while the SILENT component re-inforced a sense of despair by hypnotic suggestion. This was documented on Britain’s ITV network, but not shown in the U.S. or Canada.

The successful use by the U.S. Army clearly shows that this technology does work. Through-the-wall voice-to-skull technology makes it almost inescapable.

Our group hopes that eventually the public will learn enough about the invasive privacy destroying electronic mind control weapons available today to demand that government report on these devices to the people, and make their use and possession matters of ongoing PUBLIC record.

Electronic mind control devices have been under development for 50 years, and our group knows only the unclassified and commercial versions. The time for public input and control of all such technologies is LONG overdue.

ACTUAL DEMONSTRATION OF THE UNIT ITSELF.

Put a tape with VOICE (not music) into your demo tape recorder. Connect a patch cable between the “ear” jack on the recorder and the INPUT jack on the demo unit. If you have an attenuator, use it, but if not, remember to keep the volume setting on the recorder quite low.

Excess volume garbles the speech making for an un- convincing demo. Switch on the demo unit. Adjust the tone near the lower end of the frequency knob’s travel.

The Input Level should be around one third of it’s way up from it’s lowest position.

Push PLAY on the recorder. You should hear speech “mixed” in with the demo unit’s tone.

This demonstrates to a visitor what simply converting natural human voice, which is AM or amplitude modulation to FM or frequency modulation sounds like.

Near the low end of the frequency knob’s travel, the frequencies of the voice are still about at their natural values, but the mode is now FM, as opposed to AM.

THE VISITOR CAN HEAR THIS IS GARBLED. Now slowly increase the frequency knob until the audible sound is as HIGH as you and your visitor can just hear. If you are both adults, this point is approximately where the brain can start to convert this inaudible sound BACK TO WORDS.

The process is called “slope tuning”.

You can move the IN-OFF-OUT switch back to IN to show the visitor that voice is actually being fed into the unit. vfmslopd.gif, shows how the brain recovers the inaudible words using the process of “slope detection” or “slope tuning” – worth having a few of these for technical folks who are interested in how it works.

If you have a frequency counter or meter, connect it to the two binding posts, one red, one black, on the front panel.

During a demo adjust frequency somewhere between 14.5 and 14.8 kHz (14,500 Hertz to 14,800 Hertz.) This is the range where both the Lowery patent (5,159,703) and the New Zealand Altered States company operate at to produce brain-understandable silent sound.

SEE ITEM 4 BELOW UNDER SETUP FOR COMMENTS ABOUT USING AN AUDIO LEVEL METER TO ENHANCE YOUR DEMONSTRATION.

SETUP PROCEDURES

vfmtest.gif, shows what the scope trace should look like when proper frequency modulation by voice is applied. vfmslopd.gif, shows how the brain recovers the inaudible words using the process of “slope detection” or “slope tuning” – worth having a few of these for technical folks who are interested in how it works.

1

You will need a small voltmeter to monitor battery charge state. This must be a small meter that reads out VOLTS, and *NOT* a “battery OK” meter with red and green scales.

It is necessary to know voltages for communications by email or phone with people who can offer technical help.

A convenient meter is the Radio Shack 22-802, for around $30, which has a folding case fully containing the two probes and their cable.

The only trick with any meter is TO REMEMBER TO SHUT IT OFF WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED. Almost all of today’s voltmeters have digital displays and have their own small internal battery. (Pick up and carry a spare battery.)

2

First job is to charge the internal 12-volt gel cell. The charger supplied with units purchased from Eleanor White is a simple “wall mount” style 12-volt power supply, with a cable that cannot be connected with the wrong polarity.

Measure the voltage by touching the positive (red lead) screw on the terminal strip with the red probe, and the negative (black lead) screw on the terminal strip with the black probe.

You should get “13 something” volts if the battery is reasonably well charged. If you get zero volts, it is likely that one of the 3/4 amp fuses is blown.

Check both fuses to be sure. (You can check a fuse visually, but 3/4 amp size is hard to see. Instead, switch your meter to K-ohms and put the probes on either end of the glass fuse. The fuse should show zero or very close to zero if it is good.

The fuses are 5 MILLIMETER and you may need to go to Radio Shack to get replacements. !!!!! SWITCH YOUR METER OFF OR BACK TO VOLTS WHEN FINISHED !!!!!

Now remove the probes and connect your charger. Put the probes back on their screws and note the voltage reading.

If charging is in progress, you should see “14 something” volts and perhaps as high as 15 volts. If you don’t, something is wrong – see the paragraph on blown fuses above, or be sure the charger is plugged in, or be sure the outlet has power. If your “wall mount” power supply has a SLIDE SWITCH TO CHANGE VOLTAGE, be sure it is set to “12”.

3

Switch the unit on. You should see the LED on the panel lit up. If not, check the fuses. Switch the IN-OFF-OUT switch to OUT. Turn the frequency control to the lower part of its travel. Be sure the Output Level knob is at least 1/4 of the way up. You should hear a steady tone.

Test that the frequency control can raise the tone high enough that you can no longer hear it, then bring it back down low.

Switch the IN-OFF-OUT switch to IN. Raise the Input Level to full scale.

If you get a squeal, as sometimes happens with PA systems, you need to make a mental note of where that occurs and not go above that point with INPUT level.

4

4. Put a tape with VOICE (not music) into your demo tape recorder. >> COMMENTS ABOUT AUDIO LEVEL METER DEMOS ARE AT THE END OF THIS ITEM.

Connect a patch cable between the “ear” jack on the recorder and the INPUT jack on the demo unit. If you have an attenuator, use it, but if not, remember to keep the volume setting on the recorder quite low. Excess volume garbles the speech making for an un- convincing demo.

Switch on the demo unit. Adjust the tone near the lower end of the frequency knob’s travel. The Input Level should be around one third of it’s way up from it’s lowest position. Push PLAY on the recorder.

You should hear speech “mixed” in with the demo unit’s tone. This demonstrates to a visitor what simply converting natural human voice, which is AM or amplitude modulation to FM or frequency modulation sounds like.

Near the low end of the frequency knob’s travel, the frequencies of the voice are still about at their natural values, but the mode is now FM, as opposed to AM.

The visitor can hear this is garbled.

Now slowly increase the frequency knob until the audible sound is as HIGH as you and your visitor can just barely hear. If you are both adults, this point is approximately where the brain can start to convert this inaudible sound BACK TO WORDS. The process is called “slope tuning”. You can move the IN-OFF-OUT switch back to IN to show the visitor that voice is actually being fed into the unit.

If you have a frequency counter or meter, connect it to the two binding posts, one red, one black, on the front panel. During a demo adjust frequency somewhere between 14.5 and 14.8 kHz (14,500 Hertz to 14,800 Hertz.)

This is the range where both the Lowery patent (5,159,703) and the New Zealand Altered States company operate at to produce brain-understandable silent sound.

If you have an AUDIO LEVEL METER, it can be used to show that sound is coming out at 14.5 kHz even though it is inaudible. !!!!! BUT BEWARE !!!! Some audio meters like Radio Shack’s CUT OFF AT OR NEAR 20 kHz. You need to do considerable testing in private before you attempt audio meter proof in front of visitors.

It is quite easy to get the frequency too high, in which case the audio level meter will show nothing at all. To be practical, you really would need a frequency meter connected to the binding posts to assure yourself you were in the 14.5-14.8 range.

Furthermore, the piezo tweeter is good at high end frequencies, but the common audio chips in the unit are not really strong at these high-end frequencies.

If you plan to use an audio level meter, I’d recommend something like the Radio Shack amplified speaker, catalogue #21-541, requiring it’s own separate 12-volt source (the demo unit’s can be tapped by someone with electronic assembly skills.

This will shorten the charge life of the demo unit’s battery but may be worth doing anyway.) If you do use an external amplifier, be SURE it gets it’s normal voice coil speaker replaced with a PIEZO unit or the high frequency sound won’t get through well enough for the audio level meter to detect.

Conclusion

This is a complete reprint of the archived information regarding Silent Sound. It is very difficult to come across today. The information provided can help the DIY inclined person develop their own system or copy this one to achieve the same results.

Part 3 is next.

There we will discuss the voice-to-skull projector. Stay tuned.

Do you want more?

I have more posts related to this in my Affirmation Campaign index here… Intention Campaigns .

Subliminal Seduction; subconscious programming using subsonic sounds and radiation

Hum… Have you noticed that Americans are so very serious when compared to others from the rest of the world?

Well, I’ve been monitoring the Afghanistan situation in the “news”. It looks pretty calm and collected. Mostly it’s people going about their business, shops open, trade going on, food markets selling produce and the like. Apparently the new government has retained all the public servants and are not making any radical changes, instead trying to establish a solid and decent enough government.

But, Christ All-mighty! If you read what the “news” out of America and the UK has to say, it’s all screeching bat-shit crazy hysterics!

My Lordy!

Someone needs to give these folks some Quaaludes and get them strapped to a gurney and carted off to the rubber-padded room.

It seems and appears to me that most of the people in both the USA and the UK are way-way-way too “high strung”.

What’s going on?

Why are they so “out there” and “in orbit”?

Well, that’s what this article is all about.

Most Americans really need to calm down.

Don’t freak out folks. But this article is going to take you into uncomfortable spaces.

Lately a number of MM participants have commented that they seem to “feel” electrified or odd in regards to being inside the United States. (Let’s call this Observation “A”.) It is like there is a very uncomfortable “wave going through everyone” simultaneously with this feeling of impending doom.

Meanwhile, there’s observation “B”, where others have commented that maybe the debacle in Afghanistan was not a sign of collapse, but was actually an intentional event concocted by those that control the United States for Geo-political and domestic advantage. Bo Chen offered a compelling argument for this, and I will post it later on.

I cannot say one way of other other related to observations “A” and “B” above. However, I will like to release this article that (again) I am being “lightly” pestered to write and release.

“Lightly” pestered.

Not hysterically pestered like the Deagel article from last week. The mere fact that I am suddenly getting “pestered” tells me that “something is afoot“.

So let’s try to consider Observation A and B in light of this article.

Again. Take what you read in an easy relaxed format. Don't get too caught up in the information. I'm going to talk about something very uncomfortable for most people to grasp. Ok?

The use of electronic mechanisms to broadcast thoughts, influence actions, alter the operation of the human body, or interact with it remotely is mature technology.It’s well known, well used, with decades of experience and operation.

Just because it is not common knowledge, or dismissed as “tin foil hat” fringe conspiracy science is meaningless. Those that control nations and societies have been using this technology for decades.

The United States is (almost) wholly controlled using these kinds of technologies. Not only on the mass scale for the intentional herding of American society, but for the control of specific people, and the obtainment of specific social-economic and Geo-political objectives.

The MetallicMan Experience

I can personally vouch that multiple personalities came out from MM during my “retirement” within the secure ADC Pine Bluff facility.

I can tell you that I was unaware that I had these personalities, abilities, skills or behaviors. I lived with them, and they laid dormant for much of my career within MAJestic.

I can also tell you that when my brain was unlocked, they had to absolutely make sure that I was in a very secure “padded room” when I “un-wound”.

For those of you who haven't read my MAJestic Index, there are multiple instances in my narrative that included...

[1] Physical cranial implants of three specific types (EBP, ELF1, ELF2), 
[2] a shut-down sequence of the ELF implants, 
[3] activation of memories, skills and personalities that I was unaware of, and 
[4] behavior variations that can only be associated by radiative induction.

The technologies that was used on me personally were developed and were quite mature in 1981.

For me, personally, the technologies were developed in the sub-project 119 of Project MKUltra.

There are a myriad of technologies that can do this, and there are all sorts of tangential sciences and operations regarding them.

This article will just cover a few that I personally consider to be “main-stream” in continuous daily operation by those with the ability and the interest in using them.

Behavioral Control Background

American interest in the hypnosis – EMR [electromagnetic radiation] interaction was still strong as of 1974, when a research plan was filed to develop useful techniques in human volunteers.

The experimenter, J.F. Schapitz, stated:

“In this investigation it will be shown that the spoken word of the hypnotist may also be conveyed by modulated electromagnetic energy directly into the subconscious parts of the human brain.

That is, without employing any technical devices for receiving or transcoding the messages.

And without the person exposed to such influence having a chance to control the information input consciously”.

Although our modern electronic age has been in existence only since the turn of this century, individuals have claimed that their minds were being remotely influenced and controlled by machines for at least two centuries.

Recorded way back in 1810 is the case of James Tilly Matthews, a London tea broker.

He claimed his mind was being controlled by a gang operating a machine he called an “Air Loom” which sent out invisible, magnetic rays from a London cellar.

Matthews believed machines like the Air Loom were also controlling the minds of members of the British Parliament.

He wrote letters to the MPs warning them about the machines and the conspiracy behind it.

This kind of information, was not taken seriously at all. Instead,it was treated as delusional. And Matthews was committed to Bethlem Hospital as being insane.

It might be easy to dismiss Matthews’ claims of a machine that can control one’s mind because of the early date. However, his is by no means an isolated case.

In 1994 Ronald K. Siegel, a Associate Research Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Bio-behavioral Sciences at UCLA, wrote “Whispers: The Voices of Paranoia.”

Whispers

Whispers is a collection of case histories of mind control, (or ‘paranoia’ as he calls it) that he studied and compiled.

One case concerned a man named Tolman.

He believed his mind was being controlled by computers via a satellite system named POSSE (Personal Orbiting Satellite for Surveillance and Enforcement).

Interestingly, author Dorothy Burdick, in her 1982 book Such Things Are Known described what she claimed was her mind control harassment by computers via satellites.

She names Siegel as being the inventor of a device named FOCUS (Flexible Optical Control Unit Simulator) which can project hallucinations directly onto the retina so the subjects can’t distinguish the images from reality.

In Siegel’s book Tolman claims images are being directly transmitted into his brain.

Siegel says,

“You mean to tell me that here are machines capable of sending visual images directly into the brain?”

In 1968 Siegel published a professional paper titled “A Device for Chronically Controlled Visual Input”. This paper was a very detailed description of a device he developed to project images directly into the brain. He developed the techniques and system on experimental animals via their optic nerves.

He suggests further experimentation be

“conducted on neonates (kittens) which have their total visual stimulation controlled from the time they open their eyes.”

Thirty years later a team of US scientists wired a computer to a cat’s brain and created videos of what the cat was seeing.

One of the scientists working on the project, Garret Stanley of Harvard University, predicted machines with brain interfaces. We can only imagine how far such technology has advanced in the secret research laboratories of the US government and the military/industrial complex.

Today there is a wealth of documentation confirming how government agencies and research centers have been developing these technologies and methods.

These technologies involve elements of psychology, hypnosis, political conspiracies, and even devices that emit “rays” to control the behavior of others without their knowledge or consent.

Project MKUltra

Project MKUltra is the code name given to a program of experiments on human subjects that were designed and undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, some of which were illegal.

Experiments on humans were intended to develop procedures and identify drugs such as LSD to be used in interrogations in order to weaken the individual and force confessions through brainwashing and psychological torture.

The project was organized through the Office of Scientific Intelligence of the CIA and coordinated with the United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories. Other code names for drug-related experiments were Project Bluebird and Project Artichoke.

MKULTRA, as well as projects BLUEBIRD, ARTI-CHOKE, CHATTER, CASTI-GATE, MKDELTA, MKNAOMI, THIRD CHANCE, MKSEARCH, MKOFTEN, etc., were covert CIA projects involving many prominent members and institutions of the medical and scientific communities to investigate and experiment with various forms of behavior modification and control using, in many cases, unwitting human subjects.

In was in operation from the late 1940’s until the early 1970’s, they delved into everything from drugs to hypnosis to electronics.

Then, when Congress began to investigate the activity, the head of the program (illegally) destroyed all records. He gathered up every single record, and burned all of them. He did this in direct defiance of the law. Obviously, there were some very damning things in those records that the public should never be exposed to.

And the few that remain are just minor evidence of the full extent of a very invasive program conducted without Congressional oversight against the American people.

Sigh.

Trying to bring up this subject in any forums would get your canned, scoffed at or perma-banned. It’s “tin foil hat” conspiracy shit. Don’t you know…

…And then, one day, a bunch of boxes of Project MKUltra documents were discovered…

REORGANIZATION OF THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY

Our recent discovery of seven boxes of documents related to Project MKULTRA, a closely held CIA project ... conducted from 1953-1964. 

As you may recall, MKULTRA was an "umbrella project" under which certain ... 

MKULTRA prepared by the Inspector General's- office in. 1963. Asa result of that report's ...

New Vistas

In 1996, the US Air Force Scientific Advisory Board published a 14-volume study of future developments in weapons called “New World Vistas.”

Tucked away on page 89 of an ancillary 15th volume are some hair-raising insights into the future ‘coupling’ of man and machine in a section dealing with ‘Biological Process Control’. The author refers to an ‘explosion’ of knowledge in the field of neuroscience, adding, ominously:

One can envision the development of electromagnetic energy sources, the output of which can be pulsed, shaped, and focused, that can couple with the human body in a fashion that will allow one to prevent voluntary muscular movements, control emotions (and thus actions), produce sleep, transmit suggestions, interfere with both short-term and long-term memory, produce an experience set, and delete an experience set.

Translating the words ‘experience set’ from military jargon into plain English, this means, simply, that they envisage the ability to erase your life’s memories and substitute a new, fictitious set.

Imagine that.

Oh, what fun.

By projecting such developments into the future, the authors of “New Vistas” are camouflaging present day capabilities.

The Revolution in Military Affairs and Conflict Short of War

A similar futuristic scenario with many references to mind manipulation is described in “The Revolution in Military Affairs and Conflict Short of War (US Army War College, 1994)”.

Authors Steven Metz and James Kievit declare:

“Behavior modification is a key component of peace enforcement” 

and 

“The advantage of [using] directed energy systems is deniability.” 

The authors ask: 

“Against whom is such deniability aimed?” The direct answer is “the American people”.

Set in the year 2010, Metz and Kievit write of “perception molding” and “advanced psycho-technologies” to avoid irksome public protest, but that is just the beginning.

The major obstacle, they believe, is that “traditional American ethics [are] a major hindrance.”

My goodness!

And thus they continue to point out that

“old-fashioned notions of personal privacy and national sovereignty [are to be] changed.”

The future presented by Metz and Kievit sounds like a mixture of George Orwell’s 1984 and the movie “The Matrix”.

Individuals unwilling to go along with the revolutionary changes are…

 “identified using comprehensive inter-agency integrated databases.”

They will then be “categorized.”

And “sophisticated computerized personality simulations” will be used “to develop, tailor and focus psychological campaigns for each.”

Jeeze Louise!

Other techniques to be used in association with these new mind weapons include ‘morphing’, a present-day ability that controls the distortion of TV images.

So, if you are lucky enough not to have your brain electronically scrambled or erased, the electronic news media will be manipulated especially for you!

And such, it will be presenting convincing near-real-life visual images through your combined TV set-cum-internet interface. Woo! Woo!

Silent Sounds

The Silent Sound Spread Spectrum (SSSS) technology, also known as “S-quad”, was developed by Dr. Oliver Lowery of Georgia, USA, and is described in US Patent #5,159,703 as “Silent Subliminal Presentation System.”

The abstract for the patent reads:

A silent communications system in which nonaural carriers, in the very low or very high audio-frequency range or in the adjacent ultrasonic frequency spectrum are amplitude-or frequency-modulated with the desired intelligence and propagated acoustically or vibrationally, for inducement into the brain, typically through the use of loudspeakers, earphones, or piezoelectric transducers. 

The modulated carriers may be transmitted directly in real time or may be conveniently recorded and stored on mechanical, magnetic or optical media for delayed or repeated transmission to the listener.

According to literature by Silent Sounds, Inc., it is now possible, using supercomputers, to analyze human emotional EEG patterns and replicate them.

Then store these“emotion signature clusters” on another computer.

Thus, afterwards, one can, at will,

“silently induce and change the emotional state in a human being.”

Judy Wall, writing in Nexus (October-November 1990, says

“Silent Sounds, Inc. states that it is interested only in positive emotions, but the military is not so limited. That this is a US Department of Defense project is obvious.”

Edward Tilton, President of Silent Sounds Inc., says this about S-quad in a letter dated 13 December, 1996:

All schematics, however,have been classified by the US Government and we are not allowed to reveal the exact details… 

We make tapes and CDs for the German Government, even the former Soviet Union countries! All with the permission of the US State Department, of course… 

The system was used throughout Operation Desert Storm (Iraq) quite successfully.

By using these computer-enhanced EEGs, scientists can identify and isolate the brain’s low-amplitude “emotion signature clusters”, synthesize them and store them on another computer.

In other words, by studying the subtle characteristic brainwave patterns that occur when a subject experiences a particular emotion, scientists have been able to identify the concomitant brainwave pattern and can now duplicate it.

“These clusters are then placed on the Silent Sound carrier frequencies and will silently trigger the occurrence of the same basic emotion in another human being!”

So, let’s suppose that you are holding your beloved pet and stoking them. You feel relaxed and content. Well, your brain could be imaged and a “snap shot” of your feelings can be recorded. This is known as an “emotion signature cluster”. And the United States have an entire library of these that they can identify, and impose on others.

Some examples…

Blind uncontrollable rage and anger.
Hunger.
Soothing comfort and calmness.
Love.
Attraction and interest.
Organism / ejaculation.
Infatuation with another.
OCD behaviors.
Stomach pain / bowel movements.
Being terribly horny and desiring of sex.
Missing something or someone.
Headache.
Loss and grief.

This technology was used on me during my MAJestic operations, and I can tell you that they were able to use it on me because my entire “emotion signature cluster” for me personally was imaged and recorded at NAMI at NAS, NASC Pensacola, Florida in 1981.

This technology could also be applied to the public at large, but I do not believe that to be the case. It wouldn’t be that effective for large groups of people.

Unless things have changed (and they actually could, don’t you know) there are better technologies to induce corralling of herds of humans via electromagnetic means.

This “Silent Sounds” technology is most useful for specifically targeted persons.

Now, there does seem to be elements of human crowd control taking place all over the United States. Instead of the Silent-Sounds technology, there are other, better suited candidates for these kinds of indiscriminate herding activities…

Synthetic Telepathy

Synthetic telepathy is a term used to describe the beaming of words, thoughts, or ideas into a person’s mind.

This is done by a type of electromagnetic transmitter, similar to a radio or television broadcast, operating in the microwave frequency band.

In recent years thousands of people have come forward claiming to be victims of this technology. However, the first officially reported scientific experiment documenting a case of synthetic telepathy cannot be found in any of the academic literature because of the highly secretive nature of the research.

In 1961 Allen Frey, a freelance biophysicist and engineering psychologist, reported that a human can hear microwaves.

However, this discovery was dismissed by most United States scientists as being the result of artifact (outside noise). The more technical description of the experiment is described by James C. Linn.

It turns out that Frey discovered that human subjects exposed to 1310 MHz and 2982 MHz microwaves at average power densities of 0.4 to 2 mW/cm2 perceived auditory sensations described as buzzing or knocking sounds (also described as clicks or chirps).

The peak power densities were on the order of 200 to 300 mW/cm2 and the pulse repetition frequencies varied from 200 to 400 Hz.

Frey referred to this auditory phenomenon as the RF (radio frequency) sound.

The sensation occurred instantaneously at average incident power densities well below that necessary for known biological damage and appeared to originate from within or near the back of the head.

Further testing revealed that two requirements were necessary for the subject to hear the microwave induced sound:

“...good bone conduction and the ability to hear acoustic energy above 5 kHz...”

By 1975 the introduction to a paper by A.W. Guy and others begins,

“One of the most widely observed and accepted biologic effects of low average power electromagnetic (EM) energy is the auditory sensation evoked in man when exposed to pulsed microwaves.”

Today, the US Government use of synthetic telepathy was described in the October-November 1994 issue of Nexus:

Directed-energy weapons currently being deployed include, for example, a micro-wave weapon manufactured by Lockheed-Sanders and used for a process known as ‘Voice Synthesis’ which is remote beaming of audio (i.e., voices or other audible signals) directly into the brain of any selected human target. This process is also known within the US Government as ‘Synthetic Telepathy’.

Microwave “Zapping”

Much of the work done with microwaves was developed by Project Pandora.

This project was put into place by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

It was initially set up to study the effects of microwaves that were being beamed into the American Embassy in Moscow by the Soviet Union.

Some of the findings of the scientists involved with Pandora are quite disturbing.

Dr. Joseph C. Sharp and engineer Mark Grove were able to hear and distinguish one-syllable words by pulse-modulated microwaves.

Microwaves can also alter the permeability of the body’s blood-brain barrier. This characteristic can synergistically increase the effects of drugs.

“Using relatively low-level RFR, it may be possible to sensitize large military groups to extremely dispersed amounts of biological or chemical agents to which the unirradiated population would be immune.”

Sound can be transmitted even easier through the use of implants.

As fans of Rush Limbaugh can attest to, cochlear implants, implants that send electrical signals into the fluid of the inner ear can effectively transmit sounds.

Additionally implants that transmit sound vibrations via bone conduction, such as the cases of dental fillings picking up audible radio signals.

Implanted Stimoceiver

The stimoceiver, invented by Dr. Jose Delgado, consists of wires running from strategic points in the brain to a radio receiver/transmitter located entirely under the skin.

Through this device, Delgado was able to stimulate raw emotions such as sexual arousal, anxiety, and aggression with the turn of a knob.

Of course, secret research by the US Government into microwaves and synthetic telepathy has moved on considerably since the 1980’s.

McVeigh: Manchurian Candidate?

Among the many telemetry instruments being used today, are miniature radio transmitters that can be swallowed, carried externally, or surgically implanted.... They permit the simultaneous study of behavior and physiological functioning.

—Dr. Stuart Mackay, Bio-Medical Telemetry (textbook), 1968

While visiting friends in Decker, Michigan, Timothy McVeigh complained that the Army had implanted him with a microchip. He said that it was a miniature subcutaneous transponder, so that they could keep track of him.

He complained that it left an unexplained scar on his buttocks and was painful to sit on.

Of course, we all know that McVeigh was convicted of the 1995 bombing of a US Government building in Oklahoma City.

Miniaturized telemetrics have been part of an ongoing project by the military and the various intelligence agencies to test the effectiveness of tracking soldiers on the battlefield.

The miniature implantable telemetric device was declassified long ago.

According to Dr. Carl Sanders, the developer of the Intelligence Manned Interface (IMI) biochip,

“We used this with military personnel in the Iraq War where they were actually tracked using this particular type of device.”

It is also interesting to note that the Calspan Advanced Technology Center in Buffalo, NY (Calspan ATC), where McVeigh worked, is engaged in microscopic electronic engineering of the kind applicable to telemetrics.

Calspan was founded in 1946 as Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory.

And funded in part by the “Fund for the Study of Human Ecology,” a CIA financing conduit for mind control experiments.

This operation was set up by emigre Nazi scientists and others under the direction of CIA doctors Sidney Gottlieb, Ewen Cameron, and Louis Jolyn West.

According to mind control researcher Alex Constantine,

“Calspan places much research emphasis on bioengineering and artificial intelligence (Calspan pioneered the field in the 1950s).”

Human tracking and monitoring technology are well within Calspan’s sphere of pursuits.

The company is instrumental in REDCAP, an Air Force electronic warfare system that winds through every Department of Defense facility in the country.

A Pentagon release explains that REDCAP…

“is used to evaluate the effectiveness of electronic-combat hardware, techniques, tactics and concepts.”

The system …

“includes closed-loop radar and datalinks at RF manned data fusion and weapons control posts.”

One computer news board reported that a disembodied, rumbling, low-frequency hum had been heard across the country the week of the [Oklahoma] bombing.

Similiar hums in Taos, New Mexico, Eugene and Medford, Oregon, Timmons, Ontario and Bristol, England were most definitely (despite specious official denials) attuned to the brain’s auditory pathways.

The Air Force is among Calspan’s leading clients, and Eglin AFB has farmed key personnel to the company.

The grating irony (recalling McVeigh’s contention he’d been implanted with a telemetry chip) is that the Instrumentation Technology Branch of Eglin Air Force Base is currently engaged in the tracking of mammals with subminiature telemetry devices.

According to an Air Force press release, the biotelemetry chip transmits on the upper S-band (2318 to 2398 MHz), with up to 120 digital channels.

There is nothing secret about the biotelemetry chip.

Ads for commercial versions of the device have appeared in national publications. Time magazine ran an ad for an implantable pet transponder in its 26 June, 1995 issue—ironically enough—opposite an article about a militia leader who was warning about the coming New World Order.

While monitoring animals has been an unclassified scientific pursuit for decades, the monitoring of humans has been a highly classified project that is but a subset of the Pentagon’s “nonlethal” arsenal.

As Constantine notes,

“the dystopian implications were explored by Defense News for 20 March, 1995:

Naval Research Lab Attempts To Meld Neurons And Chips: Studies May Produce Army of ‘Zombies.’

Future battles could be waged with genetically engineered organisms, such as rodents, whose minds are controlled by computer chips engineered with living brain cells….

The research, called Hippo-campal Neuron Patterning, grows live neurons on computer chips.

“This technology that alters neurons could potentially be used on people to create zombie armies,”

Lawrence Korb, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said.

“It’s conceivable given the current state of the electronic mind control art, a biocybernetic Oz over the black budget rainbow, that McVeigh had been drawn into an experimental project, that the device was the real McCoy.”

Timothy McVeigh may have unknowningly been an Army/CIA guinea pig involved in a classified telemetric/mind-control project—a “Manchurian Candidate.”

Or not.

Whatever, the technology does exist, and it is mature. Only a fool would think that it is not being used.

But I don’t think that it is being used on a large scale.

If you wanted to do this on a large scale you would to alter one’s DNA or mRNA for person-to-person Hippo-campal neural patterning. But, again, unless large segments of the population are being injected with small mind-control devices, this technique isn’t very useful to corral large numbers of people

Other systems must be employed…

Soviet Research

A highly secretive battle was being waged behind the scenes during the Cold War in the area of EM weapons (sometimes described as psychotronics) to control and influence the minds of people.

It’s only now that some of this research has emerged, but much of it remains hidden and classified. In fact, we know more about Soviet research into this area because it was the Soviet Union that collapsed.

A 1975 issue of the Soviet publication International Life, discussing electronic mind control developments, stated that atmospheric electricity can be used “to suppress the mental activity” of large groups of people.

The Soviet journal said that a sonic generator, tuned to an infrasound (below the hearing level) frequency, could create “feelings of depression, fear, panic, terror, and despair.”

In 1977, the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) declassified a report describing how advances in Soviet psychotronic technology can create the ultimate big brother society.

The DIA stated that by using electronic mind control against populations to implant ideas and thoughts into the heads of unsuspecting victims:

“Sounds and possibly even words, which appear to be originating intracranially (within one’s own head), can be induced by signal modification at very low average power densities.”

The DIA report also said that the Soviets discovered that secret microwave radiation can be used to induce in unsuspecting victims:

“Headache, fatigue, perspiring, dizziness, menstrual disorders, irritability, agitation, tension, drowsiness, sleeplessness, depression, anxiety, forgetfulness, and the lack of concentration.”

After the collapse of the Soviet Union (in a maneuver identical to Operation Paperclip in World War II) Western intelligence agencies obtained all the Soviet research and recruited key personnel working in this sensitive area.

Russian research has now all but stopped due to economic crises.

A report in Defense Electronics in the early 1990s said that a Richmond, Virginia firm, Psychotechnologies (believed to be closely tied to the CIA and the FBI) purchased the American rights to Soviet mind control devices.

Defense Electronics described a spring, 1993 meeting between Clinton Administration officials and Soviet psychotronics experts, including Dr. Igor Smirnov.

Amongst the US agencies represented at the meetings with Smirnov were the FBI, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Advance Research Projects Research Agency.

Clinton Administration officials wanted…

“...to determine whether psycho-correction... programs could be undertaken by the US Government. These devices could be used to affect judgment or opinion of decision-makers, key personnel or populaces.”

Clinton defense officials expressed interest that the psychotronic devices could be used “in non-violently” clearing areas of potential enemies, snipers, etc.

On the domestic front, psychotronic devices could be used to suppress political dissidents, and any other potential threats to the government.

Also meeting with the Soviet experts were officials from giant international corporations, such as General Motors, and researchers from the National Institute of Mental Health.

The 22 August, 1994 Newsweek magazine reported on a secret Arlington, Virginia meeting between experts from the FBI’s Counter-Terrorism Centre and Dr. Smirnov, whose work was described in the publication:

...Using electroencephalographs, Smirnov measures brain waves, then uses computers to create a map of the subconscious and various human impulses, such as anger or the sex drive. 

