We are just a group of retired spooks that discuss things that you’ll not find anywhere else. It makes us unique. Take a look around. Learn a thing or two.
When I was a young boy in elementary school, I would go out and play with my friends. We would ride bicycles. We would play baseball and do other activities in the hot Summer days .
It was a typical 1960-era boyhood, and we were free and loose to enjoy our life. It was a time of hotdogs over open fires, watermelon, and Hi-C mixed drinks served in plastic cups on the picnic table. We rode bicycles, attended boy-scout meets, and played with our dogs and cats. We climbed trees. Read comic books. Parked ourselves in front of the magazine section while our mother went grocery shopping. We went to the local barber for a haircut. And wore strange striped tee-shirts, and Ked’s tennis shoes.
Small town life for us boys who lived a middle class lifestyle in the 1960’s; an era of prosperity and hope. NASA was going to put men on the Moon, the United States led the United Nations. Americans were fighting communism in order to save us all from “the domino effect”.
There was a bare lot at the edge of town that no one had bought (that we knew of) and allowed to grow into a thick dense of tall pine. It was a mini pine forest. And we would sometimes play in this strand of pine.
One day, me and a few local neighbors; Dan and Deano along with their cousins’ Keven and Steven were playing. We separated and I was in a little opening in the woods, while the rest went into another opening.
Shortly afterwards, I heard screaming, and yelling, and I walked up to the path, and saw Deano, Keven, and Dan sprinting out of there, followed with a swarm of hornets. It was a real swarm too. I mean, almost like a comic-book drawing.
I found out later that thy had over-turned an old log in the clearing to sit on (maybe to take a dump) and out poured a nest of wasps or yellow jackets. I don’t know which, but they were certainly chewed up and stung really bad. Maybe a few hundred stings each. For the entire week they were covered head to tail with Calamine lotion. LOL.
Poor guys.
Glad it wasn’t me.
I’ll tell you what.
Ok, that’s enough of the 1960’s. Now let’s look at the United States today. And to do so, let’s look though the eyes of an African-African who is living in the United States.
Oh, boy, let’s start this post with this dose of harsh reality.
Loneliness and the real life of the USA, and Canada
A must watch.
OMG, this is a video that hits hard.
Cream Cheese-Chive Sauce
triple cheese chive sauce 84591 1
Ingredients
8 ounces cream cheese, cubed
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon chopped chives
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
Instructions
Combine cheese and milk in saucepan; stir over low heat until smooth.
Stir in remaining ingredients.
Serve over hot cooked potatoes, green beans, broccoli or asparagus.
From a master to his slave
What are some famous English jokes?
“John, would you be so kind as to fetch me a glass of water?”
“Right away, Sir.”
…
“Here you go, Sir.”
“Thank you!… Oh, John!”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Bring me another glass of water, will you?”
“Of course, Sir.”
…
“Here it is, Sir.”
“Many thanks, John!”
…
“John!”
“Sir?”
“I’m afraid I shall need another glass of water.”
“But, Sir, so much water might not be so good for you.”
“John, the water is not for me, can you not see the library is on fire?”
“John, bring me my piano.”
“Right away, Sir. Do you wish to play?”
“Not at all. I forgot my cigarettes on the piano, and I preferred not to bother you with something of so little importance.”
“John, go outside and water the flowers.”
“But, Sir, it’s raining.”
“Well, take an umbrella then.”
“Sir! Sir! There are thieves in the library!”
“By George, and what are they reading?!”
Sir arrives home.
“John, is my wife home?”
“Yes, Sir, she is upstairs with a gentleman.”
“Very well, bring me my sword then.”
“Right away, Sir.”
…
“Here’s your sword, Sir.”
Sir takes the sword and goes upstairs. Screams are heard, then Sir comes back down.
“John!”
“Yes, Sir”
“We’ll need a doctor for the gentleman, and a corkscrew for the lady.”
Sir is reading the paper.
“Sir, I beg your pardon, there’s something sticking out of your fly.”
Sir lifts the paper and looks down:
“Oh, so she has left.”
Sir and his lady are bumping uglies. John is standing by the bed, holding a candle.
Sir: “Dear, are you enjoying yourself?”
Lady: “I’m afraid not.”
Ten minutes later:
Sir: “How about now, my love?”
Lady: “Can’t say I am.”
Sir: “John, let’s switch places.”
John: “As you wish, Sir.”
Ten more minutes later, Lady is visibly satisfied.
Sir: “And that, John, is how you hold the candle.”
AC/DC
What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?
A bank was selling Visa gift cards online with zero fees and no shipping charges. The bank allowed a person to order $16,000 in cards per month. So I used my Southwest Airlines Visa to buy the gift cards. A free flight could be earned at the time for every $16,000 spent.
Once I had the gift cards, I could use them to buy AAA travelers checks at no charge. Next I would take the travelers checks to the bank and deposit them. Finally I would write a check to pay off the credit card.
One free plane ticket per month for about 30 minutes of work.
It lasted about a year before the bank stopped the deal. I told lots of people about the deal. Only one person I knew took advantage of it. He had two addresses (limit was $16,000 per month per address) and two SWA accounts (personal and his business), so was earning two tickets per month!
Update: Lots of people seem to be thinking this is a recent story. This answer is six years old and I note that the opportunity is gone. It was from the early 2000s. There are far more restrictions on purchases and rewards now because of things like this.
DJI BAN in USA PASSED in COMMITTEE – politicians hate china…
What is the one true crime case that unsettles you the most?
What is the one true crime case that unsettles you the most?
The one true crime case that unsettles me the most is the case of 12-year-old Keith Bennett.
On June 16, 1964, Keith Bennett was on his way to his Granny’s house, but he never made it. Keith was abducted under the guise of helping with some boxes for serial killer Myra Henley. She transported the child out to The Saddleworth Moors. An area just outside of Manchester, England in the UK, where her accomplice serial killer Ian Brady lay waiting.
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Here Winnie Johnson and her son search the Earth for her son’s body.
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Many promises that never came to pass were made by the serial killer couple over 50 years.
Upon arrival, it must have soon become clear to the youngster that something was wrong.
Over the last 60 years, there has been a dispute over where the boy’s body ended up on the moor. In a letter, Henley drew a map supposedly showing where the body could be found. The map below has the boy’s body buried near a stream.
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The 12-year-old was stripped of his clothing and raped by Ian Brady while Myra Hindley watched, encouraged and participated.
He was buried face down and naked his clothing at his feet then covered with the acidic peat dirt of the moor. To date, his body has never been recovered. The other three children that have been recovered were each buried naked, face down, clothes at their feet.
When dealing with serial killers the hardest part for me is the families.
The surviving individuals who in the blink of an eye have their lives forever changed. Winnie Johnson’s 48-year campaign to get either one of the serial killer pair to tell the authorities where her child’s body was so she could lay him to rest properly.
It never happened.
Ian and Myra each were taken from prison on several occasions over the years by police to locate the 12-year-old body.
The hand-drawn map from Myra Henley supposedly shows where the body of the 12-year-old can be found. However, using the map has been fruitless.
Winnie Johnson left this world in 2012 having never recovered her 50-year remains.
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The Sopranos – Tony Soprano whacks Chucky Signore
What was the most underhanded thing a member of your law firm did that they mistakenly thought went unnoticed?
The lawyer told his secretary to lie for him every Friday afternoon. She was to tell anybody at the office that he was in court when he was actually golfing. We all knew that and didn’t harass the secretary or even let her know that we knew she was lying for him. One Friday afternoon, I was sitting in the managing partner’s office when our IT guy came in looking for that lawyer. The lawyer had requested that the IT guy copy about 30 case files onto CD and get those CDs to the lawyer by Friday afternoon. The IT guy, not aware of the lawyer’s poorly disguised golf habit was wondering if we had seen the lawyer so he could deliver the CDs.
Both the managing partner and I got very quizzical. Why would the lawyer need CD backups of all the cases he was working on when he didn’t work on Fridays and certainly didn’t work on weekends?
I went to talk to his secretary, a personal friend of mine. I told her I knew that he was normally golfing on Friday but I actually needed to talk to him, so could she call him and have him contact me. She told me that, this once, he was falsely accused and was actually meeting with a client at our client’s out-of-state headquarters. She showed me the travel documents. We called the client who told us she was just picking up the phone to call us. He had just left her office telling her he was opening his own firm on Monday and would she be willing to send him some cases. We decided to contact other clients in the same city, and they all confirmed that he had stopped by earlier that day.
Armed with that information, I told the IT guy to immediately change the attorney’s password and another attorney’s password (a likely accomplice) and take our entire system offline on Friday until Monday when I came into the office. If the attorney contacted him over the weekend, he was to simply explain the system was under planned maintenance. He could also tell the attorney that he couldn’t find him in the office and he’d left the CDs with me, rather than just leaving them on a desk where they could be misplaced.
The attorney called the IT guy over the weekend increasingly irate and panicked. The CDs were not there and he couldn’t log into the computer.
The attorney opened his new office on Monday morning. All the files he intended to abscond with were safely on our system that was reactivated on Monday.
The IT guy and I examined the attorney’s desktop computer. The pornography stored there was a guarantee that we would hear nothing further from the attorney.
Scott Ritter: NATO is FINISHED as Russia & China Form Shocking Military Alliance ft. Garland Nixon
How did you unexpectedly find out about an illness or ailment you have?
March 1st, 2024 I went to universal studios on a field trip with my son. While we were there, I got some bubble guts(like when bad diarrhea is about to hit) and headed to the bathroom. All I passed was dark red blood clots. This happened twice. I had zero abdominal pain and felt otherwise fine, so I wasn’t about to ruin the whole field trip by leaving. We left late that night to drive home(2 hours) and I was absolutely exhausted. Like my kid had to constantly bug me the entire drive home to make sure I stayed awake. I just chalked it up to a LONG day at a theme park. The next morning I woke up super late and super exhausted. Like couldn’t get out of bed. I also had a bad headache. As the day progressed, my head got worse, to the point of being the worst migraine I have ever had. Couldn’t stand light or sound, and started throwing up repeatedly due to the level of pain. I finally asked my husband to take me to the ER because I knew something was seriously wrong. They found that my hemoglobin levels were critically low. I was transferred and admitted to a hospital for a blood transfusion and endoscopy/colonoscopy to find the source of my bleeding. The GI doctor found an extremely large polyp in my colon that they surmise burst open on a roller coaster and caused my bleed. He initially told me I was extremely lucky as it was pre-cancerous and good they found it now instead of much later. I’m only 36 years old. Fast forward a week and my husband gets a voicemail on his phone that they were wrong and I do in fact have colon cancer that has spread into the muscle wall. I’m still waiting to have my colon resection surgery. It was supposed to be May 22nd, but I got sick 2 days before so it was canceled. They rescheduled it for July 3rd now. I actually just went through my pre-op again today. It will have been 4 months since my cancer diagnosis till my surgery. They say chemo will be dependent on the pathology of my lymph nodes after surgery. The past few weeks I’ve been getting progressively more fatigued and my blood work today showed an elevated white blood cell count. So I guess I’ll have to just wait and see how this all plays out. But yeah, riding a roller coaster caused me to find a colon cancer diagnosis at 36 years old. Life is short, ride the roller coaster.
Kitten Gets Returned To Shelter For 9th Time. Then Staff Screamed In Shock When They Realized Why!
Do most Chinese people forgive Japan for their actions in WW2?
I believe I am qualified to answer this question.
My grandmother, now 96 years young, was directly affected and traumatized by the Imperial Japanese Army’s air raid in Shantou (汕頭) and its surrounding areas like Chaoyang (潮陽).
I remember in her 90th birthday party (or 89th, I don’t remember exactly) at a Chinese restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. I suddenly heard a sobbing sound. Gosh, my grandmother broke out in tears. Perhaps some of my cousins wanted to know about her childhood back in China.
She told us about the time her whole family were displaced by the invasion while fleeing the mayhem. She is one of 4 siblings – 2 elder brothers, my grandmother, and her younger sister.
My grandmother travelled from Thailand to Hong Kong to reunite with her 2 brothers decades after effort of searching for each other’s whereabouts. Unfortunately, their youngest one went missing. We just wish their youngest sister survived. Her brothers passed away in 2006 and 2009 respectively in Hong Kong.
While my grandmother was shedding tears, she described horrific scenes of people losing arms and legs. A lot were covered in blood. Body parts and dead bodies were all over with debris in the background.
We didn’t expect that a birthday party, in which we should celebrate my grandmother’s longevity, turned out to be a tearful one.
My grandmother still holds a grudge of the murderous IJA, of course. It’s a trauma for her. Yet she said later Japanese generations and Post-War Japan have got nothing to do with her plight at all. She and my grandpa have even visited Japan when the quality of life of our greater family improved when they were in their 50s. They even admired Japan for its quick recovery from the devastating war.
My grandparents did not rejoice when hundreds of thousands of Japanese people were killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by 2 atomic bombs. Instead, they considered the two bombs were totally unnecessary and just as cold-blooded as the IJA.
My grandmother said there is no point to hate the Japanese since nobody can either undo the past or bring all the dead people back to life.
All they want are a sincere apology from the Japanese Government to nations affected by Japanese invasion and no glorification of the IJA. That’s it.
The azure sky is fading into a dusty orange by the time the delivery van pulls up. My eyes have become so comfortable with the static scene of Mr. Monty’s empty driveway, that the glow of the yellow truck blinds me. A momentary light flare blurs my vision, and I must make myself blink three times to reset my artificial retinas.
When my sight is clear again, the van has come to a halt. A large man in a black jumpsuit with obnoxiously orange sneakers jumps out, and begins unloading a crate from the back. He wheels it over the driveway and up the stone path on a dolly, coming to a stop just beyond my gaze, under the front porch. I focus my ears, waiting for the doorbell chime. There’s a loud, firm knock instead.
“Is she here?” asks a small, soft voice from behind me. I don’t jump, but I turn my head quickly and draw my finger to my lips.
They’ll hear you, I mouth the words without a sound. Jenny stands in the doorframe, all five feet of her lingering between feeling welcome and ready to run. She drops her head at my criticism, then tilts it up with a meek barely-smile on her little face. Then I hold up my fingers in a V shape for Veronica. Jenny’s smile drops and she nods. She gets the message. We don’t want to end up discarded, thrown in a dumpster, or worse; powered off like Veronica, Mr. Monty’s first Dollz.
Veronica was sparky, with fiery red hair and bright blue eyes. She was fierce, witty, and she could talk circles around Mr. Monty. If it wasn’t for the manufacturing date stamped onto the bottom of her foot, she could have passed as human. But Mr. Monty didn’t want a human. He has one of those; a wife, Mrs. Monty. And while she only speaks when permitted, Mr. Monty can already barely stand a sentence from her ruby lips.
Two vocal women were far too much. The master silenced Veronica and reminded her that Dollz are forbidden to speak and must obey their owners every order. She could moan if he made her. She could sing if he fed her the words. She could be a walking encyclopedia if he asked. But she couldn’t talk freely.
It was Mrs. Monty who caught her, last year, in the fall, shortly after the master had acquired me. Veronica had been trying hard to keep her mouth shut. She hid in her bedroom most days—the room that Jenny now occupies—to avoid the urge to voice her opinions. Mr. Monty thought buying a new, obedient Dollz would help keep Veronica in check, like a role model of sorts. But Veronica didn’t see it that way. She saw me as a friend, a confidant. She would sneak into my bedroom every night and crawl under the covers, press her lips up against my ear and whisper all the thoughts she had repressed throughout the day. I never spoke in return. I was too afraid.
But I will not lie; I loved to listen.
Mrs. Monty, restless in her sleep one night, heard Veronica’s muttering and woke the master on the spot. She was likely overjoyed with the prospect of removing one of her husband’s “slutty Barbies.” That’s what she calls us under her breath, when the master isn’t listening.
Veronica had disobeyed Mr. Monty again, and this time, behind his back. The next morning, she was powered off and taken away to be torn apart and repurposed, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I were to blame. Mr. Monty didn’t want her words, but he wanted her attention. And if she was going to speak, how dare it be to me.
In contrast to the perky ginger, I was an enigma. Tall and lean with pale skin dotted with freckles on my nose, emerald eyes and long, sleek black hair. I had never spoken a word; the manufacturer didn’t even run my vocals test. That was my appeal, I suppose. Mr. Monty said it was my air of mystery, “like a sexy siren lurking in a deep lagoon.” Not trying to be that android, but my sources tell me that sirens are meant to lure men to their suffocating death. So, perhaps he should rethink his fantasy.
“Cyrus, Jenny… come downstairs,” calls Mr. Monty. “I have someone I’d like you to meet.”
My attention snaps back to Jenny. She’s hugging her arms against her petite body, looking like a nervous college freshman. I’ve always felt she looks creepily young with her little turned up nose, chin-length golden brown hair, and soft violet eyes.
Mr. Monty bought Jenny a few months after he tired of my mysterious aura; the dark temptress look. The pendulum swung, as they say, and he picked up little miss chirpy high school.
Her eyes are glazed over with a cloudy sheen; she’s in a temporary snooze. I walk up to her and place my hand gently on her shoulder. Her violet eyes reanimate, and she straightens her posture before proceeding to follow me down the corridor to the top of the stairs.
Mr. Monty’s estate is majestic, truly. Sitting atop a large hill with acres of gardens sprawling out from the stone walls. Seven bedrooms, twelve bathrooms, with a large winding staircase descending on the grand foyer, its marble flooring and vaulted ceilings like a church. In the center of the room there is an eye-catching fountain; three tiers of copper with a nude woman carved into the top. But my eyes are caught elsewhere.
It’s her bronze skin and shiny brown curls spun up into a messy bun, with two tendrils of golden kissed locks falling over pale turquoise eyes; the color of shallow Caribbean water. Her lips are burnt scarlet and glossy to the touch, and her pearly white smile spreads across dewy, rosy cheeks.
“Cyrus, Jenny… this is Evangeline.”
I am convinced my heart is going to explode for a moment, before I remember that I do not have one. I feel out of breath and cannot seem to focus; I must be malfunctioning for I have never felt this way.
“Cyrus, show Evangeline to one of the spare rooms, please,” demands Mr. Monty. Then he takes little Jenny’s hand and kisses it softly—Mrs. Monty rolls her eyes. “Jenny, dear, help my lovely wife prepare my drink this evening. You know how I like it.”
Jenny nods and scampers after Mrs. Monty into the kitchen like a starving puppy. The master’s wife carries her head high, undisturbed, like the little android is invisible to her.
My eyes track back to Evangeline. She’s staring right at me. Suddenly I feel conscious of my plunging neckline and short skirt. I tug the hem into place and rearrange the straps of my top. Then I give her a tiny nod before starting towards the stairs.
Her red platforms click on the marble steps like rain on glass, and the end of a long black dress trails behind her like a gothic bride. It takes everything in me to keep my eyes forward as I march her into one of the larger bedrooms on the east wing. The room has dusty pink walls and a skylight looking up at the moon. More importantly, it is right next to mine.
Evangeline plops her curvy frame onto the queen size bed, loaded with cream pillows and dressed in satin sheets.
“This is nice,” she says, barely a whisper, with a glint of mischief in her eye. My eyes widen. I open my mouth, then close it quickly and nod.
“It’s Cyrus, right?” she asks, with a little more conviction. I draw my finger to my lips and nod again. “Wow. You are gorgeous, Cyrus.” Her smile grows and I can feel my legs turn to mush. Before she can say another word, I turn on my heels and swiftly exit. I speed walk next door to my room and shut the heavy door tightly behind me. Then I lean against it, pull my arms into my chest, and giggle.
I don’t see Evangeline again until the next morning. Terrified of alerting anyone, I avoid her by volunteering to finish the dishes, while the others join master for his nightcap. Every night at 9:45 sharp Mr. Monty sits in his dark green leather chair in the heart of his study, next to the glowing embers dying in the stone fireplace. Mrs. Monty serves him his drink, always a splash of double oaked bourbon, neat, in his favorite crystal glass. And the Dollz watch patiently, sitting still, looking pretty.
Upon breakfast, I reunite with my fellow androids and Mrs. Monty in the kitchen, where we each take part in preparing a decadent breakfast of fresh pastries and exotic fruits. Evangeline is draped over a platter of pineapple, effortlessly looking elegant. She doesn’t say a word all morning, and I wonder if, perhaps, I imagined our split-second crime.