Then through taped subliminal messages, he claims to physically alter the landscape with the power of suggestion.

Psychotronic Weapons Research

One man’s name has become synonymous with the field of non-lethal weapons development.

Col. John Alexander first became known to the public through his December, 1980 Military Review article titled, “The New Mental Battlefield.”

This article clearly describes the lethal nature of many of the so-called “non-lethal” weapons now being developed to control civilian populations.

Alexander noted:

Psychotronics may be described as the interaction of mind and matter… The possibility for employment as weaponry has been explored. To be more specific, there are weapons systems that operate on the power of the mind and whose lethal capacity has already been demonstrated.

Describing Soviet development of psychotronic weapons, Alexander stated:

“The ability to... cause death can be transmitted over distances, thus inducing illness or death for no apparent reason.”

These…

“weapons would be able to induce illness or death at little or no risk to the operator... The psychotronic weapon would be silent (and) difficult to detect...”

Powerful elite insiders have long known how electromagnetic weapons can be effectively utilized to wage mind control against the population, specifically targeting political dissidents and troublemakers.

What of the numerous political activists and investigative journalists who died under mysterious circumstances, many from rare forms of cancer?

Could they have been ‘taken out’ by psychotronic weapons? We can only imagine how advanced this technology is today.

President Lyndon Johnson’s Science Adviser, Dr. Gordon J.F. MacDonald wrote the 1968 book, “Unless Peace Comes, A Scientific Forecast Of New Weapons.”

MacDonald described how man-made changes in the electrical earth ionosphere can be used for mass behavior control.

He said that low frequency electromagnetic oscillations can attack the low frequency electromagnetic brain waves in human beings.

He stated,

“Perturbation of the environment (by geophysical warfare) can produce changes in behavioral patterns.”

In his 1970 book, Between Two Ages, Zbigniew Brezezinski (a long-time Establishment strategist) described “weather control” as a “new weapon” that is a “key element of strategy.”

He added:

Technology will make available, to leaders of major nations, a variety of techniques for conducting secret warfare, of which only a bare minimum of the security forces need to be appraised.

Brzezinski predicted the exact types of electromagnetic psychotronic weapons that the US Administration now has for the mass behavior control of citizens.

He stated:

It is possible—and tempting—to exploit, for strategic-political purposes, the fruits of research on the brain and on human behavior... 

Accurately timed, artificially excited electronic strokes could lead to a pattern of oscillations that produce relatively high power levels over certain regions of the earth... 

In this way, one could develop a system that would seriously impair the brain performance of a very large population in selected regions, over an extended period.

Available Electronic Harassment Technologies:

Five Available Electronic Harassment Technologies.

There are five older technologies capable of extreme destruction of the ability to earn a living, and the quality of life of a target, listed below.

None of these technologies require implants, and all can be transmitted silently, through walls, and leave no trace evidence.

All have been available for decades.

Since few targets will acquire the correct detection equipment, destruction of a target’s life even using these older technologies is a perfect crime under the American “justice system”.

Here is the list:

[1] Weaponized microwave oven weapon

A simple microwave oven, door removed, with the door interlock switch bypassed, and held against the bedroom wall of a target in an apartment building or semi-detached house. This device can cause a variety of disabling medical symptoms. (Google “Dr. Reinhard Munzert”.)

[2] Dr. James C. Lin’s pulsed microwave transmitter

Joseph Sharp’s voice to skull success was replicated with Dr. James C. Lin’s pulsed microwave transmitter.

This was publicly announced in 1974 at the University of Utah.

This device produces audible sound transmitted directly into a target’s skull, through a target’s wall.

Of course, this can drive the through-the-wall target crazy, and if the target complains, the target will be immediately diagnosed as mentally ill.

U.S. patent 6,587,729 was issued based on Dr. Joseph Sharp’s voice to skull success.

[3] Silent Sound

Lowery’s “Silent Sound,” patent 5,159,703, has been used for self-help subliminal hypnosis tapes and CDs.

It has also used by the U.S. Army in Gulf War One (1991).

It is currently used for shoplifting prevention in some countries.

Together with Sharp’s voice to skull technology, Silent Sound projected through a bedroom wall can hypnotize a target in their bed with the target being unaware.

Unaware hypnosis is CLEARLY extreme electronic harassment.

A target’s personality can be severely interfered with, and the target will not know why this is happening.

Concept diagram, combined voice to skull and Silent Sound

[4] Lida Signal

This is a half-century-old medical device, the Russian-built Lida machine, a pulsed 40 watt, 40 MHz radio transmitter.

It can be used to make a target exhausted on the job when pulsing at the rate consistent with sleep.

If you perform a pulse rate increase, it will deprive the target of sleep as well.

Certain ham radio transmitters can be configured so as to duplicate the Lida signal.

U.S. Patent 3,773,049 describes the Lida operating principle. And you can buy one here below…

[5] EPIC

Named EPIC, a through wall coordination/balance disruption weapon is an active technology being used today.

Electronic harassment targets have reported suddenly having their balance and coordination disrupted.

Here’s a quote from a May 21, 2007 article about the EPIC weapon:

http://www.myfoxhouston.com 

Local Company Developing 'Less than Lethal' Weapon 'EPIC' by Invocon is being developed as a 'Less than Lethal' Weapon. 

How do you disable bad guys in a crowd without killing them or causing permanent damage? 

It’s a problem faced by troops in urban combat and by local law enforcement. 

Now, a local company called Invocon may have the answer, and the solution may be a weapon code named "Epic." 

The company is developing a weapon they hope someday will be able to shoot through a wall and stun people on the other side of the wall. ...

Conclusion

In the United States today, the official unemployment rate is supposed to be a wonderful 3.68%.

U.S. unemployment rate for 2019 was 3.68%, a 0.21% decline from 2018. 
U.S. unemployment rate for 2018 was 3.90%, a 0.46% decline from 2017.

Declining every year. Getting better and better. Wonderful right?

Yet, 61% of Americans were so poor that they didn’t pay any Federal taxes. And that’s pretty bad, as Americans are taxed for everything.

These two numbers do not fit together.

How can [1] most Americans be working AND [2] being so poor that they are not being able to pay their taxes?

So? What the reasoning? If both numbers are correct, then what is going on is frightening. For either…

The American government has failed everyone on a grand scale.
The United States system of “exceptional democracy” has failed everyone on a grand scale.
Or, if one of figures is a fabrication or manipulation, then the government is lying to cover-up something very serious and very bad.

I argue that no matter how you look at this situation, something inside of the American society and the American government is severely “off the rails”.

Off the rails - Idiom

In an abnormal or malfunctioning condition, as in Her political campaign has been off the rails for months. The phrase occurs commonly with go, as in Once the superintendent resigned, the effort to reform the school system went off the rails . 

This idiom alludes to the rails on which trains run; if a train goes off the rails, it stops or crashes.

The ONLY way that the government can control the situation is to control the people.

Which is why…

[1] American people and population is being irradiated constantly and covertly with narratives and control algorithms to corral their behaviors. This is non-stop all over America.

[2] Manipulation of Social Media and other avenues are used to herd the people into balkanized enclaves of thought; “echo chambers”.

[3] Vault 7 clearly states that Operating Systems out of the United States are designed to control the minds of those using it.

So if you feel that the world seems to be spinning out of control, and that there is a overriding feeling of dread and terror, perhaps it is the ongoing operation and a side effect for decades of intentional mind control. Rather than it “just being you”.

I can tell you that once I left the United States, and got on board the Air China flight that I felt an absolute calmness and safety. Initially, I believed that it was that I was finally putting that nightmare of the last few decades behind me.

No more prison.
My “retirement” ended.
No more bullshit and reporting nonsense.
No more life as a slave in a gulag.

However, now (in hindsight) it appears that I (along with everyone else) was living inside an irradiated torture chamber, and it was only once I left that I could experience the kinds of freedom and feelings that I grew up with in the 1960’s.

And make no mistake…

…you can absolutely FEEL the calmness once you leave the United States.

And I want to remind everyone that there are options out there; places that DO NOT irradiate you with radiation to control your thoughts, monitor your actions, and arrest you if you get out of line. You have REAL freedom. Not the kind of faux “freedom” that what most Americans suffer though.

The rest of the world is just great. Really, really great.

Do you want more?

I have more posts in my MAJestic Index here…

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Preventing personal starvation

This article is not for everyone. If you are just doing fine and don't think you will ever face losing a source of income or intermittent food supply then you can ignore this article. 

But for 90% of the MM readership, you all should at least read it.

I generated this article after noting that a number of my friends back in the United States, as well as a number of MM participants were having trouble.

Serious, serious trouble.

While not life and death situations, they did involve discomfort. Because people, you have no idea what it is like when you haven’t eaten a decent meal in a few weeks. This is real starvation. And not a good situation to be in.

And so I just cannot post anything else until I get my thoughts “off my chest” and onto MM.

Introduction

One of the things that has happened to me, time and time again in the United States was massive layoffs without notice on or right before the holidays. Last total was around five on Christmas Eve. And because we were living paycheck to paycheck (with no savings), and no secondary sources of income we were often thrown into uncomfortable situations.

Like being out of food, or running out of food, and having to wait weeks (or sometimes months) for the local government agencies to provide us support and assistance.

And being a “white collar” professional, as soon as we obtained food stamps, monetary awards or help, the first thing that we would do is try to replicate our habits. When we would get money, we would go to a fast food restaurant or a local diner.

And when we would get food stamps we treated it as “play money” and bought the more expensive frozen food, and snacks that we normally wouldn’t buy.

These latent responses to a catastrophic situation were not good for us.

But you know, we learned and adapted. And here are some of my tricks to make sure that this kind of situation would never occur again.

Basics

Let’s get started.

[1] The woman is in charge of household finance and meals / food.

This is the first and most important aspect of this entire post. Listen up!

Call me an old fashioned man, or whatever you want. But the most important thing that you can do is put the “woman of the house” in charge of finance, and meals.

She will budget the meals, and the finances, and do a very good job at it.

And the ONLY reason why I did not implement this very simple change earlier in my life because I was far too egotistical, and taken in by the progressive “everyone is equal” beliefs.

Men and women are NOT equal. We each have certain strengths and weaknesses. And women are natural financiers, and managers.

Do not waste that resource.

The most important thing that you can do is put the “woman of the house” in charge of finance, and meals.

If you want to forever prevent this kind of situation from ever happening again, then learn how to delegate.

The woman (whether working in a career or not) should ALWAYS be in charge of the finances and the meals.

Period.

This is the first, biggest and most important change to your life that will really seriously prevent these kinds of emergencies from ever happening ever again.

Oh, and one more thing. Don’t ever disagree with her (his, if there are gender issues) on the allocations. Creating this kind of division of responsibility should be automatic, painless and should be the last thing to contribute to family strife.

[2] An emphasis on healthy food.

The second thing, also of equal importance is that the domestic management must be such that well budgeted meals, both tasty and healthy be emphasized. This will occur automatically (in my experience) but it does need to be spelled out specifically so all will agree to it.

I am advocating, good healthy simple food. With an occasional restaurant visit or special “date” or event to improve your quality of life.

You should be eating healthy delicious meals.

Expensive gourmet chain coffees are out. So is ice cream. This should be dedicated for special events. Not regular meals as dessert. No snacks. Zero Doritos, and potato chips, pretzels, and and fried pork skins.

Zero.

Am I clear on this?

The idea is that you can still have these things, but in moderation and only on special occasions. If you want to have snacks then opt for the far cheaper salted peanuts than a bag of Doritos.

Let’s look at the third element of “the basics”.

[3] Grocery budget must be heavy on staples, fruits, and vegetables.

Oh, you have heard that before.

Right?

But I am going to really underline this point. If you break down the costs for groceries you will find that staples such as rice, potatoes, flour, and eggs are very surprisingly cheap.

You can buy huge bags of the items for very little, and they alone can make very bland and tasteless meals for a long long time. Of which you can convert into very tasty meals with some salt, and some other seasonings.

For instance, in America we used to just eat rice with soy sauce. 

In China they think this is insane. 

Here's a try. Take some soy sauce, olive oil, cooking wine, and vinegar.  Mix it together, add salt and pepper. 

Then cut up tomatoes and onions. 

Mix together with the sauces and eat over the rice. 

Not a gourmet meal, but it tastes fresh, and will not be all that terrible.ANd it will fill you up. Total cost is probably under 10 cents.

Staples of rice, bread, potatoes, and other vegetables can diversify the meals, fill you up, and really do not cost much money.

Vegetables are also very cheap. But you will need to be able to buy them twice a week as they perish easily. Fruit tends to be expensive. I argue that everyone should have some fruit in the house (it helps you shit and aids in digestion) but you don’t need to buy the most expensive fruit. Get whatever is on sale, and cheap. In the Summer like now, peaches are cheap. So is watermelon.

Less than 5% of the weekly grocery budget should go to condiments, and frozen food.

…

Didn’t quite “get it” did you? Let me repeat.

Less than 5% of the weekly grocery budget should go to condiments, and frozen food.

Yah. If you are not following this rule you are setting yourself up for trouble. You as a man, or as a woman have a responsibility to your family and your beloved pets. You need to proved for them. You NEED to manage your grocery shopping.

So let me repeat.

Less than 5% of the weekly grocery budget should go to condiments, and frozen food. The rest goes to staples, vegetables, and fruit (On sale).

[4] Start building a larder

You do not need to be a Prepper or a Mormon to start having a “Larder”. A larder is a long term storage of foodstuff and elements that enable that your family will have food during the ups and downs of economic uncertainty. If you start small, but religiously contribute to it, after six months you should have a very sizable larder that you can use to make good, tasty and delicious meals.

A basement larder full of home canned vegetables and fruits.

A larder should be in the coolest part of your house. Preferably a cellar, basement or garage. It should store staples and cans. You should make sure that you have mouse traps nearby as they tend to attract rodents. If you are doing better, you can add a deep freezer; just make sure that it is new and reliable. Do not skimp and get a used one. All it takes is one breakdown that will ruin your entire stock of frozen supplies.

[5] Know your local resources for food.

You don’t need to go to chain supermarkets for food. You can go to old food warehouses, enormous structures that contain out of date cans and boxes.They sell out of date products. Almost all the canned goods are fine. Boxed goods are hit and miss. Be careful. So what if the cans are dinged. Just makes sure they are not broken.

You can also go to bakery outlets, and look at their end of day specials. You can go to local farmers’ markets and scoot into grocery stores at the end of the day for the best prices.

Better yet talk to the owners and managers. Know them on a personal basis. You might be surprised. I know that Panera Bread gives its end of the day bread out to local organizations and people that need it instead of throwing them away. Just communicate. Build relationships. Contribute to your community. Be local.

If you are uncomfortable going to the wharf, and the fishing vessels yourself, you can access some establishments that do all the leg work for you. Like this one in Panama City, Florida.

The same thing goes for local small farmers and such. You would be amazed at the prices you can get at a local egg farm, or the milk at a diary at the farm. You just need to get up, find out where they are and visit them. Talk to the people. Know them personally. Become a customer, and when times get hard, you might be surprised the help you will get back in return.

[6] Know your emergency services

We are surrounded with Rufus’s. We just are so busy dealing with our day to day lives that we do not realize that there are all sorts of emergency services all around us. Many are in “the Yellow Pages” or whatever constitutes for them on the internet. All are run by Rufus’s. These vary from all sorts of services and can include…

County social services
Private social services
Religious (Catholic, etc.) social services
Food banks
Volunteer organizations
Salvation Army
Animal Shelters

[7] Contribute your skill sets to others

I once had a long time high school friend who suddenly started having really strange cramps and pains. But he was poor, living on the edge of poverty and couldn’t afford a doctor’s visit, and since he worked (and owned a house) he could not qualify for free medical care.

So he asked me what to do, and I reminded him that he used to be the groundskeeper for a local doctor a few towns away.

I told him that what did he have to lose, but to go up and ask him for help.

And you know what? He did exactly that.

Surprised me. No Shit!

Most people never listen to MM. They just want sympathy. Not real help and advice.

But sure as shit he called him up and visited him at his house. The doctor was so happy to see him, and was more than willing to look at him. He did it for free, and then wrote some prescriptions for him. Called them into the pharmacy and paid for them himself.

You never know.

It never, ever hurts to ask.

You might be surprised at the response.

We need to be part of a community and help each other.

Be part of the community. Smile. Be kind and helpful. Contribute what you can. And when you need help, the community will give it back to you.

Valuable skills that you can contribute to society (just connect with any local social service and tell them that you want to offer free support to those in need) include

Medical profession
Machining, metal fabrication
Mechanic work / shop repair
Handyman
Electrician
Plumbing
Translations Services
Teaching

And even more! And if the first social service isn’t interested, just go down the line until you too are hooked into a local community participating and helping those in need nearby.

[8] Local options

I knew a man who gave free gasoline to various social service organizations and vouchers to those in need. I also knew individuals who did this out of their own wallets. I also know that there are large networks of Rufus’s that lie hidden all around you.

What you need to do is start getting out and talking to the people. Go to the fishermen and where they unload their daily catches. You will probably end up with a garbage bag full of fish. Take it home. Freeze most. Cut off the heads and give to your cats. They will forever love you for that.

Offer them a few bucks (dollars) for some fresh fish Put them in a plastic bag and carry them home. Or whatever is local to your area.

My ex-wife would get her car fixed for free by a local “grease monkey” mechanic who had a garage in his backyard. All she would need to do was pay for the parts, and buy him some marijuana from time to time as she could. People work out deals in a community.

In Pennsylvania there were orchard farms full of trees with apples, pears, plums, and nuts. Walnuts, chestnuts, and others. There’s blueberry farms, strawberry farms. Pecan orchards, and many more. There’s catfish farms in the deep south, and shrimp harvesting in the gulf. Shellfish collectors all over the coast, and everything in between.

We need to start thinking like our grandparents instead of adapting our new reality to that of what we have grown accustomed to having.

[9] Soup Kitchens

I have eaten at numerous soup kitchens. The very first one that I went to was located in New Iberia Louisiana, and I was surprised by the great diversity of people there.

Sure there were some “riff raff”, but there were single mothers with children, a group of marines that lost their money in a game of poker and got stranded, some folk laid off and in between jobs, and others dealing with all sorts of issues.

The soup kitchens in most Salvation Army’s hold two meals a day. Lunch and Dinner. Be on time, as they close the doors and don’t let others in after a set period of time.

There is a soup kitchen in just about every American city, and the larger the city the more numbers the kitchens. You must be aware of the operating times. Some only operate between 11:00am and 2:00pm, while others operate at 5:00pm to 6:00pm. You come early and if you are in a distressed neighborhood be safe, careful and come early.

The meals are good, solid fare.

Not just a big tureen of soup as depicted in the movies. But rather a full meal with a main dish, vegetables on the side, bread, a soup, a dessert, and a drink. It’s often cooked by volunteers, who come out and devote their time and energy to make good tasty meals for those in need.

Rufus’s all.

Old and young.

If you are in a situation, maybe between jobs. On unemployment. On food stamps, or just worried about the job situation, you need to seek the local soup kitchen out, and start supplementing your meals.

Once a week at least.

That one meal will expand your home food bank by 1/7 automatically. And it will connect you to others.

Then, maybe… maybe ask if you can volunteer.

You will get a free meal out of it in exchange for work and you will be helping others. It’s a win – win!

[10] Stop eating out American style

Telling that to an American will result in blank stares. But it is true. Same with Starbucks coffee, donuts, and all the rest. We all know about how unhealthy these foods in restaurants actually are, but it’s more than that. They are expensive. And they tear up your body.

I’m in my mid to late 60’s. Do I look my age?

It’s because I haven’t eaten American style fast food in over 15 years. Sure, I have an occasional coffee or a “Subway” or a real hamburger at Burger King, but that is about it. They are rare events.

I eat real food, either in a restaurant or prepared at home.

And I can see the difference in my photographs.

My food is free of GMO’s, hyper-processed ingredients, is almost always fresh and certainly rarely deep fried or heavily salted.

When you are under heavy stress, what you eat makes a big difference in your ability to handle that stress. Eat fresh food, made by a talented loving spouse using real fresh ingredients.

Eat out, but when you do limit it to once a week, and be selective in where you go. Make it memorable.

That means tasty and full of meaningful communication.

[11] Cut out all soda

Growing up in the 1960’s and 1970’s we have become accustomed to eating everything with a soda or a coffee. A coffee is ok, but a soda is not.

I could go into all the reasons why carbonated surgery drinks (regardless of the price) is not good for you, but if you want to break this cycle, then you must break those bad dangerous habits. And soda is one of them.

Compare the prices. A bottle of wine is cheaper than a six pack of soda. Start drinking basic cheap wine with your meals.

Start adding red wine to your meals. Cut down on the beer. I am not saying that you need to get sloshed, but at least one or two glasses with every meal will really spice up the meal, make the time desirable for talking instead of playing on the computer and watching television and help your heart. Sure, a bottle costs the same as a McDonald’s number one meal. But it’s an investment that will pay off.

Oh, and make sure that it is real wine. It need not be expensive, but must be real.

[12] A garden (Long term planning)

Sure you can have a garden. Most American homes have yards. But even if you are in an urban environment, a porch with some tomato plants can make a big difference in your access to fresh vegetables.

I write this in July. Everyone should have a garden producing a steady supply of salads for the dinner table all Summer.

[13] Fruit and nut bearing trees (Really Long term planning)

If you have a yard, you can also have fruit and nut bearing trees. They produce every years, and sure it can be a pain in the ass to harvest, but one tree will give you bales and bales of apples, or sacks and sacks of nuts. Just because your job is secure now does not mean that it will always be secure. And then what are you going to do with all those apples, oranges, bananas, or walnuts? Humm…

A single tree can produce sacks and sacks of walnuts.

[14] Home canning and harvesting (Long term planning)

If you have a garden you can also can your excess. You can make preserves. You can make apple butter. You can make hot vegetable mix. You can make pickles. You can make homemade salsa. You can make and can re-fried beans. You can make all sorts of things, and once you get started you will never be hungry ever again.

Homemade hot mix. Pickled vegetables with hot peppers.

Conclusion

I know many of you will be “rolling your eyes” at my crazy old fashioned ideas and suggestions regarding food and local social services. But please listen to me. I do know what I am talking about.

I just want to put it forth, and posit that in order for us to adapt and survive, we need to be a Rufus. We need to know all the Rufus organizations around us and we need to contribute to the community in whatever means we have. If you are in this situation now, please take heed of my advice, and try to implement some of these suggestions. Not all of them are perfect and ideal for your situation, but you can be rest assured that they will serve to help you during times of need.

Listen to me, not eating for a few weeks really sucks. And if you are in the United States there is absolutely no reason for this to occur.

Stop letting your fears or ideas of what might wait behind that heavy bolted door stop you from stepping inside. Do not let any Hollywood notions of what a Soup Kitchen is stop you from grabbing a healthy meal, and stop listening to the non-stop 24-7 consumer nonsense blasted at you and your family.

Eggs are cheap. Really cheap. Potatoes and onions are cheap. Do you want a good filling meal for under $1 USD?

Try cooking sliced potatoes and onions together with salt and pepper, and then add two eggs, and two (cheapest brand) chicken hotdogs from the freezer. You will be full, you will be fine, and your stomach won’t be growling.

For comparison, one Burger King Meal will equal about eight of these healthier and easy to make meals.

Then start giving back to your community.

After a good six months on this program you will find your health is better, your weight is lower, your stress is down, and you will be part of a community which will greatly improve your life. If you are not good at interacting with people, turn to our spouse…

…you are never alone.

And their (her) abilities in networking and making friends will astound you. My experience has proven this point time and time again.

And remember, everything is temporary.

The bad will end.

But now, if you are in this particular situation, know that this is just the start of some really good things.

It’s a crazy life that we live. Just ride with it. Seek the Rufus’s they are everywhere.

Do you want more?

I have more posts in my Food Index here…

Food

Articles & Links

To go to the MAIN 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.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE .
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If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.

Some gotta win, and some gotta lose

Well, It has been a year, but I finally got my house back from the clutches of some evil fiends that used it, stole it, abused it, and seemingly got away with their crimes. But do not be so sure that what appears on the surface is what actually going on.

Here we are going to use this example to discuss some pretty complex issues. And it know that it is going to upset a few people in the process.

Background

About the background of this particular issue. Let it be well understood that I have discussed this elsewhere on MM, but will recap a summary here.

When the Coronavirus hit China during CNY (Chinese New Year) in 2020, China went DEFCON ONE and locked the entire nation down. It was solid, and all life, business and everything stopped. Cities that had thousands, if not millions of workers emptied out. The workers went home. And they closed their rental agreements in the homes that they were renting out in the cities.

People like MM, here, who own multiple properties suddenly found all of our tenants leaving. Our apartments going empty, and our secondary sources of income dropping to zero.

Well, suddenly we are approached by a large “reputable” company that rents out houses like ours. They are nationwide, enormous in size, and offered to rend our house out within one month at a premium price. Honestly, at the time, we didn’t believe it. It sounded too good to be true. But we figured, what did we have to lose?

And sure enough, two weeks later, we got a tenant who will pay full rent of 7000/month, locked into a one year contract, and would move in as soon as we repainted the interior, bought new furniture, bought a new television, refrigerator and washing machine.

So we signed the contract, and bought the furniture. And they moved in.

But there was something strange. Instead of the 7000/month payment, they only paid 3000. Why was this?

Seems pretty strange huh?

Yes. It did seem strange.

And then one week later the offices didn’t answer our phones calls. The sales representatives all over the nation went silent. And we discovered that the owner and the executives stole billions of RMB, or hundreds of millions of US dollars and went into hiding.

That left us homeowners with unpaid house rent. Renters who are now “deadbeats” living in our homes, and locked into a year contract (or longer. Some up to 3 years.)

Outcome of all this

Well, long story short.

We followed up with legal action that resulted in nothing. The courts ruled in favor of the tenants, and told us to take a lawsuit against the company, which no longer exists, and who’s owners have new identities and living out of the country in luxurious mansions with bodyguards.

We lost, all told perhaps 200,000 which was lost income from rent, and the attorney and filing costs. This is a lot of money from MM, and the entire year of 2020, MM personal lifestyle (personally and family) was severely contracted.

The guy who ran off was killed. Rather quickly. Suddenly and with zero emotion. The assassins even went out and ate noodles afterwards.

And after a terms of the contact, we went people over to open the door to our house and tidy it up so that we can get new tenants…

And this is what we found.

Click on the picture to view the video.

You can download and watch the video HERE, or get a zipped file HERE.

What was the sum total of damage?

These jackasses skipped town, leaving me with sewer, water, electricity,maintenance, security, and management fees that had accrued.

They stole the new television, the new washing machine, and the new coffee table. The new furniture, as you can see are completely destroyed.

The ruins that they left behind and all the junk needs to be hauled off, the damage repaired, and the apartment repainted, and new replacement furniture obtained.

Perhaps 50,000.

Total cost of this fiasco all told?

250,000 RMB

We would have been far better off just locking up the house and not renting it out.

What are my options?

From here what shall I do?

[1] Move on, and forget.

This is what I want to do.

Bad people, base their activity on sensible people moving forward with their lives. They take advantage of this and use it for their own personal gain. 

Sensible people don't want to have anything to do with these bad people. As the more you get involved with them, like a "tar baby", the more shit sticks to you. 

So sensible people just move on with their lives. And bad people keep on being bad.

Not a good thing. But sometimes' it's best to turn a bad thing into an expensive lesson.

[2] Forgive, then forget.

Ah. This is the Christian thing to do.

This is the Christian thing to do, right?

This is also the thing that evil psychopathic personalities, corrupt bureaucracies, and the habitually evil want. they want you to keep on being the victim. They want to hurt others, gain personally, and then be immune from any kinds of retribution, payback, karma or consequences.

Forgiveness appears to be the "right" thing to do. 

However, evil people rely on it to continue their malevolent actions, and those that forgive get entangled (in a quantum sense) so that more bad actions are attracted to them personally.

Not a good thing.

The Christian thing is to forgive the bad people, and then pretend that it never happened.

[3] Pay the money to hunt them down and hurt them.

This is a real option available to me.

I can have the entire family killed for 33,000 RMB. But is it worth it?

Or, alternatively, I can go after them myself. It might seem that I might save some money, but it will actually cost more in the long run, distract from my life, and really be a pain in the ass to do.

Not a good thing.

But you know, it's just money. It's only things. It could have been a lot worse. And by being on this world-line path that has this kind of event instead of nuclear war, I'd take this world-line over it any day.

So keep in mind that this is the real world. Not Hollywood. You don't just off some bad evil people because they busted up your house. It's not worth my time, my money, my thoughts, and my efforts.

Phooey! On this option.

[4] Use my MM abilities to send them to the cornfield

This is a pain in the ass to do, but it will achieve my goals.

I suppose that all consciousnesses are neutral and good. But many have actions that don't really seem to indicate this. 

Would any "teaching" efforts on my part prevent them from hurting others? 

Would it help them learn from personal consequences? 

Is it my role, even though they entered my life, is it MY ROLE to teach them anything?

By doing and taking the action to actually "send them to the cornfield", it will entangle me further with their vile nature... unless I take specific actions to prevent that kind of entanglement.

Sometimes you have to do things that you do not want to do.

And what I am actually going to do…

I just want [1] the bad people to stay away from us, but also [2] do not want them to hurt others. So which of the four actions listed above will accomplish this goal?

What do you think?

…

Yup.

They are going to the cornfield.

I hope that the butt spanking will be sufficient to prevent their evil, vile and destructive behaviors from affecting anyone else. And maybe, just maybe they will start to contribute to society instead of being a big drain on it.

It is done.

Sometimes you must do what you do not want to do.

And I am sorry for busting up your illusions on MM being a good, kind gentle soul. Sometimes you have to put a rabid dog down. And someone has to pick up the gun and do it. As distasteful as it is.

And I guess it's me simply because there is no one else willing and available to handle this distasteful matter.

I am just the last one in a long, line of others that either [1] looked the other way, or [2] forgave and forgot. 

And because no one else had the strength to put the crazed rabid dog down, it arrived on my door-step.

And now, it's up to me. The ball has dropped. And I am the one picking it up.

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Law 33 – Discover each mans thumbscrew (full text) from the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

This is the complete full text of law #33 titled “Discover each man’s thumbscrew” which is found in the book by Robert Greene titled “The 48 Laws of Power”.

LAW 33

DISCOVER EACH MAN’S THUMBSCREW

JUDGMENT

Everyone has a weakness, a gap in the castle wall. That weakness is usually an insecurity, an uncontrollable emotion or need; it can also be a small secret pleasure. Either way, once found, it is a thumbscrew you can turn to your advantage.

FINDING THE THUMBSCREW: A Strategic Plan of Action

We all have resistances. We live with a perpetual armor around ourselves to defend against change and the intrusive actions of friends and rivals. We would like nothing more than to be left to do things our own way. Constantly butting up against these resistances will cost you a lot of energy. One of the most important things to realize about people, though, is that they all have a weakness, some part of their psychological armor that will not resist, that will bend to your will if you find it and push on it. Some people wear their weaknesses openly, others disguise them. Those who disguise them are often the ones most effectively undone through that one chink in their armor.

THE LION. THE CHAMOIS. AND THE FOX

A lion was chasing a chamois along a valley.

He had all but caught it, and with longing eyes was anticipating a certain and a satisfying repast.

It seemed as if it were utterly impossible for the victim to escape; for a deep ravine appeared to bar the way for both the hunter and the hunted.

But the nimble chamois, gathering together all its strength, shot like an arrow from a bow across the chasm, and stood still on the rocky cliff on the other side.

Our lion pulled up short.

But at that moment a friend of his happened to be near at hand. That friend was the fox. “What!” said he, “with your strength and agility, is it possible that you will yield to a feeble chamois?

You have only to will, and you will be able to work wonders.

Though the abyss be deep, yet, if you are only in earnest, I am certain you will clear it.

Surely you can confide in my disinterested friendship.

I would not expose your life to danger if I were not so well aware of your strength and dexterity. ”

The lion’s blood waxed hot, and began to boil in his veins.

He flung himself with all his might into space.

But he could not clear the chasm; so down he tumbled headlong, and was killed by the fall.

Then what did his dear friend do?

He cautiously made his way down to the bottom of the ravine. and there, out in the open space and the free air, seeing that the lion wanted neither flattery nor obedience now, he set to work to pay the last sad rites to his dead friend, and in a month picked his bones clean.