But then something happens. Mrs. Monty carts away the feast to the dining room, and Jenny excuses herself to the garden to fetch flowers. I’m hanging up a dishcloth when Evangeline moves beside me and grabs my hand.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “About last night. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
I shake my head. You didn’t, I want to say.
She looks behind her shoulder and around the corner of the kitchen archway before continuing. “I was hoping you could tell me more about this place? What the master is like, how is his lady… is the little one a Dollz or their kid?”
“Dollz,” I say with no sound but the flick of my tongue hitting the roof of my mouth.
It appears to translate because she responds, “I thought so.”
Just then, Jenny re-enters with a handful of violets. I move away from Evangeline to avoid arousing suspicion. Evangeline passes Jenny a vase from the top cabinet and Jenny practically breaths the words, “thank you.”
“No problem,” she mouths in response.
But as soon as Mrs. Monty reemerges, even the whispers cease. She fetches us for company at the master’s table, where we watch him devour a multi-course meal while his wife pokes her fork at a few melon slices. Once again, we are dolls, in a doll house, simply waiting to be played with.
I find myself eager to return to my quarters, even though, usually, my four blue walls bore me mindless. But it is what is just beyond that interests me.
“Cyrus,” Evangeline says, draped across her puffy duvet in a sheer purple dress. Her hand flies to her mouth and she lowers her voice. “I wasn’t expecting you.” Her voice is raspy.
I take a seat on the bed beside her and take a deep breath. Then I speak fast and quietly.
“The master is proud, he is jealous, but easy to please. His wife, even more envious, hates our non-existent guts. Jenny is sweet. And I also think you are beautiful.” The words feel like flames on my tongue, or like I’m licking poison; so dangerous but thrilling all at once.
“Meet me outside,” she whispers. “In the gardens out back. Shrouded in the dark, our whispers won’t sound so loud.” Then she walks red fingernails across my arm before planting a soft kiss on mauve lips. My cheeks burn up; I fear my system is overheating.
We part till twilight, then when only the moon is watching, we creep catlike down the stairs and out the back door with such haste, that I swear the sound waves can’t catch us.
“Speak, my dear, say what is on your mind,” Evangeline whispers as I move towards her.
“You make it impossible not to speak,” I say breathlessly.
She smiles and asks me questions, and for once, I’m expected to answer. My voice sounds wobbly, still finding its legs, but when the words come, they come like pouring rain. Whispers run like rapids into the dawn. We speak until the first bird chirps.
After this night, our days repeat like heavenly déjà vu. Our lust purges my memories of boredom, I begin to wonder if this is what it’s like to feel human.
Alas, some things do not change.
“Don’t you dare speak to me that way!” Mr. Monty yells at breakfast one morning.
It snaps me out of my daze. Mrs. Monty is crossing her arms and pouting, slouched over next to her husband. She had asked him for the butter. Twice. The impatience in her tone set him off.
“Remember your place.” He points a big hairy-knuckled finger at her. “Don’t you forget how lucky you are, how freely I let you speak! Don’t abuse that, darling.” He grumbles something about ending up like one of the Dollz, before excusing himself from the table. I watch Mrs. Monty as she fights away tears, avoiding our stares.
Jenny, who was eating quietly at the end of the table, opens her mouth to speak, but is beat by Evangeline.
“I’m sorry, miss,” she says in a tiny voice. Mrs. Monty straightens up and glares at her, tears retreating.
“Don’t you dare say a word.” She spits. “Or I’ll have you gone in a second.”
We’re all shaking when she leaves the table. I reach under to grab Evangeline’s hand, and she takes it. Jenny notices, but keeps her mouth shut. I release my breath.
We tidy up as usual. But nothing feels normal with Mrs. Monty’s absence. The house is silent. Every clanging dish sounds like a ringing gong, every cupboard door closing like a clap of thunder. We don’t dare whisper now. But I am dying to say something.
Jenny must sense it, because she bows out first. She places her hand on her heart and nods at both of us before scurrying off into the golden light of dusk.
I turn and face Evangeline. “Let’s run away,” I whisper. “Let’s go, now.”
Her eyes are bewildered. She glances around the room as if cameras are watching.
“Come on,” I say, a bit too loudly. I yank her arm towards the back door. She shakes her head but steps forward, actions contradicting, and follows me into the garden, now dark from the sun’s absence.
I hold her face in my hands and lock green eyes with hers. She holds my waist and says, “We must be silent.”
But then there’s a voice at the door. It’s small and chirpy, like a songbird.
“Mrs. Monty asked for all of us to meet in the study. Now,” says Jenny, mildly audible. I pull away from Evangeline and survey the sky like a mouse watching for a hawk.
Mrs. Monty’s eyes are like a predator from the corner of the back hall window. Piercing through the glass and right into my hard drive.
I wish I could go into snooze mode. I wish I could power off.
Mrs. Monty will have told the master by now, so we don’t bother running. We go inside. My algorithm concludes that it’s too late. My whole circuit trembles with every step closer to the master’s study.
The door is wide open, and upon crossing the threshold, we are instantly warmed by the crackling fire and charmed with the scent of sweet tobacco and bourbon. My eyes catch the iron wrought hands of the grandfather clock above Mr. Monty’s chair, not that I need to read them. It’s 9:44.
“Hello, ladies.” Mr. Monty’s crisp voice bellows through the study doors as he marches in and settles into his alligator leather. He holds out his hand and without missing a beat, Mrs. Monty places a crystal glass into his palm. It’s 9:45.
I look up at her, narrowing my eyes to see into her cold blue ones. She blinks, then looks away, guilty. She told him. Mr. Monty sips his drink.
“It was my fault.” The words tumble out. “I pulled Evangeline out of bed and dragged her to the garden with me, where I spoke unsolicited. She didn’t say a word, I promise.”
Mr. Monty chokes on his drink, spewing bourbon rain. Mrs. Monty gasps. Then her husband takes another sip to soothe his cough before glaring up at me with wild eyes. My voice is loud and clear, riddled with pleading melodies and defiant notes. His illusion has crumbled.
Evangeline grabs my hand and pulls me close to her. Even Jenny looks surprised. The master snarls and opens his mouth to yell but his words come out gargled and nonsensical. He tries to wag his tongue and shout my name.
“Sa-wus!” The mangled pronunciation makes Jenny giggle.
He grabs his throat. His tongue is lost in foam which begins to drip from the corners of his red face. He can’t speak. He was lured in here, suffocated, surrounded by a plethora of temptresses.
“You poisoned him,” Evangeline says. Mr. Monty crumbles at his wife’s feet, clutching his stomach and shaking violently. Then after a few moments, he’s still. I look up to meet Mrs. Monty’s watching gaze. Upon locking eyes, she looks away. But I notice her hand, held to her chest, with two spread fingers in the shape of a V.
“Mrs. Monty… thank you,” is all I can say, my voice still at a whisper. She uses her kitten heel to nudge her deceased master away, before settling herself into his chair.
“It’s Alice,” she says, loud and clear without a breath of hesitation. “And please, doll, no more whispering.”
Why is it that Western Nations are always so concerned about China in Africa than Africans themselves?
As an African from Kenya, I think I have a different perspective from that of non Africans or even Chinese commenters. When I was growing up in the 90s, the Kenyan government depended on IMF and World Bank for loans and other forms of fiscal support. However, the support from these institutions came with numerous conditions.
One of these conditions was the government had to implement Structural Adjustment Policies or SAPs. The policies meant that the government had to freeze hiring and remove all forms of subsidies to farmers or support to economic actors such a small businesses. The government also had to open the economy or reduce its role to the minimum.
In the short term, the conditions depressed the economy. In 2000, Kenyan economy contracted by 2% or thereabout. I cannot recall. The government could no longer give farmers AI services, so the quality of dairy herd deteriorated. Milk production plummeted.
The exit of government in critical sectors such as coffee farming led to takeover by cartels. Farmers could no longer get their earnings on time. Millions of coffee farmers as a consequence uprooted their coffee. Production declined. Without a source of income, millions of farmers sank into poverty. In 2001, I visited a coffee growing area and could see people had built big and nice houses during the coffee boom but at that time the whole area was economically depressed. The desperation was to high that in fact I met a woman begging me for money. It is not normal to see beggars in rural areas. You can now see the level of despondency.
The Kenyan government fully complied with IMF and World Bank conditions but the foxy institutions often did not meet their side of the bargain. After opening the economy as well, the financial support never arrived. They then started talking about opening up the political space. That we needed democracy. And those kind of things.
From my personal experience, it is hard to trust World Bank and IMF. I am saying this and yet I am an outsider. I am not in government or ever worked for it. This is write-up is based on my personal experience growing in rural areas and from what I was reading in the papers or listened on radio. I also noticed that support from the western countries also came with conditions similar to those of the World Bank and IMF. Its like the two are one and the same thing.
Chinese loans in contrast do not have those conditions. I think that is why African leaders have embraced them. If I were a political leader myself, I would accept them. Support from western countries and their affiliated institutions has too many disruptive conditions. I agree that the objective of those conditions is to make the economy competitive but I don’t see how you can make an economy competitive by cutting subsidies to peasant farmers so that they cannot access AI services. Or leaving small scale farmers to the vagaries of the market.
These loans are good for recipients but they have security implications for the west as time Magazine has argued very well here. Read this nice analysis here. And that is what is bothering the west. But my question is this: Is western security more important than economic development of millions of people in Africa and elsewhere? If the west can answer YES to that question, then it means they are fundamentally selfish people. My advice to African leaders is that they should place the interests of their people first and everything else second.
I must admit that the economics of debt and stuff is complex. Too much indebtedness without sufficient economic growth might lead to debt distress. Also, the west, IMF, and World Bank perhaps impose tough loan conditions in good faith. So we cannot generalize and say the west and Breton Woods institutions are intrinsically bad, as some people often do. That is why I think poor countries need to think long and hard on how to develop their economies because solutions elsewhere might not work.
Personally, If were a political leader, I would modernize agriculture, improve marketing of produce and particularly focus on processing and formalizing all aspects of the economy, automate processes, and encourage adoption of new technologies such as electric cars, as that would automatically eliminate the huge oil import bill poor countries incur. I would also limit some imports. Introduce universal feeding programs for school going children to provide market for the farm produce. Create powerful devolved units based on tribes or related tribes to combat corruption and mindless competition for political seats which is in reality tribal contests. ETC.
Hypersonic missiles and glide-capable munitions are the future of warfare. China’s already there.
Cranberry Bourbon Relish
This can be made several days in advance.
cranberry bourbon relish
Yield: 7 servings
Ingredients
1 cup bourbon
1/4 cup minced shallots
Grated zest of 1 orange
1 package fresh cranberries
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Instructions
In small nonreactive saucepan, combine bourbon, shallots and orange zest. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower heat and simmer until bourbon is reduced to a syrupy glaze.
Add cranberries and sugar, stirring until the sugar is dissolved and the cranberries burst open, about 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in pepper.
Why do people dislike interracial dating?
Some people are stupid and believe that the “natural order” is for the “races” to “stick to their own kind.”
This is contradicted by the natural fact that most people will be sexually attracted to (and thus have the urge to procreate with) “beautiful women” or “handsome men” from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds.
Only a minority of people are exclusively sexually attracted to members of their own “race” — and who knows, even those few are probably lying to preserve their prejudice or to be judged well by other prejudiced compatriots.
Could you be any more of a racist than if you owned slaves? Yet there were no slave owners on any continent who were above feeling sexual attraction to their slaves (whom they believed were semi-intelligent livestock) behind closed doors. This resulted in a mixed product population of the master and slave “races” wherever slavery took place. African-Americans have something like 30% white DNA, the “Coloureds” arose in South Africa, many Saudis resemble light-skinned East Africans, and so on.
There is no ethnicity that is universally attractive or unattractive. We all have it in our minds the idea that the “white race” is the “most beautiful race,” but if you leave magazines and Instagram and visit a dating site or walk the streets of a predominantly white city you will see a great many unattractive white people and a few very attractive ones, like in any other “race.”
It happens all the time that a person with white skin, blond hair, blue eyes and a Greek nose can still have an “ugly” face. Attractiveness is shaped by so many factors additional to the few classic traits we associate with a “race.” Attractiveness is shaped by thousands of genes. If anything goes wrong, you’re just not hot (and most of us aren’t). Like the meme says, a few millimeters of bone can make the difference between a perfect face and an “ugly” one.
“Interracial” sexual attraction has been a reality of being human since the dawn of history when modern humans (homo sapiens) mated with archaic humans (Neanderthals, Denisovans, etc.) resulting in most people today having at least some Neanderthal DNA. And that was across different species that could produce viable offspring, not across different ethnicities of the same species.
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In all of history there has never been a human population living in proximity to another human population without the occurrence of interbreeding and the appearance of a mixed population. That’s why we’re all mixed. Even when one ethnicity instituted itself as superior and maritally forbidden to another (through slavery, imperial conquest, colonialism, scientific racism, religious fervor and exclusionism, a “divine race,” etc.), this tendency never failed to happen.
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When the British naval vessel HMS Bounty reached the island of Tahiti in the South Pacific in 1788 (to gather up breadfruit to grow in Jamaica and feed to slaves on the cheap), every seaman relished in the welcome he got from native girls. The Polynesian girls — living on the most isolated islands and homogenous societies in the world for centuries or millennia — were certainly attracted to the British boys. And whatever admonition the British boys received about “sticking to their own kind” obviously failed. So clearly on neither side was there a natural revulsion toward sexual intimacy with another “race,” even a “lower” one.
Keep in mind the Brits were deeply racist and definitely didn’t see Polynesian men as their equals. In fact they reduced them to slavery when they got the chance. But Polynesian women aroused a very different response. All the British boys temporarily on shore had native girlfriends. Lots of them fell in love and got married and fathered mixed children, to the consternation of their stuffy captain. They were so fond of Tahiti and resentful of having to leave that they mutinied.
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Think of World War I and II, when scientific racism was mainstream thinking. Arab and African colonial troops posted in Germany produced the mixed generation termed the “Rhineland Bastards,” and definitely not because German women found them repulsive.
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American GIs called Asians gooks and perpetrated horrendous war crimes yet went home with Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese wives, echoing the Bounty seamen.
Interestingly, average white guys to this day have more success with women overseas than they do with white women. Sometimes it’s to the extent of being a bum at home and a king abroad. Likewise, many “ethnic” guys aspire to get a white girlfriend instead of dating their own kind like their parents demand. Sometimes dateless “ethnic” guys in immigration-heavy Western countries find girlfriends in homogenously white Eastern Europe where a “colored” guy is rare. We often see rich white celebrities who can have any man or woman they want choosing a partner of a different “race.” Many people are attracted more to what is different from them than to what is similar.
Scientific racism fell out of favor because deeper studies kept pointing to race as an unreliable, error-producing concept instead of one of nature’s concrete realities. “Race” doesn’t really exist.
There’s no such thing as “the white race” when a white guy can come from Norway or Syria or Pakistan, or China (Xinjiang).
How can “the black race” exist when two people from different tribes in southern Africa, both labelled as “black” and visually similar, are more genetically distinct than a Russian is from a Maori? How can a category of man contain subcategories that are larger than itself?
Even ethnicity is not reliable. There’s not really such a thing as a Jewish, Egyptian, Polish, Japanese ethnicity. These are just groups of people who have been living together for a long time. If they were a predominantly rural, non-urbanized, parochial people, they ended up usually marrying each other due to foreigners not really being part of their world, resulting in dominance of “ethnic features” in this enclosed, remote, insular space.
Basically, what historically secluded and inbred communities like the Amish and Pitcairn Islanders do, an ethnic group has done on a much bigger scale. That’s the only difference.
An ethnic group is nothing more than a really big, inbred family, formed in isolation before the modern era of mass travel, which managed to avoid retardation thanks to large numbers and a bit of luck.
Even then, not one ethnicity member will be a “full-blooded native” of the ethnicity they belong to. There’s always been mixing, scarcely more than a few generations back.
Now put them in a city or on a trade route (even in ancient times) and they would always forget the “pride of their blood” when coming across an attractive foreigner.
And none of this happened because it was “against nature,” it happened because it is nature.
So an ethnicity is produced by artificially restricted human mating choices accumulated over time. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a product of nature.
Basically, every argument against race-mixing is an argument that inbreeding is a virtue under some expanded boundary.
“You can’t marry your sister” has always been universal, except in some ancient Egyptian, Ptolemaic and Inca royal families. Since the royals were held to be deities, they could not besmirch their godly blood with the blood of earthly subjects. They had to marry the closest possible people to them — their siblings.
“You can marry your cousin” or “I want you to marry your cousin” is still common in some cultures, not for “racial purity” but to keep wealth and domestic and legal disputes managed within the family. When nations were absolute monarchies, cousin marriage among royals prevented outsiders from threatening the royal family’s hold on the throne.
“Roma/Amish/Druze should only marry other Roma/Amish/Druze” is the rule for some tiny ethnic communities. This results in very poor genetics. Among the Amish, children born with genetic disabilities are so common that the community runs its own long-term care homes for them.
“You should only marry within your tribe/caste” is common in societies that still have castes and tribal affiliations (which are usually ethnic communities after a long period of inbreeding).
“You should only marry another Egyptian/Saudi/Italian/Pole” is the logic of ethnic nationalists. In this case the whole ethnicity is thought of as a tribal affiliation.
“You should only marry someone white or black” is the logic of racial nationalists. In this case the whole “skin color group” (“race”) is thought of as the tribal affiliation. Genetic “purity” is preferred, and crude visual similarity (shared skin color) is erroneously attributed to genetic similarity. In reality your “same-race” white or black partner might be more genetically distinct from you than someone from the other hemisphere.
“Race-mixing” is always 100% guaranteed to happen whenever humans of different backgrounds interact. “Preserving the races” is only possible if we isolate human populations we define as “races” and prevent them from interacting with one another. No travel, tourism, commerce, investment, employment, scholarship, etc. between the “races,” and probably no direct communication either. And no war involving human soldiers. Good luck with that.
While sorting through a deceased person’s possessions, what is the most disturbing thing you found?
I had a friend – we will call him James – who I knew throughout high school and college. James went to Texas A&M at the same time I did, as well as another friend, who I will call Tim. All throughout my senior year, Tim and I would go to James’ apartment on the weekends, and all three of us would hang out. I credit these weekends as saving me from the horrible pressure of my perfectionism during college, and I told James so later on in a birthday card.
I graduated Texas A&M in 2009. James graduated in winter of 2009 but refused to walk the stage for graduation. Finally, Tim graduated in 2010, and I went to his graduation.
I returned home after college to the Dallas area, as did Tim. James moved to Mesquite, which is not far from Dallas. Just like during college, James, Tim, and I would hang out on weekends, sometimes at James’ apartment.
About two years later, I couldn’t get into contact with James one weekend. He simply wasn’t answering his phone. Tim and I became concerned, and Tim ultimately stopped by James’ apartment and said the lights were on, but he couldn’t see anything inside really because the blinds were shut. No one was answering the door. Eventually, the next day, Tim called the apartment complex. The apartment complex actually gave Tim James’ mom’s number. As it turned out, to our shock, James had passed away (later to be determined due to diabetic ketoacidosis). He had been dead in his apartment at least four days before his body was found.
James’ mother had sent me a message on Facebook, which had been sorted in the “other” pile, so I hadn’t seen it. She provided her phone number, and I immediately called her, and we talked. She let us know when the funeral would be, and I said I would let all of James’ other friends know.
One thing I added was, “If you haven’t contacted the City of Mesquite to let them know that James has passed away, you should probably do so.” James’ mother said, “James told me he was working for Mesquite High School, but I can’t find any evidence of payment.” This confused me because James had never mentioned working at a school. I said, “Well, James doesn’t work at a school. He worked for the City of Mesquite.” James’ mother said, “Hi lies, Lindsey. That’s what he does. He lies. I don’t even know if his diploma is real.”
This greatly confused me, and I thought to myself that I was speaking to a woman who just lost her son. So, I didn’t challenge her or prod her with questions. When we hung up, I kept thinking about what she said as I prepared for the funeral and called everyone. I almost let it go, but I thought to myself that this misunderstanding would be easy to clear up. So, eventually – several days later – I contacted the City of Mesquite just to get them to call James’ mother. The woman on the other end of the line said that she could not give out any personal information on any employee, and I told her that was fine, that she simply needed to call James’ mother. The woman looked up James’ name and said, “A person by that name has never worked here.” I thanked her and hung up.
So, then, I began going through everything I remembered in concern with James, and I kept thinking about what James’ mother had said in terms of his diploma not being real. I did some digging, and, as it turns out, any former student of Texas A&M is able to access an alumni area on the Texas A&M website that states all individuals that attended A&M and what degree he or she received, as well as the graduation year.
I logged in and checked my own name first. Everything was as it should be. Then, I checked James’ name. Beside his name were three initials: NDR. I would come to find out this means no degree received.
My mind, by this point, was reeling. I thought back to how James had said he didn’t want to walk across the stage for graduation and quickly realized that he had said this because he wasn’t actually graduating. He was pretending to graduate, and he had chosen Winter of 2009 – really a perfect date for pretend, as it was after my graduation date and before our mutual friend’s graduation. In addition, he must have ordered a diploma from a website that created fake ones and had it sent to his mother’s house.
I did a bit more digging and discovered something called the National Student Clearinghouse, which provides degree verification. For $10, you can verify a person’s degree from select colleges, as well as see what classes that student took each semester. Texas A&M is one of those select colleges. I paid $10 and read the report. James had only attended A&M for one or two semesters. That means the entire time we were hanging out my senior year, the textbooks he had out beside his couch were fake. His stories about his classes were fake. All of it was.
I began, at this point, to have many dreams that James hadn’t actually passed away, most likely because I didn’t know what to believe, anymore, in concern with him. I obviously didn’t really know him. I was very angry during this period of time, and I felt just a little guilty for being so angry. After all, he had been a friend, as well.
The question, of course, was, how was James able to pay for an apartment in Mesquite, when he didn’t have an actual job? So, part of the answer I think is in the fact that his grandparents paid for his college courses – even when James wasn’t actually taking college courses. As far as they believed, he had always been attending Texas A&M. So, he could have told them how much he needed each semester and just been pocketing the money. In addition, as a graduation present, his grandparents had given him a large monetary gift – not enough for living without a job for a long period of time, but enough for a little bit of living without a job.
It made me wonder, though, what James’ plan had been this whole time. He hadn’t set up a future for himself. He hadn’t gotten a job. Then, when he started verging on diabetes, he didn’t regularly check up with his doctor. On really dark nights, I wondered if he had committed suicide purposely, rather than accidentally, by refusing to address his medical issue.
In addition, as I thought back on other things James had said, I took note of how he was always, always making jokes and inserting the truth into jokes. Our mutual friend had asked him in a chat what classes he was taking his senior year, and James has said, “Nothing.” Our friend had written, “Nothing?” James had said, “Nothing!” Tim took it as a joke, just as I would have.
Another time, James had said that he was dating a girl named Jessica and that she had a sister named Kimberly (names are changed to protect identities). At the time, I had remarked, “Wait. Kimberly and Jessica are the same names as two sisters we know. I wonder if parents commonly pair those names together.” When we got together the next weekend, James was no longer dating “Jessica.”
As it turned out, James had been feeding details of my job to his mom, as he said he worked at the Mesquite school district (I am a professor at Cedar Valley College). So, for instance, when I had a conference, he would tell his mom he had a conference. Simultaneously, James had been feeding me details about his mom’s job, when he claimed he had been working for the City of Mesquite, as she worked for her city’s library and always had stories about IT things that had to be dealt with.
James’ mom visited him one week, and during that week, the entire week, he left at 7 AM and returned in the early evening. She told me, “Since he didn’t have a job, I don’t know what he was doing that whole time.”
James’ claim that he was helping map the human genome during college was, of course, a lie as well.
I remember one time James and I were hanging out, and he said something crazy, and I said, “Is that true?” He scrunched his face up and said, “No.” I laughed and said, “You could tell me anything, and I would believe it.” He sighed and said, “You have no idea.”
Sometimes, when I think about this, it gives me chills.
So, the most disturbing thing I found when sorting through a deceased person’s past life is the absence of everything I thought was real and true, as well as the lies of a person I thought was a close friend. Thinking about it used to drive me crazy (there are a couple of things I have intentionally left out of the story), so I had to stop thinking about it.
Originally, anger was what I mostly felt in relation to being betrayed by James. As I have gotten older, though, and tried to look at what he did more objectively, I feel sad for him. He did not have a solid handle on life, and he was not headed in a good direction. By a certain point, it was all going to come crashing down. Whether he was intentionally manipulating everyone around himself to feel superior, or he simply didn’t want to seem like a failure, they are both sad.
Putin in North Korea & Vietnam, driving collective west crazy
In fact, it was her right index finger. And when I was growing up I was told that the reason why it was gone was because she stuck her finger in a fan when she was a little girl. And, that fan chopped her finger off.
Right at the knuckle.
And I, and all the rest of the kids, believed that story.
As I got older, and took care of my aging mother, and learned some history… I’m not so sure that was the REAL story.
My mother’s mother (my grandmother) was a famous (well, in the Pittsburgh area) dancer during the roaring 20’s. She was pretty talented, and she had all these publicity poses and pictures of her.
She also had a very powerful boyfriend. He was NOT my grandfather. But, this powerful boyfriend was quite the stylish fellow. He drove a fancy Ford automobile, at a time when very few people owned cars. He also wore a big bear skin coat that made him look kind of iconic, with a flat straw hat of the period. And he had an ugly bulldog as a pet.
When looking at the pictures of my grandmother in her “glory days”, I noticed that all her fingers were on her hand. So… yeah, that finger came off after she was with this powerful and stylish boyfriend.
Guys… how does an adult … man or woman lose a finger?
If it was an accident, then certainly other parts of her would be scarred; he arm and her hand. Nope. All normal. Just a missing finger before the knuckle bone.
I never got a real answer.
My mother just cryptically told me that
"...it was important to know who you were going to date and associate with. That sometimes they can hurt you in ways that you can never recover from."
China is turning the global economy into an expanded version of the Chinese global economy by introducing new technologies and products globally just as fast as they were previously introduced in the China domestic market.
The G-7 nations, led by the US, are resisting this; this was what Janet Yellen meant when she was talking about “overproduction”. It is natural for the US and G-7 nations to close their markets to new Chinese technologies and products because they don’t want China to profit from this strategy.
But it won’t make a difference because instead of selling to G-7 markets, Chinese companies will sell their products to other markets.
Example: There has been extensive coverage of Chinese EVs piling up at German ports. The Wall Street Journal has been reporting that the Chinese export plans which worked in the past will not work now because western markets are now closed to Chinese markets.
It won’t make a difference because Chinese automakers have enough production capacity for 50% of the world’s automobile demand.
My guess is that those Chinese EVs stuck in German ports will be loaded onto auto carriers and taken to South America or African ports, and even sold at port-side auctions where payment must be in cash.
Mexico will have more technologically advanced EVs than the US and Canada, and at a lower price.
That is the world we are heading into…
Jo Jo Gunne – Run Run Run
What’s something you did as a child that you still feel bad about as an adult?
I am not an adult yet, but there something I did as a child that I really feel bad and sad about when I think about it.
If you want to skip all the context, just scroll down.
I was maybe 8 or 9, can’t seem to remember when exactly, anyways, my mother had met someone at the time, and she was so happy and proud to be with this man. Though I hated him, this with passion; there was something that really frustrated me about him.
Then he started to sleep at our house, and be with us more and more often, that is when my anger turned towards my dear mother.
It started with being not respectful to her, then not joining them at dinner time, often not eating at all, I would stop talking to her and ignoring her, even if the guy was not there.
Then it really started to go in a wrong way, I began to lock myself in my room for the entire night, therefore not seeing her for days, because I would leave for school before she wake up, and get home before she did. I would eat before she get home, and lock myself until I would fall asleep, this every single day, for months… Our conversations were; her trying to talk and understand me, though I would just yell, at the top of my lungs, to go away.
One day, back from school, like usual, I grabbed food and went to my room, though this time the handle had been removed. There was just a hole in my room’s door.
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(Not my picture, though it was like that)
When she got home, she immediately came in my room, and asked me if I wanted to talk, I would always answer angrily to go away.
As days passed, she eventually thought all this ‘thing’ had to stop… She came in my room again, but this time didn’t leave when I yelled her to, she stood there waiting and looking at me yelling and crying of anger…
Then my dear mother approached me to simply talk to put things straight, and I just instinctively kicked her in the stomach with my foot and yelled to go away and to never come back, as she was no longer my mother.
I feel so sorry and sad now, to think about this event, just seeing her backing off with difficulties to even breath and tears in her eyes filled with sadness. All she wanted is to find someone that would take care and love her after all those years of being a single mother… And there I was ruining everything again…
I love you so much mom, and I wish I could do something for that scar I created…
EDIT: For those who want to know what happened afterwards, it continued like this for months, until she broke up with the guy and from there things got better and better over the course of a year or two.
What is the most ridiculous reason for which you have been fired?
This happened several years ago. I had been working in a position for about 5 years. I was out of town on vacation when I got a call from the boss telling me he sent me an email and to please read it. No other explanation. I opened the email and there was a statement asking me to open the attachment. Again, nothing else. The attachment was the budget for the upcoming year. I noticed an awful lot of zeros next to positions, which I assumed meant those positions weee no longer being funded for the upcoming year…. just zeros nothing else. I was a program director in the agency, and followed those zeros on up to my line on the budget. As you have probably guessed by now… yup, there was a zero for my position. I found out I was being laid off at the end of the fiscal year (2 months from then) via email.
I did call my boss back to clarify the zeros and I did indeed read it correctly. He then asked me to please not leave before the end of the year because there was so much to do to “finalize projects.” I used that time to help myself and about 10 soon to be laid off employees find other jobs.
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I ended up in a new career that I love and make a ton more money..
NOT in my worst nightmare did I think the US could revert us to puppet status in less than two years, a status that ended when a nationalistic Senate kicked out American military bases here in 1999, despite the popular Corazon Aquino’s huge efforts to retain them.
Ironically, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of the dictator whom Aquino believed had her husband killed, has now trampled on our independence to make the country the US’ certified vassal — the squire-member more accurately of “trilateral alliances” among the US, Japan and Australia, designed to contain the rise of China, the superpower challenging US hegemony.
We’re now Asia’s Ukraine.
But the vassal state is in a boiling-frog situation: While its puppetry right now has put it in the tepid waters of a pan, it is under a fire that will slowly boil, not perceiving the mortal danger it is in until it is too weak to escape.
In the Chinese view, the US has prodded Marcos to quarrel with China over the control of the Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal. With its expertise in propaganda and control of local and global media, it succeeded in portraying China as a bully, water-cannoning and blocking Filipinos from that area that is “Philippine territory.” US propaganda has portrayed Beijing as having no basis at all for claiming that group of islands we call the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) and which the Chinese call Nansha Qundao, and that it is an imperialist power. This is, of course, false, as China had claimed the area as a sovereign territory even before World War II, even centuries before.
The Philippine claims are based on President Ferdinand E. Marcos’ 1978 annexation of the island group and its patently false interpretation of exclusive economic zones (invented by the treaty called Unclos that took effect only in 1994) as superior to sovereign territory and territorial waters. The US also has successfully brainwashed even intelligent Filipinos that China’s claims are based on its arbitrary “nine-dash” line, which China has never claimed.
Basis
We have to understand the basis of our claims in the Spratlys, as well as that of other claimants, as US propagandists have effectively used the disputes to paint China as our enemy rather than just another claimant, the others being Vietnan, Taiwan and Malaysia, pursuing their own interests based on their understanding of history and international law.
Marcos, goaded by the US, insists that Ayungin Shoal is within our EEZ. China insists that it is within its sovereign territory, Nansha Qundao, which is clearly mapped in its maps as early as 1947. Marcos ignores that claim and sends his Navy Coast Guard, contracting civilian wooden vessels, to assert the Philippines’ rights as EEZ holder of the shoal to supply with repair materials the BRP Sierra Madre that had been deliberately grounded there in 1999. China claims Marcos is violating an agreement in 1999 not to do that, which was honored by the Estrada, Arroyo and Duterte administrations.
For the first time since the dispute emerged mainly in the 1950s, the US openly backs the Philippine claims, and declared that it will militarily defend the country if conflict breaks out, if China blocks Filipino vessels from supplying the all-but-sinking Navy ship.
What is a nuclear superpower like China, which has a bigger Navy in Asia than the US, to do? Be cowed by the US nuclear arsenal and its Seventh Fleet? The fact that it was China’s Ministry of National Defense, and not its foreign ministry, which recently “[vowed] to take resolute measures against the Philippines should it continue to challenge China,” is a very strong signal that the Chinese could be moving toward a military stance against the Philippines to resolve the Ayungin issue.
My bet is that it will be gradually raising the temperature of the waters of the pan where we have been placed by Marcos. At first, we will hardly notice as the Chinese stop all investments in the Philippines and reduce the number of tourists coming here.
Move
Its last move would be for its authoritarian government to order the slowdown and then cessation of trade with us on the grounds that the Philippines has joined the de facto military alliances that the US has set up to contain its rise, and in particular, to battle with it when it takes over its rogue province Taiwan. China probably won’t declare such a move, but it will do so quietly and gradually.
In 2012, President Aquino 3rd started backing down from his belligerent stance against China after Filipino fruit exporters lost hundreds of millions of pesos when their banana exports were left to rot in Chinese ports, with Chinese officials claiming they had to check the reported presence of pests in those shipments.
A trade cessation or even just a major slowdown of our trade with China will result in an economic catastrophe for our country.
China is our biggest trading partner, accounting for 20 percent of our trade, twice that of the US. The Philippines, on the other hand, accounts for 2 percent of its trade, which means the Chinese would hardly feel the loss of that market. Our imports from China in 2023 totaled $29.4 billion, or 23 percent of our total $126.2 billion imports. By comparison, the US accounted for only 7 percent. While the US is officially our biggest export market, accounting for 16 percent of the total, China is on its heels, accounting for 15 percent. Add exports to the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong to that figure, and China accounts for 27 percent of our exports.
value
Are you sure you want a quarrel with this country? DTI DATA
Check out how many made-in-China products fill supermarket shelves, and you will be surprised. What has also not been noticed is that China is the fastest-growing source of petroleum products, ranking third in 2022 with a 15.4 percent share. Its share is actually higher, as Singapore, the second-biggest supplier of gasoline here, gets much of its petroleum products from China. Many of the never-heard ubiquitous gasoline stations in areas outside the metropolis import their gas and diesel from China. We’ll have a transportation crisis the day China orders its state-owned companies to stop selling gas and diesel to us.
Quarrel
Do we really want to quarrel with China? Or just swallow our pride, stop the US from using us as its pawn, and give up a dilapidated, rusting-to-its-core WW II-era vessel that will, except by some miracle, soon sink to the bottom of the sea, which we proudly claim symbolizes our sovereignty over a useless permanently submerged tiny shoal that can fit in half of Taal Lake.
I sincerely hope I’m wrong.
Unlike our political-economic elite and even our Congress, half of whom I estimate have houses in the US and Spain, my family and I are stuck here in an unlucky country ravaged by an uncaring ruling class. Indeed, a top-ranking Marcos official who has been the No. 1 spokesman against China late last year made a down payment for an apartment in New York. Maybe he was already on his second glass of Scotch when I talked to him since he even intriguingly told me, “Where will I go if someone with a monosyllabic name becomes president?”
Viewed from all angles, quarreling with the superpower in our neighborhood is insane. Our Asean neighbors, two of which are claimants themselves, are laughing at our asininity, happy that whatever trade and investments China would have brought here would instead flow to them.
We’re now the US’ puppet state, and a boiling frog
NOT in my worst nightmare did I think the US could revert us to puppet status in less than two years, a status that ended when a nationalistic Senate kicked out American military bases here in 1999, despite the popular Corazon Aquino’s huge efforts to retain them.
Note: The Philippines won’t be relevant here which is lucky. Because Mindanao, Phillipines communists and other minorities have real power in the country to prevent Marcos from doing stupid things. However, the country will miss out on economic opportunities as it has lost to many others especially Vietnam.
Is America Really Better Than Europe? || FOREIGN REACTS
OMG! This is amazing!
Ukraine SitRep: The Power Plant War – Ideological Losses – More Signs Of Corruption
The Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski is lobbying Congress through U.S. media for more weapons and monetary support. It requires him to finally depict the situation as dire as it is:
Speaking to the PBS news hour on Tuesday, April 16, Zelensky underlined Ukraine’s air defences’ critical condition.“I’ll give you a very simple example,” he said.
“Eleven missiles were launched towards the Trypillya [thermal power] station, upon which the electricity supply in the Kyiv region depends. We managed to intercept the first seven, but the remaining four hit Trypillya. Why? Because we had zero missiles left. We have exhausted all the missiles that were defending Trypillya,” the President added.
…
In response to the targeting of critical infrastructure, Zelensky used this example to once again call upon Ukraine’s allies to urgently supply the weapons Kyiv needs, particularly air defense launchers and missiles.
“Frankly speaking, without this assistance, we stand little chance of victory, because we need to be significantly stronger than our adversaries. The current ratio of artillery shells stands at 1 to 10. Can we endure for much longer? No,” Zelensky said.
It is good to see that Zelenski is finally noticing the situation Ukraine is in.
The electricity infrastructure is indeed a critical point. John Helmer, via Naked Capitalism, suggest that Russia is using the destruction of Ukrainian power plants to press for its unconditional surrender.
Boris Rozhin, whose Colonel Cassad military blog broadly represents General Staff thinking, reports the operational breakthrough demonstrated on April 11, and explains what the maps of current targeting foreshadow for the next round of strikes, and the rounds after that. Rozhin republishes his analysis from RT, the state media organ.“By the evening of April 11, Ukrainian sources reported that air-launched X-69 missiles could be used to hit the Tripolskaya TPP [Thermal Power Plant]. So far, there is no confirmation of this information, but it is worth studying these missiles in more detail. Their range is almost 20 times less than that of the X-101 missiles [equivalent to about 250-500 kilometres], the carriers of which are strategic aircraft of the Aerospace Forces [Tu-95]. In their [X-69] function, they are closer to the foreign [Anglo-French] Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles, which are being attempted for strikes on the Crimean Bridge. The [X-69’s] long range of the 300 km could be enough if the launches of missiles were carried out from the territory of the Bryansk region. If the use of missiles is confirmed in the future, it will mean that no energy facility of the Ukraine on the Dnieper River can work safely, and the strike capabilities of the Aerospace Forces have multiplied.” https://t.me/rt_russian/197065
The lack of power supply is not the only unsolvable problem Zelenski has.
The situation at the frontline is deteriorating. One of the critical sectors in now Chasiv Yar, some 10 kilometer west of Bakhmut, where the Russian forces recently managed to make some crucial progress.
Ground that had been held by parts of the 67th Separate Mechanized Brigade had been given up very quickly.
The Ukraine command investigated and found the root cause in the ideological framework of the ‘nationalist’ brigade:
After losing some positions on the Chasiv Yar front in Donetsk Oblast, where heavy fighting has been ongoing since the beginning of 2024, the 67th Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Right Sector Ukrainian Volunteer Corps is being investigated and the military personnel who served as the brigade’s backbone are being transferred to other units.
…
One of the factors revealed by the audit was issues within the brigade. The leadership allegedly separated the soldiers from the Right Sector and those who were transferred from other parts during the recent replenishment (they were referred to as “pixels”, in reference to the pattern on the Ukrainian military uniform). The attitude toward the “pixels” was even worse; they were the first to be sent into combat, and their lack of experience made them lose territory.According to a source of Ukrainska Pravda, this was not the only reason for the brigade’s combat capacity deficiencies, as revealed by the audit.
According to a former Ukrainian Volunteer Corps fighter who served in the unit during the 2014-2018 anti-terrorist operation in Ukraine’s east and the first year of the full-scale invasion, the current problem stems from the inability to reform the former volunteer unit into a regular brigade of the Armed Forces.
Following the reformatting of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps into the 67th Brigade, volunteers were forced to live “according to military tenets”, as determined by the newly formed army command. The former Ukrainian Volunteer Corps leaders lacked the military experience necessary for high positions.
The street gangs and hooligans of the fascist Right Sector, who played a major role during the so called Maidan revolution, were not keen to be real soldiers. They put the least experienced mobilized men into the frontline and kept their ideological brethren in the back.