FABLES, IVAN KRILOFF, 1768-1844

In planning your assault, keep these principles in mind:

Pay Attention to Gestures and Unconscious Signals. As Sigmund Freud remarked, “No mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.” This is a critical concept in the search for a person’s weakness—it is revealed by seemingly unimportant gestures and passing words.

The key is not only what you look for but where and how you look. Everyday conversation supplies the richest mine of weaknesses, so train yourself to listen. Start by always seeming interested—the appearance of a sympathetic ear will spur anyone to talk. A clever trick, often used by the nineteenth-century French statesman Talleyrand, is to appear to open up to the other person, to share a secret with them. It can be completely made up, or it can be real but of no great importance to you—the important thing is that it should seem to come from the heart. This will usually elicit a response that is not only as frank as yours but more genuine—a response that reveals a weakness.

If you suspect that someone has a particular soft spot, probe for it indirectly. If, for instance, you sense that a man has a need to be loved, openly flatter him. If he laps up your compliments, no matter how obvious, you are on the right track. Train your eye for details—how someone tips a waiter, what delights a person, the hidden messages in clothes. Find people’s idols, the things they worship and will do anything to get—perhaps you can be the supplier of their fantasies. Remember: Since we all try to hide our weaknesses, there is little to be learned from our conscious behavior. What oozes out in the little things outside our conscious control is what you want to know.

Find the Helpless Child. Most weaknesses begin in childhood, before the self builds up compensatory defenses. Perhaps the child was pampered or indulged in a particular area, or perhaps a certain emotional need went unfulfilled; as he or she grows older, the indulgence or the deficiency may be buried but never disappears. Knowing about a childhood need gives you a powerful key to a person’s weakness.

One sign of this weakness is that when you touch on it the person will often act like a child. Be on the lookout, then, for any behavior that should have been outgrown. If your victims or rivals went without something important, such as parental support, when they were children, supply it, or its facsimile. If they reveal a secret taste, a hidden indulgence, indulge it. In either case they will be unable to resist you.

Look for Contrasts. An overt trait often conceals its opposite. People who thump their chests are often big cowards; a prudish exterior may hide a lascivious soul; the uptight are often screaming for adventure; the shy are dying for attention. By probing beyond appearances, you will often find people’s weaknesses in the opposite of the qualities they reveal to you.

Find the Weak Link. Sometimes in your search for weaknesses it is not what but who that matters. In today’s versions of the court, there is often someone behind the scenes who has a great deal of power, a tremendous influence over the person superficially on top. These behind-the-scenes powerbrokers are the group’s weak link: Win their favor and you indirectly influence the king. Alternatively, even in a group of people acting with the appearance of one will—as when a group under attack closes ranks to resist an outsider—there is always a weak link in the chain. Find the one person who will bend under pressure.

Fill the Void. The two main emotional voids to fill are insecurity and unhappiness. The insecure are suckers for any kind of social validation; as for the chronically unhappy, look for the roots of their unhappiness. The insecure and the unhappy are the people least able to disguise their weaknesses. The ability to fill their emotional voids is a great source of power, and an indefinitely prolongable one.

Feed on Uncontrollable Emotions. The uncontrollable emotion can be a paranoid fear—a fear disproportionate to the situation—or any base motive such as lust, greed, vanity, or hatred. People in the grip of these emotions often cannot control themselves, and you can do the controlling for them.

IRING IZAR

[Hollywood super-agent] Irving Paul Lazar was once anxious to sell [studio mogul] Jack L. Warner a play. 

“I had a long meeting with him today,” Lazar explained [to screenwriter Garson Kanin], “but I didn’t mention it, I didn’t even bring it up.” 

“Why not?” I asked. 

“Because I’m going to wait until the weekend after next, when I go to Palm Springs.” 

“I don’t understand.” 

“You don’t? I go to Palm Springs every weekend, but Warner isn’t going this weekend. He’s got a preview or something. So he’s not coming down till the next weekend, so that’s when I’m going to bring it up. ” 

“Irving, I’m more and more confused.” 

“Look,” said Irving impatiently, ”I know what I’m doing. I know how to sell Warner. This is a type of material that he’s uneasy with, so I have to hit him with it hard and suddenly to get an okay.” 

”But why Palm Springs?” 

”Because in Palm Springs, every day he goes to the baths at The Spa. And that’s where I’m going to be when he’s there. Now there’s a thing about Jack: He’s eighty and he’s very vain, and he doesn’t like people to see him naked. So when I walk up to him naked at The Spa—I mean he’s naked—well, I’m naked too, but I don’t care who sees me. He does. And I walk up to him naked, and I start to talk to him about this thing, he’ll be very embarrassed.And he’ll want to get away from me, and the easiest way is to say ‘Yes,’ because he knows if he says ‘No,’ then I’m going to stick with him, and stay right on it, and not give up. So to get rid of me, he’ll probably say, ‘Yes.’” 

Two weeks later, I read of the acquisition of this particular property by Warner Brothers. I phoned Lazar and asked how it had been accomplished. 

”How do you think?” he asked. 

”In the buff, that’s how... just the way I told you it was going to work.”

HOLLYWOOD, GARSON KANIN, 1974

OBSERVANCES OF THE LAW

Observance I

In 1615 the thirty-year-old bishop of Luçon, later known as Cardinal Richelieu, gave a speech before representatives of the three estates of France—clergy, nobility, and commoners.

Richelieu had been chosen to serve as the mouthpiece for the clergy—an immense responsibility for a man still young and not particularly well known.

On all of the important issues of the day, the speech followed the Church line.

But near the end of it Richelieu did something that had nothing to do with the Church and everything to do with his career.

He turned to the throne of the fifteen-year-old King Louis XIII, and to the Queen Mother Marie de’ Médicis, who sat beside Louis, as the regent ruling France until her son reached his majority.

Everyone expected Richelieu to say the usual kind words to the young king.

Instead, however, he looked directly at and only at the queen mother.

Indeed his speech ended in long and fulsome praise of her, praise so glowing that it actually offended some in the Church.

But the smile on the queen’s face as she lapped up Richelieu’s compliments was unforgettable.

A year later the queen mother appointed Richelieu secretary of state for foreign affairs, an incredible coup for the young bishop.

He had now entered the inner circle of power, and he studied the workings of the court as if it were the machinery of a watch.

An Italian, Concino Concini, was the queen mother’s favorite, or rather her lover, a role that made him perhaps the most powerful man in France.

Concini was vain and foppish, and Richelieu played him perfectly—attending to him as if he were the king.

Within months Richelieu had become one of Concini’s favorites.

But something happened in 1617 that turned everything upside down: the young king, who up until then had shown every sign of being an idiot, had Concini murdered and his most important associates imprisoned.

In so doing Louis took command of the country with one blow, sweeping the queen mother aside.

Had Richelieu played it wrong?

He had been close to both Concini and Marie de Médicis, whose advisers and ministers were now all out of favor, some even arrested.

The queen mother herself was shut up in the Louvre, a virtual prisoner.

Richelieu wasted no time.

If everyone was deserting Marie de Médicis, he would stand by her.

He knew Louis could not get rid of her, for the king was still very young, and had in any case always been inordinately attached to her.

As Marie’s only remaining powerful friend, Richelieu filled the valuable function of liaison between the king and his mother.

In return he received her protection, and was able to survive the palace coup, even to thrive.

Over the next few years the queen mother grew still more dependent on him, and in 1622 she repaid him for his loyalty: Through the intercession of her allies in Rome, Richelieu was elevated to the powerful rank of cardinal.

By 1623 King Louis was in trouble.

He had no one he could trust to advise him, and although he was now a young man instead of a boy, he remained childish in spirit, and affairs of state came hard to him.

Now that he had taken the throne, Marie was no longer the regent and theoretically had no power, but she still had her son’s ear, and she kept telling him that Richelieu was his only possible savior.

At first Louis would have none of it—he hated the cardinal with a passion, only tolerating him out of love for Marie.

In the end, however, isolated in the court and crippled by his own indecisiveness, he yielded to his mother and made Richelieu first his chief councilor and later prime minister.

Now Richelieu no longer needed Marie de Médicis.

He stopped visiting and courting her, stopped listening to her opinions, even argued with her and opposed her wishes.

Instead he concentrated on the king, making himself indispensable to his new master.

All the previous premiers, understanding the king’s childishness, had tried to keep him out of trouble; the shrewd Richelieu played him differently, deliberately pushing him into one ambitious project after another, such as a crusade against the Huguenots and finally an extended war with Spain.

The immensity of these projects only made the king more dependent on his powerful premier, the only man able to keep order in the realm.

And so, for the next eighteen years, Richelieu, exploiting the king’s weaknesses, governed and molded France according to his own vision, unifying the country and making it a strong European power for centuries to come.

Interpretation

Richelieu saw everything as a military campaign, and no strategic move was more important to him than discovering his enemy’s weaknesses and applying pressure to them.

As early as his speech in 1615, he was looking for the weak link in the chain of power, and he saw that it was the queen mother.

Not that Marie was obviously weak—she governed both France and her son; but Richelieu saw that she was really an insecure woman who needed constant masculine attention.

He showered her with affection and respect, even toadying up to her favorite, Concini.

He knew the day would come when the king would take over, but he also recognized that Louis loved his mother dearly and would always remain a child in relation to her.

The way to control Louis, then, was not by gaining his favor, which could change overnight, but by gaining sway over his mother, for whom his affection would never change.

Once Richelieu had the position he desired—prime minister—he discarded the queen mother, moving on to the next weak link in the chain: the king’s own character.

There was a part of him that would always be a helpless child in need of higher authority.

It was on the foundation of the king’s weakness that Richelieu established his own power and fame.

Remember: When entering the court, find the weak link. The person in control is often not the king or queen; it is someone behind the scenes—the favorite, the husband or wife, even the court fool. This person may have more weaknesses than the king himself, because his power depends on all kinds of capricious factors outside his control.

Finally, when dealing with helpless children who cannot make decisions, play on their weakness and push them into bold ventures. They will have to depend on you even more, for you will become the adult figure whom they rely on to get them out of scrapes and to safety.

THE THINGS ON

As time went on I came to look for the little weaknesses....

It’s the little things that count.

On one occasion, I worked on the president of a large bank in Omaha. The [phony] deal involved the purchase of the street railway system of Omaha, including a bridge across the Mississippi River.

My principals were supposedly German and I had to negotiate with Berlin.

While awaiting word from them I introduced my fake mining-stock proposition.

Since this man was rich, I decided to play for high stakes....

Meanwhile, I played golf with the banker, visited his home, and went to the theater with him and his wife.

Though he showed some interest in my stock deal, he still wasn’t convinced.

I had built it up to the point that an investment of $1,250,000 was required.

Of this I was to put up $900,000, the banker $350,000.

But still he hesitated.

One evening when I was at his home for dinner I wore some perfume-Coty’s “April Violets.”

It was not then considered effeminate for a man to use a dash of perfume.

The banker’s wife thought it very lovely.

“Where did you get it?”

“It is a rare blend,” I told her, “especially made for me by a French perfumer. Do you like it?”

”l love it,” she replied.

The following day I went through my effects and found two empty bottles.

Both had come from France, but were empty.

I went to a downtown department store and purchased ten ounces of Coty’s ”April Violets.”

I poured this into the two French bottles, carefully sealed them, wrapped them in tissue paper.

That evening I dropped by the banker’s home and presented the two bottles to his wife.

”They were especially put up for me in Cologne,” I told her.

The next day the banker called at my hotel.

His wife was enraptured by the perfume.

She considered it the most wonderful, the most exotic fragrance she had ever used.

I did not tell the banker he could get all he wanted right in Omaha.

”She said,” the banker added, ”that I was fortunate to be associated with a man like you.”

From then on his attitude was changed, for he had complete faith in his wife’s judgment .... He parted with $350,000.

This, incidentally was my biggest [con] score.

-“YELLOW KID” WEIL, 1875-1976

Observance II

In December of 1925, guests at the swankiest hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, watched with interest as a mysterious man arrived in a Rolls-Royce driven by a Japanese chauffeur.

Over the next few days they studied this handsome man, who walked with an elegant cane, received telegrams at all hours, and only engaged in the briefest of conversations.

He was a count, they heard, Count Victor Lustig, and he came from one of the wealthiest families in Europe—but this was all they could find out.

Imagine their amazement, then, when Lustig one day walked up to one of the least distinguished guests in the hotel, a Mr. Herman Loller, head of an engineering company, and entered into conversation with him.

Loller had made his fortune only recently, and forging social connections was very important to him.

He felt honored and somewhat intimidated by this sophisticated man, who spoke perfect English with a hint of a foreign accent.

Over the days to come, the two became friends.

Loller of course did most of the talking, and one night he confessed that his business was doing poorly, with more troubles ahead.

In return, Lustig confided in his new friend that he too had serious money problems—Communists had seized his family estate and all its assets.

He was too old to learn a trade and go to work.

Luckily he had found an answer—“ a money-making machine.”

“You counterfeit?”

Loller whispered in half-shock.

No, Lustig replied, explaining that through a secret chemical process, his machine could duplicate any paper currency with complete accuracy.

Put in a dollar bill and six hours later you had two, both perfect.

He proceeded to explain how the machine had been smuggled out of Europe, how the Germans had developed it to undermine the British, how it had supported the count for several years, and on and on.

When Loller insisted on a demonstration, the two men went to Lustig’s room, where the count produced a magnificent mahogany box fitted with slots, cranks, and dials.

Loller watched as Lustig inserted a dollar bill in the box. Sure enough, early the following morning Lustig pulled out two bills, still wet from the chemicals.

Lustig gave the notes to Loller, who immediately took the bills to a local bank—which accepted them as genuine.

Now the businessman feverishly begged Lustig to sell him a machine.

The count explained that there was only one in existence, so Loller made him a high offer: $25,000, then a considerable amount (more than $400,000 in today’s terms).

Even so, Lustig seemed reluctant: He did not feel right about making his friend pay so much.

Yet finally he agreed to the sale.

After all, he said,

“I suppose it matters little what you pay me. You are, after all, going to recover the amount within a few days by duplicating your own bills.”

Making Loller swear never to reveal the machine’s existence to other people, Lustig accepted the money.

Later the same day he checked out of the hotel.

A year later, after many futile attempts at duplicating bills, Loller finally went to the police with the story of how Count Lustig had conned him with a pair of dollar bills, some chemicals, and a worthless mahogany box.

Interpretation

Count Lustig had an eagle eye for other people’s weaknesses.

He saw them in the smallest gesture.

Loller, for instance, overtipped waiters, seemed nervous in conversation with the concierge, talked loudly about his business.

His weakness, Lustig knew, was his need for social validation and for the respect that he thought his wealth had earned him.

He was also chronically insecure.

Lustig had come to the hotel to hunt for prey.

In Loller he homed in on the perfect sucker—a man hungering for someone to fill his psychic voids.

In offering Loller his friendship, then, Lustig knew he was offering him the immediate respect of the other guests.

As a count, Lustig was also offering the newly rich businessman access to the glittering world of old wealth.

And for the coup de grace, he apparently owned a machine that would rescue Loller from his worries.

It would even put him on a par with Lustig himself, who had also used the machine to maintain his status.

No wonder Loller took the bait.

Remember: When searching for suckers, always look for the dissatisfied, the unhappy, the insecure. Such people are riddled with weaknesses and have needs that you can fill. Their neediness is the groove in which you place your thumbnail and turn them at will.

Observance III

In the year 1559, the French king Henri II died in a jousting exhibition.

His son assumed the throne, becoming Francis II, but in the background stood Henri’s wife and queen, Catherine de’ Médicis, a woman who had long ago proven her skill in affairs of state.

When Francis died the next year, Catherine took control of the country as regent to her next son in line of succession, the future Charles IX, a mere ten years old at the time.

The main threats to the queen’s power were Antoine de Bourbon, king of Navarre, and his brother, Louis, the powerful prince of Condé, both of whom could claim the right to serve as regent instead of Catherine, who, after all, was Italian—a foreigner.

Catherine quickly appointed Antoine lieutenant general of the kingdom, a title that seemed to satisfy his ambition.

It also meant that he had to remain in court, where Catherine could keep an eye on him.

Her next move proved smarter still: Antoine had a notorious weakness for young women, so she assigned one of her most attractive maids of honor, Louise de Rouet, to seduce him.

Now Antoine’s intimate, Louise reported all of his actions to Catherine.

The move worked so brilliantly that Catherine assigned another of her maids to Prince Condé, and thus was formed her escadron volant—“flying squadron”—of young girls whom she used to keep the unsuspecting males in the court under her control.

In 1572 Catherine married off her daughter, Marguerite de Valois, to Henri, the son of Antoine and the new king of Navarre.

To put a family that had always struggled against her so close to power was a dangerous move, so to make sure of Henri’s loyalty she unleashed on him the loveliest member of her “flying squadron,” Charlotte de Beaune Semblançay, baroness of Sauves.

Catherine did this even though Henri was married to her daughter.

Within weeks, Marguerite de Valois wrote in her memoirs,

“Mme. de Sauves so completely ensnared my husband that we no longer slept together, nor even conversed.”

And while I am on the subject, there is another fact that deserves mention. It is this. A man shows his character just in the way in which he deals with trifles-for then he is off his guard.

This will often afford a good opportunity of observing the boundless egoism of a man’s nature, and his total lack of consideration for others; and if these defects show themselves in small things, or merely in his general demeanor, you will find that they also underlie his action in matters of importance, although he may disguise the fact.

This is an opportunity which should not be missed.

If in the little affairs of every day—the trifles of life...—a man is inconsiderate and seeks only what is advantageous or convenient to himself, to the prejudice of others’ rights; if he appropriates to himself that which belongs to all alike, you may be sure there is no justice in his heart, and that he would be a scoundrel on a wholesale scale, only that law and compulsion bind his hands.

-Arthur SCHOPENHAUER, 1788-1860

The baroness was an excellent spy and helped to keep Henri under Catherine’s thumb.

When the queen’s youngest son, the Duke of Alençon, grew so close to Henri that she feared the two might plot against her, she assigned the baroness to him as well.

This most infamous member of the flying squadron quickly seduced Alençon, and soon the two young men fought over her and their friendship quickly ended, along with any danger of a conspiracy.

Interpretation

Catherine had seen very early on the sway that a mistress has over a man of power: Her own husband, Henri II, had kept one of the most infamous mistresses of them all, Diane de Poitiers.

What Catherine learned from the experience was that a man like her husband wanted to feel he could win a woman over without having to rely on his status, which he had inherited rather than earned.

And such a need contained a huge blind spot: As long as the woman began the affair by acting as if she had been conquered, the man would fail to notice that as time passed the mistress had come to hold power over him, as Diane de Poitiers did over Henri.

It was Catherine’s strategy to turn this weakness to her advantage, using it as a way to conquer and control men.

All she had to do was unleash the loveliest women in the court, her “flying squadron,” on men whom she knew shared her husband’s vulnerability.

Remember: Always look for passions and obsessions that cannot be controlled. The stronger the passion, the more vulnerable the person.

This may seem surprising, for passionate people look strong.

In fact, however, they are simply filling the stage with their theatricality, distracting people from how weak and helpless they really are.

A man’s need to conquer women actually reveals a tremendous helplessness that has made suckers out of them for thousands of years.

Look at the part of a person that is most visible—their greed, their lust, their intense fear.

These are the emotions they cannot conceal, and over which they have the least control.

And what people cannot control, you can control for them.

THE BATTLE AT PHARSALIA

When the two armies [Julius Caesar’s and Pompey‘s] were come into Pharsalia, and both encamped there, Pompey’s thoughts ran the same way as they had done before, against fighting....

But those who were about him were greatly confident of success ...

...as if they had already conquered....

The cavalry especially were obstinate for fighting, being splendidly armed and bravely mounted, and valuing themselves upon the fine horses they kept, and upon their own handsome persons; as also upon the advantage of their numbers, for they were five thousand against one thousand of Caesar’s.

Nor were the numbers of the infantry less disproportionate, there being forty-five thousand of Pompey’s against twenty-two thousand of the enemy.

[The next day] whilst the infantry was thus sharply engaged in the main battle, on the flank Pompey’s horse rode up confidently, and opened [his cavalry’s] ranks very wide, that they might surround the right wing of Caesar.

But before they engaged, Caesar’s cohorts rushed out and attacked them, and did not dart their javelins at a distance, nor strike at the thighs and legs, as they usually did in close battle, but aimed at their faces.

For thus Caesar had instructed them, in hopes that young gentlemen, who had not known much of battles and wounds, but came wearing their hair long, in the flower of their age and height of their beauty, would be more apprehensive of such blows, and not care for hazarding both a danger at present and a blemish for the future.

And so it proved, for they were so far from bearing the stroke of the javelins, that they could not stand the sight of them, but turned about, and covered their faces to secure them.

Once in disorder, presently they turned about to fly; and so most shamefully ruined all.

For those who had beat them back at once outflanked the infantry, and falling on their rear, cut them to pieces.

Pompey, who commanded the other wing of the army, when he saw his cavalry thus broken and flying, was no longer himself, nor did he now remember that he was Pompey the Great, but, like one whom some god had deprived of his senses, retired to his tent without speaking a word, and there sat to expect the event, till the whole army was routed.

-THE LIFE OF JULIUS CAESAR. PLUIARCH, c. A.D. 46-120

Observance IV

Arabella Huntington, wife of the great late-nineteenth-century railroad magnate Collis P. Huntington, came from humble origins and always struggled for social recognition among her wealthy peers.

When she gave a party in her San Francisco mansion, few of the social elite would show up; most of them took her for a gold digger, not their kind.

Because of her husband’s fabulous wealth, art dealers courted her, but with such condescension they obviously saw her as an upstart.

Only one man of consequence treated her differently: the dealer Joseph Duveen.

For the first few years of Duveen’s relationship with Arabella, he made no effort to sell expensive art to her.

Instead he accompanied her to fine stores, chatted endlessly about queens and princesses he knew, on and on.

At last, she thought, a man who treated her as an equal, even a superior, in high society.

Meanwhile, if Duveen did not try to sell art to her, he did subtly educate her in his aesthetic ideas—namely, that the best art was the most expensive art.

And after Arabella had soaked up his way of seeing things, Duveen would act as if she always had exquisite taste, even though before she met him her aesthetics had been abysmal.

When Collis Huntington died, in 1900, Arabella came into a fortune.

She suddenly started to buy expensive paintings, by Rembrandt and Velázquez, for example—and only from Duveen.

Years later Duveen sold her Gainsborough’s Blue Boy for the highest price ever paid for a work of art at the time, an astounding purchase for a family that previously had shown little interest in collecting.

Interpretation

Joseph Duveen instantly understood Arabella Huntington and what made her tick: She wanted to feel important, at home in society.

Intensely insecure about her lower-class background, she needed confirmation of her new social status.

Duveen waited. Instead of rushing into trying to persuade her to collect art, he subtly went to work on her weaknesses.

He made her feel that she deserved his attention not because she was the wife of one of the wealthiest men in the world but because of her own special character—and this completely melted her.

Duveen never condescended to Arabella; rather than lecturing to her, he instilled his ideas in her indirectly.

The result was one of his best and most devoted clients, and also the sale of The Blue Boy.

People’s need for validation and recognition, their need to feel important, is the best kind of weakness to exploit.

First, it is almost universal; second, exploiting it is so very easy.

All you have to do is find ways to make people feel better about their taste, their social standing, their intelligence.

Once the fish are hooked, you can reel them in again and again, for years—you are filling a positive role, giving them what they cannot get on their own.

They may never suspect that you are turning them like a thumbscrew, and if they do they may not care, because you are making them feel better about themselves, and that is worth any price.

Observance V

In 1862 King William of Prussia named Otto von Bismarck premier and minister for foreign affairs.

Bismarck was known for his boldness, his ambition—and his interest in strengthening the military.

Since William was surrounded by liberals in his government and cabinet, politicians who already wanted to limit his powers, it was quite dangerous for him to put Bismarck in this sensitive position.

His wife, Queen Augusta, had tried to dissuade him, but although she usually got her way with him, this time William stuck to his guns.

Only a week after becoming prime minister, Bismarck made an impromptu speech to a few dozen ministers to convince them of the need to enlarge the army.

He ended by saying, “The great questions of the time will be decided, not by speeches and resolutions of majorities, but by iron and blood.”

His speech was immediately disseminated throughout Germany.

The queen screamed at her husband that Bismarck was a barbaric militarist who was out to usurp control of Prussia, and that William had to fire him.

The liberals in the government agreed with her.

The outcry was so vehement that William began to be afraid he would end up on a scaffold, like Louis XVI of France, if he kept Bismarck on as prime minister.

Bismarck knew he had to get to the king before it was too late.

He also knew he had blundered, and should have tempered his fiery words.

Yet as he contemplated his strategy, he decided not to apologize but to do the exact opposite.

Bismarck knew the king well.

When the two men met, William, predictably, had been worked into a tizzy by the queen.

He reiterated his fear of being guillotined.

But Bismarck only replied,

“Yes, then we shall be dead! We must die sooner or later, and could there be a more respectable way of dying? I should die fighting for the cause of my king and master. Your Majesty would die sealing with your own blood your royal rights granted by God’s grace. Whether upon the scaffold or upon the battlefield makes no difference to the glorious staking of body and life on behalf of rights granted by God’s grace!”

On he went, appealing to William’s sense of honor and the majesty of his position as head of the army.

How could the king allow people to push him around?

Wasn’t the honor of Germany more important than quibbling over words?

Not only did the prime minister convince the king to stand up to both his wife and his parliament, he persuaded him to build up the army—Bismarck’s goal all along.

Interpretation

Bismarck knew the king felt bullied by those around him.

He knew that William had a military background and a deep sense of honor, and that he felt ashamed at his cravenness before his wife and his government.

William secretly yearned to be a great and mighty king, but he dared not express this ambition because he was afraid of ending up like Louis XVI.

Where a show of courage often conceals a man’s timidity, William’s timidity concealed his need to show courage and thump his chest.

Bismarck sensed the longing for glory beneath William’s pacifist front, so he played to the king’s insecurity about his manhood, finally pushing him into three wars and the creation of a German empire.

Timidity is a potent weakness to exploit. Timid souls often yearn to be their opposite—to be Napoleons. Yet they lack the inner strength.

You, in essence, can become their Napoleon, pushing them into bold actions that serve your needs while also making them dependent on you.

Remember: Look to the opposites and never take appearances at face value.

Image: The
Thumbscrew.
Your enemy
has secrets that
he guards, thinks
thoughts he will
not reveal. But
they come out in
ways he cannot
help. It is there some
where, a groove of
weakness on his head,
at his heart, over his
belly. Once you find the
groove, put your thumb in
it and turn him at will.

Authority: Find out each man’s thumbscrew.

’Tis the art of setting their wills in action. It needs more skill than resolution. You must know where to get at anyone. Every volition has a special motive which varies according to taste. All men are idolaters, some of fame, others of self-interest, most of pleasure. Skill consists in knowing these idols in order to bring them into play. Knowing any man’s mainspring of motive you have as it were the key to his will. 

(Baltasar Gracián, 1601-1658)

REVERSAL

Playing on people’s weakness has one significant danger: You may stir up an action you cannot control.

In your games of power you always look several steps ahead and plan accordingly. And you exploit the fact that other people are more emotional and incapable of such foresight.

But when you play on their vulnerabilities, the areas over which they have least control, you can unleash emotions that will upset your plans. Push timid people into bold action and they may go too far; answer their need for attention or recognition and they may need more than you want to give them.

The helpless, childish element you are playing on can turn against you.

The more emotional the weakness, the greater the potential danger. Know the limits to this game, then, and never get carried away by your control over your victims. You are after power, not the thrill of control.

Conclusion

I just cannot help but wonder if the American neocons are playing President Biden using this Thumbscrew technique to force Biden to approve of outlandish military actions that run counter to his decades of behavior within the Untied States government. It’s something to ponder.

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Life & Happiness

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A comparison of news articles from America and China

I have a premise that you can gauge the relative health of a nation by looking at what it is being promoted as “news” day in, and day out. While there are elements of information, promotion, propaganda, and scandal, over all by comparing the two sources you can get a general idea of the “social climate” in each individual nation. And from this, you can gauge it’s overall health and the direction of the society.

America

Here’s the “news” from Drudge on 29APR21…

Any articles about China are highlighted in Red.

China

Here’s the news from CGTN on 29APR21…

Chinese articles about America are shown in blue.

Comparisons

There are many comparisons that one can make.

For starters, in the articles about the “other” nation, it is very interesting.

American “news” warns about the bad things about China.
Chinese news reports on the given situations inside of America.

Most of the other news discusses the events that “buy papers”, or in other words, that are of interest to the readership.

Today, a huge segment of media has been taken over by video. While article about certain subjects continue to sell, a huge percentage of media rely on videos to get their messages across. In fact, all “news” organizations have video elements as part of their articles.

I’d post some from America, but almost all of the videos come from organizations that are banned in China because they are associated with American “alphabet” agencies.

Here’s some from China…

Videos.

In regards to videos, China is all about the latest technologies, the new space station and well, you get the idea…

This is very cool. 5G, AI controlled location and positioning overlay upon the arm…

Here, we have the new space station…

Here’s a pretty girl. She has this “fish shape” that is considered to be very beautiful within China.

Here’s another gal. This is another girl that is selling her light and easy pants. I like her. She has good appeal.

Of course the news about what is going on in India with the COVID-19 and the new “India Strain” is heartbreaking. Judging from the pictures it seems to be almost as bad as the “B” strain that was unleashed on China on CNY 2020. I wonder why you aren’t seeing these images in America?

And here’s one thing that you see pretty irregularly. It’s applications of technology that are in use. In this case we see a guy using a hand sensor to map out an old village that is being torn down for new homes.

And finally a comparison of cities for fun.

Conclusions

If left alone, with no major “fire-hose of disinformation” drenching everyone with the propaganda of the day, Most media are the same. They concentrate on the things that interest their readership.

Obviously, the hate-China narrative from 2016 through 2020 had an impact.

Chinese readership want to know about technology, good things, and what’s going on in the world. More or less presented in a “neutral” fashion and manner. American readership seems to want (whether they want it or not) things that are alarming, salacious, interesting, fearful or worrisome.

America…

The “news” from America tend to fall into these kinds of categories…

Salacious
Scientists say space SEX will be challenging...

Worrisome
India virus surge breaks health system... Developing...

Fearful
Your tech devices want to read your brain. What could go wrong? 

Alarming
Virus Alters Genes, Explaining Mystery Behind 'Long Haulers'...

And China…

While the news content and the presentation of it are quite different…

Exciting
China launches core module of space station 

Happy
Infrared cameras recorded the growth of a family-of-3 snow leopards 

New Possibilities
Xi: No one would be left behind on the way to poverty alleviation 

Curiosities
Watch traditional Tibetan costumes in 30 seconds

I believe that these trends are indicative of the way that the people think. As well as how the entire society thinks.

Perhaps instead of thinking about controlling people to do this, or to do that via fear (the American way), maybe you should give them hope instead. Provide hope, provide help and throw in a dash of compassion.

Its the Chinese way.

And a direction, that I must add, that President Biden is attempting to do in his most recent speech. It’s a nice change of pace from what most Americans have seen or been exposed to.

Maybe there is some hope for Western society after all.

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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

Articles & Links

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Law 3 of the 48 laws of power by Robert Greene; Conceal your Intentions

Here we are going to look at Law #3 from the Robert Green book “The 48 Laws of Power”. This law discusses the principle of concealing your intentions from others.

LAW 3

CONCEAL YOUR INTENTIONS

JUDGMENT

Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelop them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late.

PART I: USE DECOYED OBJECTS OF DESIRE AND RED HERRINGS TO THROW PEOPLE OFF THE SCENT

If at any point in the deception you practice people have the slightest suspicion as to your intentions, all is lost. Do not give them the chance to sense what you are up to: Throw them off the scent by dragging red herrings across the path. Use false sincerity, send ambiguous signals, set up misleading objects of desire. Unable to distinguish the genuine from the false, they cannot pick out your real goal.

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

Over several weeks, Ninon de Lenclos, the most infamous courtesan of seventeenth-century France, listened patiently as the Marquis de Sevigné explained his struggles in pursuing a beautiful but difficult young countess. Ninon was sixty-two at the time, and more than experienced in matters of love; the marquis was a lad of twenty-two, handsome, dashing, but hopelessly inexperienced in romance. At first Ninon was amused to hear the marquis talk about his mistakes, but finally she had had enough. Unable to bear ineptitude in any realm, least of all in seducing a woman, she decided to take the young man under her wing. First, he had to understand that this was war, and that the beautiful countess was a citadel to which he had to lay siege as carefully as any general. Every step had to be planned and executed with the utmost attention to detail and nuance.