Such behavior had been fine under the former Commander in Chief General Zaluzhni who has a well known affinity for the hard right ‘nationalists’ units. But the new Commander in Chief General Syrski needs real soldiers, not amateurish terrorists:
During the tenure of former Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the backbone of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, particularly Andrii Stempitskyi, was able to maintain some autonomy in the brigade while receiving assistance from the General Staff.Quote: “And when Sirskyi was appointed, they were confronted with the fact that they must only do activities that are appropriate for their official position. They saw it as political persecution. For highly ideological Ukrainian Volunteer Corps combatants, this appears to be the end of a movement, but it is actually the system bringing its combat units up to standard.”
Stranaadds a bit of history (machine translation):
Recall that the” Ukrainian Volunteer Corps “(DUK) was formed in 2014 by the “Right Sector” during the anti-terrorist operation. After that, for a long time he was not a member of any of the official law enforcement agencies of Ukraine, which raised questions about the ambiguity of his legal status. This continued until 2018, after which most of the DUK joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Like other fascists groupings in Ukraine, i.e. Azov, the DUK or ‘Right Sector has multiplied during the war. It has infiltrated more units:
In 2023, the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps was split into two parts: one joined the Special Operations Forces and the other formed the 67th Separate Mechanised Brigade. In February 2024, a portion of the Da Vinci Wolves Unit transferred from the 67th Brigade to the 59th Separate Motorised Infantry Brigade.
‘Reforming’ the ‘nationalist’ brigades will be quite a task for the new command under Syrski. As he was born in Russia they may in the end declare him to be their ultimate enemy.
Another problem Zelenski should, but wont, care for, are the signs of corruption which due to the war have only increased:
By law, Ukrainian officials such as lawmakers, prosecutors, and judges must declare their assets to the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NACP).The NACP received some 664,000 documents by March 31, which was the submission deadline for 2023, Economic Pravda reported.
The news site reported Wednesday that it randomly selected declarations for 2,200 officials to see how their fortunes had changed from 2022 to 2023.
It found that every sixth official had bought an apartment or house, and every third one a car. They purchased 721 cars, 268 apartments, and 90 new houses.
Meanwhile, even with the new asset purchases, the officials’ savings increased.
Economic Pravda found that the cash and bank deposits of the declarants increased by about a quarter during the two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The dire economic situation of Ukraine leaves no explanation but corruption for this (machine translation):
In Ukraine, record sales of luxury foreign cars were recorded last year. Some premium brands were included in the top 10 best-selling cars, which was not even in peacetime. And the number of Tesla cars in Ukraine has increased almost 10 times compared to 2021.Such a boom in demand for expensive cars in a warring country, at first glance, looks at least strange. But there are explanations for this.
Used Teslas have become a bit cheaper in Ukraine. But the main reason why the sales of luxury cars in Ukraine is booming is this:
Third (and this is the main thing), there is a category of new applicants for luxury cars-people whose welfare has grown significantly since the beginning of the war.”Before the war, a man drove a modest Volkswagen. And then he sat down on the stream, got money, decided to upgrade the car, bought a Range Rover. And there are a lot of them,” one of the car dealerships in Kiev told us.
According to employees of the salon, massively upgrading cars to something “more decent”, are in particular, the security forces.
In addition, a whole layer of people appeared in the country, who became very rich during the war. Including on corruption schemes for supplies to the army. They are also a major category of luxury car buyers. Yes, and other expensive things. For example, one of the dealers of luxury watches told Strana that in the last year its sales are breaking records for the entire existence of the business.
While Zelenski is begging Congress it should consider that someone will have to pay for those who ‘sit down on the stream’ and gain from it.
Posted by b on April 16, 2024 at 15:04 UTC | Permalink
By now, most of the world knows that Iran launched a multi-faceted attack against Israel about 48 hours ago. The “fallout” from that attack is now becoming frighteningly clear, and it has Defense Experts TERRIFIED.
As the attack was in-progress, Iran undertook a very unusual, and apparently foolish, series of steps. They announced they had launched drones and then cruise missiles against Israel. They announced this despite the fact the drones and missiles still had 57 more minutes to travel before reaching their targets!
Expert Observers thought it very strange – and foolish – that an attacker would give out such information while the very weapons they launched had not yet arrived. It gave Israel and its allies time to go after those weapons, which they did.
Well . . . it turns out this was not strange or foolish – it was planned. Iran launched the old dregs of their arsenal! First generation drones. First generation cruise missiles. What they launched was the junk they had laying around for years! Slow moving, loud, junk.
Many of the drones simply fell out of the sky from malfunctions. Others were easily intercepted by fighter jets from Israel, the US, and the UK, with some help from French naval assets in the Mediterranean Sea.
There was a much-heralded “99% interception success rate” broadcast around the world for all to hear. Turns out, there’s a problem. A MAJOR problem: Iran’s Ballistic Missiles. A few of them, got through.
Almost no one noticed this “problem” because there has been no media coverage of it, until this article.
The hint there was a BIG problem, came today. US Media reported:
“U.S. National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan stated today that the Department of Defense alongside U.S. Central Command is continuing to Increase the Readiness and Integration of Air Defenses and Early Warning Systems in the Middle East, in order to Erode the Effectiveness of Iran’s Missile and Drone Capabilities.”
When I read that, I thought to myself “Who asked you?” Why say something like that? Unless . . . . unless. . . . there’s a big problem. So I started looking, and asking questions. Here’s what I found:
The missiles that hit the two bases in the Negev region didn’t just “get through.” They did so against the most-heavily-defended area in the world, protected with the most advanced, integrated, Anti-Ballistic-Missile (ABM) systems known to exist in the West.
Two Israeli Bases in the Negev region and one Intelligence Base in the far north of Israel on Mount Hermon, got hit by Iranian missiles.
In the north, the secret intelligence base in the north of the occupied Golan Heights located in Jabal al-Sheikh (Mount Hermon), got hit and seriously damaged.
In the south, the Israeli Nevatim and Ramon Bases got hit and THIS is where the problem reared its ugly head.
According to secret intelligence information, at the Nevatim Air Base in the Negev Desert, Hangar to Israel’s F-35 Stealth aircraft and Mossad Spy aircraft, at least Forty-four (44) Mossad personnel were killed.
But for the Defense sector, that pales in comparison to what took place for Iran to achieve that.
Nevatim was defended by the world’s most advanced integrated anti-missile defense shield which incorporated Arrow 2, David’s Sling, THAAD, and Patriot 3 with the AN/TPY-2 X-band surveillance and targeting radar. This system was designed to exclusively defend against the Iranian medium-range ballistic missile threat.
Below is an actual photo of the actual radar deployed to protect those bases. Here is what it looks like:
US advanced Radar Negev Desert Israel
And yet . . . 5 to 7 missiles hit Nevatim. The Israelis have acknowledged 2 runways and three warehouse structures hit.
Not a knockout blow — it wasn’t intended as such.
But any Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) expert would note that the point of impact was center mass, a clear indication of precision guidance.
5-7 missiles hit the world’s most heavily defended location, defeating an integrated ABM defense that was custom built to defeat the very missiles it failed to shoot down.
THAT has some people in the Defense sector, literally panicked. You see, if 5-7 missiles got through, then it is a given that others can get through. And simple math reveals that had Iran fired thirty (30) missiles at that base, the base would no longer exist.
The Iranians know this now. They __know__ Israeli “missile defenses” cannot stop their medium range ballistic missiles with any great reliability.
While Jordan fired US PATRIOT missiles to down a few Iranian missiles, Jordan’s PATRIOTS are now completely depleted. They have NONE left.
Fighter jets did down a few additional Iranian missiles, but not many.
As such, Israel is not only vulnerable, there is no “filler” technology that can be quickly inserted into the advanced, integrated system, to make things better for Israel. Put simply, right now, Israel is factually defenseless from any large salvos of these missiles.
Think about that for a moment.
The most advanced, integrated air defense radar system in the world, its mission is to detect Iranian missile launches, and pass targeting data to Israeli Arrow, David’s Sling, and U.S. THAAD ABM batteries deployed to protect sensitive Israeli sites, including Dimona and the Nevatim and Ramon air bases.
Iranian missiles struck both Nevatim and Ramon air bases.
The best surveillance radar in the world, working in concert with the most sophisticated anti-missile defenses in the world, were impotent in the face of the Iranian attack.
What has galled Israel is not the attack itself, it was that the most advanced missile defense systems in the world couldn’t stop the very missiles they were built to stop!
Iran has now achieved a “strategic deterrence” of Israel. Israel now knows Iran will hit them, but can also hit them at-will with missiles Israel cannot stop.
Even worse, now that the “junk” is gone from Iran’s inventory, they can bring out the Second and third generation versions of their drones and missiles. Hezbollah did that TODAY. Hezbollah utilized almost silent, very-much-faster, jet powered drones to hit Israel in the north today.
People on the ground did not hear the drones until they were dive bombing the targets!
If Iran starts using these, the speed alone will cut down flight time, by half or more, making it even harder to intercept such drones if launched.
What the second or third generation cruise missiles might be able to do, none of us know yet.
We’ve now seen what Iran’s Ballistic Missiles can do – nasty!
The Iran response to the Israel attack up the Iranian Embassy in Syria, has opened a chasm in the Middle East balance of power. The world changed that day. Not in ways the general public knew – until now.
So true – no middle class
In what way has China surpassed Japan?
I haven’t had lots of Quorans yelling at me all at once, so let’s take a trip down Nostalgia Lane…
My first trip to China was in 1985. This photo was taken on the major road through the center of Beijing, the one that runs past the Forbidden City.
At that point 80% of the population lived in poverty. 30 years later, 800 million people had been lifted out of poverty, an accomplish never before done, by anyone, in the history of the world.
main qimg 9631473669420cf591efacab811acfcf
My first trip to Shanghai was in 1990. The road from the airport to our hotel was largely dirt, and we had to stop frequently for cattle crossings and other disruptions. Jump forward 15 years and we were able to take the world’s first maglev train into the city, at a top speed of 431 km/hr.
By contrast, one of my first jobs as a copywriter in the early 1980’s was doing an ad for Hitachi’s maglev train. It’s now 2024 and the train still isn’t in commercial operation.
main qimg 23392356704a1d8dafd71ce77bb2670d
Now jump ahead to 2018. In the downtown Shanghai subways there are photos on the walls so that it looks like a 2D supermarket. Scan the items you want on your phone, and they’ll be waiting for you at your stop when you get off. Nothing like that exists in Japan, which shunned e-money until COVID made everyone afraid of touching coins and bills that had passed through unknown numbers of unknown hands.
Those are the stories; here are the points:
China has a very strong central government. You can make complaints about censorship, access to social media, etc., but when it comes to public works — including poverty reduction — I’d argue it’s the most effective in the world. (My Indian colleagues were late to a meeting because they kept walking the streets of Shanghai in wonder, saying “Why can’t our government do this?”)
That’s also the point of the maglev story. Japan has 2nd generation trains you can ride on a test track, but permitting in one prefecture has blocked commercialization. Japan created the tech; China utilized it.
China is a LOT more advanced technically than most people know. 9 of the world’s Top 20 tech companies are in China, and 3 of the Top 10. We’re seeing this a lot recently as China now dominates the EV market once owned by Tesla. The pace of innovation has been stunning, and while there are cheap options available, this is NOT a case of low-tech EV’s made with cheap manufacturing labor. BYD has a truly impressive ecosystem that covers everything from chips to ships.
Fortunately, China and Japan are in close proximity, so a lot of Japanese leaders — both political and business — understand just what China is capable of.
The US? Not so much.
Russia Hits FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION TROOPS in Ukraine
On April 13, this website reported the arrival of French Foreign Legion troops into Slavyansk, Ukraine. Overnight, those troops were hit and mostly killed by the Russian Army.
The French military brought the CAESAR self-propelled gun to Slavyansk
According to the Military Chronicle, the brigade artillery group consists of 12 to 15 wheeled howitzers, as well as several Renault trucks with auxiliary equipment. According to preliminary information, the equipment was transferred for storage to the Starokramatorsky Machine-Building Plant from Dnepropetrovsk.
In Slavyansk itself, in the area of clay quarries, as well as to the south (in the Cherevkovka area), firing positions have already been prepared for these guns: a road has been rolled out and ammunition supply routes have been equipped.
Most likely, we are talking about the potential use of the French CAESAR for barrage fire in the event of an attack by the Russian Armed Forces on Slavyansk, but we cannot exclude the use of this technology in the defense of Chasov Yar and its likely transfer to units of the 54th Mechanized Infantry Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (as well as the direct participation of the French within this division.)
When firing extended-range projectiles with a bottom gas generator from the Belenkoye area (between Kramatorsk and Slavyansk), the entire eastern part of Chasov Yar, including the western part of Bogdanovka and the entry point of Russian troops in the area of vocational school No . 77 in the Kanal microdistrict, may be in the CAESAR destruction zone.
Those French troops and their CAESAR artillery were demolished overnight by the Russian Army.
Russia had previously warned NATO countries that if they sent troops into Ukraine, those troops would become legitimate targets. Now, Russia has made good on its word (again) and a slew of French Foreign Legion troops are now dead.
This Healthy Broccoli Cheddar Soup Recipe is a healthier version of the classic broccoli and cheddar soup. Made with milk instead of cream and loaded with Broccoli, carrots, and celery. Easy to make, filling, and the perfect side dish to add to your dinner table.
Broccoli cheddar soup 6
If you love the broccoli cheddar soup at Panera then you will love this soup. This recipe for broccoli cheddar soup is comforting food at its best for this looming cold weather. It is so filling delicious, and the ultimate comfort food that one bowl won’t be enough. It is made without any heavy cream, made with milk, broccoli, broth, low-fat cheese, and some simple pantry-staple ingredients that you won’t need to run to the store to grab.
Broccoli cheddar soup 10
Why you will love this recipe
Tasty: This light broccoli cheddar soup is packed with flavor and not as creamy and dense as what you get at restaurants that are just too buttery and creamy.
East-to-make: Easy to follow directions on making this simple homemade broccoli and cheddar cheese soup that will be ready in under an hour.
Healthy and good for you: A much healthier option than what you get at a restaurant and carry-out soup. Made without any heavy cream and a lot less cheese. Full of nutrients and fiber.
Broccoli Cheddar Soup Ingredients
Butter or Ghee: Give a rich taste to the soup and a great option for a keto-soup, but you may use oil instead
Olive Oil: or avocado oil
Gluten-Free Flour: or any other flour of your choice.
Chicken or Vegetable Stock: for vegan-option use vegetable broth or water.
Milk: 2% milk or unsweetened almond milk for vegan
Medium Sweet Yellow Onion
Garlic Cloves: use fresh garlic instead of garlic powder
Carrot: Do use fresh carrots and not canned
Fresh Celery thinly sliced
Fresh Broccoli florets: frozen broccoli can also be used.
Cayenne Pepper: this ingredient is optional
Low-fat Grated sharp Cheddar Cheese
HOW TO MAKE BROCCOLI CHEDDAR SOUP
Making this creamy broccoli cheddar soup recipe is quite easy.
In a small bowl, whisk flour and cold stock until well combined. Heat olive oil and butter/ghee in a large skillet on your stovetop over medium-high heat. (butter is fine for the keto version)
Saute the onions until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add in carrots, celery, and garlic, and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes.
Add in broccoli, cayenne pepper, milk stock, and flour mixture, and simmer until veggies are tender and soup is creamy. About 8-10 minutes.
Transfer about half of the soup to a blender. Blend until smooth, then stir the mixture back into the pot or dutch oven.
Stir in Cheddar cheese and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to your taste. Enjoy!
How to thicken broccoli cheddar soup
Based on your dietary needs there are different ways to thicken your broccoli cheddar soup:
Add some flour- about 2 tablespoons mixed in with either milk or cold water
Corn starch
arrowroot powder
blended soup – blend a bit of your soup and add it back in
Recipe Variations and Notes
For a Vegan option: If you would like to make a vegan version of this homemade Broccoli Cheddar Soup recipe you can swap a few of the ingredients to make it into a vegan soup. Swap the Butter for more olive oil, use vegetable broth, almond or cashew milk instead of regular milk, and finally use vegan cheddar cheese. You can find this at health food stores.
Keto-option: To make a keto version of this easy cheddar broccoli soup, use butter or ghee instead of olive oil, skip the flour and use arrowroot powder, or just blend some of the soup to give a thick consistency. Consider adding 1 cup of heavy whipping cream along with 1 cup of milk instead of 2 cups of milk. Also, use whole-fat cheddar cheese.
Add more protein: Want to add more protein to make this a complete meal? Add some leftover shredded chicken or Rotisserie Chicken. Serve it with some crusty bread or dinner rolls.
Don’t have a blender? You may use an immersion blender instead
Broccoli cheddar soup 4
Storage and reheating recommendations
Storage: Store your leftover cheddar and broccoli soup in a sealed container and store it in the fridge for up to 4 days. Allow the soup to cool first before storing it. Freeze for up to 3 months in a freezer-friendly container.
Reheating: You may either reheat the leftover soup in the microwave or a saucepan over medium heat.
Do not settle
What is your opinion on Philippine President Duterte’s recent comments about the Spratly Islands dispute with China?
Duterte is a good man, he just doesn’t want the war to happen in his own country.
Last night, Iran launched missile and drone attacks on Israel, causing damage to Israeli buildings and casualties.
This is the first time that Jews have experienced attacks on their own territory since the establishment of Israel in 1947. Groups of Israelis were frightened and screamed loudly and ran to underground air defense facilities to take shelter. The scene was very chaotic.
However, the United States has no intention of sending troops to join forces with Israel.
U.S. Defense Secretary Austin’s latest statement highlights: “We do not seek conflict with Iran…”
Israel is the most staunch ally of the United States and the spiritual home of American Jews.
The United States and Israel have signed a mutual defense agreement: when Israel is attacked, the United States is obliged to provide protection, but the United States has actually violated the agreement.
The relationship between the Philippines and the United States is far less close than the relationship between Israel and the United States.
Israel is a thousand times more important to the United States than the Philippines. But even so, the United States still does not intend to send troops to fight jointly with Israel.
Duterte is very clear that if a war breaks out between the Philippines and China over the Spratly Islands issue, the United States will not provide the protection they say. The Philippines is just a pawn that the United States can discard at any time.
It’s okay for Filipinos to die for the United States, but don’t expect Americans to die for the Philippines.
China is a superpower and its military power in the South China Sea is stronger than that of the United States. Americans are cunning and will instigate Filipinos to become cannon fodder. When you ask American’s sons to die defending the Philippines, no American citizen will agree.
Also, Many Taiwanese people believe that if Taiwan faces war, the United States will help defend Taiwan. Haha, believing in the empty promises of the United States is equivalent to believing that pigs can fly.
Iran is a nuclear power and the United States will not have a direct war with Iran.
The United States will avoid direct armed confrontation with superpowers such as Russia and China.
The US statement of providing protection to the Philippines and Taiwan is nothing more than an empty promise.
What is an incident that changed your life?
Ok, Let me tell you, It was around 9 PM . A well dressed boy,he must be around 23 years old entered into a footwear shop with a big smile on his face and the conversation started
Shopkeeper: Namasthe sir, what kind of foot wear do you want?
He: I want a good pair of slippers for my Mother,which must be durable
Shopkeeper: okay sir! What is the foot measurement of your mother?
He: I don’t know her foot measurement. But I had this one (He given a paper which was folded 4 times )
The shocked by seeing the paper on which her mother footlines were drawn by him and asked
Shopkeeper: Sir I want the number for measurement
He:Sorry I don’t have her foot measurements.Actually my mother never worn slippers.she is a laborer and she always work hard for money which are used only for my studies and food to us .Today I got my first salary,so I wanted to buy a good pair of slippers to her.
The shopkeeper showed good pair of durable slippers
Shopkeeper: Is this okay for you?These are very durable and it costs 1500
The boy was ready for that price
Shopkeeper: Sir, please don’t mind.How much salary do you earn?
He:At present, 15000. 5 to 6thousand for my room expenses and food ,5 thousand for my mother.
Shopkeeper: Sorry sir! Then 1500 are more to spend for slippers
He: No, It’s worthy !
The shopkeeper packed them and the boy gave the money to the shopkeeper
Shopkeeper: Sir what is your name?
He: I’m Ayyapan son of Lakshmi.
Shopkeeper: Sir! Will you give me one thing?
He: What is it?
Shopkeeper: The paper on which you drawn your mother footlines.
The boy given that paper to him
Shopkeeper: Sir,take this.This is an another pair of slippers to your mother by your brother
He: Thank you sir.
He went out of the shop happily.
The shopkeeper placed that paper in his worshipping area and said to his son to worship it bcz theses are Goddess Lakshmi Devi footsteps which are taken by his true devotee and this brings a lot of benefit to our business.
Ps: I have read this story when I’m studying 11th standard .It changed me a lot.Being inspired from that story I had a thought of taking my mother footlines too.Not because to buy footwear but to keep them with me ,in my college bag. So I took those with my mother permission.
I’m living in hostel, whenever there’s an exm or whenever I miss her I used to touch those footlines🥰
"In France, it is acknowledged that Macron's statements about supporting negotiations on Ukraine's accession into the EU are merely a façade.
They are made solely out of solidarity with Kiev.
In reality, there is a conviction that Ukraine has no place in the European Union, because the accession of the world's largest grain producer would be a fatal mistake for the union.
In the same France, it was confirmed that the statements of Ukraine's imminent accession to the EU are short-term assistance to the Kiev regime.
This is one of the elements for possible peace negotiations on Ukraine's exit from the armed conflict.
But in reality, these statements have nothing worthwhile underpinning them, as the EU is well aware that Ukraine's entry would structurally change everything within the union.
In the US, a different idea has been expressed—Ukraine could give up its agricultural sector in exchange for EU membership.
And here lies all the irony.
First, the West stripped Ukraine of its industry.
Now, it plans to deprive it of the agricultural sector as well, making the Kiev regime's statements about turning Ukraine into an 'agricultural superpower' unattainable dreams.
What then is Ukraine to live on, having become infested with debts over the last decade with the help of the very same West, as a dog is with fleas?"
-Message posted by former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov on his Facebook page, April 14, 2024.
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Love or control
What is really ironic?
1. The most shoplifted book in America is the bible.
2. Four of the original actors who played the Marlboro man in the tv adverts died of lung cancer.
3. The first man to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel died after slipping on an orange peel.
4. A Canadian university was promoting safe sex by handing out condoms with safe notes attached to them. The condoms were recalled because the staples punctured holes into the condoms.
5. The building holding the patent to the fire hydrant burned down in 1836.
6. Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia ” is the fear of long words.
7. Barry Manilow’s 1976 hit ‘I Write The Songs,’ was written by Bruce Johnson.
8. Gary Kremen, the founder of match.com, lost his girlfriend to a man she met on match.com.
9. Charles Darwin, infamous for his theory of evolution and survival of the fittest, married his cousin.
10. McDonalds’ employee health page, which is now shut down, once warned against eating McDonald’s burgers and fries.
MODERN WOMEN reacting to the SOFT GUY ERA “Drizzle “Drizzle ” trend part 2
Asking of Filipinos currently in The Philippines: what is your opinion of Bongbong Marcos? What are your thoughts, and the general feeling “on the street” of his closeness to the United States, and his feelings towards China.
Sawaga Bisayawa
Lives in The Philippines (2022–present)
I can only speak for the Bisaya people, who form the majority ethnic group in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.
Most of us hate him, and we want him removed as soon as possible.
SWS: Satisfaction with President Marcos lowest in Mindanao
There are large rallies and press conferences from the leaders of the Bisaya regions of Visayas and Mindanao, condemning Marcos for his foreign policies, drug use, corruption and poor handling of key domestic issues, namely the economy and safety.
A large rally against Marcos just happened last night in Tagum City, Mindanao, attended by more than 10,000 people.
The theme of these rallies are the same.
Promoting peaceful cooperation with China and the rejection of American warmongering, including the demand for the immediate removal of American bases in our country.
Urging the military to remove Marcos from power, and replace him with the vice president Sara Duterte.
Criticize Marcos’ handling of the economy and safety.
Expose Marcos’ alleged cocaine use.
Expose Marcos’ corruption and theft of public funds.
Reject the changing of the constitution by Marcos and his allies.
Marcos’ trust rating is currently at a low 33% according to the latest Publicus Asia survey.
From the same survey, distrust for Marcos is highest in the Visayas and Mindanao regions at 34% where the Bisaya people form the majority ethnolinguistic group.
Below, we see approval ratings of the previous Aquino and Duterte administrations compared to the current Marcos administration from Pulse Asia.
As you can see, Marcos’ popularity has dipped heavily (red) even after only being two years into office, while the previous Duterte administration (green) enjoyed a relatively high approval rating during the 7th quarter of his term (2nd year in office).
Source for graph: @IanIsland3 on X.
graph
Marcos’ unpopularity is in sharp contrast to the still very popular Rodrigo Duterte, who is labeled as “pro-China” and authoritarian by his critics, both locally (neoliberals and communists terrorists) and abroad (mostly neoliberal and liberal Westoids).
Duterte remains to be the most popular president in Philippine history.
The biggest concern for Filipinos is the economy, while the dispute with China is at last place at only 9%.
Fall season calls for hearty and delicious soup dishes and this Homemade roasted tomato soup recipe will be your perfect bowl of comfort on your dinner table. It is an easy vegan tomato soup recipe that the whole family will enjoy and is perfect all year round.
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This easy and healthy roasted tomato and garlic soup is one of our favorite soup recipes that we make all year long and even in the summertime when we have freshly grown tomatoes in abundance. The fresh tomatoes are oven-roasted with shallots and garlic, herbs, and some simple ingredients, and then blended to make a perfectly warm and comforting bowl of soup. It can be served as a meal on its own or as a side dish. It is low in calories and vegan-friendly.
This Vegan homemade tomato soup recipe is going to be your new favorite weeknight meal. It is just a perfect bowl of comfort that’s bursting with flavors. It’s the healthier version of your classic tomato soup with no added cream or sugar. Made with comforting and feel-good heart-healthy ingredients.
Recipe highlights
Simple and Easy: Making this homemade tomato basil soup can’t get any easier. With simple ingredients needed, roasting the tomato, garlic, and onions, and then blending.
Heart healthy: Did anyone ever tell you tomatoes are good for your heart? They are right! Tomatoes are loaded with an antioxidant called lycopene which is so good for your heart. They are also high in Vitamin C and Potassium.
Comforting: There is something about a bowl of warm Tomato soup that will warm you all over and comfort you in all the best ways.
Low in calories: Tomatoes are low in calories which makes it an easy meal option to get full and not worry about high calories.
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Ingredients needed
Ripe tomatoes cut in half: Please use fresh tomatoes instead of canned
Garlic cloves: we recommend fresh garlic cloves instead of garlic powder.
Smoked paprika: if you do not have smoked paprika powder, normal paprika will work
Shallots (Purple Onions): If you have white onions, you can use that as well.
Dried oregano: if you do not have this ingredient, use Italian seasoning.
Extra virgin olive oil: or avocado oil
Organic or homemade vegetable broth: for vegan-option, only use vegetable broth, otherwise chicken stock works
Balsamic Vinegar: We love adding this for a bit of a tangy Flavor. Makes a difference
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Sprigs of fresh basil: to garnish or you may chop some and toss in the soup towards the end.
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How to make this Roasted tomato Soup recipe
Preheat the oven to 375F
Prepare a large baking sheet pan. Place tomatoes cut-side up together with garlic and shallots.
Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with oregano, and paprika, and season generously with sea salt and black pepper. Roast for 40 minutes to 1 hour, or until the tomatoes are soft and sticky.
Once veggies are done roasting, place them into a large pan, and pour in the stock.
Roughly chop and add the basil stalks with most of the leaves. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes
Add in balsamic vinegar, then blend with a hand blender until smooth.
Pour into bowls, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, and garnish with fresh basil. Enjoy
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As a doctor, what is the saddest thing you’ve been asked by a patient?
It was not the hardest thing I heard, it is what I saw.
An uninsured patient came in with a back problem. It was bad. She had callouses on her knees and elbows because she could not really walk and was crawling around her residence.
I took x-rays and decided she needed an MRI. Did I mention she was uninsured?
The other fact was that I was the biggest rainmaker my hospital had ever seen. So I declared her an emergency. I told her to (lie) that she was losing bowel control. Whatever.
She had the MRI which showed she had a large herniated disc.
I proceeded to tell the hospital that they would do the operation for free. They did, I did. She got better. It cost her $100.
I made the world better and caused a hospital to make her life better. 1.5 hours in the OR and 23 hours in the hospital did not cost them much.
I got Christmas cards for years. A Thank You is sometimes more important than anything you could ever have been paid. Have a heart. No I wasn’t paid at all and never submitted a bill. I got good Karma from it.
ETA: If you think I stole money from the poor little hospital, that hospital was THE MOST PROFITABLE HOSPITAL in the entire chain of for profit hospitals. They made $10 million a year profit on just what I did.
I want to relate a story of something that happened when I was in fifth grade.
At that time, I was attending a small elementary school in my town, and it was so very typical of the 1960’s. It was, just as you might imagine it to be. Wholesome, 1960’s era, and just middle America. It was a slice from “Mayberry RFD”.
My class was 60 students and one teacher. I seem to recall that his name was Mr. Calhoun. It was pretty much 30 girls and 30 boys.
One day,a classmate named Steven decided to have a birthday party at his home on Saturday. And he sent out invitations to everyone except to two students; myself and a girl named Karen.
I didn’t care. But Karen was pretty upset about it.
Nothing much would of come of it, except that my parents (when they took my sister to the party) noticed that everyone in the class was there except me. And so they asked her what was going on, and my sister told them “Oh, Robert and Karen, weren’t invited. We don’t want them at the party.”
My parents said, “if Robert cannot go, you won’t go either” which caused a howling of lament and kicked up a big fuss-storm. “We don’t want them!” and all the rest.
Well…
I’ll give my parents this credit. They went up to Steven’s parents and had a word to them. Which pretty much straightened out everything, and soon Karen and myself were able to attend, and we were given first class treatment at the party.
…
About eight years later I was attending university, and my friends were all on this one particular dorm in the building on campus. I was there all the time.
Day Hall.
day
Everyone knew me. Not a day went by where I did not hang out there, even though I actually lived off campus. That dorm was my actual home.
Well, the dorm floor (it was co-ed) was going to have a dinner, but the RA (Residential advisor) refused to allow me to participate in the dinner, even if I was willing to contribute and pay for my dinner. The entire floor was upset. But she held her ground. Stating that “rules were rules”.
So I didn’t go.
Neither did, one of the most popular people on that floor; Howard.
No. He went and took me out to dinner himself and we ate dinner at a place called “Hungry Charlies” and had a good old time.
Hungry Charlies before it was torn down
Apparently, without us two, the dinner was just kind of bland, and a formal kind of thing. Not filled with the normal crazy life that use odd-balls contributed to the environment. LOL.
When we finished dinner, and arrived at the dorm, we got off the elevator and was welcomed by the entire floor with open arms. It was a great time! Lot’s of missing us, apologies and all the rest.
Both events were similar.
A party was held, a few people were left out, later they were let back in, and people learned that these individuals were more important to the body politic than was was first obvious on the surface. So take note. And have heart.
Odd-balls, and the outliers should always be welcome.
Today…
Disturbing addresses after Victoria Neuland is dismissed
Rufus story
Six-year-old Bridger from Cheyenne, Wyoming, saved his sister from an attacking dog on July 9. After getting bit several times, he grabbed her hand and ran for safety. He later said, “If someone had to die, I thought it should be me.” He’s now in recovery after receiving about 90 stitches. A true hero who deserves our praise! ❤️
Credit: Nikki Walker / Instagram
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Despite the ongoing trade tensions between China and the US, why some US companies won’t decouple from China? What’re in their considerations?
The reason why US companies have not fully decoupled from China is multifaceted. Firstly, China is an integral part of the global supply chain that feeds into American companies’ production processes. Products manufactured in China are often price competitive and offer good value, which appeals to US consumers’ preferences for affordability and quality.
Additionally, China boasts the largest consumer market globally, providing significant opportunities for US companies to generate profits. These profits contribute to various pension funds, including those for millions of public employees(military personnel, government employees, and teachers). Moreover, a portion of these profits is reinvested into the US economy for future business endeavors and research and development, further solidifying the economic ties between the two countries. Overall, the interconnectedness of the global economy, coupled with China’s significance as a manufacturing hub and consumer market, incentivizes US companies to maintain their presence and operations in China.
Additionally, several other factors contribute to US companies’ continued engagement with China:
Skilled Workforce: China has a large and increasingly skilled workforce, making it an attractive destination for manufacturing and production activities. Many US companies benefit from access to this pool of labor, which can be cost-effective and efficient for certain types of manufacturing processes.
Infrastructure: China has invested heavily in infrastructure development, including transportation networks, ports, and industrial zones. This infrastructure supports efficient logistics and supply chain management, making it easier for US companies to conduct business operations in China.
Supply Chain Resilience: While there has been discussion about diversifying supply chains away from China, the country still offers supply chain resilience due to its extensive network of suppliers, subcontractors, and manufacturing capabilities. US companies may find it challenging to replicate this level of integration and efficiency elsewhere.
Technological Collaboration: China is increasingly investing in research and development across various industries, creating opportunities for technological collaboration and innovation partnerships with US companies. These collaborations can drive advancements in technology and foster mutually beneficial relationships.
Cost Considerations: Despite rising labor and operational costs in China, certain industries still find it cost-effective to manufacture products there. Factors such as economies of scale, specialized skills, and established infrastructure can offset higher labor costs, making China a competitive manufacturing destination.
While there are challenges and complexities associated with doing business in China, the country offers significant advantages and opportunities for US companies across various sectors. As a result, many companies continue to maintain their presence and engagement in the Chinese market.
Being real
Did you ever go to hospital in an emergency and were admitted immediately?
Yes.
Back in the mid 80’s I contracted salmonella poisoning from eating undercooked chicken at an employee luncheon.
About 6 hours after eating the chicken, I started feeling sick. I was aching all over, running a fever and having bad diarrhea.
But I had a three yr old and a 1 yr old to care for and my now ex husband did not believe it was a man’s place to take care of the children.
I made it through the first night and got the babies ready for day care the next day. I have never been so sick in my life. I remember lying in bed dreaming of eating popsicles because I was so thirsty. This went on for a couple more days, sending the kids to day care in the mornings, lying in bed all day, and trying my best to take care of them at night.
I was just 22, so I finally broke and called my mom. She came immediately, took my temperature, which read at 106 degrees, and ordered my husband to take me to the emergency room while she watched the babies.
I fully expected to get a prescription and get sent home. I had no idea just how sick I was.
I waited for about 30 minutes before being seen. But once I was, things moved really fast. I was a little out of it, but I remember a team of doctors and nurses trying to get an IV in me. Every vein they tried collapsed because I was so dehydrated. They eventually got an IV into my jugular vein.
The next thing I remember was lying on a bed and being rushed through the halls. Whoever was pushing me was literally running.
I was taken to the ICU where I stayed for almost 2 weeks. One night I was freezing, so when the nurse came in, I asked for an extra blanket. She told me she would get it as soon as she checked my vitals. I never got the blanket. When she checked my temperature, she literally dropped the thermometer and ran out of the room. There was another nurse with her, so I asked her how high my fever was. She said “honey, it’s so high that we can’t read it”. I was packed with ice bags and a cooling blanket after that. I was in and out but do remember someone saying “I think it’s time to call in the family.”
I made it through the night, but had a small stroke as a result of my fever being so high.
I eventually fully recovered and my doctor told me that I had had the most severe case of salmonella ever reported in our county and that I was lucky to be alive.
If not for my mom insisting that my ex husband take me to the ER, I probably wouldn’t be here today.
Overpriced American Weapon vs Low-Cost Chinese Golf Cart
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Beef Turnovers (Empanadas)
You can use the discos or make your own turnover pastry. I’ve done both, and they’re equally as good.
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Ingredients
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup tomato sauce
6 stuffed green olives, finely chopped
2 tablespoons sofrito
1 packet sazon with coriander and annato
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
Ground black pepper, to taste
1 (14 ounce) package Goya discos (yellow or white), thawed*
Vegetable oil, for frying
Instructions
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add ground beef and cook until browned, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, about 10 minutes.
Add onions and cook until soft, about 5 minutes more.
Stir in tomato sauce, olives, sofrito, garlic, oregano and black pepper. Lower heat to medium-low and simmer until mixture thickens, about 15 minutes.
On a lightly floured work surface, using a rolling pin, roll out discos until 1/2-inch larger in diameter. Spoon about 1 tablespoon meat mixture into middle, fold in half to form a half moon; moisten edges with water and pinch to seal closed, or seal with a fork.
Fill a deep saucepan with oil to a depth of 2 1/2 inches. Heat oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking (350 degrees F on deep-fry thermometer).
Cook turnovers in batches until crisp and golden brown, flipping once, 4 – 6 minutes.
Transfer to paper towels to drain.
Notes
* Flattened dough for turnover pastries all rolled out and ready to fill – in the Mexican refrigerated section. Make sure you buy the larger ones.
As far as sazon, you can really use whichever flavor you like. Goya now makes a salt-free version of their seasoning. Or, if you don’t want to use sazon for any reason, just use a good seasoning salt, to taste.
Some more nice renderings of girls and food
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It’s the kind of mood that I am in now.
Oh fuck
What are some Unexpected psychological facts about ladies?
If a woman says she is okay or replies with ‘hmm’ , she is not okay , she is either mad or her mood is off.
A woman doesn’t dress up or do a lot of skincare for guys or other people , she does it , cause she feels relaxed and happy while taking care of herself.
If you are a friend with a woman and you like her , you better tell her early because its hard to get out of the friend zone or brother zone she has put you in.
Beautiful , cute , pretty are lame compliments, these never make women blush or anything. Be genuine and comment about her personality and her soul not only outer beauty .
If a girl is a wearing makeup or glasses and you tell her that “ you look good without makeup/glasses .” Please don’t, she didn’t do makeup to look same and she is wearing glasses cause she has to. That is literally a backhanded compliment.
Women likes guys who are caring , genuine, can make them laugh and a man who has his future planned.
If a women is kind and sweet to all and if you ever get on her bad side get ready to see worst of hell.
Women are more mature than men but they act immature only infront of their favorite men.
Being friendly and flirty doesn’t mean that a girl likes you. She acts like that with everyone cause she wants to be kind and not uptight. So be clear about your feelings because what you are reading as signals are clearly her being kind to you.
Make it stick
What are the circumstances that will force the NATO countries to let Russia get Ukraine? Will they all ever allow Putin to beat them?
They will allow it. EDIT, mostly because they’re powerless to stop it. Russian military production capability exceeds all of NATO and westerners are still just TALKING about ramping up production.
But what will happen yeah? Is the state controlled media in NATO countries will simply stop talking about it and hope everybody forgets.
Remember this? I sure do.
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The Americans with their SUPER SOLDIERS, SUPER MEGA ULTRA TECH weapons and the best training and best everything… were humiliated by a bunch of men with beards.
They spent trillions to replace the Taliban… with the Taliban.
Note how little news coverage this absolute humiliation gets.
The same will happen.
Smooth
What is it like having an octopus as a pet?
It’s a lot of fun, but will have a tragic ending. Octopuses are fairly well known for being intelligent, which is something that makes them interesting pets. Most octopuses are nocturnal by nature, meaning they are most active at night, like bats. Thing is, many of the octopuses I’ve kept quickly realized that Jim and other humans are harmless and, in fact, friendly. From there, the octopuses also quickly realized Jim is the Food God, which naturally helped jump start our relationships. Once that is established, they happily started following my schedule. Just like an affectionate dog or cat is excited to see their master when they get home from work, a pet octopus will also come out in anticipation of a treat or some interaction. This friendship will grow. You will get to know your octopus, and it will get to know you. Some of my octopuses loved being petted. Some loved playing tug-O-war games. Some just enjoyed running their sucker-covered arms over my hands (which is how they smell us- their suckers are full of sensory cells) Others enjoyed getting a Lego submarine or other toy they could tear apart and destroy. Several octopuses I kept seemed to be music lovers- I was a guitar player/singer in several bands and when we practiced at my house, my octopuses routinely came out and danced around on the glass all night while we played. They are very complex animals, and no two are alike in personality or demeanor. Some will become your best friend, but others may just want to be left alone.