Instructing the marquis to start over, Ninon told him to approach the countess with a bit of distance, an air of nonchalance. The next time the two were alone together, she said, he would confide in the countess as would a friend but not a potential lover. This was to throw her off the scent. The countess was no longer to take his interest in her for granted—perhaps he was only interested in friendship.

Ninon planned ahead. Once the countess was confused, it would be time to make her jealous. At the next encounter, at a major fête in Paris, the marquis would show up with a beautiful young woman at his side. This beautiful young woman had equally beautiful friends, so that wherever the countess would now see the marquis, he would be surrounded by the most stunning young women in Paris. Not only would the countess be seething with jealousy, she would come to see the marquis as someone who was desired by others. It was hard for Ninon to make the marquis understand, but she patiently explained that a woman who is interested in a man wants to see that other women are interested in him, too. Not only does that give him instant value, it makes it all the more satisfying to snatch him from their clutches.

Once the countess was jealous but intrigued, it would be time to beguile her. On Ninon’s instructions, the marquis would fail to show up at affairs where the countess expected to see him. Then, suddenly, he would appear at salons he had never frequented before, but that the countess attended often. She would be unable to predict his moves. All of this would push her into the state of emotional confusion that is a prerequisite for successful seduction.

These moves were executed, and took several weeks. Ninon monitored the marquis’s progress: Through her network of spies, she heard how the countess would laugh a little harder at his witticisms, listen more closely to his stories. She heard that the countess was suddenly asking questions about him. Her friends told her that at social affairs the countess would often look up at the marquis, following his steps. Ninon felt certain that the young woman was falling under his spell. It was a matter of weeks now, maybe a month or two, but if all went smoothly, the citadel would fall.

A few days later the marquis was at the countess’s home. They were alone. Suddenly he was a different man: This time acting on his own impulse, rather than following Ninon’s instructions, he took the countess’s hands and told her he was in love with her. The young woman seemed confused, a reaction he did not expect. She became polite, then excused herself. For the rest of the evening she avoided his eyes, was not there to say good-night to him. The next few times he visited he was told she was not at home. When she finally admitted him again, the two felt awkward and uncomfortable with each other. The spell was broken.

Interpretation

Ninon de Lenclos knew everything about the art of love. The greatest writ ers, thinkers, and politicians of the time had been her lovers—men like La Rochefoucauld, Molière, and Richelieu. Seduction was a game to her, to be practiced with skill. As she got older, and her reputation grew, the most important families in France would send their sons to her to be instructed in matters of love.

Ninon knew that men and women are very different, but when it comes to seduction they feel the same: Deep down inside, they often sense when they are being seduced, but they give in because they enjoy the feeling of being led along. It is a pleasure to let go, and to allow the other person to detour you into a strange country. Everything in seduction, however, depends on suggestion. You cannot announce your intentions or reveal them directly in words. Instead you must throw your targets off the scent. To surrender to your guidance they must be appropriately confused. You have to scramble your signals—appear interested in another man or woman (the decoy), then hint at being interested in the target, then feign indifference, on and on.

Such patterns not only confuse, they excite.

Imagine this story from the countess’s perspective: After a few of the marquis’s moves, she sensed the marquis was playing some sort of game, but the game delighted her. She did not know where he was leading her, but so much the better. His moves intrigued her, each of them keeping her waiting for the next one—she even enjoyed her jealousy and confusion, for sometimes any emotion is better than the boredom of security. Perhaps the marquis had ulterior motives; most men do. But she was willing to wait and see, and probably if she had been made to wait long enough, what he was up to would not have mattered.

The moment the marquis uttered that fatal word “love,” however, all was changed. This was no longer a game with moves, it was an artless show of passion. His intention was revealed: He was seducing her. This put everything he had done in a new light. All that before had been charming now seemed ugly and conniving; the countess felt embarrassed and used. A door closed that would never open again.

Do not be held a cheat, even though it is impossible to live today without being one.

Let your greatest cunning lie in covering up what looks like cunning.

-Ballasar Gracián, 1601-1658

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

In 1850 the young Otto von Bismarck, then a thirty-five-year-old deputy in the Prussian parliament, was at a turning point in his career. The issues of the day were the unification of the many states (including Prussia) into which Germany was then divided, and a war against Austria, the powerful neighbor to the south that hoped to keep the Germans weak and at odds, even threatening to intervene if they tried to unite. Prince William, next in line to be Prussia’s king, was in favor of going to war, and the parliament rallied to the cause, prepared to back any mobilization of troops. The only ones to oppose war were the present king, Frederick William IV, and his ministers, who preferred to appease the powerful Austrians.

Throughout his career, Bismarck had been a loyal, even passionate supporter of Prussian might and power. He dreamed of German unification, of going to war against Austria and humiliating the country that for so long had kept Germany divided. A former soldier, he saw warfare as a glorious business.

This, after all, was the man who years later would say, “The great questions of the time will be decided, not by speeches and resolutions, but by iron and blood.”

Passionate patriot and lover of military glory, Bismarck nevertheless

gave a speech in parliament at the height of the war fever that astonished all who heard it. “Woe unto the statesman,” he said, “who makes war without a reason that will still be valid when the war is over! After the war, you will all look differently at these questions. Will you then have the courage to

turn to the peasant contemplating the ashes of his farm, to the man who has been crippled, to the father who has lost his children?” Not only did Bismarck go on to talk of the madness of this war, but, strangest of all, he praised Austria and defended her actions. This went against everything he had stood for. The consequences were immediate. Bismarck was against the war—what could this possibly mean? Other deputies were confused, and several of them changed their votes. Eventually the king and his ministers won out, and war was averted.

A few weeks after Bismarck’s infamous speech, the king, grateful that he had spoken for peace, made him a cabinet minister. A few years later he became the Prussian premier. In this role he eventually led his country and a peace-loving king into a war against Austria, crushing the former empire and establishing a mighty German state, with Prussia at its head.

Interpretation

At the time of his speech in 1850, Bismarck made several calculations. First, he sensed that the Prussian military, which had not kept pace with other European armies, was unready for war—that Austria, in fact, might very well win, a disastrous result for the future. Second, if the war were lost and Bismarck had supported it, his career would be gravely jeopardized. The king and his conservative ministers wanted peace; Bismarck wanted power. The answer was to throw people off the scent by supporting a cause he detested, saying things he would laugh at if said by another. A whole country was fooled. It was because of Bismarck’s speech that the king made him a minister, a position from which he quickly rose to be prime minister, attaining the power to strengthen the Prussian military and accomplish what he had wanted all along: the humiliation of Austria and the unification of Germany under Prussia’s leadership.

Bismarck was certainly one of the cleverest statesman who ever lived, a master of strategy and deception. No one suspected what he was up to in this case. Had he announced his real intentions, arguing that it was better to wait now and fight later, he would not have won the argument, since most Prussians wanted war at that moment and mistakenly believed that their army was superior to the Austrians. Had he played up to the king, asking to be made a minister in exchange for supporting peace, he would not have succeeded either: The king would have distrusted his ambition and doubted his sincerity.

By being completely insincere and sending misleading signals, however, he deceived everyone, concealed his purpose, and attained everything he wanted. Such is the power of hiding your intentions.

KEYS TO POWER

Most people are open books. They say what they feel, blurt out their opinions at every opportunity, and constantly reveal their plans and intentions. They do this for several reasons. First, it is easy and natural to always want to talk about one’s feelings and plans for the future. It takes effort to control your tongue and monitor what you reveal. Second, many believe that by being honest and open they are winning people’s hearts and showing their good nature.They are greatly deluded. Honesty is actually a blunt instrument, which bloodies more than it cuts. Your honesty is likely to offend people; it is much more prudent to tailor your words, telling people what they want to hear rather than the coarse and ugly truth of what you feel or think. More important, by being unabashedly open you make yourself so predictable and familiar that it is almost impossible to respect or fear you, and power will not accrue to a person who cannot inspire such emotions.

If you yearn for power, quickly lay honesty aside, and train yourself in the art of concealing your intentions. Master the art and you will always have the upper hand. Basic to an ability to conceal one’s intentions is a simple truth about human nature: Our first instinct is to always trust appearances. We cannot go around doubting the reality of what we see and hear—constantly imagining that appearances concealed something else would exhaust and terrify us. This fact makes it relatively easy to conceal one’s intentions. Simply dangle an object you seem to desire, a goal you seem to aim for, in front of people’s eyes and they will take the appearance for reality. Once their eyes focus on the decoy, they will fail to notice what you are really up to. In seduction, set up conflicting signals, such as desire and indifference, and you not only throw them off the scent, you inflame their desire to possess you.

A tactic that is often effective in setting up a red herring is to appear to support an idea or cause that is actually contrary to your own sentiments. (Bismarck used this to great effect in his speech in 1850.) Most people will believe you have experienced a change of heart, since it is so unusual to play so lightly with something as emotional as one’s opinions and values. The same applies for any decoyed object of desire: Seem to want something in which you are actually not at all interested and your enemies will be thrown off the scent, making all kinds of errors in their calculations.

During the War of the Spanish Succession in 1711, the Duke of Marlborough, head of the English army, wanted to destroy a key French fort, because it protected a vital thoroughfare into France. Yet he knew that if he destroyed it, the French would realize what he wanted—to advance down that road. Instead, then, he merely captured the fort, and garrisoned it with some of his troops, making it appear as if he wanted it for some purpose of his own. The French attacked the fort and the duke let them recapture it. Once they had it back, though, they destroyed it, figuring that the duke had wanted it for some important reason. Now that the fort was gone, the road was unprotected, and Marlborough could easily march into France.

Use this tactic in the following manner: Hide your intentions not by closing up (with the risk of appearing secretive, and making people suspicious) but by talking endlessly about your desires and goals—just not your real ones. You will kill three birds with one stone: You appear friendly, open, and trusting; you conceal your intentions; and you send your rivals on time-consuming wild-goose chases.

Another powerful tool in throwing people off the scent is false sincerity. People easily mistake sincerity for honesty. Remember—their first instinct is to trust appearances, and since they value honesty and want to believe in the honesty of those around them, they will rarely doubt you or see through your act. Seeming to believe what you say gives your words great weight. This is how Iago deceived and destroyed Othello: Given the depth of his emotions, the apparent sincerity of his concerns about Desde mona’s supposed infidelity, how could Othello distrust him? This is also how the great con artist Yellow Kid Weil pulled the wool over suckers’ eyes: Seeming to believe so deeply in the decoyed object he was dangling in front of them (a phony stock, a touted racehorse), he made its reality hard to doubt. It is important, of course, not to go too far in this area. Sincerity is a tricky tool: Appear over passionate and you raise suspicions. Be measured and believable or your ruse will seem the put-on that it is.

To make your false sincerity an effective weapon in concealing your intentions, espouse a belief in honesty and forthrightness as important social values. Do this as publicly as possible. Emphasize your position on this subject by occasionally divulging some heartfelt thought—though only one that is actually meaningless or irrelevant, of course. Napoleon’s minister Talleyrand was a master at taking people into his confidence by revealing some apparent secret. This feigned confidence—a decoy—would then elicit a real confidence on the other person’s part.

Remember: The best deceivers do everything they can to cloak their roguish qualities. They cultivate an air of honesty in one area to disguise their dishonesty in others. Honesty is merely another decoy in their arsenal of weapons.

PART II: USE SMOKE SCREENS TO DISGUISE YOUR ACTIONS

Deception is always the best strategy, but the best deceptions require a screen of smoke to distract people attention from your real purpose. The bland exterior—like the unreadable poker face—is often the perfect smoke screen, hiding your intentions behind the comfortable and familiar. If you lead the sucker down a familiar path, he won’t catch on when you lead him into a trap.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW I

In 1910, a Mr. Sam Geezil of Chicago sold his warehouse business for close to $1 million. He settled down to semi-retirement and the managing of his many properties, but deep inside he itched for the old days of deal-making. One day a young man named Joseph Weil visited his office, wanting to buy an apartment he had up for sale. Geezil explained the terms: The price was $8,000, but he only required a down payment of $2,000. Weil said he would sleep on it, but he came back the following day and offered to pay the full $8,000 in cash, if Geezil could wait a couple of days, until a deal Weil was working on came through. Even in semi-retirement, a clever businessman like Geezil was curious as to how Weil would be able to come up with so much cash (roughly $150,000 today) so quickly. Weil seemed reluctant to say, and quickly changed the subject, but Geezil was persistent. Finally, after assurances of confidentiality, Weil told Geezil the following story.

THE KING OF ISRAEL IGNS WORSHIP OF THE

Then Jehu assembled all the people, and said to them, “Ahab served Ba‘al a little; but Jehu will serve him much more. Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Ba’al, all his worshippers and all his priests; let none be missing, for I have a great sacrifice to offer to Ba‘al; whoever is missing shall not live.” But Jehu did it with cunning in order to destroy the worshippers of Ba’al. And Jehu ordered, “Sanctify a solemn assembly for Ba‘al. ”So they proclaimed it. And Jehu sent throughout all Israel; and all the worshippers of Ba’al came, so that there was not a man left who did not come. And they entered the house of Ba‘al, and the house of Ba’al was filled from one end to the other.... Then Jehu went into the house of Ba‘al ... and he said to the worshippers of Ba’al, “Search, and see that there is no servant of the LORD here among you, but only the worshippers of Ba‘al.“Then he went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside, and said, ”The man who allows any of those whom I give into your hands to escape shall forfeit his life.“ So as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the officers, ”Go in and slay them; let not a man escape. ” So when they put them to the sword, the guard and the officers cast them out and went into the inner room of the house of Ba’al and they brought out the pillar that was in the house of Ba‘al and burned it. And they demolished the pillar of Ba’al and demolished the house of Ba‘al, and made it a latrine to this day. Thus Jehu wiped out Ba’al from Israel.

-OLD TESTAMENT, 2 KINGS 10:18-28

Weil’s uncle was the secretary to a coterie of multimillionaire financiers. These wealthy gentlemen had purchased a hunting lodge in Michigan ten years ago, at a cheap price. They had not used the lodge for a few years, so they had decided to sell it and had asked Weil’s uncle to get whatever he could for it. For reasons—good reasons—of his own, the uncle had been nursing a grudge against the millionaires for years; this was his chance to get back at them. He would sell the property for $35,000 to a set up man (whom it was Weil’s job to find). The financiers were too wealthy to worry about this low price. The set-up man would then turn around and sell the property again for its real price, around $155,000. The uncle, Weil, and the third man would split the profits from this second sale. It was all legal and for a good cause—the uncle’s just retribution.

Geezil had heard enough: He wanted to be the set-up buyer. Weil was reluctant to involve him, but Geezil would not back down: The idea of a large profit, plus a little adventure, had him champing at the bit. Weil explained that Geezil would have to put up the $35,000 in cash to bring the deal off. Geezil, a millionaire, said he could get the money with a snap of his fingers. Weil finally relented and agreed to arrange a meeting between the uncle, Geezil, and the financiers, in the town of Galesburg, Illinois.

On the train ride to Galesburg, Geezil met the uncle—an impressive man, with whom he avidly discussed business. Weil also brought along a companion, a somewhat paunchy man named George Gross. Weil explained to Geezil that he himself was a boxing trainer, that Gross was one of the promising prizefighters he trained, and that he had asked Gross to come along to make sure the fighter stayed in shape. For a promising fighter, Gross was unimpressive looking—he had gray hair and a beer belly—but Geezil was so excited about the deal that he didn’t really think about the man’s flabby appearance.

Once in Galesburg, Weil and his uncle went to fetch the financiers while Geezil waited in a hotel room with Gross, who promptly put on his boxing trunks. As Geezil half watched, Gross began to shadowbox. Distracted as he was, Geezil ignored how badly the boxer wheezed after a few minutes of exercise, although his style seemed real enough. An hour later, Weil and his uncle reappeared with the financiers, an impressive, intimidating group of men, all wearing fancy suits. The meeting went well and the financiers agreed to sell the lodge to Geezil, who had already had the $35,000 wired to a local bank.

This minor business now settled, the financiers sat back in their chairs and began to banter about high finance, throwing out the name “J. P. Morgan” as if they knew the man. Finally one of them noticed the boxer in the corner of the room. Weil explained what he was doing there. The financier countered that he too had a boxer in his entourage, whom he named. Weil laughed brazenly and exclaimed that his man could easily knock out their man. Conversation escalated into argument. In the heat of passion, Weil challenged the men to a bet. The financiers eagerly agreed and left to get their man ready for a fight the next day.

As soon as they had left, the uncle yelled at Weil, right in front of Geezil; They did not have enough money to bet with, and once the financiers discovered this, the uncle would be fired. Weil apologized for getting him in this mess, but he had a plan: He knew the other boxer well, and with a little

bribe, they could fix the fight. But where would the money come from for the bet? the uncle replied. Without it they were as good as dead. Finally Geezil had heard enough. Unwilling to jeopardize his deal with any ill will, he offered his own $35,000 cash for part of the bet. Even if he lost that, he would wire for more money and still make a profit on the sale of the lodge. The uncle and nephew thanked him. With their own $15,000 and Geezil’s $35,000 they would manage to have enough for the bet. That evening, as Geezil watched the two boxers rehearse the fix in the hotel room, his mind reeled at the killing he was going to make from both the boxing match and the sale of the lodge.

The fight took place in a gym the next day. Weil handled the cash, which was placed for security in a locked box. Everything was proceeding as planned in the hotel room. The financiers were looking glum at how badly their fighter was doing, and Geezil was dreaming about the easy money he was about to make. Then, suddenly, a wild swing by the financier’s fighter hit Gross hard in the face, knocking him down. When he hit the canvas, blood spurted from his mouth. He coughed, then lay still. One of the financiers, a former doctor, checked his pulse; he was dead. The millionaires panicked: Everyone had to get out before the police arrived- they could all be charged with murder.

Terrified, Geezil hightailed it out of the gym and back to Chicago, leaving behind his $35,000 which he was only too glad to forget, for it seemed a small price to pay to avoid being implicated in a crime. He never wanted to see Weil or any of the others again.

After Geezil scurried out, Gross stood up, under his own steam. The blood that had spurted from his mouth came from a ball filled with chicken blood and hot water that he had hidden in his cheek. The whole affair had been masterminded by Weil, better known as “the Yellow Kid,” one of the most creative con artists in history. Weil split the $35,000 with the financiers and the boxers (all fellow con artists)—a nice little profit for a few days’ work.

SN BROAD

This means to create a front that eventually becomes imbued with an atmosphere or impression of familiarity, within which the strategist may maneuver unseen while all eyes are trained to see obvious familiarities. “THE THIRTY-SIX STRATEGIES.” QUOTED IN THF JAPANESE ART OF WAR.

-THOMAS CLEARY, 1991

Interpretation

The Yellow Kid had staked out Geezil as the perfect sucker long before he set up the con. He knew the boxing-match scam would be the perfect ruse to separate Geezil from his money quickly and definitively. But he also knew that if he had begun by trying to interest Geezil in the boxing match, he would have failed miserably. He had to conceal his intentions and switch attention, create a smoke screen—in this case the sale of the lodge.

On the train ride and in the hotel room Geezil’s mind had been completely occupied with the pending deal, the easy money, the chance to hobnob with wealthy men. He had failed to notice that Gross was out of shape and middle-aged at best. Such is the distracting power of a smoke screen. Engrossed in the business deal, Geezil’s attention was easily diverted to the boxing match, but only at a point when it was already too late for him to notice the details that would have given Gross away. The match, after all, now depended on a bribe rather than on the boxer’s physical condition. And Geezil was so distracted at the end by the illusion of the boxer’s death that he completely forgot about his money.

Learn from the Yellow Kid: The familiar, inconspicuous front is the perfect smoke screen. Approach your mark with an idea that seems ordinary enough—a business deal, financial intrigue. The sucker’s mind is distracted, his suspicions allayed. That is when you gently guide him onto the second path, the slippery slope down which he slides helplessly into your trap.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW II

In the mid-1920s, the powerful warlords of Ethiopia were coming to the realization that a young man of the nobility named Haile Selassie, also known as Ras Tafari, was outcompeting them all and nearing the point where he could proclaim himself their leader, unifying the country for the first time in decades. Most of his rivals could not understand how this wispy, quiet, mild-mannered man had been able to take control. Yet in 1927, Selassie was able to summon the warlords, one at a time, to come to Addis Ababa to declare their loyalty and recognize him as leader.

Some hurried, some hesitated, but only one, Dejazmach Balcha of Sidamo, dared defy Selassie totally. A blustery man, Balcha was a great warrior, and he considered the new leader weak and unworthy. He pointedly stayed away from the capital. Finally Selassie, in his gentle but stem way, commanded Balcha to come. The warlord decided to obey, but in doing so he would turn the tables on this pretender to the Ethiopian throne: He would come to Addis Ababa at his own speed, and with an army of 10,000 men, a force large enough to defend himself, perhaps even start a civil war. Stationing this formidable force in a valley three miles from the capital, he waited, as a king would. Selassie would have to come to him.

Selassie did indeed send emissaries, asking Balcha to attend an afternoon banquet in his honor. But Balcha, no fool, knew history—he knew that previous kings and lords of Ethiopia had used banquets as a trap. Once he was there and full of drink, Selassie would have him arrested or murdered. To signal his understanding of the situation, he agreed to come to the banquet, but only if he could bring his personal bodyguard—600 of his best soldiers, all armed and ready to defend him and themselves. To Balcha’s surprise, Selassie answered with the utmost politeness that he would be honored to play host to such warriors.

On the way to the banquet, Balcha warned his soldiers not to get drunk and to be on their guard. When they arrived at the palace, Selassie was his charming best. He deferred to Balcha, treated him as if he desperately needed his approval and cooperation. But Balcha refused to be charmed, and he warned Selassie that if he did not return to his camp by nightfall, his army had orders to attack the capital. Selassie reacted as if hurt by his mistrust. Over the meal, when it came time for the traditional singing of songs in honor of Ethiopia’s leaders, he made a point of allowing only songs honoring the warlord of Sidamo. It seemed to Balcha that Selassie was scared, intimidated by this great warrior who could not be outwitted.

Sensing the change, Balcha believed that he would be the one to call the shots in the days to come.

At the end of the afternoon, Balcha and his soldiers began their march back to camp amidst cheers and gun salutes. Looking back to the capital over his shoulder, he planned his strategy—how his own soldiers would march through the capital in triumph within weeks, and Selassie would be put in his place, his place being either prison or death. When Balcha came in sight of his camp, however, he saw that something was terribly wrong. Where before there had been colorful tents stretching as far as the eye could see, now there was nothing, only smoke from doused fires. What devil’s magic was this?

A witness told Balcha what had happened. During the banquet, a large army, commanded by an ally of Selassie’s, had stolen up on Balcha’s encampment by a side route he had not seen. This army had not come to fight, however: Knowing that Balcha would have heard a noisy battle and hurried back with his 600-man bodyguard, Selassie had armed his own troops with baskets of gold and cash. They had surrounded Balcha’s army and proceeded to purchase every last one of their weapons. Those who refused were easily intimidated. Within a few hours, Balcha’s entire force had been disarmed and scattered in all directions.

Realizing his danger, Balcha decided to march south with his 600 soldiers to regroup, but the same army that had disarmed his soldiers blocked his way. The other way out was to march on the capital, but Selassie had set a large army to defend it. Like a chess player, he had predicted Balcha’s moves, and had checkmated him. For the first time in his life, Balcha surrendered. To repent his sins of pride and ambition, he agreed to enter a monastery.

Interpretation

Throughout Selassie’s long reign, no one could quite figure him out. Ethiopians like their leaders fierce, but Selassie, who wore the front of a gentle, peace-loving man, lasted longer than any of them. Never angry or impatient, he lured his victims with sweet smiles, lulling them with charm and obsequiousness before he attacked. In the case of Balcha, Selassie played on the man’s wariness, his suspicion that the banquet was a trap— which in fact it was, but not the one he expected. Selassie’s way of allaying Balcha’s fears—letting him bring his bodyguard to the banquet, giving him top billing there, making him feel in control—created a thick smoke screen, concealing the real action three miles away.

Remember: The paranoid and wary are often the easiest to deceive. Win their trust in one area and you have a smoke screen that blinds their view in another, letting you creep up and level them with a devastating blow. A helpful or apparently honest gesture, or one that implies the other person’s superiority—these are perfect diversionary devices.

Properly set up, the smoke screen is a weapon of great power. It enabled the gentle Selassie to totally destroy his enemy, without firing a single bullet.

Do not underestimate the power of Tafari. He creeps like a mouse but he has jaws like a lion. 

-Bacha of Sidamo’s last worlds before entering the monastery

KEYS TO POWER

If you believe that deceivers are colorful folk who mislead with elaborate lies and tall tales, you are greatly mistaken. The best deceivers utilize a bland and inconspicuous front that calls no attention to themselves. They know that extravagant words and gestures immediately raise suspicion. Instead, they envelop their mark in the familiar, the banal, the harmless. In Yellow Kid Weil’s dealings with Sam Geezil, the familiar was a business deal. In the Ethiopian case, it was Selassie’s misleading obsequiousness— exactly what Balcha would have expected from a weaker warlord.

Once you have lulled your suckers’ attention with the familiar, they will not notice the deception being perpetrated behind their backs. This derives from a simple truth: people can only focus on one thing at a time. It is really too difficult for them to imagine that the bland and harmless person they are dealing with is simultaneously setting up something else. The grayer and more uniform the smoke in your smoke screen, the better it conceals your intentions. In the decoy and red herring devices discussed in Part I, you actively distract people; in the smoke screen, you lull your victims, drawing them into your web. Because it is so hypnotic, this is often the best way of concealing your intentions.

The simplest form of smoke screen is facial expression. Behind a bland, unreadable exterior, all sorts of mayhem can be planned, without detection. This is a weapon that the most powerful men in history have learned to perfect. It was said that no one could read Franklin D. Roosevelt’s face. Baron James Rothschild made a lifelong practice of disguising his real thoughts behind bland smiles and nondescript looks. Stendhal wrote of Talleyrand, “Never was a face less of a barometer.” Henry Kissinger would bore his opponents around the negotiating table to tears with his monotonous voice, his blank look, his endless recitations of details; then, as their eyes glazed over, he would suddenly hit them with a list of bold terms. Caught off-guard, they would be easily intimidated. As one poker manual explains it, “While playing his hand, the good player is seldom an actor. Instead he practices a bland behavior that minimizes readable patterns, frustrates and confuses opponents, permits greater concentration.”

An adaptable concept, the smoke screen can be practiced on a number of levels, all playing on the psychological principles of distraction and misdirection. One of the most effective smoke screens is the noble gesture. People want to believe apparently noble gestures are genuine, for the belief is pleasant. They rarely notice how deceptive these gestures can be.

The art dealer Joseph Duveen was once confronted with a terrible problem. The millionaires who had paid so dearly for Duveen’s paintings were running out of wall space, and with inheritance taxes getting ever higher, it seemed unlikely that they would keep buying. The solution was the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., which Duveen helped create in 1937 by getting Andrew Mellon to donate his collection to it. The National Gallery was the perfect front for Duveen. In one gesture, his clients avoided taxes, cleared wall space for new purchases, and reduced the number of paintings on the market, maintaining the upward pressure on their prices. All this while the donors created the appearance of being public benefactors.

Another effective smoke screen is the pattern, the establishment of a series of actions that seduce the victim into believing you will continue in the same way. The pattern plays on the psychology of anticipation: Our behavior conforms to patterns, or so we like to think.

In 1878 the American robber baron Jay Gould created a company that began to threaten the monopoly of the telegraph company Western Union. The directors of Western Union decided to buy Gould’s company up— they had to spend a hefty sum, but they figured they had managed to rid themselves of an irritating competitor. A few months later, though, Gould was it at again, complaining he had been treated unfairly. He started up a second company to compete with Western Union and its new acquisition. The same thing happened again: Western Union bought him out to shut him up. Soon the pattern began for the third time, but now Gould went for the jugular: He suddenly staged a bloody takeover struggle and managed to gain complete control of Western Union. He had established a pattern that had tricked the company’s directors into thinking his goal was to be bought out at a handsome rate. Once they paid him off, they relaxed and failed to notice that he was actually playing for higher stakes. The pattern is powerful in that it deceives the other person into expecting the opposite of what you are really doing.

Another psychological weakness on which to construct a smoke screen is the tendency to mistake appearances for reality—the feeling that if someone seems to belong to your group, their belonging must be real. This habit makes the seamless blend a very effective front. The trick is simple: You simply blend in with those around you. The better you blend, the less suspicious you become. During the Cold War of the 1950s and ’60s, as is now notorious, a slew of British civil servants passed secrets to the Soviets. They went undetected for years because they were apparently decent chaps, had gone to all the right schools, and fit the old-boy network perfectly. Blending in is the perfect smoke screen for spying. The better you do it, the better you can conceal your intentions.

Remember: It takes patience and humility to dull your brilliant colors, to put on the mask of the inconspicuous. Do not despair at having to wear such a bland mask—it is often your unreadability that draws people to you and makes you appear a person of power.

Image: A Sheep’s Skin. A sheep never marauds, a sheep never deceives, a sheep is magnificently dumb and docile. With a sheepskin on his back, a fox can pass right into the chicken coop.

Authority: Have you ever heard of a skillful general, who intends to surprise a citadel, announcing his plan to his enemy? Conceal your purpose and hide your progress; do not disclose the extent of your designs until they cannot be opposed, until the combat is over. Win the victory before you declare the war. In a word, imitate those warlike people whose designs are not known except by the ravaged country through which they have passed. (Ninon de Lenclos, 1623-1706)

REVERSAL

No smoke screen, red herring, false sincerity, or any other diversionary device will succeed in concealing your intentions if you already have an established reputation for deception. And as you get older and achieve success, it often becomes increasingly difficult to disguise your cunning. Everyone knows you practice deception; persist in playing naive and you run the risk of seeming the rankest hypocrite, which will severely limit your room to maneuver. In such cases it is better to own up, to appear the honest rogue, or, better, the repentant rogue. Not only will you be admired for your frankness, but, most wonderful and strange of all, you will be able to continue your stratagems.

As P. T. Barnum, the nineteenth-century king of humbuggery, grew older, he learned to embrace his reputation as a grand deceiver. At one point he organized a buffalo hunt in New Jersey, complete with Indians and a few imported buffalo. He publicized the hunt as genuine, but it came off as so completely fake that the crowd, instead of getting angry and asking for their money back, was greatly amused. They knew Barnum pulled tricks all the time; that was the secret of his success, and they loved him for it. Learning a lesson from this affair, Barnum stopped concealing all of his devices, even revealing his deceptions in a tell-all autobiography. As Kierkegaard wrote, “The world wants to be deceived.”

Finally, although it is wiser to divert attention from your purposes by presenting a bland, familiar exterior, there are times when the colorful, conspicuous gesture is the right diversionary tactic. The great charlatan mountebanks of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe used humor and entertainment to deceive their audiences. Dazzled by a great show, the public would not notice the charlatans’ real intentions. Thus the star charlatan himself would appear in town in a night-black coach drawn by black horses. Clowns, tightrope walkers, and star entertainers would accompany him, pulling people in to his demonstrations of elixirs and quack potions. The charlatan made entertainment seem like the business of the day; the business of the day was actually the sale of the elixirs and quack potions.

Spectacle and entertainment, clearly, are excellent devices to conceal your intentions, but they cannot be used indefinitely.

The public grows tired and suspicious, and eventually catches on to the trick. And indeed the charlatans had to move quickly from town to town, before word spread that the potions were useless and the entertainment a trick. Powerful people with bland exteriors, on the other hand—the Talleyrands, the Rothschilds, the Selassies—can practice their deceptions in the same place throughout their lifetimes. Their act never wears thin, and rarely causes suspicion. The colorful smoke screen should be used cautiously, then, and only when the occasion is right.

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Law 32 (full text) Play to peoples fantasies from the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

Or, in other words, tell people what they want to hear.

Indeed, the greatest and most effective propaganda is that which we WANT to believe.

Which pretty much explains the United States anti-China propaganda spewing forth today from the Trump / Pompeo administration…

America is great. China is a shit-hole.
America can invent. China only copies.
America has freedom. China is enslaved.
America is a shining city on a hill. China is a filthy wet market.