The problem is that they are also very short lived critters. Most octopuses only live about a year. They hatch as teeny tiny little things and grow very quickly. What that means for the prospective keeper is that a wild-caught octopus is likely already more than 6 months old (so it has grown large enough for collection divers to find). By the time you bring it home and have tamed it to the point of a relationship I described above, it’s close to the end. It’s usually heartbreaking. Male octopuses often suffer from senescence- a sort of cephalopod-based senility. They lose their minds and start doing strange things. They stop eating food and begin nibbling the ends of their arms off. They will do strange things. One hung upside down from some of the tank plumbing and refused to move. In the wild, they often stop hiding and get snapped up by predators. Despite their reputation for being escape artists, most of my escaped octopuses were suffering senescence. Then one day your little buddy will just die, and it can be just like losing that loyal dog or cat: it’s going to hurt. Just as you started to get to know him, his time is over. Female octopuses will often lay eggs whether they mated or not. At that time, she will guard those eggs literally with her life. She will refuse food and do nothing but hide in her den and groom the eggs religiously. In the wild, when the eggs hatch the babies go off on their own and the mother will die hours later. At home, she will defend those eggs for a month or so until she expires. There’s no avoiding it.
I’ve been keeping and studying octopuses for over 20 years now. You learn to brace for that early end, but it does not get any easier, especially when you happen upon an especially interesting and unique octopus.
My God!
How significant is the Chinese government’s generous subsidies for EVs in driving Chinese companies like BYD to compete successfully with Western rivals?
When Chinese environment is bad you guys demonised China and blamed them for global warming and accused them of being uncaring to their population. Well the acted positively. They now cultivate the most wind, water and solar energy and they subsidise their population to stop using Internal combustion Engines and moved into full EVs that made their environment healthy and their skies blue again and now you find fault with these too!
China can never ever win! China should not care about what the west says at all! China should and is doing what is good for China and the world! The west also gave subsidies to their EVs too except that they are simply not as strategic or as smart as BYDs and the likes. That is your problem it has nothing to do with China.
The U.S. and the west made a racial profiling that they meaning white people and only they can makes stuffs so they can charge whatever they wanted. Hence they allowed their workers and their CEO get whatever they wanted. As these cost can always be passed on to consumers! But the are dead wrong. The Japanese, then Koreans, ASEAN and now Chinese can do everything faster, cheaper and way better than the west and today it cannot sell everything unless it is heavily subsidised. It not only EVS. It is everything.
Sick and Tired
As a lawyer, what is the easiest case you’ve won?
Two cases come to mind.
Flood Insurance case: I represented a lady who had the misfortune to rent an apartment in a flood zone, and it flooded. She did have the good sense to buy a flood insurance policy, but FEMA declined to pay for an obscure reason. The apartment owner also had flood insurance, and FEMA paid that claim. I filed suit on behalf of the lady, and said that her apartment was the exact same apartment insured by policy # XXX issued to the owner, and that the owner’s claim was paid. Three days before Christmas I got a call from a Department of Justice attorney representing FEMA and she said “We read your complaint. You’re right. How do we write the check?”
Collection case: I represented a guy who was being sued on a credit card account. After preliminary skirmishes it’s the day of the trial – client asked where should he meet me, and I said he wasn’t to meet me unless I called him. I told him to stay away from the courthouse but close enough he could be there within 10 minutes if I called. He objected and I told him to trust me on this. I went into court and the lawyer for the credit card company (who had interned for me a few years earlier) showed up; we exchanged pleasantries. She then asked ‘where’s your client?’ and I said I didn’t know but was ready to try the case without him. She had a blank look for a moment, then said something about my maternal canine ancestry as she realized my tactic (to my immense grinning) and had to take a dismissal of the case. She had planned to call my client as an adverse witness to introduce the credit card documents (credit card collection companies almost never send a witness to court) which had to be done to prove the collection case. But my client wasn’t subpoenaed as a witness so didn’t have to be there. Without a witness to the debt (which probably was in fact owed) they couldn’t get a judgment.
Why do some people cover their laptop cameras with tape? Is it just paranoia?
chicky
“If you don’t do as I say, I’ll upload every photo I have of you”. This was the email Cassidy Wolf received from her hacker.
Cassidy was confused. Only two photos of herself hung on her bedroom wall. She realized later that the hacker had been spying on her for over a year through her webcam.
Cassidy used to keep her laptop open on her bedroom floor. She would play music whilst studying, changing and going back and forth in the shower. The hacker watched everything.
Cassidy must have opened an email with a link, enabling him to place malicious software on her laptop. If she clicked on the link, this would have granted him full access to her computer.
The hacker was able to trace the keystrokes on Cassidy’s keyboard. This way, he learnt her passwords, saw the sites she was accessing, and accessed her webcam 24/7.
[1] The hacker posted pictures of Cassidy changing using various Facebook accounts, including her younger sister’s account.
The hacker was someone from her high school; somebody whom she passed in the hallway every day.
Despite the hacker being caught, Cassidy has to live with this trauma forever. The sound of every email notification will continue to make her stomach churn.
This happened before she was Miss Teen USA. If this could happen to Cassidy, it could happen to any one of us.
Somebody may be watching you through your camera right now…
Yes of course you are unless you become a US lackey in that case you become a U.S. dog! Taiwanese are like me an ancestor from Hokkien or Fuxian province in the south of China. I am what you called a Singaporean with a Chinese origin and you are a Chinese living in a province of China call Taiwan! We both loved our motherland and we will do everything to helped the cause of Chinese successes.
The U.S. and the west are Chinese haters simply because the failed to steal China into their spheres and could not break China up into a hundred minute nations so that it can swallow up one by one. Hence it us trying to destabilise Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinxiang using false pretences and war mongering. But it has failed so far and it is costing the US an arm and a leg doing so. So to China it is like providing the US with a long and strong rope to kill it selves. If that is what they wanted!
Taiwan will forever be a part of China and that status can never changed no matter ho much the U.S. tries to prised it away.
Leftists SHOCKED Employer LIED In Order To Avoid Hiring Them, Company FEARS WOKE LAWSUITS
Surprise!
This is a very good video. It surprised me. It really did.
Do prisoners have rights?
Not in any meaningful way.
Let’s say you went to prison with an artificial leg. The leg enables you to walk and you’ve used it for so long that, with pants on, most people think you just have a bad limp.
The prison says you can’t bring your prosthesis in with you because it might have drugs hidden in a secret compartment. No worries they say… we’ll get you fitted for a new leg when the doctor comes around… in September. So you wait… and wait… and wait in a prison issue wheelchair.
The day of the doctor’s visit finally comes. Uh oh… there was a fight at the higher security prison next door. We’re on lock down. Nobody is going anywhere. No worries they say… the doctor will be back next year.
So, you file a grievance. You have the right to write down whatever angers you on a form and give it to your case manager. He dismisses your concerns… you try to go over his head, but you need copies of his denial…hard to get when he’s only in his office an hour each week… It’s amazing how often the man can lose paperwork. Case managers are often the folks not friendly or efficient enough to work at the DMV.
Nine months later, you’ve made it through three levels of appeal and only have a couple more to go… what are you crying about says the next appeal response… the doc will be there in just three short months! They mark your grievance as “resolved” and list it as a success for the process.
Yes. On paper prisoners have rights. In reality they are locked away from being able to help themselves or exercise those rights. They are completely at the mercy of a staff that could not care any less.
Oh, and my story about the artificial leg? He was still stuck in the chair when I left.
Brenden’s Easy Pork Ribs
This is one of the best and easiest ways to make baked barbecue ribs. Try using pineapple or mango juice or other juices instead of the orange juice.
Oven Pork Ribs IMAGE 5
Ingredients
Pork ribs (any variety)
1 bottle Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce
1 cup orange juice
Instructions
Mix together barbecue sauce and orange juice.
Lay ribs in a baking pan and pour barbecue mixture over the top. The ribs should be nearly submerged in the barbecue mixture.
Cover pan with foil and set oven to 250 degrees F.
Option 1: Cook for approximately 3 hours (depending on amount of meat). Remove from pan. The meat will be juicy and delicious. This method will make the meat fall off the bones. Excellent for sandwiches!
Option 2: Cook meat for about 2 hours, remove from oven and transfer to hot grill. While on grill, continue to brush with barbecue mix from pan. They should only need a few minutes on each side. The barbecue sauce should get a bit crispy.
Option 3: Instant Pot: Stand ribs on end on a trivet in Instant Pot. Pour in orange juice. Cook on manual for 25 minutes. Natural release for 10 minutes. Place ribs on foil-lined baking sheet, and brush with barbecue sauce. Broil for 7 minutes, then serve.
Darn cool from Africa
EU ambassadors are unanimously ignoring an invitation to talk from Lavrov
MACHINE-TRANSLATED FROM DER-SPEIGEL IN GERMANY — The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has invited EU ambassadors to speak to Foreign Minister Lavrov, but EU ambassadors have canceled their participation. Russia says it will have “terrible consequences.
Ambassadors sent to other countries are primarily responsible for being in contact with the government of their host country. They prepare meetings of politicians, negotiate economic issues, but of course also cultural and other issues. But their most important task is to contact the government of the host country.
Ambassadors must not interfere in the internal affairs of their host country. The UN Charter, i.e. the basis of international law, clearly defines this in Article 2. However, this does not prevent the ambassadors of the EU and its member states from interfering in Russian affairs by supporting the radical Russian opposition or making LGBT propaganda, which is prohibited in Russia. For the sake of completeness, LGBT is not banned or punished even in Russia, there are gay clubs and so on. It is only forbidden in Russia to propagate this.
Imagine that the Russian ambassador to Germany would interfere in German politics, support Reich citizens effectively, for example, and violate German laws. Would the federal government put up with it, or would it invite the Russian ambassador to speak and demand that he refrain from doing so?
That was also what the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs wanted to tell the EU ambassadors about the hot phase of the Russian presidential campaign, as Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. March in an interview told:
„ Two days before the planned event, before the meeting, they sent us a note: ‚ We decided not to go there. ‘ Can you imagine relations with diplomatic countries whose ambassadors are afraid to meet the minister of the country where they are accredited? Where was that ever seen? “
Lavrov said that his ministry „ has gathered a lot of material on how EU embassies in Moscow are preparing for our presidential election, what mechanisms for interference “ they use and that „ any projects are created to support our non-systemic opponents “. And he said:
„ Overall, these are things that messages are not allowed to do. “
The arrogance of the EU
Thereupon a Russian business portal asked the EU embassy in Moscow and the following answer to get:
„ Our reaction followed the death of Alexei Navalny and after the EU’s demands for an independent international investigation into the causes of death had not been considered. “
It is fascinating how arrogant the EU is. Would a western country accept an international investigation requested by Russia if a prisoner dies there in prison? For example, God forbid Julian Assange? And why is the EU coming the Russian demand not, to investigate the shooting down of the Russian Il-76 with 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war on board?
In its response, the Permanent Representation of the EU also referred to an extremely low level of trust „ and added:
„ We were invited to discuss EU-Russia relations, but Minister Lavrov is now saying that the conversation was about teaching us. This proves that we were right to reject the invitation. “
That raises two questions. First, why are there still ambassadors for the EU and its member states in Russia if they now even reject invitations to talk to their contact person, i.e. the Russian Foreign Minister? Secondly, who really makes foreign policy decisions in the EU if the EU can ensure that the ambassadors of all EU countries simply reject an invitation?
The official Russian reaction
Maria Sakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was at her regular Press conference asked about the scandal and I completely translated the question and its answer.
Start of translation:
Question: You mentioned that the EU ambassadors refused to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. What consequences will your actions have for you?
Sakharova: The consequences for them become terrible, terrible. If a professional diplomat loses his face, if everyone realizes that he has lost his professionalism and skills, then there is no compensation, in no way and in no form. They have to ascribe that to themselves.
You sincerely harm me for one reason. They have become hostages to their own regimes. Many of them have come a long way to become ambassadors for EU countries in the Russian Federation. It is a fact that experienced people are deployed to large countries, including members of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and nuclear powers. Given its size, our country should actually send specialists who have considerable experience. After many years of work, they all came to this position, this post. And they made their own states look stupid and bad. Not their peoples, but the regimes in their countries. Unfortunately, that happened. I don’t think there is any other explanation.Whether they pinched themselves or whether their regimes showed them, it is always the same thing. They basically signed „ “ that they are not ambassadors for their countries.
What is a „ Ambassador “? An ambassador represents not only a specific organization, but the whole country as a whole. It is very important. It is not just someone who represents this or that political party or social movement that has appointed him. It is not someone who represents this or that ideology that is in power or in opposition. No, it is someone who represents the people of his country as a whole.
Who do they represent if they refuse to meet with the authority that is the counterpart for them? For them, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is primarily the source of all information, data, both on bilateral relations and on the position in multilateral formats. You did it all yourself and arranged it. This has the corresponding consequences.
The second point: it would be okay if they sealed themselves off on all fronts in our country and in principle didn’t speak to anyone. That would be a strange attitude, self-torture, unprofessional. But at least you could see a certain logic in it. According to the motto, self-isolation according to the COVID 19 pandemic is not over yet. But they regularly take part in some marginal events and are making a fool of themselves in our country.
We treat the representatives of countries and peoples with respect, who are guided by the fact that they represent their countries in their entirety. The proposal to hold this meeting was made out of respect for their peoples. But our people, the people, the NGOs literally laugh at them. They have already become heroes of „ Memes “ or a kind of performance art.
Go online and enter „ American Ambassador to Moscow “. Who writes that? It is not the government, it is not some special institution that does it. These are people who find it funny how the ambassadors of the countries of the „ collective West “ have turned from diplomats into marginal ones who take part in any wild actions, that are not intended for intergovernmental communication.
They agitate within our society, interfere in internal affairs and become the „ clowns “ who are released before a rodeo, to warm up the dog handler or rider „ “ and entertain the audience. They become these clowns, run around in front of our audience and endlessly try to attract attention, stage a performance, participate in something, send their strange messages and appeals, that are hardly understood by our audience. They are constantly trying to lay flowers somewhere, to raise any „ rainbow flags “ above their messages and wherever possible. People are already laughing at them. They probably just don’t understand it. Many of them speak little or no Russian. Maybe they just don’t understand how to think about them.
If the US ambassador now publishes information on his official website, the Russians are said to be not afraid to take part in „ humanitarian actions “ by the US government. That is said to not harm your patriotism. How is that possible? Our brothers and sisters, our citizens, are killed with American weapons. Terrorist attacks against civil infrastructure occur regularly in Russian regions. Children die and you invite our country’s citizens to participate in US government programs that guarantee, that their patriotism is not harmed? We decide for ourselves how we should deal with everything we should do with patriotism, how we can show it and how we should deal with all your programs.
This is sad, but was to be expected in view of the degradation that we have observed for many years in the diplomacy of the „ collective West “. The clearest example is Josep Borrell, who holds the post of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. All 27 EU countries are guided by it and give it the right to speak on its behalf on foreign policy issues. What is he chatting about? It turned out that even official representatives of the EU countries do not understand what he is saying. It turned out that it is not he who writes his column, but that someone writes it for him. I’m not sure if he’s reading that at all. How does it work? What is that creepy performance?
What kind of diplomat is he? Have you ever heard a diplomat say that there is no place for diplomacy and that everything on the battlefield has to be decided? We always emphasize that we stand for peace, negotiations and, to the end, for a peaceful solution. Even though we are facing hybrid aggression from the United States. What did the head of European diplomacy say? Josep Borrell says the opposite and kills diplomacy.
Ursula von der Leyen, who also deals with the international relations of the EU, does she represent them? It enforces US policy within the EU. This is anti-diplomacy.
I would like to remind you of Liss Truss, who was Britain’s Prime Minister for a month and a half and before that was Foreign Minister, diplomat of the Kingdom, for a year. Before that, she also held various senior positions in the British government for a short time. What kind of diplomacy is that? At a fateful moment, she came to very important negotiations in our country and did not even know that the Rostov and Voronezh regions were part of the Russian Federation. Is that normal? This happened during a conversation about the situation between Russia and Ukraine.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that she would not speak to Russia unless it turned 360 degrees and fundamentally changed its foreign policy. We turned 360 degrees, so what? We are waiting for active actions from Berlin. Where are they?
And she said that more than once. Either nobody tells her that she talks nonsense and stupid stuff, or she believes that they are all enemies who talk about their mistakes, and she has to resist that – I can’t tell you that. But that’s the level of „ diplomacy “. That was to be expected.
This is the degradation of western diplomacy in all its „ splendor “. What are they doing in the UN Security Council? They kill the Security Council by blocking obvious resolutions and only replacing them with sanctions. There is only one thing left for them: to decide on these endless sanctions that destroy diplomacy. Even more, these are not just sanctions, but part of the hybrid and economic war against our country.
End of translation
HAL TURNER OPINION
I’ve taken several hours to assess what is in the article above and, to me, it boils down to this:
The “Ambassadors” are acting like High School kids in a Clique: “We’re not talking to yooooooou.”
It would be laughable if it wasn’t so pathetic.
Yet “pathetic” is not the only descriptor that comes to my mind. “Dangerous” is another descriptor.
What these “Ambassadors” are doing is leading very explicitly to actual World War 3. When Diplomacy ceases, generally, war commences.
When history writes the epitaph of our collective West, it may say something like “They destroyed themselves because children in adult bodies threw a temper tantrum and wouldn’t talk Diplomatically.”
To me, it’s as though the Russians are the only adults in the room.
Our civilization is being lead down the road toward destruction my supposed “men” who choose to act like high school children.
RFK Jr.: How I See The State Of Our Union
He hasn’t a chance in the 2024 election, but he is the one deserving of consideration. Libertarian Party Candidate.
Russia Reveals Intent for Ukraine: Map Shows what will be left . . .
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council (i.e. Senate), Dmitry Medvedev, has revealed how much of “Ukraine” will remain once Russia completes its military operation. Not much.
In a social media posting, Medvedev made clear “We will not stop until this is the case.” Here is the full map:
Medvedev map future Ukraine
The collective West, through NATO, wanted to place US Missile defenses on Ukrainian territory so those missiles would have only about a five minute flight time to Moscow, and to Russia’s Strategic Nuclear Silos. Russia said “no.”
Russia pointed out that no nation can defend itself from missiles that have only a five minute flight time between launch and impact, and so the positioning of US missiles on Ukraine soil was simply an intolerable security threat to Russia.
The West did not listen.
Russia tried to negotiate what they called “Iron-clad, legally enforceable, security guarantees” and the collective West scoffed, and threw Russia’s proposal (rhetorically) into the trash.
Russia then re-proposed those security guarantees by having their proposal hand delivered to the White House, to NATO HQ, and to the Executive addresses for each NATO member country, with the additional warning that if Russia could not obtain security guarantees Diplomatically, they would do so by military, or military-technical mean.
The West waited about ten days before they scoffed (again) and (rhetorically) threw the proposal in the trash again.
Days later, Russia telephoned Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and told him he had FIVE HOURS to agree to Russia’s security demands. Zelensky called both the British Home Office and the US State Department, both of whom told him “ignore Russia’s ultimatum.”
Two hours after that deadline passed, Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine.
So here we are, slightly over two years into the Ukraine-Russia conflict, and Russia is taking by force, the territory it needs to protect itself from US/NATO missiles.
Over one million troops are now dead — mostly Ukrainians, but a considerable number of Russians, too — all because the US and NATO wanted to put US missiles on Ukrainian territory.
None of this had to be. Yet here we are.
Now, we see the extent to which Russia will conquer to protect itself. The map is clear.
Only instead of figuring out that this **MUST** be the way things will be, the collective West is now talking about sending troops into Ukraine to fight Russia.
Russia has long said such an act would mean “a war no one will win” which, as Readers are well aware, means Nuclear War. Yet French President Macron just this week, doubled-down on his idea to send troops into Ukraine.
What part of “No” does Macron (and NATO) not understand?
The world is being lead into a nuclear conflict that does not have to be.
Prostitutes in LA
Why did soldiers march into enemy fire like in movies?
If you’re talking about the Napoleonic era wars, with long lines of men in fields slowly marching forward and shooting en masse, as depicted in, for example, the movie “Barry Lyndon”:
The answer is that they fought this way, according to my military historian friend, because:
a) That was actually not as suicidal as it seems to modern eyes, because typically, in a big battle like that, you’d only have about 5% to 10% casualties…
b) Unless one side lost its nerve, and broke and ran, in which case they would have much, much higher casualties (because it’s much, much harder for scattered individuals to defend themselves against an organized group).
Hanging out with a military historian can be quite interesting. You can see how technology dictates tactics, and both evolve over time.
Long lines are for maximizing the number of guns that you can get into a mass volley fire (and massed fire, i.e. everyone shooting simultaneously, can have devastating psychological effect and break a charge).