And when you go to another nation, if you say… “well, we do things better than you do.” And “you don’t know how to do things right“. If you constantly make fun of their laws, their food, their styles or the way they do business…

You will not be liked. You will be classified as the “Ugly American” and shunned.

But…

Politics aside, this applies everywhere.

Consider dating websites like match.com. The most popular profiles are those that do not say too much. That instead provide some areas open to interpretation, where the interested person would be able to “fill in the blanks” and make assumptions as to whom you are and what is so desirable about you.

The key is always to play upon people’s desires…

LAW 32

PLAY TO PEOPLE’S FANTASIES

JUDGMENT

The truth is often avoided because it is ugly and unpleasant.

Never appeal to truth and reality unless you are prepared for the anger that comes from disenchantment.

Life is so harsh and distressing that people who can manufacture romance or conjure up fantasy are like oases in the desert: Everyone flocks to them.

There is great power in tapping into the fantasies of the masses.

THE FUNERAL OF THE LIONESS

The lion having suddenly lost his queen, every one hastened to show allegiance to the monarch, by offering consolation.

These compliments, alas, served but to increase the widower’s affliction.

Due notice was given throughout the kingdom that the funeral would be performed at a certain time and place; the lion’s officers were ordered to be in attendance, to regulate the ceremony, and place the company according to their respective rank.

One may well judge no one absented himself.

The monarch gave way to his grief, and the whole cave, lions having no other temples, resounded with his cries. After his example, all the courtiers roared in their different tones.

A court is the sort of place where everyone is either sorrowful, gay, or indifferent to everything, just as the reigning prince may think fit; or if any one is not actually, he at least tries to appear so; each endeavors to mimic the master.

It is truly said that one mind animates a thousand bodies, clearly showing that human beings are mere machines.

But let us return to our subject.

The stag alone shed no tears.

How could he, forsooth?

The death of the queen avenged him; she had formerly strangled his wife and son. A courtier thought fit to inform the bereaved monarch, and even affirmed that he had seen the stag laugh.

The rage of a king, says Solomon, is terrible, and especially that of a lion-king.

“Pitiful forester!” he exclaimed, “darest thou laugh when all around are dissolved in tears? We will not soil our royal claws with thy profane blood! Do thou, brave wolf, avenge our queen, by immolating this traitor to her august manes. ”

Hereupon the stag replied:

“Sire, the time for weeping is passed; grief is here superfluous. Your revered spouse appeared to me but now, reposing on a bed of roses; I instantly recognized her. ‘Friend,’ said she to me, ‘have done with this funereal pomp, cease these useless tears. I have tasted a thousand delights in the Elysian fields, conversing with those who are saints like myself. Let the king’s despair remain for some time unchecked, it gratifies me.’”

Scarcely had he spoken, when every one shouted: “A miracle! a miracle!”

The stag, instead of being punished, received a handsome gift. Do but entertain a king with dreams, flatter him, and tell him a few pleasant fantastic lies: whatever his indignation against you may be, he will swallow the bait, and make you his dearest friend.

-FABLES, JEAN DE LA FONTAINE, 1621-1695

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

The city-state of Venice was prosperous for so long that its citizens felt their small republic had destiny on its side.

In the Middle Ages and High Renaissance, its virtual monopoly on trade to the east made it the wealthiest city in Europe. Under a beneficent republican government, Venetians enjoyed liberties that few other Italians had ever known.

Yet in the sixteenth century their fortunes suddenly changed. The opening of the New World transferred power to the Atlantic side of Europe—to the Spanish and Portuguese, and later the Dutch and English. Venice could not compete economically and its empire gradually dwindled. The final blow was the devastating loss of a prized Mediterranean possession, the island of Cyprus, captured from Venice by the Turks in 1570.

Now noble families went broke in Venice, and banks began to fold.

A kind of gloom and depression settled over the citizens. They had known a glittering past—had either lived through it or heard stories about it from their elders. The closeness of the glory years was humiliating.

The Venetians half believed that the goddess Fortune was only playing a joke on them, and that the old days would soon return. For the time being, though, what could they do?

In 1589 rumors began to swirl around Venice of the arrival not far away of a mysterious man called “Il Bragadino,” a master of alchemy, a man who had won incredible wealth through his ability, it was said, to multiply gold through the use of a secret substance.

The rumor spread quickly because a few years earlier, a Venetian nobleman passing through Poland had heard a learned man prophesy that Venice would recover her past glory and power if she could find a man who understood the alchemic art of manufacturing gold.

And so, as word reached Venice of the gold this Bragadino possessed—he clinked gold coins continuously in his hands, and golden objects filled his palace—some began to dream: Through him, their city would prosper again.

Members of Venice’s most important noble families accordingly went together to Brescia, where Bragadino lived.

They toured his palace and watched in awe as he demonstrated his gold-making abilities, taking a pinch of seemingly worthless minerals and transforming it into several ounces of gold dust.

The Venetian senate prepared to debate the idea of extending an official invitation to Bragadino to stay in Venice at the city’s expense, when word suddenly reached them that they were competing with the Duke of Mantua for his services.

They heard of a magnificent party in Bragadino’s palace for the duke, featuring garments with golden buttons, gold watches, gold plates, and on and on.

Worried they might lose Bragadino to Mantua, the senate voted almost unanimously to invite him to Venice, promising him the mountain of money he would need to continue living in his luxurious style—but only if he came right away.

Late that year the mysterious Bragadino arrived in Venice.

With his piercing dark eyes under thick brows, and the two enormous black mastiffs that accompanied him everywhere, he was forbidding and impressive.

He took up residence in a sumptuous palace on the island of the Giudecca, with the republic funding his banquets, his expensive clothes, and all his other whims.

A kind of alchemy fever spread through Venice.

On street corners, hawkers would sell coal, distilling apparatus, bellows, how-to books on the subject. Everyone began to practice alchemy—everyone except Bragadino.

The alchemist seemed to be in no hurry to begin manufacturing the gold that would save Venice from ruin.

Strangely enough this only increased his popularity and following; people thronged from all over Europe, even Asia, to meet this remarkable man.

Months went by, with gifts pouring in to Bragadino from all sides.

Still he gave no sign of the miracle that the Venetians confidently expected him to produce.

Eventually the citizens began to grow impatient, wondering if he would wait forever. At first the senators warned them not to hurry him—he was a capricious devil, who needed to be cajoled.

Finally, though, the nobility began to wonder too, and the senate came under pressure to show a return on the city’s ballooning investment.

Bragadino had only scorn for the doubters, but he responded to them.

He had, he said, already deposited in the city’s mint the mysterious substance with which he multiplied gold.

He could use this substance up all at once, and produce double the gold, but the more slowly the process took place, the more it would yield. If left alone for seven years, sealed in a casket, the substance would multiply the gold in the mint thirty times over.

Most of the senators agreed to wait to reap the gold mine Bragadino promised.

Others, however, were angry: seven more years of this man living royally at the public trough! And many of the common citizens of Venice echoed these sentiments.

Finally the alchemist’s enemies demanded he produce a proof of his skills: a substantial amount of gold, and soon.

Lofty, apparently devoted to his art, Bragadino responded that Venice, in its impatience, had betrayed him, and would therefore lose his services. He left town, going first to nearby Padua, then, in 1590, to Munich, at the invitation of the Duke of Bavaria, who, like the entire city of Venice, had known great wealth but had fallen into bankruptcy through his own profligacy, and hoped to regain his fortune through the famous alchemist’s services.

And so Bragadino resumed the comfortable arrangement he had known in Venice, and the same pattern repeated itself.

Interpretation

The young Cypriot Mamugna had lived in Venice for several years before reincarnating himself as the alchemist Bragadino.

He saw how gloom had settled on the city, how everyone was hoping for a redemption from some indefinite source. While other charlatans mastered everyday cons based on sleight of hand, Mamugnà mastered human nature.

With Venice as his target from the start, he traveled abroad, made some money through his alchemy scams, and then returned to Italy, setting up shop in Brescia.

There he created a reputation that he knew would spread to Venice. From a distance, in fact, his aura of power would be all the more impressive.

At first Mamugna did not use vulgar demonstrations to convince people of his alchemic skill. His sumptuous palace, his opulent garments, the clink of gold in his hands, all these provided a superior argument to anything rational.

And these established the cycle that kept him going: His obvious wealth confirmed his reputation as an alchemist, so that patrons like the Duke of Mantua gave him money, which allowed him to live in wealth, which reinforced his reputation as an alchemist, and so on.

Only once this reputation was established, and dukes and senators were fighting over him, did he resort to the trifling necessity of a demonstration.

By then, however, people were easy to deceive: They wanted to believe.

The Venetian senators who watched him multiply gold wanted to believe so badly that they failed to notice the glass pipe up his sleeve, from which he slipped gold dust into his pinches of minerals. Brilliant and capricious, he was the alchemist of their fantasies—and once he had created an aura like this, no one noticed his simple deceptions.

Such is the power of the fantasies that take root in us, especially in times of scarcity and decline.

People rarely believe that their problems arise from their own misdeeds and stupidity. Someone or something out there is to blame—the other, the world, the gods—and so salvation comes from the outside as well.

Had Bragadino arrived in Venice armed with a detailed analysis of the reasons behind the city’s economic decline, and of the hard-nosed steps that it could take to turn things around, he would have been scorned.

The reality was too ugly and the solution too painful—mostly the kind of hard work that the citizens’ ancestors had mustered to create an empire. Fantasy, on the other hand—in this case the romance of alchemy—was easy to understand and infinitely more palatable.

To gain power, you must be a source of pleasure for those around you—and pleasure comes from playing to people’s fantasies. Never promise a gradual improvement through hard work; rather, promise the moon, the great and sudden transformation, the pot of gold.

No man need despair of gaining converts to the most extravagant
hypothesis who has art enough to represent it in favorable colors.

-David Hume, 1711-1776

If you want to tell lies that will be believed, don’t tell the truth that won’t.

-EMPEROR TOKUGAWA IEYASU OF JAPAN, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

KEYS TO POWER

Fantasy can never operate alone.

It requires the backdrop of the humdrum and the mundane. It is the oppressiveness of reality that allows fantasy to take root and bloom.

In sixteenth-century Venice, the reality was one of decline and loss of prestige. The corresponding fantasy described a sudden recovery of past glories through the miracle of alchemy.

While the reality only got worse, the Venetians inhabited a happy dream world in which their city restored its fabulous wealth and power overnight, turning dust into gold.

The person who can spin a fantasy out of an oppressive reality has access to untold power.

As you search for the fantasy that will take hold of the masses, then, keep your eye on the banal truths that weigh heavily on us all. Never be distracted by people’s glamorous portraits of themselves and their lives; search and dig for what really imprisons them. Once you find that, you have the magical key that will put great power in your hands.

Although times and people change, let us examine a few of the oppressive realities that endure, and the opportunities for power they provide:

The Reality: Change is slow and gradual. It requires hard work, a bit of luck, a fair amount of self-sacrifice, and a lot of patience.

The Fantasy: A sudden transformation will bring a total change in one’s fortunes, bypassing work, luck, self-sacrifice, and time in one fantastic stroke.

This is of course the fantasy par excellence of the charlatans who prowl among us to this day, and was the key to Bragadino’s success.

Promise a great and total change—from poor to rich, sickness to health, misery to ecstasy—and you will have followers.

How did the great sixteenth-century German quack Leonhard Thurneisser become the court physician for the Elector of Brandenburg without ever studying medicine?

Instead of offering amputations, leeches, and foul-tasting purgatives (the medicaments of the time), Thurneisser offered sweet-tasting elixirs and promised instant recovery.

Fashionable courtiers especially wanted his solution of “drinkable gold,” which cost a fortune.

If some inexplicable illness assailed you, Thurneisser would consult a horoscope and prescribe a talisman. Who could resist such a fantasy—health and well-being without sacrifice and pain!

The Reality: The social realm has hard-set codes and boundaries. We understand these limits and know that we have to move within the same familiar circles, day in and day out.

The Fantasy: We can enter a totally new world with different codes and the promise of adventure.

In the early 1700s, all London was abuzz with talk of a mysterious stranger, a young man named George Psalmanazar.

He had arrived from what was to most Englishmen a fantastical land: the island of Formosa (now Taiwan), off the coast of China.

Oxford University engaged Psalmanazar to teach the island’s language; a few years later he translated the Bible into Formosan, then wrote a book—an immediate best-seller—on Formosa’s history and geography. English royalty wined and dined the young man, and everywhere he went he entertained his hosts with wondrous stories of his homeland, and its bizarre customs.

After Psalmanazar died, however, his will revealed that he was in fact merely a Frenchman with a rich imagination.

Everything he had said about Formosa—its alphabet, its language, its literature, its entire culture—he had invented.

He had built on the English public’s ignorance of the place to concoct an elaborate story that fulfilled their desire for the exotic and strange. British culture’s rigid control of people’s dangerous dreams gave him the perfect opportunity to exploit their fantasy.

The fantasy of the exotic, of course, can also skirt the sexual.

It must not come too close, though, for the physical hinders the power of fantasy; it can be seen, grasped, and then tired of—the fate of most courtesans. The bodily charms of the mistress only whet the master’s appetite for more and different pleasures, a new beauty to adore. To bring power, fantasy must remain to some degree unrealized, literally unreal.

The dancer Mata Hari, for instance, who rose to public prominence in Paris before World War I, had quite ordinary looks. Her power came from the fantasy she created of being strange and exotic, unknowable and indecipherable. The taboo she worked with was less sex itself than the breaking of social codes.

Another form of the fantasy of the exotic is simply the hope for relief from boredom.

Con artists love to play on the oppressiveness of the working world, its lack of adventure. Their cons might involve, say, the recovery of lost Spanish treasure, with the possible participation of an alluring Mexican señorita and a connection to the president of a South American country—anything offering release from the humdrum.

The Reality: Society is fragmented and full of conflict.

The Fantasy: People can come together in a mystical union of souls.

In the 1920s the con man Oscar Hartzell made a quick fortune out of the age-old Sir Francis Drake swindle—basically promising any sucker who happened to be surnamed “Drake” a substantial share of the long-lost “Drake treasure,” to which Hartzell had access.

Thousands across the Midwest fell for the scam, which Hartzell cleverly turned into a crusade against the government and everyone else who was trying to keep the Drake fortune out of the rightful hands of its heirs.

There developed a mystical union of the oppressed Drakes, with emotional rallies and meetings.

Promise such a union and you can gain much power, but it is a dangerous power that can easily turn against you. This is a fantasy for demagogues to play on.

The Reality: Death. The dead cannot be brought back, the past cannot be changed.

The Fantasy: A sudden reversal of this intolerable fact.

This con has many variations, but requires great skill and subtlety.

The beauty and importance of the art of Vermeer have long been recognized, but his paintings are small in number, and are extremely rare.

In the 1930s, though, Vermeers began to appear on the art market.

Experts were called on to verify them, and pronounced them real.

Possession of these new Vermeers would crown a collector’s career. It was like the resurrection of Lazarus: In a strange way, Vermeer had been brought back to life. The past had been changed.

Only later did it come out that the new Vermeers were the work of a middle-aged Dutch forger named Han van Meegeren.

And he had chosen Vermeer for his scam because he understood fantasy: The paintings would seem real precisely because the public, and the experts as well, so desperately wanted to believe they were.

Remember: The key to fantasy is distance. 

The distant has allure and promise, seems simple and problem free. What you are offering, then, should be ungraspable. 

Never let it become oppressively familiar; it is the mirage in the distance, withdrawing as the sucker approaches. Never be too direct in describing the fantasy—keep it vague. As a forger of fantasies, let your victim come close enough to see and be tempted, but keep him far away enough that he stays dreaming and desiring.

Image: The
Moon. Unattainable,
always changing shape,
disappearing and reappear
ing. We look at it, imagine,
wonder, and pine—never fa
miliar, continuous provoker
of dreams. Do not offer
the obvious. Promise
the moon.

Authority: A lie is an allurement, a fabrication, that can be embellished into a fantasy. 

It can be clothed in the raiments of a mystic conception. Truth is cold, sober fact, not so comfortable to absorb. A lie is more palatable. The most detested person in the world is the one who always tells the truth, who never romances.... I found it far more interesting and profitable to romance than to tell the truth. (Joseph Weil, a.k.a. “The Yellow Kid,” 1875-1976)

REVERSAL

If there is power in tapping into the fantasies of the masses, there is also danger.

Fantasy usually contains an element of play—the public half realizes it is being duped, but it keeps the dream alive anyway, relishing the entertainment and the temporary diversion from the everyday that you are providing.

So keep it light—never come too close to the place where you are actually expected to produce results.

That place may prove extremely hazardous.

After Bragadino established himself in Munich, he found that the sober-minded Bavarians had far less faith in alchemy than the temperamental Venetians.

Only the duke really believed in it, for he needed it desperately to rescue him from the hopeless mess he was in.

As Bragadino played his familiar waiting game, accepting gifts and expecting patience, the public grew angry. Money was being spent and was yielding no results.

In 1592 the Bavarians demanded justice, and eventually Bragadino found himself swinging from the gallows.

As before, he had promised and had not delivered, but this time he had misjudged the forbearance of his hosts, and his inability to fulfill their fantasy proved fatal.

One last thing: Never make the mistake of imagining that fantasy is always fantastical. 

It certainly contrasts with reality, but reality itself is sometimes so theatrical and stylized that fantasy becomes a desire for simple things. The image Abraham Lincoln created of himself, for example, as a homespun country lawyer with a beard, made him the common man’s president.

P. T. Barnum created a successful act with Tom Thumb, a dwarf who dressed up as famous leaders of the past, such as Napoleon, and lampooned them wickedly.

The show delighted everyone, right up to Queen Victoria, by appealing to the fantasy of the time: Enough of the vainglorious rulers of history, the common man knows best. Tom Thumb reversed the familiar pattern of fantasy in which the strange and unknown becomes the ideal.

But the act still obeyed the Law, for underlying it was the fantasy that the simple man is without problems, and is happier than the powerful and the rich.

Both Lincoln and Tom Thumb played the commoner but carefully maintained their distance.

Should you play with such a fantasy, you too must carefully cultivate distance and not allow your “common” persona to become too familiar or it will not project as fantasy.

Conclusion

Today, any glimpse of the political situation in the United States can clearly illustrate this law. We see that the news is filled with lies and fantasies. All of which are designed to manipulate for personal gain.

Consider the 2021 election. Doesn’t the candidates involved appeal to their followers fantasies?

First black woman on party ticket!

I do not advise a person use this technique, but I do advise you all to be aware that it is in constant use by others.

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Law 19 – Know who you’re dealing with – do not offend the wrong person (48 Laws of Power)

This is the complete text of law 19 from the book by Robert Greene titled “The 48 Laws of Power”. It is a book that lists (for good or bad) numerous ways that people interact with each other in the pursuit of the obtainment of power. While you might not want to use any of the techniques that he has listed, you must certainly can agree that you must be aware of how others might use them against you. As knowledge is, in itself, power.

LAW 19

KNOW WHO YOU’RE DEALING WITH—DO NOT OFFEND THE WRONG PERSON

JUDGMENT

There are many different kinds of people in the world, and you can never assume that everyone will react to your strategies in the same way. Deceive or outmaneuver some people and they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge. They are wolves in lambs’ clothing. Choose your victims and opponents carefully, then—never of fend or deceive the wrong person.

OPPONENTS, SUCKERS, AND VICTIMS: Preliminary Typology

In your rise to power you will come across many breeds of opponent, sucker, and victim. The highest form of the art of power is the ability to distinguish the wolves from the lambs, the foxes from the hares, the hawks from the vultures. If you make this distinction well, you will succeed without needing to coerce anyone too much. But if you deal blindly with whomever crosses your path, you will have a life of constant sorrow, if you even live that long.

When you meet a swordsman, draw your sword: Do not recite poetry to one who is not a poet.

-FROM A CH’AN BUDDHIST CLASSIC, QUOTED IN THUNDER IN THE SKY, TRANSLATED BY THOMAS CLEARY, 1993

Being able to recognize types of people, and to act accordingly, is critical.

The following are the five most dangerous and difficult types of mark in the jungle, as identified by artists—con and otherwise—of the past.

[1] The Arrogant and Proud Man.

If you end up in Prison, you will meet many people. One of the most dangerous are the members of the gay community. For they will be brutal on the slightest whim. Do not get involved with these people, and do not become involved within any kind of relationship triangles either.

-Metallicman.

Although he may initially disguise it, this man’s touchy pride makes him very dangerous.

Any perceived slight will lead to a vengeance of overwhelming violence.

You may say to yourself, “But I only said such-and-such at a party, where everyone was drunk….”

It does not matter.

There is no sanity behind his overreaction, so do not waste time trying to figure him out.

If at any point in your dealings with a person you sense an oversensitive and overactive pride, flee. Whatever you are hoping for from him isn’t worth it.

The Revence Of [Lope De] Aguirre

[Lope de] Aguirre’s character is amply illustrated in an anecdote from the chronicle of Garcilaso de la Vega.

Who related that in 1548 Aguirre was a member of a platoon of soldiers escorting Indian slaves from the mines at Potosi [Bolivia] to a royal treasury depot.

The Indians were illegally burdened with great quantities of silver, and a local official arrested Aguirre, sentencing him to receive two hundred lashes in lieu of a fine for oppressing the Indians.

“The soldier Aguirre, having received a notification of the sentence, besought the alcalde that, instead of flogging him, he would put him to death, for that he was a gentleman by birth…. All this had no effect on the alcalde, who ordered the executioner to bring a beast, and execute the sentence. The executioner came to the prison, and put Aguirre on the beast…. The beast was driven on, and he received the lashes….”

When freed, Aguirre announced his intention of killing the official who had sentenced him, the alcalde Esquivel.

Esquivel’s term of office expired and he fled to Lima.

Three hundred twenty leagues away, but within fifteen days Aguirre had tracked him there.

The frightened judge journeyed to Quito, a trip of four hundred leagues, and in twenty days Aguirre arrived.

“When Esquivel heard of his presence, ” according to Garcilaso, “he made another journey of five hundred leagues to Cuzco; but in a few days Aguirre also arrived, having traveled on foot and without shoes, saying that a whipped man has no business to ride a horse, or to go where he would be seen by others. In this way, Aguirre followed his judge for three years, and four months.”

Wearying of the pursuit, Esquivel remained at Cuzco, a city so sternly governed that he felt he would be safe from Aguirre. He took a house near the cathedral and never ventured outdoors without a sword and a dagger.

“However, on a certain Monday, at noon, Aguirre entered his house, and having walked all over it, and having traversed a corridor, a saloon, a chamber, and an inner chamber where the judge kept his books, he at last found him asleep over one of his books, and stabbed him to death. The murderer then went out, but when he came to the door of the house, he found that he had forgotten his hat, and had the temerity to return and fetch it, and then walked down the street.”

-THE GOLDEN DREAM: SEEKERS OF EL DORADO, WALKER CHAPMAN, 1967

[2] The Hopelessly Insecure Man.

This man is related to the proud and arrogant type, but is less violent and harder to spot.

His ego is fragile, his sense of self insecure, and if he feels himself deceived or attacked, the hurt will simmer.

He will attack you in bites that will take forever to get big enough for you to notice.

If you find you have deceived or harmed such a man, disappear for a long time. Do not stay around him or he will nibble you to death.

[3] Mr. Suspicion.

Another variant on the breeds above, this is a future Joe Stalin.

He sees what he wants to see—usually the worst—in other people, and imagines that everyone is after him.

Mr. Suspicion is in fact the least dangerous of the three: Genuinely unbalanced, he is easy to deceive, just as Stalin himself was constantly deceived.

Play on his suspicious nature to get him to turn against other people. But if you do become the target of his suspicions, watch out.

[4] The Serpent with a Long Memory.

If hurt or deceived, this man will show no anger on the surface; he will calculate and wait.

Then, when he is in a position to turn the tables, he will exact a revenge marked by a cold-blooded shrewdness.

Recognize this man by his calculation and cunning in the different areas of his life.

He is usually cold and unaffectionate.

Be doubly careful of this snake, and if you have somehow injured him, either crush him completely or get him out of your sight.

[5] The Plain, Unassuming, and Often Unintelligent Man.

Ah, your ears prick up when you find such a tempting victim.

But this man is a lot harder to deceive than you imagine.

Falling for a ruse often takes intelligence and imagination—a sense of the possible rewards.

The blunt man will not take the bait because he does not recognize it.

He is that unaware.

The danger with this man is NOT that he will harm you or seek revenge, but merely that he will waste your time, energy, resources, and even your sanity in trying to deceive him.

Have a test ready for a mark—a joke, a story. If his reaction is utterly literal, this is the type you are dealing with.

Continue at your own risk.

TRANSGRESSIONS OF THE LAW

Transgression I

In the early part of the thirteenth century, Muhammad, the shah of Khwarezm, managed after many wars to forge a huge empire, extending west to present-day Turkey and south to Afghanistan. The empire’s center was the great Asian capital of Samarkand. The shah had a powerful, well-trained army, and could mobilize 200,000 warriors within days.

In 1219 Muhammad received an embassy from a new tribal leader to the east, Genghis Khan.

The embassy included all sorts of gifts to the great Muhammad, representing the finest goods from Khan’s small but growing Mongol empire. Genghis Khan wanted to reopen the Silk Route to Europe, and offered to share it with Muhammad, while promising peace between the two empires.

Muhammad did not know this upstart from the east, who, it seemed to him, was extremely arrogant to try to talk as an equal to one so clearly his superior.

He ignored Khan’s offer.

Khan tried again: This time he sent a caravan of a hundred camels filled with the rarest articles he had plundered from China. Before the caravan reached Muhammad, however, Inalchik, the governor of a region bordering on Samarkand, seized it for himself, and executed its leaders.

Genghis Khan was sure that this was a mistake—that Inalchik had acted without Muhammad’s approval.

He sent yet another mission to Muhammad, reiterating his offer and asking that the governor be punished. This time Muhammad himself had one of the ambassadors beheaded, and sent the other two back with shaved heads—a horrifying insult in the Mongol code of honor.

Khan sent a message to the shah: “You have chosen war. What will happen will happen, and what it is to be we know not; only God knows.”

Mobilizing his forces, in 1220 he attacked Inalchik’s province, where he seized the capital, captured the governor, and ordered him executed by having molten silver poured into his eyes and ears.

Over the next year, Khan led a series of guerrilla-like campaigns against the shah’s much larger army.

His method was totally novel for the time—his soldiers could move very fast on horseback, and had mastered the art of firing with bow and arrow while mounted.

The speed and flexibility of his forces allowed him to deceive Muhammad as to his intentions and the directions of his movements. Eventually he managed first to surround Samarkand, then to seize it.

Muhammad fled, and a year later died, his vast empire broken and destroyed. Genghis Khan was sole master of Samarkand, the Silk Route, and most of northern Asia.

Interpretation

Never assume that the person you are dealing with is weaker or less important than you are.

Some men are slow to take offense, which may make you misjudge the thickness of their skin, and fail to worry about insulting them. But should you offend their honor and their pride, they will overwhelm you with a violence that seems sudden and extreme given their slowness to anger.

If you want to turn people down, it is best to do so politely and respectfully, even if you feel their request is impudent or their offer ridiculous.

Never reject them with an insult until you know them better; you may be dealing with a Genghis Khan.

THE CROW AND THE SHEEP

A troublesome Crow seated herself on the back of a Sheep. 

The Sheep, much against his will, carried her backward and forward for a long time, and at last said, “If you had treated a dog in this way, you would have had your deserts from his sharp teeth.”

To this the Crow replied, “I despise the weak, and yield to the strong. I know whom I may bully, and whom I must flatter; and thus I hope to prolong my life to a good old age.

-FABLES, AESOP, SIXTH CENTURY B.C.

Transgression II

In the late 1910s some of the best swindlers in America formed a con-artist ring based in Denver, Colorado. In the winter months they would spread across the southern states, plying their trade. In 1920 Joe Furey, a leader of the ring, was working his way through Texas, making hundreds of thousands of dollars with classic con games.

In Fort Worth, he met a sucker named J. Frank Norfleet, a cattleman who owned a large ranch.

Norfleet fell for the con.

Convinced of the riches to come, he emptied his bank account of $45,000 and handed it over to Furey and his confederates. A few days later they gave him his “millions,” which turned out to be a few good dollars wrapped around a packet of newspaper clippings.

Furey and his men had worked such cons a hundred times before, and the sucker was usually so embarrassed by his gullibility that he quietly learned his lesson and accepted the loss.

But Norfleet was not like other suckers.

He went to the police, who told him there was little they could do.

“Then I’ll go after those people myself,” Norfleet told the detectives. “I’ll get them, too, if it takes the rest of my life.”

His wife took over the ranch as Norfleet scoured the country, looking for others who had been fleeced in the same game. One such sucker came forward, and the two men identified one of the con artists in San Francisco, and managed to get him locked up.

The man committed suicide rather than face a long term in prison.

Norfleet kept going.

He tracked down another of the con artists in Montana, roped him like a calf, and dragged him through the muddy streets to the town jail.

He traveled not only across the country but to England, Canada, and Mexico in search of Joe Furey, and also of Furey’s right-hand man, W. B. Spencer.

Finding Spencer in Montreal, Norfleet chased him through the streets.

Spencer escaped but the rancher stayed on his trail and caught up with him in Salt Lake City. Preferring the mercy of the law to Norfleet’s wrath, Spencer turned himself in.

Norfleet found Furey in Jacksonville, Florida, and personally hauled him off to face justice in Texas.

But he wouldn’t stop there: He continued on to Denver, determined to break up the entire ring.

Spending not only large sums of money but another year of his life in the pursuit, he managed to put all of the con ring’s leaders behind bars. Even some he didn’t catch had grown so terrified of him that they too turned themselves in.

After five years of hunting, Norfleet had single-handedly destroyed the country’s largest confederation of con artists. The effort bankrupted him and ruined his marriage, but he died a satisfied man.

Interpretation

Most men accept the humiliation of being conned with a sense of resignation. They learn their lesson, recognizing that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and that they have usually been brought down by their own greed for easy money.

Some, however, refuse to take their medicine.

Instead of reflecting on their own gullibility and avarice, they see themselves as totally innocent victims.

Men like this may seem to be crusaders for justice and honesty, but they are actually immoderately insecure. Being fooled, being conned, has activated their self-doubt, and they are desperate to repair the damage.

Were the mortgage on Norfleet’s ranch, the collapse of his marriage, and the years of borrowing money and living in cheap hotels worth his revenge over his embarrassment at being fleeced?

To the Norfleets of the world, overcoming their embarrassment is worth any price.

All people have insecurities, and often the best way to deceive a sucker is to play upon his insecurities. But in the realm of power, everything is a question of degree, and the person who is decidedly more insecure than the average mortal presents great dangers.

Be warned: If you practice deception or trickery of any sort, study your mark well. Some people’s insecurity and ego fragility cannot tolerate the slightest offense. To see if you are dealing with such a type, test them first—make, say, a mild joke at their expense. A confident person will laugh; an overly insecure one will react as if personally insulted. If you suspect you are dealing with this type, find another victim.

Transgression III

In the fifth century B.C., Ch‘ung-erh, the prince of Ch’in (in present-day China), had been forced into exile.

He lived modestly—even, sometimes, in poverty—waiting for the time when he could return home and resume his princely life. Once he was passing through the state of Cheng, where the ruler, not knowing who he was, treated him rudely.

The ruler’s minister, Shu Chan, saw this and said, “This man is a worthy prince. May Your Highness treat him with great courtesy and thereby place him under an obligation!”

But the ruler, able to see only the prince’s lowly station, ignored this advice and insulted the prince again.

Shu Chan again warned his master, saying, “If Your Highness cannot treat Ch’ung-erh with courtesy, you should put him to death, to avoid calamity in the future.”

The ruler only scoffed.

Years later, the prince was finally able to return home, his circumstances greatly changed. He did not forget who had been kind to him, and who had been insolent, during his years of poverty.

Least of all did he forget his treatment at the hands of the ruler of Cheng.

At his first opportunity he assembled a vast army and marched on Cheng, taking eight cities, destroying the kingdom, and sending the ruler into an exile of his own.

Interpretation

You can never be sure who you are dealing with. A man who is of little importance and means today can be a person of power tomorrow. We forget a lot in our lives, but we rarely forget an insult.

How was the ruler of Cheng to know that Prince Ch’ung-erh was an ambitious, calculating, cunning type, a serpent with a long memory? There was really no way for him to know, you may say—but since there was no way, it would have been better not to tempt the fates by finding out. There is nothing to be gained by insulting a person unnecessarily. Swallow the impulse to offend, even if the other person seems weak. The satisfaction is meager compared to the danger that someday he or she will be in a position to hurt you.

Transgression IV

The year of 1920 had been a particularly bad one for American art dealers. Big buyers—the robber-baron generation of the previous century—were getting to an age where they were dying off like flies, and no new millionaires had emerged to take their place. Things were so bad that a number of the major dealers decided to pool their resources, an unheard-of event, since art dealers usually get along like cats and dogs.

Joseph Duveen, art dealer to the richest tycoons of America, was suffering more than the others that year, so he decided to go along with this alliance. The group now consisted of the five biggest dealers in the country. Looking around for a new client, they decided that their last best hope was Henry Ford, then the wealthiest man in America.

Ford had yet to venture into the art market, and he was such a big target that it made sense for them to work together.

The dealers decided to assemble a list, “The 100 Greatest Paintings in the World” (all of which they happened to have in stock), and to offer the lot of them to Ford. With one purchase he could make himself the world’s greatest collector.

The consortium worked for weeks to produce a magnificent object: a three-volume set of books containing beautiful reproductions of the paintings, as well as scholarly texts accompanying each picture. Next they made a personal visit to Ford at his home in Dearborn, Michigan.

There they were surprised by the simplicity of his house: Mr. Ford was obviously an extremely unaffected man.

Ford received them in his study.

Looking through the book, he expressed astonishment and delight. The excited dealers began imagining the millions of dollars that would shortly flow into their coffers. Finally, however, Ford looked up from the book and said, “Gentlemen, beautiful books like these, with beautiful colored pictures like these, must cost an awful lot!”

“But Mr. Ford!” exclaimed Duveen, “we don’t expect you to buy these books. We got them up especially for you, to show you the pictures. These books are a present to you.”

Ford seemed puzzled.

“Gentlemen,” he said, “it is extremely nice of you, but I really don’t see how I can accept a beautiful, expensive present like this from strangers.”

Duveen explained to Ford that the reproductions in the books showed paintings they had hoped to sell to him. Ford finally understood. “But gentlemen,” he exclaimed, “what would I want with the original pictures when the ones right here in these books are so beautiful?”

Interpretation

Joseph Duveen prided himself on studying his victims and clients in advance, figuring out their weaknesses and the peculiarities of their tastes before he ever met them.

He was driven by desperation to drop this tactic just once, in his assault on Henry Ford. It took him months to recover from his misjudgment, both mentally and monetarily.

Ford was the unassuming plain-man type who just isn’t worth the bother.

He was the incarnation of those literal-minded folk who do not possess enough imagination to be deceived. From then on, Duveen saved his energies for the Mellons and Morgans of the world—men crafty enough for him to entrap in his snares.

KEYS TO POWER

The ability to measure people and to know who you’re dealing with is the most important skill of all in gathering and conserving power.

Without it you are blind: Not only will you offend the wrong people, you will choose the wrong types to work on, and will think you are flattering people when you are actually insulting them.

Before embarking on any move, take the measure of your mark or potential opponent. Otherwise you will waste time and make mistakes.

Study people’s weaknesses, the chinks in their armor, their areas of both pride and insecurity. Know their ins and outs before you even decide whether or not to deal with them.

Two final words of caution: First, in judging and measuring your opponent, never rely on your instincts. You will make the greatest mistakes of all if you rely on such inexact indicators. Nothing can substitute for gathering concrete knowledge. Study and spy on your opponent for however long it takes; this will pay off in the long run.

Second, never trust appearances. Anyone with a serpent’s heart can use a show of kindness to cloak it; a person who is blustery on the outside is often really a coward. Learn to see through appearances and their contradictions. Never trust the version that people give of themselves—it is utterly unreliable.

Image: The Hunter.

He does not lay the same trap for a wolf as for a fox. He does not set bait where no one will take it. He knows his prey thoroughly, its habits and hideaways, and hunts accordingly.

Authority: Be convinced, that there are no persons so insignificant and inconsiderable, but may, some time or other, have it in their power to be of use to you; which they certainly will not, if you have once shown them contempt. Wrongs are often forgiven, but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it for ever. (Lord Chesterfield, 1694-1773)

REVERSAL

What possible good can come from ignorance about other people? Learn to tell the lions from the lambs or pay the price. Obey this law to its fullest extent; it has no reversal—do not bother looking for one.

Principles of Law 19

In your quest for power, you can’t treat everyone the same way. According to Law 19 of the 48 Laws of Power, there are many different types of people, and you need to be able to recognize which type you’re dealing with and respond appropriately.

Here are the five most dangerous types, most of whom you should avoid dealing with because it’s either a waste of time or it will come back and bite you. With these types especially, you should know who you’re dealing with.

Oversensitive and egotistical: Overreacts, often violently and disproportionately, to any perceived slight.
Insecure and fragile: Lets hurt feelings simmer, then attacks with small cuts that eventually add up.
Pathologically suspicious: Imagines everyone is after him. Like Stalin, genuinely unhinged but easy to fool. You can get him to turn against others, but take care that he doesn’t target you.
Cold and calculating: Doesn’t show anger when offended, but calculates the right moment for revenge and waits for it. He’s a snake — crush him rather than injuring him.
Slow-witted or literal: Lacks the intelligence and imagination (to envision potential rewards) to fall for a scheme. You’ll waste time trying to fool him. Test him by telling a joke to see if he gets it, or reacts literally. If the latter, move on to someone else.

To wield power it’s essential to be able to read people and know who you’re dealing with. If you don’t understand your targets — choosing the wrong person or doing the wrong thing — you’ll waste time at best. At worst, you bring trouble on yourself, for instance, by insulting people when you think you’re flattering them, or by triggering their insecurity. This is essential to understand when following Law 19 of the 48 Laws of Power.

Before dealing with someone, do your research. Never trust your instincts, or trust appearances. People can easily hide their true nature. Do not offend the wrong person.

Putting Law 19 to Work

Here are just a few of the many examples of how not to apply Law 19 of the 48 Laws of Power. These people underestimated or failed to understand their opponents. They did not follow Law 19: Know Who You’re Dealing With—Do Not Offend the Wrong Person.

Oversensitive and egotistical: A powerful shah who had a huge empire dissed Genghis Khan by ignoring his offers of an alliance, and was destroyed. His mistake was assuming that Genghis Khan was weaker than he, and he rejected his overtures with insults. Khan turned out to be both sensitive to insults and extremely powerful.
Oversensitive and egotistical: In 1910 there was a con artist ring operating out of Denver, led by Joe Furey. Furey suckered a Texas rancher into giving up a fortune. But unlike most suckers in Furey’s experience, he didn’t just slink away quietly in embarrassment. He set out to take down Furey and the entire con artist ring, a feat that took him five years and great expense. Furey didn’t understand that he was dealing with an insecure man who wouldn’t tolerate offense.
Literal: Because he was a simple man who took things literally, Henry Ford stymied a consortium of art dealers who tried to sell him a collection of 1,000 paintings. To whet his appetite for the works, the dealers created a beautiful book of the paintings, which they presented to Ford as a gift. His response was to question why he should buy the paintings, when he had a book that depicted them so beautifully. Because the dealers hadn’t done their homework, they wasted their time and money dealing with an immovable target.

Conclusion

I would advise that you remain kind and neutral to everyone that you meet. I strongly suggest that you put the ideas of “winning” or “conquering” over others under advisement, instead, I urge you to try to work with people in a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Unfortunately, this is not always possible. There will come times when you are dealing with people that have their own agendas, their own ways of doing things, and their own objectives.

Such is the case when Donald Trump instigated the “Trade War” against China in 2016 which pretty much lasted throughout his entire term. And while China assumed that Trump wanted a Win-Win situation, the truth was that he desired a Lose-Lose situation and did everything in his power to make sure that China would lose more than America would.

It didn’t work out that way.

Why?

Because the intel that Donald Trump and Pompeo was getting on China was not only incorrect, but it was dangerously inaccurate, outdated, and colored with a bias that did not factually exist. And no matter what Donald Trump threw at China, they simply stepped to the side and continued their life unimpeded.

Currently, the conservative neocons are advising for a “hot war” scenario. As it is the only remaining course of action. To which I must respond with the statement from Law 19…

The highest form of the art of power is the ability to distinguish the wolves from the lambs, the foxes from the hares, the hawks from the vultures. If you make this distinction well, you will succeed without needing to coerce anyone too much. But if you deal blindly with whomever crosses your path, you will have a life of constant sorrow...

... if you even live that long.

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The construction of a DIY dimensional portal for world-line travel (part 9) frequency visualization using Mandelbrot sets.

Here, in this post we are going to take a look at ways to convert the “frequencies of location” into a map with coordinates.

There is no right or wrong way to do this. In fact, there are many, many ways. Each with it’s own benefits and liabilities.

Consider this scenario

It’s easy enough to imagine a map with two sets of geographical coordinates. Right?

Conventional mapping of Geo-positioning coordinates.

Now, add time. Where each coordinate can go “into the past”, stay in the present, or “move into the future”.

Adding coordinates that represent time at a given geographical location.

Now, add an entirely new set of criteria. It’s a big enormous set that describes variations in a world-line, for each coordinate. And the variations are nearly infinite, so it’s a very wide and open-ended coordinate. The only way that you can reasonably control all the many, many variations of a world-line variation is comparative. Using the current baseline, what is the delta changes to it?

Adding the coordinates of world-line variations to the map.

When you break things down simply, it really isn’t that difficult.

The coordinate system that you use has really three major components to it. These are as described above. They are [1] geographic location, [2] time, and [3] world-line variation from egress coordinates.

Thus…

Coordinate = [1] location + [2] time + [3] world-line variation.

Converting frequencies into something that you can map

Unfortunately, the system that we have laid out describes the collection of frequencies of location with an isolation of the frequencies associated with the traveler. We need to convert that into a usable map.

We need to, don’t you know.

Well, it’s going to be pretty difficult to identify where you are in the enormous MWI. It’s darn near impossible to identify who you are relative to a near infinite number of world-lines that surround you. Not to mention all the variations and the changes associated with a destination coordinate.

It will look like a long string of numbers, in a long, thick book.

And because of this, it really isn’t very useful. You need to convert those numbers into a map that you can read, chart a course, and execute a travel algorithm.

Here we talk about this.

Why bother?

When I entered the fixed dimensional portal so many years back, the destination coordinates were in the form of long strings of numbers on bound print outs. It was the height of technology at the time, and the Commander made tweaks to the destination values upon reviewing my printed out handout.

Here is a bound stack of computer printout sheets nearly identical to what was used when I first entered the fixed dimensional portal…

Bound stack of computer printout sheets that described the destination coordinates that I was to be sent to.

In those days, most computers did not have a monitor or screen. Those few that did were pretty much a visual display that showed green colored text on a black background. Instead, the worker would sit behind a “terminal” and type. It in many ways resembled an electric typewriter, and had the added advantage of leaving a defined paper trail record of your keystrokes.

It looked something like this…

Late 1970's to the early 1980's high technology in computers and office equipment. — Late 1970’s to the early 1980’s high technology in computers and office equipment.

At that time, there was little option to do anything else. Visualization of large sets of data, or other systems for better and more understandable information retention and exchange was embryonic. We just used the systems available to us, as crude as they were at the time.

It’s not that the visualization of large data sets was unknown, it’s just that we didn’t have the tools necessary to organize the data.

The first instances of infographics as we know them today – as data made visual – dates back to the late 1700s with a chart of wheat prices and labor wages. The creator, William Playfair, might be considered the father of modern day infographics.

The key to infographics is that the brain processes images more readily than words: A picture really was worth a thousand words.

For instance, here is an infographic that discusses slavery in the Southern United States prior to the American Civil War;

In the example above, you can clearly see where Slavery was the most prevalent, and where it was scarce. You can also be able to deduce and extrapolate information from this graphic. That is the benefits of an infographic as opposed to large streams of numbers.

The advantage of visualization of large complex number sets

As computer technology became more and more sophisticated, a new branch of technology came into being. This was known as “information visualization”, and most reader have probably heard of it. Because “infographics” is a well understood off-shoot of this technology.

The importance of this should not be overlooked.

Relevant data sets would be highlighted, while other data sets could be ignored. As such, there are many different shapes and forms that they can be displayed into. The best one depends on the application.

For instance, here is a “tree” data visualization style.

A complex data set visualized using "tree" structure and organization. — A complex data set visualized using “tree” structure and organization.

And here is a “cluster” visualization style.

In regards to visualization of the enormous sets of data associated with world-line portal coordinates, it is important that the visualization be such that it is easy to understand, and equally easy to plot out destinations.

Visualizing frequencies

This technology has actually been around for a while. Anyone who has any of a zillion audio players on their computer can observe the ever changing music (frequencies of sound) depicted in eye-catching arrays for amusement purposes.

In the 1980's the amplitude of various frequencies were isolated and presented in a bar-code format as lighted LED bars. — In the 1980’s the amplitude of various frequencies were isolated and presented in a bar-code format as lighted LED bars. Here, 16 frequencies are shown with the various amplitudes of the isolated signals.

In these applications, we watch with amusement how the visual designs change with the changes in the music. Fun, huh?

But it gets old.

What we want is something similar, but quite different. We do not want to watch the frequencies of location change. We only want to see what the frequencies of location are. Then “freeze it” and then manipulate each one precisely to obtain our objectives (what ever they might be)…

Geographic
Time
World-line

So what we need is a software program that will take all theses frequencies, broken down into a large number of very tiny separate frequencies, and display that in a pictorial format.

What we need is a special map display

What we want is a display of all the frequencies of location, compared to amplitude. Something along these lines…

Graph of amplitude of various frequencies at a set point in time.

But with a display of two other characteristics. So instead of just attenuation and frequency, we can also display (in color, and along the Y-axis) timbre, and pitch (to use audio terms) at any frozen moment in time.

A coordinate of location can be described by five characteristics: Wavelength, Amplitude, Time-Period, Frequency and Velocity.

Mandelbrot set

If you manage to plot out these data visualizations you might be surprised to discover that they start to appear as Mandelbrot sets.

The Mandelbrot set is the set of complex numbers c for which the function fc(z)=z²+c does not diverge when iterated from z=0, i.e., for which the sequence fc(0), fc(fc(0)), etc., remains bounded in absolute value. Its definition is credited to Adrien Douady who named it in tribute to the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot. The set is connected to a Julia set, and related Julia sets produce similarly complex fractal shapes.

-Wikipedia

Without getting to involved in the mathematics involved, any set of coordinates (which are the gravitational frequencies measured at the portal) can be reduced to equations. These are equations of location, and can be simplified to involve complex numbers.

Now, the purpose of this conversion is to help visualize the components of the various frequencies so that changes and alterations can be made. Once these groupings are identified, then they can be altered so that the actual data is used when defining coordinate changes.

It works something like this…

Clusters shown within the Mandelbrot set can be useful to alter and revise coordinates. For instance, a primary bulb might represent the characteristics of a given time, while "antennas" might represent attributes of a given world-line. — Clusters shown within the Mandelbrot set can be useful to alter and revise coordinates. For instance, a primary bulb might represent the characteristics of a given time, while “antennas” might represent attributes of a given world-line.

So, in short, we can use mathematics and convert the frequencies of location into another form using complex numbers. Then we can graph the result. It will appear as a Mandelbrot set.

Through a series of experiments, we should be able to identify which characteristics of the Mandelbrot set has the greatest relevance for us, and then modify the destination coordinates appropriately.

But…

But there is more…

Fractals

If you study the Mandelbrot set you might be able to identify fractals with “self similarity”. These little mathematical nuances can help you determine the relative stability of a world-line.

Stability? What are you talking about?

I am talking about the anchoring of world-lines, and how world-lines tend to cluster together. Our consciousness tend to cycle through world-lines rather rapidly. So the moment you enter a new world-line, you are off on the way to other ones.

It’s called “time”, don’t you know.

Well, if we want a world-line, say where the most popular food is pineapple on pizza (why? Why Lord, why?) and when we get there, we suddenly discover after a few seconds that no one eats pineapple on pizza. And so we think, “WTF? What happened?”

What happened was that we arrived at our destination world-line, but it was not stable.

So we want stability, and thus we want to find forms and shapes within the Mandelbrot set that are prone for fractal behavior.

In mathematics, a fractal is a self-similar subset of Euclidean space whose fractal dimension strictly exceeds its topological dimension. Fractals appear the same at different levels, as illustrated in successive magnifications of the Mandelbrot set. 

Fractals exhibit similar patterns at increasingly small scales called self similarity, also known as expanding symmetry or unfolding symmetry; if this replication is exactly the same at every scale, as in the Menger sponge, it is called affine self-similar. Fractal geometry lies within the mathematical branch of measure theory.

-Wikipedia

To find specific values to manipulate during the visualization of the data set, you will find that other mathematical manipulations might become useful. Such is the case with fractals.

Conclusion

By converting the frequencies of location into Mandelbrot sets, we can create a map that we can use to plot our travel through the MWI. This is true whether it is geographical, involve time-travel or exploring the near-infinite variations of different world-lines.

Happy exploring.

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How You are Controlled by the Government. They Control you by your Social Media Feeds.

We like to think that we are independent thinkers. We like to believe that we really know what is going on in the world. We know that the American government controls the press, and that the rich oligarchy controls the Big Government Deep State. And we think of everyone else that believes them as “sheeple”.

But perhaps, the government controls ALL of the media, both the left-wing and the right-wing.

And that perhaps you are being led to believe that you are thinking independently, when you are actually just following the programmed narrative that the PTB (the Powers That Be) desire.

I see this in the narratives that are almost always easy to categorize by political affiliation. It's become simplistic and frightening.

Here we discuss this mechanism.

The following is an article titled:”Social Media Is A Polarization Machine” by FMPadmin6120 written on December 31, 2019. It is edited to fit this venue, but aside from that left intact. All credit to the author; Paul Rosenberg at www.freemansperspective.com .

Social Media Is A Polarization Machine

Sure, we’ve all seen this in practice and people have developed catchy terms for it, like echo chamber, but the polarization effect of social media has been demonstrated scientifically. In fact, some of us were warning about it more than a decade ago. And while I can no longer find my original documentation on the subject, I can tell you precisely how it works.

The One-Room Phenomenon

What researchers discovered about twenty years ago was that putting people of the same opinion into a single room had a striking effect: The opinion in the room moved, inevitably, to the extreme. And this effect was the same no matter what the original opinion may have been.

So, then:

If you put a bunch of right-wingers in a room, the shared opinion in the room will become stridently right-wing.
If you put a bunch of left-wingers in a room, the shared opinion in the room will become stridently left-wing.
If you put a bunch of save-the-planet advocates in a room, their opinion will become all the more adamantly save-the-planet.
If you put in a bunch of the-planet-is-just-fine advocates, their opinion will become all the more adamantly the-planet-is-just-fine.

This happens because of human insecurity and status-seeking: Anyone taking a contrary opinion (advocating “right-wing” economics in the left-wing room, for example) is instantly branded as a traitor and suffers heavy shaming within the group.

Gaining social status in the closed room, however, is simple and obvious: You just adopt a stronger, more polarized, version of the original opinion.

Because of this, the opinion in a closed group becomes more and more severe. That is, it becomes increasingly polarized.

Yeah, They Know

Like I said at the open, if you’ve observed people at all, you’ve seen them polarized by Facebook. They climb into their groups, block discordant voices, and end up in a (partly) self-created echo chamber.

I say “partly” self-created because Facebook knows all too well what they’re doing. They want people who are emotionally tied to their groups. It’s called addiction, and it’s what makes Facebook rich.

Being polarized also makes people cold and cruel. Anyone who’s on the other side of what their group thinks is not just wrong, but evil. And whoever fails to agree with them is their opponent… an object of disgust.

In that condition, people will advocate all sorts of stupid and even abominable positions, assured that the members of their group will support them tooth and nail. It’s now common, after all, for such groups to lump ten million people together and slap a negative verdict on them all. If you’re the wrong skin color, or too old, or too young, or a dozen other things, you’re “privileged,” or “don’t get it,” or something else. That is, you are declared evil. After that, whoever hurts you is a hero.

This serves Facebook, you understand. Once your opinions are polarized, you are dependent on your group and you’ll be unable to leave.

This addiction is also crucial for political causes. Facebook provides hard believers: addicts with claims to righteousness. And that means that politicians need Facebook, and deeply. Politicians get ahead by making their opponents into monsters, after all, and social media may be the best tool ever for creating polar opposites. (Or at least the illusion thereof.)

The Awakening Has Begun

Little by little, people are waking up to the evils of group dynamics and the devolutionary effects they generate.

Twitter, in my opinion, is  the least bad of the centralized social media platforms, and will  hopefully be decentralizing at some point. They have, at least, a team  working on that.

There are decentralized social media experiments coming along, and I hope they succeed, but the closed group problem will remain, even if it isn’t stoked to the limit by political and financial mercenaries((I was ready to write “whores,” rather than “mercenaries,” but I can’t equate sex workers, even metaphorically, with willful and purposeful abusers of mankind.)).

Thoughtful, observant and intelligent people are noticing that social media makes humans hateful, as well as lonely, insecure and miserable. I hope that knowledge spreads. I further hope that people will realize the past ten years of their life have been polluted by social media.

No, there’s nothing wrong with talking to friends and sharing ideas, but Facebook and other social media companies have weaponized this. They are intentionally abusing human instincts.

So, don’t get angry and hateful in response; just stop rewarding them. People who addict and polarize you are precisely the wrong ones to empower.

Social media is a polarization machine. Separating from it would be a very good idea.

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The US involvement in the HK “Democracy Now” movement.

Here, in this article, we look at the United States involvement with HK. We [1] study how the United States uses Hong Kong to exert pressure on China for trade and geopolitical advantage. We also [2] take a look at the various people “behind the scenes” that are pushing for American involvement, for their own personal gain. Finally, [3] we study the role that the American media plays that the stereotypes that they cultivate in order to manipulate Americans. This is perhaps the most comprehensive overview of the USA / China involvement in Hong Kong that you will find on the internet.

For starters, you the reader should recognize that global politics are often complicated, and convoluted. People will say one thing and then do the other. That there are forces, all with their own agendas, manipulating, jockeying, and vying for positions of power and advantage. All of this takes place on a canvas that is painted by the media. Often, a picture that doesn’t at all resemble what is actually going on behind the scene.

Or has everyone forgotten the "Trump is going to prison for conspiring with Russia to steal the election" narrative from the mainstream media from 20016 though to 2019?

The HK / USA / China issue is typical in geo-political posturing. It is like an onion. It really is.

You look at the onion, and you see the outside as portrayed to you. Much like how you observe the news media reporting. Then, you peel away the first layer. There you see the actions, and turmoil behind the scene. Your eyes will often burn. Because the truth what is going on was unknown to you. You then peel away the second layer, and find out just how deep all this goes.

You continue deeper and deeper.

You peel each layer away, one by one. And then finally you reach the true truth of the matter and take a good hard look at what is involved. In this particular situation, there are nine (x9) levels or layers of this “onion”. Ah, yes, and in this article we will investigate each one.

The HK - China - USA "free democracy" protests during 2019, and their complexity relative to the comparison to that of the layers of skin in an onion. — The HK – China – USA “free democracy” protests during 2019, and their complexity relative to the comparison to that of the layers of skin in an onion.

Here, we will proceed forward and address this issue in all of it’s complexity. We will move forward from the outside inward, and study each layer in relative detail.

The layers in this issue are;

News media reporting and bias.
Constructed and cultivated stereotypes.
The actual physical events.
The people who caused the events.
The people who are driving the events forward and pushing.
The people who provide financial support, training, and logistics.
The rise of the risks involved.
Reactions and the casualties of war.
The root effects; the trade relationships between the USA, HK and China.

As such, we will begin here…

News media reporting and bias.

President Donald Trump tweeted on August 13 that he “can’t imagine why” the United States has been blamed for the chaotic protests that have gripped Hong Kong.

Donald Trump doesn't understand how anyone could link the Summer of 2019 HK riots with the Summer of 2019 Trade Wars with China. — Donald Trump doesn’t understand how anyone could link the Summer of 2019 HK riots with the Summer of 2019 Trade Wars with China.

Trump’s befuddlement might be believable considering [1] the carefully managed narrative of the US government. As well as [2] the mainstream American media apparatus. Yeah, I get it. Even VP Mike Pence repeats this ludicrous narrative. But come on! Do you really think that the world believes this? After Syria? After Libya?

What? You think that the Chinese will believe that you are sincere?

This GIF pretty much sums up how it looks like to the rest of the world…

I am shocked! Shocked! That there is a connection between the **Summer of 2019 HK riots** and the **Summer of 2019 trade wars**.

I believe that the Hong Kong protest is influenced by the US.

The rioters are well-trained, organized and commanded, knowing what  to do and when to do it, they have a united uniform, they know where the  cameras are and they know how to disable them, they know how to fight  against tear gas. 

The violent protests are not simply targeting the  extradition law amendment bill, but also aiming to throw Hong Kong into  disarray, to drag down the SAR government. 

- Ty Yang (Hong Kong , China)

You think that they do not have informants? You think that HK is independent and immune from Chinese mainland observation? You think China doesn’t have cameras, video surveillance, wiretaps on telephones, and are not monitoring their insurgents?

Of course they are. And of course, they know full well what is going on. They know.

Keep your hands off Hong Kong! 

US has no authority to lecture China on  our own sovereign territory. How can US warmongers like Mike Pence even  have the legitimacy to talk about HK, when the US is still illegally  militarily occupying Syria with their US bases. Syria gave no permission  for the US to build bases in Syria. How can the US think they have any  god-given right to smack to China? 

-  MrBudha888 (China)

And we shouldn’t take their (apparent) lack of action on these matters as a weakness. Instead, we should consider it with the upmost caution. They do not make decisions based on what they see on CNN. They make their decisions off other criteria.

So it would be the height of follow to assume that the Chinese are simpletons, backwards, inept, and foolish. They are not. They know the game, and how it is played. They have over 5000 years of political intrigue, and they most certainly will not base their decisions off of what they see on the news.

The suspicion of US manipulation behind the scenes is gaining traction in the online world. 

The US has gained notoriety for using subterfuge to interfere with other sovereignty's affairs. 

It's not like the world is oblivious to that. 

- Joseph Kuan (US)

This reporting has been very “black and white”.

They report that the protests are some kind of organic “pro-democracy” expression of young idealistic grassroots youth. That they only want “freedom”, American style “democracy”, and a “slice of the American pie”. They just do not want to be considered Chinese, and they certainly don’t want anything to do with mainland China.

Oh. If only it were TRUE…

Why are they asking for World War III? Are they out of their collective minds? — The protests have been staged and arranged for an American audience, because that is the insurgents’ primary funding source.

However, a look beneath the surface of this oversimplified, made-for-television script reveals the truth.

It’s all a stack of cards. It’s all an illusion. It’s all a manipulation. It’s all a line and nonsense. And the Chinese are all well-aware of this.

US is everywhere in other countries' affairs! What a joke!
  
Nothing will distract China from focusing on economic development and  raising the standard of living for the 1.4 billion Chinese people.
  
The US should do the same, concentrating its resources and energy to  improve American people's lives. There is so much more to be desired for  the most advanced country of the world. 

- Miyya Z (China)

The truth is that there is a small but extremely vocal and well-funded, ferociously anti-Chinese network behind the demonstrations. They hate China. They really, seriously do.

But, it’s more than just hating China.

They hate America as well. They also hate Britain. They are so filled with hate that you would think that they were members of the American terrorist groups Antifa, and BLM. I mean, after all, they look like them, they act like them, and they use the exact same strategies as their American counterparts, the Antifa.

What? You think the Antifa and BLM love America? That’s what you think?

When a masked radical is shouting and screaming at you and is tellin you that they want you hurt, tortured, and killed, you should believe them. — When a masked radical is shouting and screaming at you and is telling you that they want you hurt, tortured, and killed, you should believe them. The mainland Chinese are listening to them, and as a result they are amassing military forces in the event that things spiral out of control.

But they will cover up and hide their hate. Most of the time they will put on masks and pretend to be something else. They will act nice and courteous, and seem and appear reasonable. Anything to obtain their goals.

Frangfang (Hong Kong, China)

The US is linking the current situation in Hong Kong to the US-China  trade negotiations, using Hong Kong as leverage to pressure compromise  from China. Such 'bargaining', in essence using Hong Kong as a 'trading  chip', would be a gross insult to the Hong Kong people.

And their goals are simple ones. It’s what every dictator and tyrant wants. They want their own fiefdom; they want Hong Kong as their own, and then they want to join the rest of the world as global oligarchs.

And America plays along.

Jimmy Lai (HK billionaire) meets with American VP Mike Pence. — Jimmy Lai (HK ultra-billionaire) meets with American VP Mike Pence. His goal is to disrupt the relationship between the United States and China so that he can have financial and economic advantage in Hong Kong. His primary and sole goal is to INTERRUPT the relationship between China and America.

This network has been cultivated, funded, and trained with the help of millions of dollars from the US government. (Read on to see the funding amounts, the agencies, the American officials involved, and other particulars.) Not to mention a particularly vocal progressive globalist Washington-linked local Hong Kong media tycoon. (Jimmy Lai with dreams of his own nation, and a near religious cult of followers.)

Constructed and cultivated stereotypes.

The way that the events are portrayed in Hong Kong is to fit the appetite for the American news-consuming audience. In particular, to appeal to the emotions of two especially and diametrically opposed groups;

The Progressive, Liberal Democrat Marxists.
The Traditional, Conservative Republicans.

The protests in HK are staged to pander to the American consumer. They are designed most especially to trigger emotional responses from AMerican. This is most especially true when the protestors sand the Star Spangled Banner. I ask the reader this, how many of you can sing the Chinese national anthem? — The protests in HK are staged to pander to the American consumer. They are designed most especially to trigger emotional responses from Americans. This is most especially true when the protestors sang the Star Spangled Banner. I ask the reader this, how many of you can sing the Chinese national anthem?

Let’s start with the appeals to the liberal democrat progressive Marxists in America. Look at the progressive media show DemocracyNow! (DN!) as one example. It is a prominent media outlet on the “progressive” end of the spectrum. They have been quite busy “reporting” on all the protests in Hong Kong. They report on them as if they are part and parcel of the same kinds of Antifa and BLM protests in the United States. So, of course, they would report on everything. Right?

From April through August 28, there  have been 25 brief accounts (“headlines” as DN! calls them, each  amounting to a few paragraphs) of the events in Hong Kong and 4  features, longer supposedly analytic pieces, on the same topic.  Transcripts of the four features are here, here, here and here.

Democracy Now! is an hour-long American TV, radio and internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman, who also acts as the show's executive producer, and Juan González. The show, which airs live each weekday at 08:00 ET, is broadcast on the internet and by over 1,400 radio and television stations worldwide. — Democracy Now! is an hour-long American TV, radio and internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman, who also acts as the show’s executive producer, and Juan González. The show, which airs live each weekday at 08:00 ET, is broadcast on the internet and by over 1,400 radio and television stations worldwide.

There is not a single mention of [1] possible US involvement or the meetings of the various leaders of the protest movement with [2] Pompeo, [3] Bolton, [4] Pence, or [5] the “Political Counselor” of the US Hong Kong consulate. It’s almost like they ignore the news that doesn’t fit their narrative. Imagine that!

And this silence on US meddling is true not only of most progressive commentators but also most conservatives.

On the Left when someone cries “Democracy,” many forget all their  pro-peace sentiment. And similarly on the Right when someone cries  “Communism,” anti-interventionism too often goes down the tubes.

In fact on its August 12 program, DN! managed a story taking a swipe at Russia right next to the one on Hong Kong – and DN! was in the forefront of advancing the now debunked and disgraced Russiagate Conspiracy Theory.

Amy Goodman is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement and Chevron Corporation's role in Nigeria. Since 1996, she has been the main host of Democracy Now!, a progressive global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the Internet. — Amy Goodman is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement and Chevron Corporation’s role in Nigeria. Since 1996, she has been the main host of Democracy Now!, a progressive global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the Internet.

Yes, on the other side of the political spectrum, is an appeal to American conservatives.