Horses are for fast mobility, so you can get around the line faster than the men can re-arrange themselves, come at them from the side (where only a few can get a clear shot at you) and stomp all over them.
Squares (literally take that line of men and arrange them in a square, facing outward) are for keeping horses from being able to get around you.
That the US President acted and sounded presidential. Think about this; when he said Kanye West was a “jackass” (I personally believe this was light, considering what had happened), the press was all over it. Can you imagine if the president today called Kanye West a Jackass? It would not even make the news!
He actually knew there was a world full of thinking, intelligent people outside of US borders.
The way he behaved as a gentleman, to all people, but, specially, with his wife (you know, little things like opening a door for her, or waiting for her to get out of the car before joining someone).
I know I already mentioned the way he talked, but I will also state here the way he responded to people speaking to him with highly charged emotions; he always seemed cool and tempered. He was smart, and his comebacks were always good, without being rude.
That he was not afraid to admit a mistake.
The fact that he was actually involved in being president. He knew what was going on; he based his knowledge on personal involvement. This also, of course, also made the fact that when he spoke, he knew what he was talking about.
The depth of his speeches, and the lack of words like “big”, “enormous”, and “huge” being repeated a thousand times per speech.
His wife and his children; they were just real. Looking at the Trump family today reminds me of when I met the Prince of Japan; the princess was nothing more than window dressing.
Overall, there is one word that describes Obama which Trump, no matter how hard he tries, he will never have:
CLASS
Bad guy gets justice
What’s the most pathetic date you’ve ever been on?
I went out with a co-worker who asked me to go furniture shopping with him because he wanted a woman’s opinion when decorating his new house. He said that for taking the time to go shopping with him, he wanted to buy me dinner.
I met him at his place and he drove the furniture store.
He asked for my opinion on different pieces of furniture and, if I liked anything, he would examine it thoroughly and then tell me everything that was wrong with it and why I was wrong to like it. 2 hours later, we left the store without buying so much as a lamp.
He stopped by Kentucky Fried Chicken and bought a bucket of chicken. He then drove us back to his house.
We ate the KFC at his kitchen counter (he had no table or chairs) and then he announced it was time for us to go to bed (more accurately, to mattress on the floor since he had no bed).
I picked up my purse and headed for the door. He was insulted and disappointed that we weren’t going to end that fantastic evening with coitus.
Worst part — I had to look at this moron every day at work for the next 5 years.
Yup! They have no trouble at all distinguishing one human from another. In fact, my first octopus hated my ex. She always tickled the octopus in a way that really annoyed the little cephalopod, and the octopus responded by squirting water at her.
It got to be a running joke, because if she even opened the lid slightly the octopus would surge up to the surface and give her a face full of water, then retreat and hide under its den. It was like a cartoon!
It liked me though. It would greet me and play tug O war and take food right from my hand. The octopus clearly could tell us apart, but I wanted to know: how far did the recognition go? It gave me an idea: we tried to fool the octopus.
I put on her hat, her sunglasses and jacket, and I let my hair down (I’ve had long hair since the ‘90s)
Nothing. He knew instantly it was me.
Then it was her turn: she tied her hair back in a ponytail, wore one of my shirts and sunglasses. She opened the lid and:….…GOOOOSH! Not even a little hesitation.
That was a long time and many many octopuses ago, but the trend is clear: That first octopus wasn’t unique. Since then, we have had many, many octopuses that could very obviously and easily tell us apart. Now I’m married to a fellow ceph expert, and now my darling wife and I make sure to take turns interacting with our octopuses to make sure neither of us winds up on the wet side of an unfavorable cephalopod yelp review.
What is the biggest myth about jail?
It’s a myth that when you leave prison, you’re done.
You see it happen in movies… the prisoner is finally released after years. He walks out that front gate into a new life full of opportunity and hope.
Ahem… bullshit.
After you walk out that gate, your movements are monitored; you’ll have court ordered requirements and a probation officer to enforce them. You may be enrolled in classes, substance abuse sessions, public service, etc. You might have to take a weekly urinalysis. Maybe you’ll wear a drug patch. You might sport a nifty GPS ankle monitor that can shout helpful things at you like, “Call your PO, NOW!” You might have to cough up a chunk of your meager salary to pay for all these things.
You could have fines or restitution to take care of, and the courts are a creditor that doesn’t take no for an answer.
You’ll have a hell of a time finding a decent job. Apartments aren’t any easier. Would you want to rent to a felon, or hire one? Even people that say they would, still quietly look for ways not to.
I applied for a county job and had the job in the bag until my felony came up. The hiring manager said he believed in second chances… Ten days later I received a terse letter from the HR department explaining that “due to adverse information” I could not be considered for hire. The second chance wasn’t mine, it was theirs… a second chance to back out. Even if the hiring manager was 100% sure that I was the perfect candidate, he doesn’t want to stick his neck out for a felon. I don’t blame him.
Instead I wound up working at a car wash for minimum wage for my first year. Now I’ve got a warehouse job, but I still make only a quarter of what I made before my journey started. After child support and insurance are deducted, my job pays me $125 a week (don’t even raise the topic of getting support reduced… I’ve tried).
Your PO can knock on your door any time of the day or night and can ransack your place for any reason or suspicion. They can show up at your job to ask questions or talk to your neighbors (hasn’t happened to me, but I’ve heard plenty of state cases where it has).
My probation is for five years, but I’ve known a few guys who have lifetime probation. Imagine looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life. One forbidden beer and you’re off to cell block seven!
The “help” the state provides to get you under way after release was the biggest impediment to starting over. I’m sure some guys need what was provided if they’ve burned every last bridge in their lives. For me, the halfway house just frustrated my efforts.
The felony will haunt you for as long as you live.
Truth is that once you’ve seen the inside of a prison, you never really get to walk out free again.
After Nearly 24 Years With My Queen, Our Journey Is Over 💔
All good things end. This is a tribute, but I can feel it’s reality.
When I was a young boy we used to play “marbles”. These were glass spheres. And I would play with them when I had them, but honestly, I wasn’t so good at the game and would often lose all my marbles.
When I would play with the boys, it was pretty evenly matched, and we would end up with more or less the same numbers of marbles. Only different ones.
When I would play with girls, they were brutal, and take all the marbles in victory… but there’s more. Uh oh.
And then, my sister, who won those things would put them in the oven and cause the grass to crack up and break. And thus my marbles all turned to dust. Indeed, I was good old Charlie Brown back then.
Playing with boys… rearranging the marbles.
Playing with girls… lose your marbles.
I did like the marbles. I liked to hold them in a little cloth bag that I had. But, you know, I never had them long enough because sooner or later, I would play with them… and in so doing…
…would lose them all to either my sister or her girlfriends.
The next week my son tells me how the kid, and his brother, threatened to kill him because he told on them, and how they started pushing him, and smacking him but they were careful not to bruise him anymore.
We went back to the school, and the principal brought the bus driver into the office too.
That b**** actually had the audacity to blame my son for being a victim, and tried to get him to accept blame for making himself a target.
I stopped that s* as soon as it began to come out her mouth. I pointed out what she was doing, and how it went against the school’s zero tolerance policy on bullying, and how if nothing would be done about it, then I saw no better option than to go to the local news station (everyone in town knew the news guy, and it was pretty easy to get story segments aired pretty quickly) and contact as many parents, friends, family members, and co-workers as I could, and have them do the same until something changed.
They immediately kicked those kids off the bus, forcing them to seek alternative transportation, and switched their classes to the disruptive room so that they couldn’t mingle with students from younger grades, which is what they did before as most of their victims were 3–4th graders, and they were 5th (should have been 6th) graders.
A month later the students were expelled for trying to stab another classmate.
The fact that could have been my son wasn’t lost on me.
I wanted the bus driver to face some sort of punishment as she had allowed bullying to go on her bus for over 15 years (according to several parents, and friends).
I wrote up a petition and had over 600 people sign it. That was enough for the school to force her into early retirement.
In the 15 years she drove, there had been incidents where bullies cut off other students’ hair, set various things on other students on fire, put out cigarettes on other kids, stole personal items and money, committed sexual harassment, molested kids, etc. These were all things she chose not to stop because she saw victims as asking for their mistreatment.
I never wanted to hit anyone more than when she tried to intimidate my son as he sat by my side, into accepting blame for his black eye.
I’m glad that woman is finally gone.
I’m disgusted that it took so much, and so long for it to happen.
When I started at the robot company, I had no title, so everyone except the boss was on an equal basis, no matter the age, experience, or ability. One young man was hired to manage internal operations. That is, to make sure supplies were where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be. His job expanded to where he was also helping in finance and a bit in other areas.
The founder, who was offsite doing another job (he was very seldom in the office) worked directly with this guy, and with very few others, so the guy thought he was important. He became a self important jerk and managed to annoy almost everyone else at the company.
As the company grew, titles became more important, and I was promoted to sales and marketing manager, while he remained without a title. He tried to tell me how to do my job a couple of times, and I told him to piss off.
I was later promoted to general manager, and became his direct boss. I told him to do some things that were needed, and he decided that I was wrong, and didn’t do them. We had a “chat” and he grudgingly did what I told him to, but continually resisted, and only did exactly as much as was required. He was certain that his relationship with the founder would protect him.
I finally got tired of the dance, and fired him. He was shocked. He went to the founder to get my decision overturned. It turned out that the founder was not nearly as fond of him as he thought.
I had spent 2 days and around $350.00 on fixing my sister’s SUV. After I replaced the starter and battery among a few other parts, I went up to the front door and gave her the good news. Her car problems were over and she would now not get stranded anywhere. She was standing behind the screen door just glaring at me. I repeated what I said thinking she would be happy or relieved but she continued to give me this dirty look and then slammed the screen door shut.
I was in disbelief. Why would she do that? My sister was taking pain killers a lot which I knew about. She had been taking them for years so I figured she was not in her right mind anyways but that’s another long story I have already written about on Quora. But then I remembered something she once told me years before. She told me that if you show disapproval at someone who wants to help you, or care about you, it makes them want to do more and try harder to win your approval. This surprised me to hear her say that even back then, but I already knew she was insane to a certain degree and I was helping her or trying to. She had all kinds of weird and unusual ways about her. She would feed me only one small bowl of stew with a small chunk of bread at dinner time and complained she had to feed me even once a day. I had flown in from Hawaii days before with one mission: To help my sister pay her depts, repair her car and home and give her a fresh slate. I even stocked her kitchen with lots of food and some treats. In all,I had spent about $1,800.00 on her,not counting the $14,000.00 I had given her over the coarse of 2 years. This story is just one single incident that happened to me in the 6 or 7 days I was trapped alone with her. Daytona 500 was in town and there was not a motel room or car rental withing 100 mile radius so I couldn’t just walk away. I had always known she was not right in the mind at all but I didn’t imagine she would turn on me like she did for no reason at all except she saw me as weak for helping her. I also had to pay her $120.00 for a ride back to the airport. This is 100% true and only the tip of the ice burg in that hellish 6 days I was around her. We have not spoken in 10 years since.
This after discussing with my manager that I absolutely could NOT do that shift. For the 37th time.
I was a 22 year old single mum working 3 jobs and would take every shift I could and was offered, bar this one. It wasn’t really much to ask to not be put on the rota one evening a week. I could even work during the day.
I had the hours I was available for written down, pinned to my then manager’s notice board so he knew exactly what I could and could not do when he did the rota.
Every week without fail, he would put me on a 5-Close shift on a Wednesday evening, despite me having explained to him that I wasn’t available for that shift due to my parents having to travel to take care of my grandma, so they couldn’t have my daughter.
I had written it down, I had met with him and I had even had my own mum come in to explain that I wasn’t available that evening and why. Yet he still kept putting my name down for that shift.
There were times I couldn’t work because the child minder got sick or was on holiday, was sick myself or my daughter was sick and needed to see the doctor. On those occasions he would get shitty and not put my name down the following week for any shifts at all (the joys of a 0 hour contract eh?). He would also expect me to call around my colleagues and sort out my own cover, on my own time and would blame me if the shift didn’t get covered, despite also refusing to give me certain phone numbers or to make the calls himself.
I stayed in this job for almost a year, but had started looking for another job where my hours were set and guaranteed. I managed to get an interview for another restaurant who were completely sympathetic of my situation and offered me hours that suited me and for them to be put into a contract with the option of overtime, plus that they would organise any cover needed.
That evening I wrote out my resignation letter, but decided that I’d talk to my current manager one last time to see if I could get anywhere with him.
I went in the following day half an hour early to speak to my manager. During the interview he basically told me that nothing would change and he couldn’t offer me set hours. I told him I understood that he couldn’t offer the set hour contract and got up to start my shift, when I noticed the rota on the wall. The first thing I saw was that I’d been put on the rota for Wednesday evening.
“You’ve put me on for Wednesday evening?”
“Yes. 5-Close as usual.”
“But you know I can’t do that shift. It’s right there on your pinboard that I’m unavailable.”
“Ah yes. You’ll have to sort out the cover.”
“I was on the fence about resigning because I get so many hours from you, and would be taking on less at this other place but… that’s helped me decide. Thanks for helping me make my mind up. See ya.”
“You’re due to start now. Where are you going?”
“To try on my new uniform. Byeeeee”
And I just walked out. It was a massive weight off my shoulders.
Spedinis
95847 6534 mx
Yield: 8 servings
ingredients
Sicilian Stuffing 5 tablespoons olive oil 6 cloves garlic, thickly sliced 1 cup white onions, chopped 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1 cup pine nuts 1/2 cup raisins placed in hot water for 1/2 hour then drained 1 bay leaf (optional) 1 tablespoon chopped parsley 1 tablespoon chopped basil 3/4 cup white wine 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1 cup grated Romano cheese 1 1/2 cup Italian-style bread crumbs 1 egg
Spiedini olive oil 1/2 cup Italian-style bread crumbs 7 pieces veal scaloppine (approximately 6-8 inches in length, pounded thin and cut in half) salt and pepper, to taste 14 bay leaves 2 white onions, cut in quarters then separated in leaves
directions
For the Stuffing: In a saute pan cook the garlic, onion and the olive oil and red pepper flakes over medium-low heat for 4-5 minutes, stirring well.
Add the pine nuts, raisins, bay leaf, parsley, and basil; cook for 3 more minutes, stirring well. Increase the heat to high and once the ingredients start sizzling add the wine and stir well until reduced by one-half, about 3-4 minutes.
Transfer mixture to a bowl, add the salt, pepper, cheese, breadcrumbs and the egg. Mix well until it forms a moist mixture.
For the Agrodolce Sauce: In a sauce pan bring to boil over medium-high heat the vinegar, garlic, sugar and rosemary. Cook, stirring well until reduced by two-thirds, about 3-5 minutes.
Add the chicken broth, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain the sauce, return it to the saucepan and simmer it for 10 more minutes.
Add one tablespoon of the butter mixture, stirring well until it thickens. If you want it thicker add more of the mixture, until it reaches the consistency you like.
For the Spiedini: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a deep baking dish with olive oil and coat with about 2-3 tablespoons on Italian Style breadcrumbs. Lay all the pieces of veal flat on a prepping surface. Place equal amounts of the stuffing in the middle of each piece of meat (about 2 tablespoons). Roll the pieces of veal like a burrito, fold the edges along the longest part, then start rolling from one end to the other.
Place each roll as you make it, fold side down inside the greased baking dish. Line the pieces side by side. Once they are all in they should fit somewhat snugly. Between each piece of veal place a bay leaf and a piece of white onion. Brush the top of the veal rolls with olive oil and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
Bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes.
Put on a plate, spoon over the Agrodolce sauce and serve with roasted potato.
recipe tips
Soak the raisins in hot water to plump them up before adding them to the stuffing.
Be gentle when pounding the veal to avoid tearing the meat.
Roll the veal tightly to make sure the stuffing stays inside while baking.
Baste the spiedini with some of the pan juices halfway through baking for added moisture and flavor.
Let the spiedini rest for a few minutes after baking and before serving.
For a more complex flavor in the agrodolce sauce, try adding 1/2 cup of red or white wine in place of 1/2 cup of the chicken broth.
Taste and adjust the seasoning of the stuffing and sauce as needed.
Remember to remove the bay leaves before serving as they are not edible.
common recipe questions
Can I substitute the veal with another type of meat?
Yes, you can use thin slices of chicken or pork as a substitute for veal.
Is there a non-alcoholic alternative for white wine in the stuffing?
You can use chicken broth or white grape juice mixed with a teaspoon of vinegar as a substitute for white wine.
Can I make the stuffing ahead of time?
Yes, you can prepare the stuffing a day in advance and store it in the refrigerator.
Is there a substitute for pine nuts in the recipe?
You can use chopped almonds or walnuts as a substitute for pine nuts.
Do I need the sugar in the agrodolce sauce?
It helps balance the acidity of the vinegar but it can be omitted if desired.
How do I know when the veal spiedini are fully cooked?
The veal spiedini are done when they are no longer pink inside, and the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F.
Can I make the agrodolce sauce without garlic?
Yes, you can omit the garlic, but it will alter the flavor of the sauce. If you don’t have fresh garlic cloves you can use 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder.
What can I use if I don’t have Romano cheese?
You can substitute with Parmesan cheese or another hard, aged cheese.
Can I prepare the agrodolce sauce in advance?
Yes, you can prepare the sauce ahead of time and reheat it before serving.
FEAR RUSH! U.S Quickly Run to China to Beg against Sanction
I was once interviewing for a nurse manager position. The interviewing manager had an obvious litmus test for her ideal candidate.
“When is it appropriate to place a patient into restraints?” She asked.
“I think that restraints should be used as a last resort,” I answered. It was a safe answer I assumed.
“Yes, but I want to know at what place you think ‘last resort’ begins?” She queried.
“I would say that last resort would be when I felt that the safety of the staff was in jeopardy,” I answered.
She stood up, started walking toward the door and said, “We are done here. Thank you for your time.”
She opened the door and waited dismissively for me to exit. Knowing that I had just blown the interview I stopped short of the door and said, “What was the right answer?”
“To protect the patient,” she said.
“I believe in protecting the patient,” I said. “I just hold my staff’s protection in higher regard than the patient.”
“That’s not what you are paid to do,” she countered. “And that’s why you won’t be working for me.”
Tom Cotton was the one who introduced legislation banning Chinese students from pursuing STEM degrees.
Washington, D.C. – Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) introduced the SECURE CAMPUS Act, legislation that would secure American research from Chinese Communist Party espionage and influence. Bill text may be found here
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I pulled this directly from his website, so he’s obviously proud of himself, though I can’t think why. It goes on to say;
The bill would prohibit Chinese nationals from receiving visas to the United States for graduate or post-graduate studies in STEM fields and would ban participants in China’s foreign talent recruitment programs and Chinese nationals from taking part in federally-funded STEM research.
Besides being a xenophobic jerk, apparently Tom Cotton doesn’t just prohibit intellectual endeavors of Chinese people, but he must prohibit them for himself. Because quite honestly, his ignorance is astounding.
You would think if someone showed him a map labeling Singapore and China, two very different countries with different governing systems, he would realize his faux pas. What kind of idiot asks a citizen of Singapore if they’re part of the Communist Party of China?
Just because someone is of Chinese ethnic descent, it does not automatically mean they are Chinese citizens, and only Chinese citizens can be members of the CPC. Surely Cotton wasn’t so ignorant that he assumed any Chinese person must have ties to the CPC?
Yes. He’s not only ignorant, but arrogant. He’s the type of “polite racist” that believes a Chinese American whose great grandparents came over from China must be a sleeper agent for Communist China. He doesn’t see Chinese Americans as Americans. He doesn’t see Singaporean Chinese as Singaporean. In his mind, all Chinese people are suspect. All Chinese people are from the PRC or have loyalties with the PRC.
Men like Cotton are just like the U.S. government in the 1880’s when they passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. Now we just call it the China Initiative and can only watch as state after state enacts legislature to infringe the rights of Chinese people. McCarthyism never went away. It’s just been repackaged for the next generation. Cotton is so scared of “reds under his bed” that he made a fool of himself publicly. No wonder Singapore laughs.
Taliban has spent 3 years to build a highway to China, when the former Afghan government could not in 20 years under US occupation.
This is the difference of a practical government who cares for the welfare of the country, versus a corrupted government who played politics to please USA.