Protesters in Hong Kong waving the American flag and singing the American National anthem as they advocate for democracy. Wow! pic.twitter.com/CKyFstud22 

— Kaya Jones (@KayaJones) August 12, 2019

Displays of pro-American “jingoism” in the streets of Hong Kong have been like catnip for the international traditional conservative right. Conservatives LOVE to hear that people are throwing down the chains of Marxist socialism and embracing liberty and freedom. Even though they are actually calling for “democracy”, instead.)

Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host and conservative political commentator. He resides in Palm Beach, Florida, where he broadcasts The Rush Limbaugh Show. According to December 2015 estimates by Talkers Magazine, Limbaugh has a cume of around 13.25 million unique listeners, making his show the most listened-to American radio station.

Conservative Joey Gibson

Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson recently appeared at an anti-extradition protest in Hong Kong, live-streaming the event to  his tens of thousands of followers. 

A month earlier, Gibson was seen roughing up antifa activists alongside ranks of club wielding fascists. 

In Hong Kong, the alt-right organizer marveled at the crowds. “They love our flag here more than they do in America!” Gibson exclaimed as marchers passed by, flashing him a thumbs up sign while he waved the Stars and Stripes.

In Hong Kong, Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson marveled at the crowds. “They love our flag here more than they do in America!” .

Personally, I like to refer to these narratives a “two dimensional”, “black and white”, “cardboard cutouts”. It’s a simplified narrative useful for emotional manipulation of large groups of simple-minded people.

Boris and Natasha are card-board cut-outs (a two dimensional portrayal) of Russian Communists dueing the 1960's and into the 1970's. — Boris and Natasha are card-board cut-outs (a two dimensional portrayal) of Russian Communists during the 1960’s and into the 1970’s.

The actual physical events.

Throughout the summer of 2019 the world has watched as protests shook Hong Kong.

A man in Taiwan murdered his girlfriend and then fled to Hong Kong. The Taiwan government wanted HK to extradite him to face justice. To facilitate this (and other similar cases), an extradition bill was proposed and about to be signed, when suddenly all Hell broke loose.

It turned out that (apparently, out of the blue), a large number of Hong Kong residents didn't like the idea of being forcibly extradited to another country to face legal charges.

As early as April they began as peaceful demonstrations which peaked in early June, with hundreds of thousands, in protest of an extradition bill.

That bill would have allowed Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of China, to return criminals to Taiwan, mainland China or Macau for crimes committed there – after approval by multiple layers of the Hong Kong judiciary.

In other words, if you commit a crime in Taiwan and flee to Hong Kong, the Hong Kong police would no longer provide you with a safe-haven. They would return you back to the Taiwan where you committed the crime.

Ai! This was considered an assault in "freedom" and "liberty".

Protestors in Hong Kong protesting the passage of the extradition bill.

In the wake of those enormous nonviolent demonstrations, Carrie Lam, CEO of Hong Kong, “suspended” consideration of the extradition bill, a face-saving ploy. To make sure she was understood, she declared it “dead.”

The large rallies, an undeniable expression of the peaceful will of a large segment of the Hong Kong population had won an impressive victory. The unpopular extradition bill was slain.

But that was not the end of the story.

The protests continued.

Carrie Lam, CEO of HK, meets with Xi Peng the PResident of Mainland China. — Carrie Lam, CEO of HK, meets with Xi Peng the President of Mainland China.

They… continued.

They continued, even after their goals were met.

They continued, even after the head of the HK government admitted to bowing down to the demands of the protestors. Yes, it’s true. A smaller segment continued the protests. (The Hong Kong police at one point estimated 4,000 hard core protesters.)

They pressed on with other demands, beginning with a demand that  the bill be “withdrawn,” not simply “suspended.” Well, it's all a matter of terminology. By “suspension” is every bit as terminal as death by “withdrawal.”  The most recent news confirms that Corrie Lam has now formally withdrawn the bill.

But even at that, the protests are continuing by this group of hard-core radicals.

They still continued to protest.

The people who initiated, inflamed or caused the events.

On the surface, it seems very simple. An extradition bill was up for ratification. Protests against the ratification were initiated, and the bill was withdrawn. Victory, right?

Nope.

Radical elements are pushing for more protests. These are violent protests, and they pull at the heartstrings of American democrats who can see their faces behind the black-hoods and face masks of the protestors, as well as American conservatives who get "goosebumps" when they see their American flags being waved along side for calls for freedom and democracy.

Who are the public people who are getting everyone all riled up and agitated on both sides of this issue (oh, yes, there are two sides to this issue. Even though the mainstream America only shows one side.)?

As the summer passed, two iconic photos presented us with two human faces that captured two crucial features of the ongoing protests; they were not shown widely in the West. They are, apparently, not considered to be “newsworthy” enough for the American viewing public.

Fu Guohao

First, Fu Guohao, a reporter for the Chinese mainland newspaper, Global Times, was attacked, bound and beaten by the radical protesters. This occurred during their takeover of the Hong Kong International Airport.

FuGuohao, a reporter for the Global Times, a nationalistic Communist Party-run newspaper, has become an overnight sensation. He is being hailed as a hero on Chinese social media after he was tied up and beaten by protesters as Tuesday’s demonstrations at Hong Kong’s airport descended into violence. 

- Chinese Reporter Assaulted at Hong Kong Airport

When police and rescuers tried to free him, the protesters blocked them and also attempted to block the ambulance that eventually bore him off to the hospital.

Protestors fought the police.
Protestors blocked the ambulance.
Protestors bound, taunted and tortured Mr. Fu Guohao.

The photos and videos of this ugly sequence were seen by netizens across the globe even though given scant attention in Western media.

Where were the stalwart defenders of the press in the US as this happened? As one example, DemocracyNow! (DN!) was completely silent as was the rest of the US mainstream media.

Fu’s beating came after many weeks when the  protesters threw up barriers to stop traffic; blocked closure of subway  doors, in defiance of commuters and police, to shut down mass transit;  sacked and vandalized the HK legislature building; assaulted bystanders  who disagreed with them; attacked the police with Molotov cocktails; and  stormed and defaced police stations.

The protestors seem to be trying to provoke mainland China to take action. However, HK is standing firm and allowing the protestors a great deal of leeway in their actions and damage.

Fu’s ordeal and all these actions shown in photos on Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, a paper leaning to the side of protesters, gave the lie to the image of these “democracy activists” as young Ghandis of East Asia.

The South China Morning Post is based in  Hong Kong and its readership is concentrated there so it has to have some reasonable fidelity in reporting events; otherwise it loses credibility – and circulation. 

Similarly, much as the New York Times abhorred Occupy Wall Street, it could not fail to report on it.

Joshua Wong

A younger generation of political HK activists emerged during the 2014 Occupy Central protests with a new brand of localized politics. It is a brand that appealed to the American conservative (anti-Chinese) Right.

Joshua Wong was just 17 years old when the Umbrella Movement took form in 2014. After emerging in the protest ranks as one of the more charismatic voices, he was steadily groomed as the pro-West camp’s teenage poster child.

Joshua Wong meets with Sen. Marco Rubio in Washington on May 8, 2017 — Joshua Wong meets with Sen. Marco Rubio (R) in Washington on May 8, 2017

Wong received lavish praised in Time magazine, Fortune, and Foreign Policy as a “freedom campaigner,” and became the subject of an award-winning Netflix documentary called “Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower.”

Unsurprisingly, these puff pieces have overlooked Wong’s ties to the United States government’s regime-change apparatus. For that is what he is. He is the face of the American conservative foreign branch.

For instance, National Endowment for Democracy’s National Democratic Institute (NDI) maintains a close relationship with Demosistō, the political party Wong founded in 2016 with fellow Umbrella movement alumnus Nathan Law.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a U.S. non-profit soft power organization that was founded in 1983 with the stated goal of promoting democracy abroad. It is funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress in the form of a grant awarded through the United States Information Agency (USIA). It is an American agency that obtains funds directly from the American federal government.

National Endowment for Democracy’s National Democratic Institute (NDI)

To find out a little bit more about this “shadowy” and “well funded” machine for causing protests, turmoil, and discord in other nations, read this…

It’s a bit long. You can skim over it, or ignore it as you wish. It’s just some really interesting background information on how front organizations, funded by the United States government, can be used to create proxy protests, and turmoil for American geo-political advantage.

“They’re meddling in our politics!” That’s the war cry of outraged Clintonites and neocons, who seem to think election interference is something that Russians do to us and we never, ever do to them.

But meddling in other countries has been a favorite Washington pastime ever since William McKinley vowed to “Christianize” the Philippines in 1899, despite the fact that most Filipinos were already Catholic. Today, an alphabet soup of U.S. agencies engage in political interference virtually around the clock, everyone from USAID to the VOA, RFE/RL to the DHS—respectively the U.S. Agency for International Development, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Department of Homeland Security. The last maintains some 2,000 U.S. employees in 70 countries to ensure that no one even thinks of doing anything bad to anyone over here.

Then there is the National Endowment for Democracy, a $180-million-a-year government-funded outfit that is a byword for American intrusiveness. The NED is an example of what might be called “speckism,” the tendency to go on about the speck in your neighbor’s eye without ever considering the plank in your own (see Matthew 7 for further details). Prohibited by law from interfering in domestic politics, the endowment devotes endless energy to the democratic shortcomings of other countries, especially when they threaten American interests.

In 1984, the year after it was founded, it channeled secret funds to a military-backed presidential candidate in Panama, gave $575,000 to a right-wing French student group, and delivered nearly half a million dollars to right-wing opponents of Costa Rican president Oscar Arias—because Arias had refused to go along with our anti-communist policy in Central America.

A year later, it gave $400,000 to the anti-Sandinista opposition in Nicaragua and then another $2 million in 1988. It used its financial muscle in the mid-1990s to persuade a right-wing party to draw up a “Contract with Slovakia” modeled on Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America; persuaded free marketeers to do the same in Mongolia; gave nearly $1 million to Venezuelan rightists who went on to mount a short-lived putsch against populist leader Hugo Chavez in 2002; and then funded anti-Russian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko in Ukraine in 2005, and the later anti-Russian coup there in 2014.

What all this had to do with democracy is unclear, although the NED’s role in advancing U.S. imperial interests is beyond doubt. Rather than “my country right or wrong,” its operating assumption is “my country right, full stop.” If Washington says Leader X is out of line, then the endowment will snap to attention and fund his opponents.

If it says he’s cooperative and well-behaved, meaning he supports free markets and financial deregulation and doesn’t dally with any of America’s military rivals, it will do the opposite. It doesn’t matter if, like Putin, the alleged dictator swept the last election with 63.6 percent of the vote and was declared the “clear” winner by the European Union and the U.S. State Department. If he’s “expanding [Russia’s] influence in the Middle East,” as NED President Carl Gershman puts it, then he’s a “strongman” and an “autocrat” and must go.

America’s own shortcomings meanwhile go unnoticed. Meanwhile, the NED, as it nears the quarter-century mark, is a bundle of contradictions: a group that claims to be private even though it is almost entirely publicly funded, a group that says democracy “must be indigenous” even though it backs U.S.-imposed regime change, a group that claims to be “bipartisan” but whose board is packed with ideologically homogeneous hawks like Elliott Abrams, Anne Applebaum, and Victoria Nuland, the latter of whom served as assistant secretary of state during the coup in Ukraine.

Historically speaking, the NED feels straight out of the early 1980s, when Washington was struggling to overcome “Vietnam Syndrome” in order to rev up the Cold War. The recovery process began with Ronald Reagan declaring at his first inaugural, “The crisis that we are facing today [requires] our best effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds, to believe that together with God’s help we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us. After all, why shouldn’t we believe that? We are Americans.”

The U.S. was apparently not just a nation, but something like a religion as well. Additional input for the new NED in 1983 came from spymaster William Casey, CIA director from 1981 to 1987, who, after the intelligence scandals of the 70s, had swung around to the view that certain covert operations were better spun off into what the British call a “quango,” a quasi-non-government organization. “Obviously we here should not get out in front in the development of such an organization,” he cautioned, “nor do we wish to appear to be a sponsor or advocate.” It was a case of covert backing for an overt turn.

Others who helped lay the groundwork were:

Neoconservative ideologue Jeane Kirkpatrick, Reagan’s ambassador to the UN, famous for her argument that “traditional authoritarian governments” should be supported against “revolutionary autocracies” because they are “less repressive” and whose UN aide Carl Gershman would become NED president and serves to this day.

Human rights Democrats who believe that America’s job is to enforce democratic standards throughout the world, however idiosyncratic and self-serving they may be Old-fashioned pluralists who maintained that the power to succeed existed in different groups’ working separately toward a common goal, in this case, spreading democracy abroad .

The result was an ideologically lethal package that assumed whatever Americans did was democratic because God is on our side, that old-fashioned CIA skullduggery was passé, and that the time had come to switch to more open means. “We should not have to do this kind of work covertly,” Gershman later explained. “We saw that in the 60s, and that’s why it has been discontinued. We have not had the capability of doing this, and that’s why the endowment was created.”

In the interests of pluralism, the NED adopted a quadripartite structure with separate wings for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO, the GOP, and the Democrats, each working separately yet somehow together.
Pluralism helped tamp down debate and also shore up support on Capitol Hill. Liberal Democrats were initially skeptical due to the NED’s neocon tilt. Michigan Congressman John Conyers Jr. tried to kill it in 1985, and The Nation magazine complained a few years later that the group served as little more than “a pork barrel for a small circle of Republican and Democratic party activists, conservative trade unionists, and free marketeers who use endowment money to run their own mini State Department.”

But when the House voted unexpectedly to defund the agency in 1993, beneficiaries sprang to its defense. Major-league pundits like George Will, David Broder, and Abe Rosenthal “went into overdrive,” according to The Nation, as did the heavy hitters of the Washington Post editorial page. Vice President Walter Mondale, a member of the NED board of directors, worked the phones along with Lane Kirkland, George Meany’s successor as head of the AFL-CIO.

Ronald Reagan wrote a letter, while Senators Richard Lugar, Orrin Hatch, and John McCain pitched in as well. So did prominent liberals like Paul Wellstone, John Kerry, Tom Harkin, Ted Kennedy, and Carol Moseley-Braun. These people normally couldn’t bear to be in the same with one another, but they were of one mind when it came to America’s divine right to intervene in other nations’ affairs.

The anti-NED forces didn’t stand a chance. Twenty-five years later, the endowment is again under attack, although this time from the right.

Gershman started the ball rolling when, in October 2016, he interrupted his busy pro-democracy schedule to dash off a column in the Washington Post accusing Russia of using “email hackers, information trolls and open funding of political parties to sow discord” and of “even intervening in the U.S. presidential election.” Since there was no question whom Russia was intervening for, there was no doubt what the article amounted to: a thinly veiled swipe at a certain orange-haired candidate.

Never one to forget a slight, Trump got his revenge last month by proposing to slash the NED budget by 60 percent. The response was the same as in 1993, only more so. Uber-hawk Senator Lindsey Graham pronounced the cut “dead on arrival,” adding: “This budget destroys soft power, it puts our diplomats at risk, and it’s going nowhere.”

Gershman said it would mean “sending a signal far and wide that the United States is turning its back on supporting brave people who share our values,” while Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin moaned that the administration was guilty of an “assault on democracy promotion.” The ever-voluble Democratic Congresswoman Nita Lowey accused the administration of “dismantling an agency that advances critical goals.”

“The work our government does to promote democratic values abroad is at the heart of who we are as a country,” added Senator John McCain. America is democracy, democracy is America, and, as history’s first global empire, the U.S. has an unqualified right to do unto others what others may not do unto the U.S. Only a “Siberian candidate,” “a traitor,” or “a Russian stooge” could possibly disagree.

- The National Endowment for (Meddling in) Democracy by Daniel Lazare

Julie Eadeh

In August, a candid photo surfaced of Wong and Law meeting with Julie Eadeh, the political counselor at the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong, raising questions about the content of the meeting and setting off a diplomatic showdown between Washington and Beijing.

Julie Eadeh

People, it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with American presidential aides!

This is very very embarrassing.  Julie Eadeh, a  US diplomat in Hong Kong, was caught meeting HK protest leaders.  It  would be hard to imagine the US reaction if Chinese diplomat were  meeting leaders of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter or Never Trump  protesters. pic.twitter.com/JfiU2O2HZq 

— Chen Weihua (@chenweihua) August 8, 2019

Of course, this kind of nonsense won’t be tolerated by China.

The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong submitted a formal complaint with the US consulate general, calling on the US “to immediately make a clean break from anti-China forces who stir up trouble in Hong Kong, stop sending out wrong signals to violent offenders, refrain from meddling with Hong Kong affairs and avoid going further down the wrong path.”

So the United States wants to get involved in Chinese affairs.

Well, then be prepared for some “push back”. The pro-Beijing Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao doxxed Eadeh. They published personal details about Eadeh, including the names of her children and her address.

But, Washington, D.C. is not used to “push back”.

State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus lashed out, accusing the Chinese government of being behind the leak but offering no evidence. “I don’t think that leaking an American diplomat’s private information, pictures, names of their children, I don’t think that is a formal protest, that is what a thuggish regime would do,” she said at a State Department briefing.

Totally ignoring the already issued formal protest from China.

Aside from the official American government protests bout the doxxing, the leaked Mariott photo underscored the close relationship between Hong Kong’s pro-West movement and the US government.

There is ample proof that the United States government has been coaching, and supporting the protests in Hong Kong.

Since the 2014 Occupy Central protests that vaulted Wong into prominence, he and his peers have been assiduously cultivated by the elite Washington institutions to act as the faces and voices of Hong Kong’s burgeoning anti-China movement.

This has continued a pace.

In September 2015, Wong, Martin Lee, and University of Hong Kong law professor Benny Tai Lee were honored by Freedom House, a right-wing soft-power organization that is heavily funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and other arms of the US government.

Freedom House

Just days after Trump’s election as president in November 2016, Wong was back in Washington to appeal for more US support. “Being a businessman, I hope Donald Trump could know the dynamics in Hong Kong and know that to maintain the business sector benefits in Hong Kong, it’s necessary to fully support human rights in Hong Kong to maintain the judicial independence and the rule of law,” he said.

Wong’s visit to Washington DC provided occasion for the Senate’s two most aggressively neoconservative members, Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, to introduce the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act,”.

Wong’s visit provided occasion for the Senate’s two most aggressively neoconservative members, Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, to introduce the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act,” which would “identify those responsible for abduction, surveillance, detention and forced confessions, and the perpetrators will have their US assets, if any… frozen and their entry to the country denied.”

Marco Rubio
Tom Cotton

Wong was given the “royal carpet treatment”. He was then taken on a junket of elite US institutions including the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank and the newsrooms of the New York Times and Financial Times. He then held court with Rubio, Cotton, Pelosi, and Sen. Ben Sasse.

Heritage Foundation
Nancy Pelosi
Ben Sasse

In September 2017, Rubio, Ben Cardin, Tom Cotton, Sherrod Brown, and Cory Gardner signed off on a letter to Wong, Law and fellow anti-China activist Alex Chow, praising them for their “efforts to build a genuinely autonomous Hong Kong.” The bipartisan cast of senators proclaimed that “the United States cannot stand idly by.”

Ben Cardin
Sherrod Brown
Cory Gardner

A year later, Rubio and his colleagues nominated the trio of Wong, Law, and Chow for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize.

Honored to have met Joshua Wong, a student leader who led a big protest demanding universal suffrage in Hong Kong. pic.twitter.com/sSb46j7zIX

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) November 18, 2015

Washington’s support for the designated spokesmen of the “retake Hong Kong movement” was supplemented with untold sums of money from US regime-change outfits like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and subsidiaries like the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to civil society, media and political groups.

National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
National Democratic Institute (NDI)

As journalist Alex Rubinstein reported, the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, a key member of the coalition that organized against the now-defunct extradition law, has received more than $2 million in NED funds since 1995.

Other groups in the coalition reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars from the NED and NDI last year alone.

While US lawmakers nominate Hong Kong protest leaders for peace prizes and pump their organizations with money to “promote democracy,” the demonstrations have begun to spiral out of control.

The people who are driving the events.

25th August 2019 – (Hong Kong) The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has funded the 2014 Occupy Central in the past but many have begun to wonder if the Americans did indeed have a hand in the latest anti-extradition protests in Hong Kong. Numerous meetings between pro-democracy political activists, representatives from NED and top government officials have left us wondered if NED has funded the frontline protesters .

We have mentioned earlier in our previous article that, there are in principle two factions of protesters, the genuine protesters (90%) and the frontline protesters (10%). Only the 10% frontline protesters are potentially funded by the Americans as the mass of Hong Kong protesters fit naturally into their agenda.

What is NED? NED is a U.S. non-profit soft power organization that was founded in 1983 with the stated goal of promoting democracy abroad. In principle, NED is a grant-making foundation, distributing funds to private non-governmental organisations for promoting democracy abroad. NED does not directly fund any political party, as this is forbidden by law. According to NED, it funds election monitoring and also civic education about voting, such as student-led “get-out-the-vote” campaigns.

However, according to American Conservative, in 1984, the year after it was founded, it channeled secret funds to a military-backed presidential candidate in Panama, gave US$575,000 to a right-wing French student group, and delivered nearly half a million dollars to right-wing opponents of Costa Rican president Oscar Arias—because Arias had refused to go along with our anti-communist policy in Central America.

- Is United States involved in the current civil unrest in Hong Kong via its National Endowment for Democracy (NED)?

The protesters’ stated goals remain vague. No one now knows what exactly they are protesting for.

HK Riot police can only take so much violence before some serious accidents will occur.

Joshua Wong, one of the most well known figures in the movement, has since put forward a call for the Chinese government to [1] “retract the proclamation that the protests were riots,” and [2] restated the consensus demand for universal suffrage.

Wong is a bespectacled 22-year-old who has been trumpeted in Western media as a “freedom campaigner,” promoted to the English-speaking world through his own Netflix documentary, and rewarded with the backing of the US government.

Hey! This kid is doing really well for himself. He's getting millions of dollars from various political American movements. He was up for the Peace Prize, and has his own Netflix documentary. Pretty good for a a young unemployed Hong Kong millennial. It's nice to see where all our campaign donations and tax dollars goes to.

Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong released from prison, vows to continue actions of violence.

But behind telegenic spokespeople like Wong are more extreme elements such as the Hong Kong National Party, whose members have appeared at protests waving the Stars and Stripes and belting out cacophonous renditions of the Star-Spangled Banner. The leadership of this officially banned party helped popularize the call for the full independence of Hong Kong, a radical goal that is music to the ears of hardliners in Washington.

Xenophobic resentment has defined the sensibility of the protesters, who vow to “retake Hong Kong” from Chinese mainlanders they depict as a horde of locusts.

The demonstrators have even adopted one of the most widely recognized symbols of the alt-right, emblazoning images of Pepe the Frog on their protest literature. While it’s unclear that Hong Kong residents see Pepe the same way American conservatives do, members of the US far-right have embraced the protest movement as their own, and even personally joined their ranks.

Protesters in Hong Kong have adopted the popular “Pepe the Frog” meme as one of their symbols of resistance amid ongoing demonstrations against a proposed extradition bill. The frog’s familiar face has appeared on signs in various protests calling out violent police crackdowns against demonstrators. One meme showing Pepe with an injured eye focused on a police assault which left a first responder blind after being shot with a bean bag round at close range.

Which brings us to the second key photo of importance. It is much more important to US citizens. It clearly shows a “Political Counselor” from the US Consulate General in Hong Kong with radical anti-government protestors at the HK Marriot hotel.

The official was formerly a State Dept functionary in the Middle East – in Jerusalem, Riyadh, Beirut, Baghdad and Doha, certainly not an area lacking in imperial intrigues and regime change ops.

That photo graphically contradicted the contention that there is no US “black hand,” as China calls it, in the Hong Kong riots.

In fact, here the “black hand” was caught red-handed, leading Chen Weihua, a very perceptive China Daily columnist, to tweet the picture with the comment:

“This is very very embarrassing. … a US diplomat in Hong Kong, was caught meeting HK protest leaders. It would be hard to imagine the US reaction if a Chinese diplomat were meeting leaders of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter or Never Trump protesters.”

And that photo with the protest leaders is just a snap shot of the ample evidence of the hand of the US government and its subsidiaries in the Hong Kong events.

There is substantial and ample evidence that the United States government has been very active in functing, advising and supporting the anti-government protestors in Hong Kong. — There is substantial and ample evidence that the United States government has been very active in funding, advising and supporting the anti-government protestors in Hong Kong.

Perhaps the best documentation of the US “black hand” is to be found in Dan Cohen’s superb article of August 17 in The Greyzone entitled, “Behind a made-for-TV Hong Kong protest narrative, Washington is backing nativism and mob violence.”

The article by Cohen deserves careful reading; it leaves little doubt that there is a very deep involvement of the US in the Hong Kong riots.

Of special interest is the detailed role and funding, amounting to over $1.3 million, in Hong Kong alone in recent years, of the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED), ever on the prowl for new regime change opportunities.

Perhaps most important, the leaders of the  “leaderless” protests have met with major US political figures such as  John Bolton, Vice President Pence, Secretary Pompeo, Senator Marco  Rubio, Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel, Nancy Pelosi and others, all of whom  have heartily endorsed their efforts.

This is not to deny that the protests were home grown at the outset in response to what was widely perceived as a legitimate grievance. But it would be equally absurd to deny that the US is fishing in troubled Hong Kong waters to advance its anti-China crusade and regime change ambitions.

People! China is a serious, serious nation. They do not mess around. If you think that they will not take this meddling as some kind of physical attack, then you are living in a fantasy world. They WILL take action. You all just have no idea what it will be. Nor will you know when they will take action.

The people who are activating the events.

As has been demonstrated so far, there are various individuals who are playing the "global high-power" politics role in all this. This includes American Senators, Congressmen, and various American sponsored "freedom" organizations. 

But there are also others. Other people who have their own personal interests for "stirring up the pot". Here we look at others, who have a bigger personal stake in all of these protests.

Jimmy Lai

Among the most central influencers of the demonstrations is a local tycoon named Jimmy Lai. The self-described “head of opposition media,” Lai is widely described as the Rupert Murdoch of Asia.

The United States is intimately involved in the HK protests.

For the masses of protesters, Lai is a transcendent figure. They clamor for photos with him and applaud the oligarch wildly when he walks by their encampments.

Lai established his credentials by pouring millions of dollars into the 2014 Occupy Central protest, which is known popularly as the Umbrella Movement. He has since used his massive fortune to fund local anti-China political movers and shakers while injecting the protests with a virulent brand of Sinophobia through his media empire.

Sinophobia - definition of Sinophobia by The Free Dictionary

Sinophobia synonyms, Sinophobia pronunciation, Sinophobia translation, English dictionary definition of Sinophobia.  n. 1. Fear of or contempt for China, its people, or its culture. 2.  Behavior based on such an attitude or feeling. Si′no·phobe′ n.  Si′no·pho′bic adj.

Jimmy Lai (HK billionaire) meets withAmerican VP Pompeo. — Jimmy Lai (HK billionaire) meets with American VP Mike Pence. Politically he is a progressive leftist who became one of the most powerful men in HK. He desires to leverage his relationship and power to have the USA perform proxy interceptions within China and HK relationships for his own personal benefit.

Though Western media has depicted the Hong Kong protesters as the voice of an entire people yearning for freedom, the island is deeply divided. This August, a group of protesters mobilized outside Jimmy Lai’s house, denouncing him as a “running dog” of Washington and accusing him of national betrayal by unleashing chaos on the island.

#HongKong tycoon Jimmy Lai criticized as conspirator behind violence in HK pic.twitter.com/B9PFgtK2YP 

— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) August 11, 2019

Days earlier, Lai was in Washington, coordinating with hardline members of Trump’s national security team, including John Bolton. His ties to Washington run deep — and so do those of the front-line protest leaders.

John Bolton

Jimmy Lai has been working with President Trump's national security advisor John Bolton in how to work with China.

In this relationship, it is obvious that both Jimmy Lai and John Bolton want to take a very hard-line with China. As such, we can well expect John Bolton to sabotage any tariff agreement between Xi Peng and Donald Trump.

Personally, I believe that for there to be any kind of mutually-beneficial trade relationship and agreement between the USA and China, John Bolton would have to step down from being an advisor to Donald Trump.

Millions of dollars have flowed from US regime-change outfits like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) into civil society and political organizations that form the backbone of the anti-China mobilization. And Lai has supplemented it with his own fortune while instructing protesters on tactics through his various media organs.

With Donald Trump in the White House, Lai is convinced that his moment may be on the horizon. Trump “understands the Chinese like no president understood,” the tycoon told the Wall Street Journal. “I think he’s very good at dealing with gangsters.”

Born in the mainland in 1948 to wealthy parents, whose fortune was expropriated by the Communist Party during the revolution the following year, Jimmy Lai began working at 9 years old, carrying bags for train travelers during the hard years of the Great Chinese Famine.

Inspired by the taste of a piece of chocolate gifted to him by a wealthy man, he decided to smuggle himself to Hong Kong to discover a future of wealth and luxury. There, Lai worked his way up the ranks of the garment industry, growing enamored with the libertarian theories of economists Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, the latter of whom became his close friend. 

Friedman is famous for developing the neoliberal shock therapy doctrine that the US has imposed on numerous countries, resulting in the excess deaths of millions. For his part, Hayek is the godfather of the Austrian economic school that forms the foundation of libertarian political movements across the West.

Lai built his business empire on Giordano, a garment label that became one of Asia’s most recognizable brands. In 1989, he threw his weight behind the Tiananmen Square protests, hawking t-shirts on the streets of Beijing calling for Deng Xiaoping to “step down.”

It was a year after the Communist Party of China, led by Deng Xiaoping, put forward the policy of reform and opening-up. Under the policy, individuals nationwide were encouraged to run businesses and set up private companies. That meant that family enterprises like the Nian’s sunflower seed business became legal. Deng’s visionary move fueled the growth of private enterprise and set a milestone for China’s market-oriented economy.

In other words, Mr. Deng introduced China to Reganomics. And while President Bush stopped all of the Reaganomics that he started, Mr. Deng continued, creating the China that exists today.

Lai’s actions provoked the Chinese  government to ban his company from operating on the mainland. 

A year  later, he founded Next Weekly magazine, initiating a process that would  revolutionize the mediascape in Hong Kong with a blend of smutty  tabloid-style journalism, celebrity gossip and a heavy dose of  anti-China spin.

The vociferously anti-communist baron soon became Hong Kong’s media kingpin, worth a whopping $660 million in 2009. 

Today, Lai is the founder and majority stakeholder of Next Digital, the largest listed media company in Hong Kong, which he uses to agitate for the end of what he calls the Chinese “dictatorship.” His flagship outlet is the popular tabloid Apple Daily, employing the trademark mix of raunchy material with a heavy dose of xenophobic, nativist propaganda.

In 2012, Apple Daily carried a full page advertisement depicting mainland Chinese citizens as invading locusts draining Hong Kong’s resources. The advertisement called for a stop to the “unlimited invasion of mainland pregnant women in Hong Kong.”

(This was a crude reference to the Chinese citizens who  had flocked to the island while pregnant to ensure that their children  could earn Hong Kong residency, and resembled the resentment among the  US right-wing of immigrant “anchor babies.”)

Ad in Lai’s Apple Daily: “That’s enough! Stop unlimited invasion of mainland pregnant women!”

The transformation of Hong Kong’s economy has provided fertile soil for Lai’s brand of demagoguery. As the country’s manufacturing base moved to mainland China after the golden years of the 1980s and ‘90s, the economy was rapidly financialized, enriching oligarchs like Lai.

Left with rising debt and dimming career prospects, Hong Kong’s youth became easy prey to the demagogic politics of nativism.

Many protesters have been seen waving British Union Jacks in recent weeks, expressing a yearning for an imaginary past under colonial control which they never personally experienced.

In July, protesters vandalized the Hong Kong Liaison Office, spray-painting the word, “Shina” on its facade. This term is a xenophobic slur some in Hong Kong and Taiwan use to refer to mainland China.

The anti-Chinese phenomenon was visible during the 2014 Umbrella movement protests as well, with signs plastered around the city reading, “Hong Kong for Hong Kongers.”

支那(Shina) is Japanese word for China that became  derogatory during Sino-Japanese War. Post-War Japan gov ban its use in  Kanji form (Chinese characters) in official document. Yet some people in  Hong Kong and Taiwan use it to insult people from Chinese mainland.  It=“Chink” in Eng https://t.co/Oe8LCXgak8

— Carl Zha (@CarlZha) July 22, 2019

This month, protesters turned their fury on the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, spray-painting “rioters” on its office. The attack represented resentment of the left-wing group’s role in a violent 1967 uprising against the British colonial authorities, who are now seen as heroes among many of the anti-Chinese demonstrators.

Edward Leung

Besides Lai, a large part of the credit for mobilizing latent xenophobia goes to the right-wing Hong Kong Indigenous party leader Edward Leung. Under the direction of the 28-year-old Leung, his pro-independence party has brandished British colonial flags and publicly harassed Chinese mainland tourists. In 2016, Leung was exposed for meeting with US diplomatic officials at a local restaurant.

Though he is currently in jail for leading a 2016 riot where police were bombarded with bricks and pavement – and where he admitted to attacking an officer – Leung’s rightist politics and his slogan, “Retake Hong Kong,” have helped define the ongoing protests.

A local legislator and protest leader described Leung to the New York Times as “the Che Guevara of Hong Kong’s revolution,” referring without a hint of irony to the Latin American communist revolutionary killed in a CIA-backed operation. According to the Times, Leung is “the closest thing Hong Kong’s tumultuous and leaderless protest movement has to a guiding light.”

Andy Chan

The xenophobic sensibility of the protesters has provided fertile soil for Hong Kong National Party to recruit. Founded by the pro-independence activist Andy Chan, the officially banned party combines anti-Chinese resentment with calls for the US to intervene.

"I ask President Trump to bring full-scale of sanction on to Hong Kong. The sanctions brought on China must [be] brought on Hong Kong because China can escape sanctions through Hong Kong. I would like to take the chance to reiterate my advocacy again: to revoke the 1992 Hong Kong Policy Act passed by the United States Congress. It allows Hong Kong to enjoy a special status apart from China. However, it turns out to be a back door of the free world that could be accessed and manipulated by China. Moreover, over 70% of foreign direct investment goes in to China through Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the main window that China obtains U.S. dollars from. Therefore, shut it down."

-Andy Chan

Images and videos have surfaced of HKNP members waving the flags of the US and UK, singing the Star Spangled Banner, and carrying flags emblazoned with images of Pepe the Frog, the most recognizable symbol of the US alt-right.

It is a very small group. With only a handful of members. While the party lacks a wide base of popular support, it is perhaps the most outspoken within the protest ranks, and has attracted disproportionate international attention as a result.

Independenc party banned in HK. — “I ask President Trump to bring full-scale of sanction on to Hong Kong. The sanctions brought on China must [be] brought on Hong Kong because China can escape sanctions through Hong Kong. I would like to take the chance to reiterate my advocacy again: to revoke the 1992 Hong Kong Policy Act passed by the United States Congress.

It allows Hong Kong to enjoy a special status apart from China. However, it turns out to be a back door of the free world that could be accessed and manipulated by China. Moreover, over 70% of foreign direct investment goes in to China through Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the main window that China obtains U.S. dollars from. Therefore, shut it down.”

Chan has called for Trump to escalate the trade war and accused China of carrying out a “national cleansing” against Hong Kong. “We were once colonized by the Brits, and now we are by the Chinese,” he declared.

The risks if this manipulation cannot be constrained.

Such xenophobic propaganda is consistent with the clash of civilizations theory that Jimmy Lai has promulgated through his media empire. It is useful. It has a proven record of success, and is useful to obtain his objectives at this time.

“You have to understand the Hong Kong  people – a very tiny 7 million or 0.5 percent of the Chinese population  – are very different from the rest of Chinese in China, because we grow  up in the Western values, which was the legacy of the British colonial  past, which gave us the instinct to revolt once this extradition law was  threatening our freedom,” Lai told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. “Even  America has to look at the world 20 years from now, whether you want the  Chinese dictatorial values to dominate this world, or you want the  values that you treasure [to] continue.”

During a panel discussion at the neoconservative Washington-based think tank, the Foundation For Defense of Democracies, Lai told the pro-Israel lobbyist Jonathan Schanzer,

“We need to know that  America is behind us. By backing us, America is also sowing to the will  of their moral authority because we are the only place in China, a tiny  island in China, which is sharing your values, which is fighting the  same war you have with China.”

While Lai makes no attempt to conceal his political agenda, his bankrolling of central figures in the 2014 Occupy Central, or Umbrella movement protests, was not always public.

To find out what is going on here, all you need to do is "follow the money". — To find out what is going on here, all you need to do is “follow the money”.

Leaked emails revealed that Lai poured more than $1.2 million to anti-China political parties including $637,000 USD to the Democratic Party and $382,000 USD to the Civic Party. Lai also gave $115,000 USD to the Hong Kong Civic Education Foundation and Hong Kong Democratic Development Network, both of which were co-founded by Reverend Chu Yiu-ming. Lai also spent $446,000 USD on Occupy Central’s 2014 unofficial referendum.

Lai’s US consigliere is a former Navy intelligence analyst who interned with the CIA and leveraged his intelligence connections to build his boss’s business empire.

Mark Simon

Named Mark Simon, the veteran spook arranged for former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin to meet with a group in the anti-China camp during a 2009 visit to Hong Kong.

Five years later, Lai paid $75,000 to neoconservative Iraq war author and US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to organize a meeting with top military figures in Myanmar.

This July, as the Hong Kong protests gathered steam, Lai was junketed to Washington, DC for meetings with Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton, and Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Cory Gardner, and Rick Scott.

Bloomberg News correspondent Nicholas Wadhams remarked on Lai’s visit, “Very unusual for a [non-government] visitor to get that kind of access.”

Today: Hong Kong publisher and democracy advocate  Jimmy Lai met National Security Adviser John Bolton in DC. After  meetings with @SecPompeo and @VP, this is meant to send a signal to Beijing. Very unusual for a nongovt visitor to get that kind of access. pic.twitter.com/6rvqsGJzru

— Nicholas Wadhams (@nwadhams) July 10, 2019

Hong Kong publisher and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai met National Security Adviser John Bolton in DC. After meetings with @SecPompeo and @VP, this is meant to send a signal to Beijing. This continued as the proxy protests continued in HK. In this picture a protestor was arrested trying to sneak into the HK international airport.

One of Lai’s closest allies, Martin Lee, was also granted an audience with Pompeo, and has held court with US leaders including Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Joseph Biden.

Martin Lee
Nancy Pelosi
Joseph Biden

Among the most prominent figures in Hong Kong’s pro-US political parties, Martin Lee began collaborating with Lai during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

A recipient of the US government-funded National Endowment for Democracy’s “Democracy Award” in 1997, Lee is the founding chairman of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, now considered part of the pro-US camp’s old guard.

These latest groups of protests are not about HK law. They are about armed militarized conflicts against the HK government. They choose not to work with the government, instead they want to embrace violence.

After the extradition law was scrapped, the protests moved into a more aggressive phase, launching “hit and run attacks” against government targets, erecting roadblocks, besieging police stations, and generally embracing the extreme modalities put on display during US-backed regime-change operations from Ukraine to Venezuela to Nicaragua.

AJE in position to cover HK protesters' "hit and run strategy." 

Here's William Engdahl on Otpor!, the CIA-backed Serbian group that  trained thousands of youth activists in countries around the world in  color revolution swarming tactics: https://t.co/jvCk2QBNhK https://t.co/I8oGScbpsS pic.twitter.com/a3JZzGwDb9

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) August 13, 2019

The techniques clearly reflected the training many activists have received from Western soft-power outfits. But they also bore the mark of Jimmy Lai’s media operation.

In addition to the vast sums Lai spent on political parties directly involved in the protests, his media group created an animated video “showing how to resist police in case force was used to disperse people in a mass protest.”

While dumping money into the Hong Kong’s pro-US political camp in 2013, Lai traveled to Taiwan for a secret roundtable consultation with Shih Ming-teh, a key figure in Taiwan’s social movement that forced then-president Chen Shui-bian to resign in 2008. Shih reportedly instructed Lai on non-violent tactics to bring the government to heel, emphasizing the importance of a commitment to go to jail.

According to journalist Peter Lee, “Shih supposedly gave Lai advice on putting students, young girls, and mothers with children in the vanguard of the street protests, in order to attract the support of the international community and press, and to sustain the movement with continual activities to keep it dynamic and fresh.” Lai reportedly turned off his recording device during multiple sections of Shih’s tutorial.

“Shih supposedly gave Lai advice on putting students, young girls, and mothers with children in the vanguard of the street protests, in order to attract the support of the international community and press, and to sustain the movement with continual activities to keep it dynamic and fresh.”

One protester explained to the New York Times how the movement attempted to embrace a strategy called, “Marginal Violence Theory”: By using “mild force” to provoke security services into attacking the protesters, the protesters aimed to shift international sympathy away from the state.

As I have repeated stated in this article, it seems like the protestors want the police and military forces to engage them. Per this quote in the use of "mild force", it seems obvious that this is their strategy.

As the protest movement intensifies, its rank-and-file are doing away with tactical restraint and lashing out at their targets with full fury. They have thrown molotov cocktails into intersections to block traffic; attacked vehicles and their drivers for attempting to break through roadblocks; beaten opponents with truncheons; attacked a wounded man with a US flag; menaced a reporter into deleting her photos; kidnapped and beat a journalist senseless; beat a mainland traveler unconscious and prevented paramedics from reaching the victim; and hurled petrol bombs at police officers.

A Hong Kong protester continued to attack Chinese reporter for @globaltimesnews with American flag  even as Paramedics finally freed him from the crowd and tried to rush him to hospital  pic.twitter.com/AIULKRW76t

— Carl Zha (@CarlZha) August 13, 2019

The charged atmosphere has provided a shot in the arm to Lai’s media empire, which had been suffering heavy losses since the last round of national protests in 2014. After the mass marches against the extradition bill on June 9, which Lai’s Apple Daily aggressively promoted, his Next Digital doubled in value, according to Eji Insight.

Meanwhile, the protest leaders show no sign of backing down.

Nathan Law, the youth activist celebrated in Washington and photographed meeting with US officials in Hong Kong, took to Twitter to urge his peers to soldier on: “We have to persist and keep the faith no matter how devastated the reality seems to be,” he wrote.

Nathan Law

Law was tweeting from New Haven, Connecticut, where he was enrolled with a full scholarship at Yale University. While the young activist basked in the adulation of his US patrons thousands of miles from the chaos he helped spark, a movement that defined itself as a “leaderless resistance” forged ahead back home.

By A Political Junkie Global Research, August 18, 2019 Viable Opposition 14 August 2019

While there has been growing coverage of the unrest in Hong Kong, there has been minimal coverage of what may lie behind the pro-democracy protests.

As you will see in this posting, it is entirely possible that a Washington-based and Congressionally funded institution is responsible, at least in part, for the lack of calmness in Hong Kong.

American involvement in the affairs of other nations is well established. It should come as no surprise to anyone that America would fund and instigate protests and violence in China’s backyard. For more information, go to this posting on the National Endowment for Democracy or NED, America’s instrument of democratic promotion around the world, that is, democracy American style. NED was founded in 1983 during the Reagan Administration with the following Statement of Principles and Objectives:

“Democracy involves the right of the people freely to determine their own destiny. 

The exercise of this right requires a system that guarantees  freedom of expression, belief and association, free and competitive  elections, respect for the inalienable rights of individuals and  minorities, free communications media, and the rule of law.“

While NED touts itself as a “private” foundation, in other words, it is independent of government. That could not be further from the truth. Here’s what NED has to say about itself that belies its true character:

“NED is a unique institution. The Endowment’s nongovernmental character gives it a flexibility that makes it possible to work in some of the world’s most difficult circumstances, and to respond quickly when there is an opportunity for political change. NED is dedicated to fostering the growth of a wide range of democratic institutions abroad, including political parties, trade unions, free markets and business organizations, as well as the many elements of a vibrant civil society that ensure human rights, an independent media, and the rule of law.

This well-rounded approach responds to the diverse aspects of democracy and has proved both practical and effective throughout NED’s history. Funded largely by the U.S. Congress, the support NED gives to groups abroad sends an important message of solidarity to many democrats who are working for freedom and human rights, often in obscurity and isolation….

From its beginning, NED has remained steadfastly bipartisan. Created jointly by Republicans and Democrats, NED is governed by a board balanced between both parties and enjoys Congressional support across the political spectrum. NED operates with a high degree of transparency and accountability reflecting our founders’ belief that democracy promotion overseas should be conducted openly.”

NED receives its funding through an annual appropriation from Congress through the Department of State making it little more than another mouthpiece for Washington’s agenda. NED promotes Washington’s global agenda through direct grants to more than 1600 non-governmental groups that are working for “democracy” in more than 90 nations around the world.

Despite its proclamation that it has a “nongovernmental 
character”, NED receives its funding through an annual appropriation from Congress through the Department of State making it little more than another mouthpiece for Washington’s agenda.  NED promotes Washington’s global agenda through direct grants to more than 1600 non-governmental groups that are working for “democracy” in more than 90 nations around the world.

Let’s look at NED’s activities in Hong Kong for 2018 according to its website. Here are the projects that were funded over the period from 2015 to 2018.

Notice that the 2018 funding to the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs was granted to “facilitate engagement on Hong Kong’s growing threats to guaranteed rights”.

NED spent a total of $1,357,974 on grants to organizations that were promoting freedom, democracy and human rights in Hong Kong over the period from 2015 to 2018. — Policemen clash with demonstrators on a street during a protest in Hong Kong, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2019. Hong Kong police have rolled out water cannon trucks for the first time in this summer’s pro-democracy protests. The two trucks moved forward with riot officers Sunday evening as they pushed protesters back along a street in the outlying Tsuen Wan district. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

That certainly sounds like promoting democracy to me. NED spent a total of $1,357,974 on grants to organizations that were promoting freedom, democracy and human rights in Hong Kong over the period from 2015 to 2018.

Unfortunately, we don’t know what NED spent on promoting democracy in Hong Kong in the time frame prior to 2015. While, in the grand scheme of what Washington spends this is not a great deal of money, it is the principle of what Washington is attempting to create in Hong Kong that is of concern.

This is a very clear example of meddling in the internal affairs of China and Hong Kong, actions that will only serve to anger China who is the also the recipient of a great deal of NED’s attention.

It is also key to remember that there are likely other taxpayer-funded programs through which Washington is attempting to influence what happens in Hong Kong.

In my opinion, this tweet by the conservative-leaning Washington Examiner is a dead giveaway to the source of the unrest:

Video from Hong Kong shows pro-democracy protesters waving American flags and singing the American National Anthem.  Demonstrations have shutdown the city's airport for a second consecutive day and put the entire Chinese city on edge. pic.twitter.com/ZrYE5DzZYU 

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) August 13, 2019

While the ideals of democracy are admirable and desirable, Washington’s version of democracy is tainted by big money and has developed into a system where politicians are for sale to the highest bidder.

Meanwhile, the Chinese themselves are not falling for this (same old, same old) lie…

huaqiao (Expat in China)

The rioters are trying to force the police to act and then certain  foreign media will report it as "police brutality" while ignoring the  rioters' assault against the police. This is a planned, deliberate act  to show the world China's system is not working.

But the fact is China's  system is working and is the envy of many nations, but certain "free  world" countries cannot accept that. The value of "democracy" is  overstated and these rioters show the effect of being overdosed with  "democracy" and act senselessly.

While the ideals of democracy are admirable and desirable, Washington’s version of democracy is tainted by big money and has developed into a system where politicians are for sale to the highest bidder.

This is not the democracy that most of the world wants.

Long-term Congressional meddling in other nations internal affairs through its funding of the National Endowment for Democracy is little better than the nation reengineering exercises undertaken by the Central Intelligence Agency since the end of the Second World War.

Reactions and serious attempts to control the situation

This situation is in the process of being resolved. Much of what is going on is behind the scenes, but we can get some glimmerings of the various events.

Point One

As of 10 September 2019, the United States president Donald Trump tweets out that he no longer needs the services of John Bolton. John Bolton, the national security adviser.

So, obviously Bolton has been fired. (paraphrasing) “I told Bolton I no longer need his services. I disagreed with many of the suggestions that he has made.”

The president is saying he asked for Bolton’s resignation; it was not Bolton’s idea. So now people are trying to speculate, “What is this about?” He’s the national security adviser, and there are any number of things it could be and there’s no way of knowing. We just have to wait. It will come out at some point.

Oh, I’m sure it will. Though, I’d be really surprised if they would address the truth. Which is the fact that he has been working personally with the key super-billionaire oligarchy opposition forces in Hong Kong against China, and against any resolution to the China – USA trade disputes.

The Friggin' idiot. That's not his job. His job is to assist President Trump, not to oppose his efforts. No matter how impassioned he might feel about Neocon-ism.

Donald Trump fired John Bolton. He obviously felt that John Bolton was not "on the same page" in resolving the issues with China at this time. — Donald Trump fired John Bolton. He obviously felt that John Bolton was not “on the same page” in resolving the issues with China at this time.

As I have previously stated, John Bolton is a war-hawk and a neo-con from the “deep state”. He has opposed every effort that Trump has made to negotiate with China, North Korea, and Iran. In his world view these are all dictatorial nations and America must stand firm in opposing them in every way possible.

Trump loves meeting with these people because he’s got dreams of ending disagreements with these people, bringing peace and tranquility to the humanity of earth. Bolton doesn’t see eye-to-eye with any of that. It could also be about troop withdrawals in Afghanistan. You know, there are factions in the White House that want to get us out of there. It’s been announced that we’re getting out of there. We’ve been over there for I don’t know how many years, and some people say we don’t even know why we are still there.

Bolton would not want to pull out of Afghanistan. Bolton would not want to withdraw from any presence in places like Syria. So it could well be that this is just the culmination of systemic policy differences that have led to this.

Bolton has a reputation as a hardliner, doesn’t take any guff, is not one of these touchy-feely, politically correct guys. He’s a war hawk and fully supports all eight (x8) proxy wars that the United States is currently mired in.

“Let’s try to make ’em like us. Let’s find out why they don’t like us and change.” That’s not Bolton. He don’t care that they don’t like us. We just gotta beat ’em. We gotta pummel ’em.

That might not be appropriate at this time when dealing with China. China is a serious, serious nation that would absolutely take meddling in their own affairs very, very seriously.

Point Two

On Wednesday 4SEP19, President Trump reached out to China’s President Xi in a tweet:

“I know President Xi of China very well. He is a  great leader who very much has the respect of his people. He is also a  good man in a ‘tough business.’ I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi  wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it.  Personal meeting? ”

-Donald Trump

So what is Donald Trump saying?

That’s he’s ready to stop the HK protests if Xi Peng negotiates.
Or, perhaps that China can use their military to enter HK.

Point Three

China has begun arresting American advisors to the protestors and their aides to the protest movements in HK. You see, China does not mess around. They know who all these players are, they know the funding sources, and have surveillance cameras everywhere. If you want to stir up a hornets next, do not allow yourself to get stung.

China has identified all the leadership of these protest groups, and their subordinates. They have since followed them and watched them. They have all been under observation. They have filmed these advisors instructing the protestors in behavior, and strategy.

Then, independently they have targeted these individuals and collected them in public near the protests. It's all on film.

What?

You haven’t heard about this? You mean it’s not reported on the American mainstream media? Imagine that!

Here is a video of a “so called” reporter instructing the HK protestors on how to behave. It’s all on video, and how the HK riot police comes after him and carts him off for “processing”. The video praises the HK riot police for nabbing these “instigators”, and claims that 53 CIA-related advisory staff have been arrested.

They say he’s CIA, but he’s really probably a member of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) or the National Endowment for Democracy’s National Democratic Institute (NDI) . All American front organization that receives Federal Funding for the purposes of disrupting the stability in other nations.

Here’s some of the arrests. The video shows three Americans arrested and being detained. I am sure that there are many more.

The point is that China knows full well what is going on and THEY DO NOT PLAY AROUND. China is a serious nation that does not pretend that everyone is playing on the same playing-field.

The root effects – trade renegotiation with China.

Anonymous (Italy)

This sudden chaos without major motivation is indeed a sign of  interference. As a foreigner, I am Italian and married to a local, I do  fully support Chinese mainland on this matter. People in Hong Kong that  are doing this are ignorant and do not even know their own history.

It began as a promise to the American people. Donald Trump, if elected would renegotiate trade with the Chinese in such a way that it would be a two-way street to mutual respect and fairness.

When things were looking favorable, suddenly everything went to sh@t. There were rumors that some of the negotiators were hard-line deep-state plants that informed the Chinese to wait Donald Trump out. That he would not be reelected.

So the negotiations stalled, and Trump put full pressure on China. Simultaneously when he raised tariffs on Chinese goods 30%, protests broke out in Hong Kong. It appeared that the pressure was enormous on China, and (according to the United States media) China was really suffering.

30% tariffs
HK protests
Banning Huawei
Diplomatic pressure on Europe

But, you know what? It’s all a big lie, or at the very most, an exaggeration. China wasn’t suffering like the American mainstream media reported.

Ah, it’s partially true. But, not as bad as most Americans believed. China’s exports are not 90% to the USA and 10% to the rest of the world. Nope. Its actually 11% to the Untied States. And 89% to the rest of the world. So China has dealt with it.

Meanwhile, the tariffs has pretty much put the global economy into a malaise and it has backfired and hit the American consumer. It will need to be resolved before the 2020 elections or else it is potentially feasible that it will effect the elections.

And China’s reaction?

Nothing. Ride it out. Don’t go on the offensive. Don’t go on the defensive. Let things sizzle for a while and ride it out. They realize that the present Trump strategy is to force China to agree to a range of demands.

Implement “democracy” in China.
Stop the reeducation of radical Muslim separatists.
Allow Tibet independence.

China said no, and won’t do anything. They want favorable trade but not at the risk of their national identity and global sovereignty.

The idea that liberal or Western-style democracy and the country’s  long-term stability are incompatible is deeply entrenched in the Chinese  mind. Most Chinese believe that the current level of maturity in  Chinese society does not allow for a “one man one vote” system. It is  broadly accepted that China will disintegrate if it recklessly adopts  Western-style democracy.

-   The construction of the Singapore Model in Mainland China

How would you feel, if China demanded that;

America implemented Communism?
Integrate Muslim extremists in key leadership roles in government?
Allow California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arazona and Texas to be an independent nation?

It’s all pretty silly. It’s obscene and an insult.

Well, that’s how the Chinese feels. They have plenty of trade relationships with other nations. Contrary to what the mainstream American news say, and they are healthy and chugging away just fine. You see, China realizes that they can under-price any American company on the global stage.

And so, they are just waiting everything out.

Thus the worst effects of the trade war backfired and are now squarely on the shoulders of America. John Bolton, of course is all happy about this. But there are far other considerations than the John Bolton Neocon narrative, and Donald Trump has a nation to take care of.

So, Donald Trump is regrouping and removing the Neocon planks from the trade demands and will continue to work with China on resolving this.

The end results…

The Trade war will end.
The HK protests will end.
Things will continue much as they had, only there would be more favorable trade terms for the United States.

Let’s see how correct my fortune telling ability is, shall we? Maybe I’m right or maybe I’m wrong. We will see. Eh?

CIA agent arrested directing the HK riots

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/5lcA5Huc8PiGYPb0pWE47w

Anyways about the video. He's going on in English about the "rule of law" and then switches in Cantonese. Anyways, his goose is cooked. 

Once HK passed the insurrection law which permitted the arrest of agitators who forment revolution, regardless of nationality, and extration ot the mainland for lengthy prison sentences and organ harvesting… everything changed. 

For months, if not years, the Chinese have documented everyting on video, and then seized the computers and technical data form the foreign newspapers operating inside of HK. 

So it's over for this cat. He doesn't have a hope in Hell. In China, there isn't any court negotations between attorneys. Instead, they look over the documentation and evidence and assign punishment(s).

BTW. I don't know if I told you this. But a lot of retired men in HK and China participated in the protests because if they did so, they would get a $200 USD check. Well, of course, they all started to deposit it in their own individual bank accounts. Right? Guess what happened?

Every account that has a $200 USD deposit during a specific time period is assumed to be a paid-for-riot paycheck. So every person who got that money… young and old… suddenly has their social security balance set to zero and frozen for the rest of their life.

Finally, we conclude with a decent editorial

US fooling no one with claims of innocence in HK: Opinion

By Ian Goodrum

For no particular reason I’ve been thinking of Claude Rains in Casablanca lately. You remember him; the Moroccan police captain who is “shocked, shocked” to find gambling in Humphrey Bogart’s establishment during a raid, only to be handed his winnings without missing a beat.

You might wonder at the relevance of that famous movie moment. I’ll explain.

Amid ongoing violence and turmoil in Hong Kong, Chinese media outlets have brought up a few relevant facts: That “pro-democracy” opposition heads had met with politicians in the United States, protest leaders had been in contact with State Department officials and major figures like Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi have issued statements supporting the demonstrators. With all this in mind, it’s been suggested the US has been inflaming tensions in the city and encouraging escalation in an already heated environment.

To wit, the Claude Rains moment: Members of the diplomatic corps were “shocked, shocked” by this news. Why, it’s unthinkable that the US, that bastion of democracy and freedom, would ever attempt to interfere in the affairs of another country! China was called a “thuggish regime” for even bringing this up — naturally, the “free press” was all crickets when it came time to do their purported jobs and speak a little truth to power.

Safe to say none of these faux-outraged government functionaries or their lapdogs in the media bothered to ask a Libyan what they thought of the idea. The NATO intervention there in 2014 turned the African country with the highest standard of living into a disaster zone, complete with open-air slave markets.

They wouldn’t have asked an Iraqi, either. I’m sure the families of the million-plus people killed by the US military since 2003 would have a few things to say about their invaders’ good intentions.

Or a Haitian. Or a Syrian. Or a Venezuelan. Or a Honduran. Or an Iranian. The list goes on.

The truth is US “diplomacy” has never been that innocent, and everyone knows it. State Department personnel — in league with military and intelligence agencies — have spearheaded countless interventions since the turn of the 20th century, destroying countries or political formations they saw as counter to US interests. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 and especially after the Cold War began, this meant subverting communists or socialists and materially supporting anti-communists and fascists.

Among the best-known examples of this skullduggery are the hundreds of assassination attempts on Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro — none successful; he died at 90, probably laughing at the US as he went — and the overthrow of democratically elected Chilean Marxist Salvador Allende. The US loved democracy so much in the latter case they replaced Allende with a military dictator. These and many other interventions were overseen by the same sort of “diplomats” who now act offended at the notion they may be doing something untoward in Hong Kong.

But things are a little different now. These clandestine activities used to be the sole purview of the Central Intelligence Agency, and when word got out the US’ definition of “liberty” really meant “not being communists”, quite a few people were furious. So in a long process which began in the 1970s, the CIA delegated its regime change responsibilities to a host of organizations, each given a degree of separation with some legalese and clever accounting.

Though the Agency remains a potent force for subversion — and you would have to be truly naïve to think their cloak-and-dagger era is over — the interventional landscape has been somewhat diversified, with a host of non-governmental organizations taking the place of traditional spies. The National Endowment for Democracy, the largest among them, has of course given a great deal of money to “pro-independence” forces in Hong Kong. Nothing to worry about, I’m sure.

Allan Weinstein, an early leader of one such think tank, admitted it outright when he said “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” While this makes US influence operations easier to track, it also gives them a veneer of respectability among the general public. It’s a bigger deal when a government agency is funding rebellious elements in another country; much less so if it’s some “non-governmental” cutout with a bit of plausible deniability.

When news of CIA activity broke in the past, it was big news. That was bad for optics. Somewhere along the way, powerful government figures and capitalists realized by doing all their influencing in the open — and with a media that had long since stopped pretending to question motives — the scandal brought by secrecy would go away. This has worked wonders on a browbeaten population fed a steady diet of propaganda. It turns out if you’re told every other country on earth is inferior to yours, you’ll start thinking intervention is great for everybody else.

Some people normally skeptical of official US narratives look back on this sordid history and conclude it’s a thing of the past, the stuff of ancients. But what’s changed between then and now? Why would any empire stop consolidating its influence if it had the ability to continue? In fact, the US’ capacity for interference has only grown more sophisticated since the end of the Soviet Union. With that country’s dissolution in 1991, the world lost a counterweight against imperialism — and logic dictates things would get worse rather than better in an era of unilateral hegemony.

So the question remains: Why would the US’ well-established, well-funded campaigns of subversion suddenly cease? Well they wouldn’t, of course. There’s an equally bizarre notion from otherwise right-thinking people that intervention stops at certain countries’ borders. This is patently ridiculous. If it can happen in Venezuela, Iran, Libya, Cuba or Syria, it can happen in Hong Kong — a geographically small Chinese territory with longstanding ties to the West. It is, in fact, perfectly positioned as a pressure point for the rest of China.

And it’s not just a question of economic or political systems anymore. The US doesn’t trust anyone, even its own imperial allies; recall that the National Security Administration had German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone tapped for years. There’s no telling how they’re keeping tabs on other NATO members. Because the US has the largest economy and military many times over, however, leaders who might otherwise speak out against this treatment stay silent. Yet the idea of US benevolence still has a hold on the world’s imagination. I encourage anyone on the fence to think about it this way: If this is how the US treats its friends, imagine what it tries to do to its enemies.

And make no mistake, the US considers China an enemy. It says so in official statements and policy briefings, and academics and journalists uncritically launder these claims for a mass audience on their enormous platforms. No matter how many times China says it wants peace and to handle its own affairs, the myth of the “China Threat” persists — stoked by US “diplomats” and their lackeys in the press.

These inflammatory statements serve a twofold purpose. On a personal level, they attract attention to the authors’ work and better position them for career advancement. More broadly, they further US interests and provide cover for narratives that wouldn’t get consideration by the public if they came straight from the military-intelligence apparatus. It’s a win-win for everyone — except the US’ victims.

None of this is to say that things in Hong Kong are perfect, or that everyone in the city was happy as a clam before the State Department and NED came along. Severe inequality plagues the city, and must be addressed for the government to enjoy continued support from the people. But bad actors take advantage of existing negative sentiments and amplify them, turning issues that could be handled peacefully into profound existential crises.

This playbook has worked for decades now, undermining countless sovereign governments whose existence ran counter to the interests of the United States; it’s the height of foolishness to think it can’t happen here.

The author is a copy editor with chinadaily.com.cn.

28NOV20 Update

It is pretty well established that the CIA has been well involved attempting a “color revolution” inside of Hong Kong as part of the Trump Trade Wars of 2017 – 2020. There are all sorts of articles on this subject. Here’s a worthwhile read…

Writer reveals CIA funding for the HK Protests

A secret high-level committee of Hong Kong senior activists worked with Western agents from the CIA to coordinate and amplify the leaderless protests against the fugitive law amendment last year, Nury Vittachi claims in his book The Other Side of the Story: A Secret War in Hong Kong.

Vittachi, a veteran journalist and a columnist for The Standard, accused the CIA of funding anti-government activities in the SAR. He said Hong Kong protesters have received practical training in street-protest strategy and media control from members of the professional revolution industry since January 2013.

The book named three US-based groups - the Oslo Freedom Foundation, the Albert Einstein Institute and the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies - which were directly involved in last year's social unrest.

He added that public records had shown that the National Endowment for Democracy, the CIA's regime-change arm, had sent HK$170 million to the mainland or Hong Kong since 2014 to "advance the cause of democracy."

https://lnkd.in/dwnSU-S

Other (really great) Links

Links about China

Here are some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader, might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.

Chinese reaction to the Trump Tariff Wars.

The logistics of relocating a facotry from China back to the USA.

When the SJW movement took control of China

China and America Comparisons

As an American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.

The Chinese Business KTV Experience

This is the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal press. This is the reality. Read or not.

Learning About China

Who doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in China.

Contemporaneous Chinese Music

This is a series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and enjoyment.

Part 3 - The contemporaneous music of China.

part 3B - The contemporaneous music of China.

Part 4 - The contemporaneous popular music of China.

Part 5 - The contemporaneous music of China.

Part 5C - The music of contemporary China.

Part 5F - The contemporaneous music of China.

Post 6 - The contemporaneous music of China.

Post 7 - The contemporaneous music of China.

Post 8 - The contemporaneous music of China.

Part 9 - The contemporaneous music of China.

Post 11 - The contemporaneous music of China.

Parks in China

The parks in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.

Really Strange China

Here are some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events, while others are just representative of the differences in culture.

What is China like?

The purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world, outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank you.

And while America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources, and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and you can see this in their day-to-day lives.

Summer in Asia

Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…

Some Fun Videos

Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.

Articles & Links

You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
You can find out more about the author HERE.
If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

just clean up the mess and get on with life Yes. I love it. Great. -MM

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