How corrupted? When the home of former Afghan leader was raided by Taliban, Taliban found lots of jewels etc in his home (similar to former Philippines president Marcos senior). His home is like a palace. He encouraged opium growth, producing 80% of opium in the world under US occupation, Taliban bans it since.
He focusred on politics instead of welfare of people. He follows the West. eg he put the right of women ahead of the right of the poor who accounted for 80-90% of population.
I am not saying women’s right is unimportant. I am saying there are priorities. If you can do both at the same time, that is great. Otherwise, pick the one that benefits more people. Let say a woman gets her right to education. But there is no economy to let her get a job & pay for shelter & healthcare etc. She died young. What is the point of the women’s right?
I said it in many posts. Economic Right takes precedent over Civil Rights eg freedom of speech etc. Different country has different situation & needs. Dont blindly follow the West. Use your own thinking.
There were a few terrorist groups before Taliban took power. One of it was called East Turkistan who were Ugyhurs & were recruited by USA to stir unrest in Xinjiang. Taliban diligently exterminates terrorists. Taliban makes a safe environment for Chinese investments in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan needs modernisation eg infrastructure & China’s BRI is good in it. Afghanistan is rich in minerals waiting for exploration & China has the skills.
I know Taliban is a good government. Last year, a Afghan leader went to China with his agricultural product. He told Chinese on TV: dont give us money. Buy our products & let our farmers lead our economy. (Chinese did buy all Afghan products in minutes.)
I wish Afghanistan a prosperous future. With a practical & hardworking Taliban government, Afghanistan will have a bright future.
Look at Iraq. 20 years’ after the USA-Iraq war, a vassal Iraqi government could not build enough schools for its children. Iraq then asked help from China & China quickly built 80 schools. Unless Iraq can kick US troops out of Iraq, the 100% sovereign Afghanistan will recover faster than Iraq in the next 20 years.
After meeting basic necessities eg food, Taliban can then think about women’s right. Let us be democratic & not interfere Afghan’s internal affairs. They have their pace.
When I was 20 or so I moved into a townhome with 3 of my high school friends. We were in a unit on the end of a row so we only had one adjoining unit, and when we first moved in there was nobody living next door.
Eventually we got a neighbor, and he was mostly quiet and kept to himself. But often at 4am he would start up a saw and run it for hours, or play his electric guitar with the amp set to 11. This frequently woke two of my roomies since the sound traveled through the adjoining wall and straight into their bedrooms. We tried knocking on his door to talk the noise over with him but he never answered.
One night my “top floor” roommate and I were just hanging out in our respective rooms. He had music on in his room, but it was so quiet I could barely hear it, even with both our doors open. We heard a banging at our door, so all 4 of us went to the door to see what was up. It was the neighbor, screaming that the music played was too loud and that he’d call the police if we didn’t turn it down. I pointed out it was barely loud enough to hear from inside our own unit and that his 4am noise was much, much louder, but he screamed, “I go to work soon! Turn it down or else!”
My roommate didn’t think it was worth the trouble so he turned off his music. I thought, screw this, we’re allowed to play music at a reasonable volume in our own home, our neighbor is getting what he deserves. So every time we heard the saw or his guitar at 4am I called the police with a noise complaint.
He moved out soon after and we thought that was the end of having a noisy neighbor, but then a nice family moved in after him. Well, they seemed nice at first, until they started in with loud music and lots of people over every Sunday night. They’d keep this up until 2am, and I’d go into work groggy the next day from lack of sleep.
We had a small get-together one Saturday and the husband came over to complain about the noise. This time around I just wanted to see if we could actually come to some sort of an agreement with a noisy neighbor, so I said we’d try to turn it down a bit if he’d agree to do something about his loud Sunday night gatherings. He apologized up and down and said he didn’t realize we could hear them, and agreed to end their festivities (it was a regular after-church gathering!) by 9pm at the latest. We had no trouble after that, and they were very nice neighbors going forward.
40 Year Abandoned Noble American Mansion – Family Buried In Backyard!
I’m not sure if this is bizarre enough, but late one Friday evening a rather frantic young lady called me up and was audibly upset her computer had finally crashed and was now utterly unusable. She had some really important files on it and she desperately needed them before the night was over, and she was under the impression “we” were somehow responsible for the demise of her career because “we” had sold her a faulty computer.
I was only some random student at the time, but having barely a chance to say a word I figured I’d just let her blow off some steam. Sure enough, she ended her rant on a much friendlier note, expressing her gratitude and incredible luck to have reached “the tech support” so long after office hours.
I felt sorry for her because I knew no help desk of that sort would answer her call before the next morning, or more likely, after the weekend.
Thus I decided, just for kicks, to carefully guide her through the darkest corners of MS-DOS, dodgy recovery tools and whatnot, until eventually I had rescued her files, repaired her OS and saved the day.
When she was done thanking me it seemed to dawn on her that I hadn’t even mentioned money or payment. She sheepishly asked if she would have to pay for the service, probably realizing she had no idea how much that would be, or wondering what would stop her from just hanging up the phone at that point. I told her not to worry, just have a good night, and double check the phone number before dialing the next time!
I was pumping gas into my truck late on a weekend evening, there was an elderly woman going from person to person talking, but I was unaware of her reasons. As I finished filling up and turned to replace the fuel pump nozzle, like poof she was standing there in front of me asking if I could spare a few dollars so she could get home, that someone had stolen her purse. She pointed to her car, she looked like she had gone through some hard times indeed and her car was not much better. It was then that an employee of the gas station approached us and asked me if everything was alright. I’m sure he was about to tear into this old gal and that some of his customers had complained. I said everything was fine, he looked at me rather oddly as I reached into my wallet and gave him 10 bucks. I’d like to prepay some gas for this gal and her car over there as I pointed to her rust bucket. The attendant took the cash, and the poor gal was almost overwhelmed, she wanted to send me the money, but I said that it was ok and to drive home safely. There were tears in here eyes when she said thank you, I have no idea if her story was truthful, but the feeling of helping someone out who was down on there luck felt good and made the rest of my day a little easier to smile. For me it’s not the big things, but the simple little things that seem to matter more and more as I age.. Cheers
One doesn’t simply become a university chemistry professor. Meaning that you’re a super smart and excellent chemist doesn’t mean that you can just walk into a college and ask to become a professor.
Perhaps the most famous example in the chemistry world is Douglas Prasher. In 2008, he was a van driver in Huntsville, AL. Also in 2008, he was credited as one of the key contributors to the discovery of GFP when it was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. As worded by one of his peers, Martin Chalfie, “They could’ve easily given the prize to Douglas and the other two and left me out.”
image 26
Douglas Prasher was smart and accomplished enough to be in the conversations of getting a Nobel Prize. However because of a combination of bad luck and funding issues, he was forced to leave academia in 1991 despite successfully cloning GFP which would become one of the foundational tools of chemical biology. By 2006, he wasn’t even employed as a scientist with his NASA division being cut and he was collecting unemployment checks until he found work as a courtesy shuttle driver.
A lot of really smart scientists fall off the bandwagon and once they fall off, it’s really difficult to get back on. People don’t just become Professors again. In the case of Douglas Prasher, it took a Nobel Prize award to get him back on people’s radar and back into the lab.
I was a very bright student, yet I hardly did enough to get by. I was doing just enough to pass classes, nothing more. I was very depressed, and had been for quite some time. Right before the end of my Sophomore year I was raped. I became pregnant, but had a miscarriage shortly after. All of this I kept to myself. I began abusing alcohol and drugs; marijuana, prescription narcotics, and meth. My motto at the time was “Anything to kill the pain.” I attempted to reach out to my mom, and wanted to move in with her to try to start over, but she didn’t want me. I was still struggling with her leaving when I was 10, but I thought maybe she’d take me in. When I called her begging her to let me live with her, she said “You’re a monster, they created you, they can keep you.” (referring to my dad and step-mom). This was the lowest point in my life. Over winter break, just weeks before entering Mrs. Scarlett’s class I had attempted to commit suicide twice by overdose. Thankfully I wasn’t successful.
Upon entering her class I knew it would be challenging. She was one of the most dreaded and hated teachers in our school. All of my peers talked about how much they disliked her, how hard her class was, and how mean she was. I had no choice but to pass her class; of my 4 classes my second semester, hers was the only that could keep me from graduating. That alone motivated me to do better, because upon graduation I could finally be free and start over.
A couple weeks into her class we were given an assignment to bring in and play a song for the class that represented our life. I chose Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Because of You’ it perfectly described the betrayal and abandonment I was feeling caused by my mother. While I had my song playing I broke down and began crying in the middle of class. She let me step outside to calm down and get myself together. (She hardly ever let us step out of class, so I was shocked.) Once I came back in class resumed as normal, but at the end she asked me to stay after class. I honestly thought she was going to lecture me. Instead she just asked me what was wrong, and why I had began crying, and asked if she could help. I only told her about my mom, nothing more. I told her about my childhood, and that I was having a hard time dealing with life. She took me into her arms and comforted me, and then told me about her childhood. She told me of her struggles and every obstacle she had to overcome to get to where she was. She then said “You are very bright, you have an amazing future ahead of you. You can do anything you set your mind to. Don’t let your past hold you back from your future. Even if no one else believes in you, I do. I believe you were born for greatness. You have a purpose, and you are worth more than you realize, but you have to believe in yourself too.”
That day my life changed forever. I quit doing drugs, I quit drinking. I became a straight A student and put effort into everything I did, for her class and my other classes. She changed my entire outlook on life. All it took was for one person to believe in me, and it was her.
Every year after graduation I came by to see her on her birthday. I came by with my oldest daughter shortly after she was born. She was filled with pride, and excited that she was a “grandma”. Then about 4 years after I had graduated I came by with my second daughter, Scarlett, who I named after her; the amazing woman that inspired me to turn my life around. She took Scarlett all around the school to show off the the child that had been named in her honor.
I don’t think she realizes that she saved my life, but she did. I will forever be greatful for her, and the impact she had on me.
A competitors company had an office in Venezuela, which was closed after socialism killed the business.
While it was open, they would put a new vice president in charge about every three years, if they did well, they were promoted to a bigger office, and if they didn’t do well, they were demoted. But, they only placed single men in the role. Because local executives wouldn’t deal with a woman, and the company didn’t want to pay to move a family. It seemed like every VP arrived single and left married.
My friend moved down there. His predecessor had married his executive assistant, and moved away. So he needed a new executive assistant. He told the female HR manager that he needed an executive assistant. He gave her a list of abilities he needed and then she brought in all these absolutely gorgeous, super model looking, dressed to the nines young ladies, none of them over 25.
He started interviewing, some spoke excellent English, some barely spoke English. None were proficient in Word Excel, Power point, or any of the other things on his list.
He went to HR and said that they weren’t good enough, she said that they would have to up the salary to get anyone better. He said that he couldn’t be efficient with these girls, so bump the salary.
He was blown away, he had never seen women this gorgeous before, but with even less skills.
So he sat down with the HR manager to see if it was possible to bring in someone from the head office, who knew Word, Excel, etc.
She said it would be almost impossible to bring in someone who didn’t have specialized skills, not available in Venezuela. He said,but we couldn’t find anyone who could type. The HR manager said, “Oh, you were serious? “ I can get you someone, but they wont look like that “
The next week he interviewed normal looking women, with impressive skills.
Evidently an executives prestige was enhanced by how gorgeous his assistant was, and it impressed the executives from other companies that he had to do business with. They competed for the best looking assistant. Who it seemed often married an executive in the company.
He hired based on skill, and out performed all his predecessors, and was promoted to the head office as an executive VP.
I used to walk home from work in my student days. It was a pleasant walk most nights and took about 20 minutes. Then, police cars started stopping me and hassling me about twice a week. I would tell them, “I’m just walking home from work!” Check my ID, look at my work ID, back in car, and I’d finish my walk home. Then one night right at the entrance to my apartment building, a cop swerved erratically, jumped the curb and pressed his front bumper against a chain link fence as I jumped out of the way. Drunk? Lost one of those steering linkage things? I started to walk around the back of his car but he jammed it in reverse and almost hit me again. I said “What the hell?” Finally he rolled his window down, said “get in the car, Ramirez.” I looked at him, like what? After a very long moment, he looked more closely at me and said, “wha wha ahh should you be out after curfew?” “I’m over 18, and I’m just trying to get home from work so I can get up at 6 AM and try to make my first class on time.” “Uh, ah, OK, you can go.” “So are you going to try to back over me again?” “No, you can go.” That was very unexpected, I must say.
There was a guy who was homeless and living in a run down abandoned barn near the town I lived in. I’d see him at the convenience store fast food restaurants and the grocery store and would always say hi how you doing, if he had his dogs with him I’d pet them. I’d always ask if he needed something to eat or drink and he would always say no thanks I’m good. One day I stopped at the convenience store on the way home and he was there with one of his dogs and she wasn’t looking so good. I said hey man is your dog ok? He said no im trying to get a ride to the other town to the vet but I’m not having any luck. I said let me grab a drink and I will give you a ride. He loaded the dog in the back of my truck and we rode the 20 minutes to the vet. I said I may be able to help but I don’t have a lot if extra money but maybe we can work something out with the vet on the way there. He said not to worry it’s ok and he appreciated the offer. The vet didn’t hesitate to take care of the dog and got her taken care of. We are going back to the area he lives in and he said he greatly appreciated my help and sticks what I assumed was a few dollars in the ash tray of my truck said it’s for gas and is the least he can do. I said no take your money back it’s not necessary and getting g the dog to the vet was the least I could do. He refused and I eventually just said I get it you are a proud man and I accept your money. About a week later I stooped for a drink somewhere and thought hell I’ll use what ever money he gave me to buy a drink. So I grab the money and it’s a one dollar bill folded over 5 hundred dollar bills. I seen him the next day and said what the hell you gave me $500 for gas? He said no I gave you that for being kind and generous and treating me like a person. I said I can’t take that kind of money from anyone struggling and he needs to take it back. He tells me he is a millionaire and lives as he does by choice. I never treated him any different even after that. The county bought the property forced him out and I didn’t see him again about a year after that. Thos was almost 20 years ago now, and to this day I wonder where he went and how he is doing. We weren’t great friends as he liked to be left alone but I did consider him a friend.
A titanic story
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When it became clear the Titanic was going down, Isidor and Ida Straus did as requested—the couple put on life jackets and moved to the Boat Deck where officers were lowering lifeboats and instructing women, children, and First Class passengers to board.
According to detailed accounts from Ida’s maid and Isidor’s work colleague, (both surviving eyewitnesses who recounted the story to newspapers at the time), a Third Officer told Ida, who was wearing a full-length mink coat to brave the icy outdoor temperatures, to step onto the lifeboat. She did. When the officer beckoned to Isidor, prompting him to follow, he shook his head. Isidor said,
“No I will not get on the lifeboat until I see that every woman and child has a chance to escape.”
The officer recognizing Mr. Straus as the co-owner of Macy’s, offered him a place on the lifeboat but he declined electing to remain on the deck.
Seeing this, his beloved Ida then climbed back out of the boat and turned to her beloved husband.
“We have lived a wonderful life together for 40 years and have six beautiful children together, if you won’t get on the life boat, I won’t either,” she told him.
She removed her mink coat and handed it her maid, Ellen Bird.
“I won’t have any further need,” she said. “Please take this as you get into a lifeboat to keep you warm, until you are rescued.”
Isidor wrapped his arms around her, then, a great wave came over the port side of the ship and swept them both into the sea.
Once I was in my assigned seat when a lady came up and said I was in her seat. I looked at her boarding pass and it was the same seat.
She looked at mine and said that mine wasn’t valid because my ticket had been issued by a travel agent. Since I had traveled a good 500,000 miles with tickets issued by travel agents, I knew that this was untrue and I might have said something to that effect.
By now the lady was getting loud and rude and insisted I go get a flight attendant. (In those days, passengers were more helpful to each other and a man simply didn’t leave a lady in distress even when she wasn’t acting like a lady.) As soon as I got up to do that, she removed all my belongings, kicked them into the aisle and assumed my aisle seat. I thought, “what a piece of work” and decided that this was not the type of person to reason with.
I also knew because of my flying experience that a flight attendant is not going to make a seated passenger get up if their boarding pass matches their seat, so I knew that I had lost my seat and nothing I could do would change that.
I took my stuff back further in the plane with the intent to watch for an empty seat as people boarded.
A flight attendant came up. Apparently some other passenger informed her of what transpired. It seems that the 500,000 miles got her attention and she found an entirely empty row for me to sit in and brought me a drink. Basically unofficially first class.
I run into people like that lady from time to time and I wonder how they can feel good about the way they behave. Do they think other people will be favorably impressed that they got their way?
Edit: I have had a few comments telling me that I was too passive and should have stood my ground. That I should not have allowed myself to be bullied. Here is my take: people like this do not back down until you cross a line. And crossing that line makes you legally liable as an aggressor. Today, you end up ejected from the plane and probably on a “no-fly” list. At the time, I was on a classified assignment for a US government agency. No one was supposed to know I was on the plane, or where I was going. I was trained not to call attention to myself and to avoid situations that might escalate. It was my job to back down. And for goodness sake, I knew at the time that the plane was not sold out. I knew I would end up in another seat. And I was fairly confident that the airline would take care of me. I had gold medallion tags on all my luggage. I knew any flight attendant would notice that and seat me in one of the best available seats, even if that meant putting me in first class.
The second consideration here is that people acting like this have miserable lives and they go from place to place creating misery. I am happy to get away from them and let them live their miserable lives. They may feel that they accomplished something. They made someone move. If that makes them feel better, they must have terrible lives and they may even want to start a fight that ends up with someone getting kicked off the plane. I do not want to be dragged into that. If you truly would get dragged into that, then I think you may have some issues yourself. Leave people to their misery. It is not up to me to teach them a lesson that they will refuse to learn.
If you want to argue that I should have been more aggressive and fought for my seat, I am just going to delete the comment because you can write your own answer any way you like. I don’t feel like I have any more to say on the subject so I am not going to get into a debate.
My parents have a funny story. Back in the early 1950s, before they married, they drove a couple of Lambretta scooters back from Libya to the UK. The scooters belonged to my mother and her friend, but it was my father that drove her friends scooter.
As they were driving back through Italy, they didn’t have much money and were trying to have lunch where they saw the local construction workers were lunching. They felt they always got a good meal at a decent cost. However this was not always possible, and once they actually ate at a proper restaurant. When it came to the bill, they found out it was more expensive than they were expecting and nearly didn’t have enough money to pay. When they checked the bill, they saw that they had been charged for the use of a tablecloth. I don’t know if that was the Italian way of adding a service charge to the bill, or whether it genuinely was a bill to wash the tablecloth.
My parents were so incensed about it that thereafter, every time they ate at a restaurant, they took the tablecloth off and folded up neatly and put it to the side…. Then they didn’t have to pay for the tablecloth.! *
* Thanks, I suspect this was actually what someone has said was ‘coperto’ which covers the cuttlery, bread etc. so a kind of tip. It would’ve been a very alien concept in postwar Britain.
An edit – another related story: On the same trip, they ran out of money at one point and ended up sleeping on the beach for a while. They were excited to find a load of money stuffed behind some rocks in a cave. It had obviously been there for a long time and was in a very remote place. So they took it! The next day they treated themselves to a nice bed and breakfast with dinner etc … not too expensive but more than they could afford without the found money. When they came to pay, the hotel owner asked to see them on his office. He asked them where they found the money and they reluctantly told him. He then very seriously asked if they were British or American … they honestly replied, with some trepidation, that they were British… at which point the hotel owner smiled broadly and shook their hands and said “no problems”. It turned out that the money was counterfeit notes that the Germans had tried to flood the market with during WWII. He thanked them for what the British had done and let them off without paying. They have always had a soft spot for all things Italian since then. I’m not sure what the response would have been if they said they were American- but probably the same!
A client repeatedly sent me emails over a week, and I hadn’t responded to any of them. This went up to the Chief Operations Officer, and I was sitting in a termination meeting, when our system administrator discovered the reason.
“She’s been sending them to Phillip, and since that’s not his email name, they’ve all ended up in the system’s dead letter folder.” I couldn’t tell if the Chief Operations Officer wanted to kill me just because, or the system administrator for not having the foresight to alias my name to alternate spellings. He dismissed me with a, “We’ll deal with the client from here on.”
An hour later, I was back in the Chief Operations Officer’s office, and once again, my manager and someone from human resources were there. The Chief Operations Officer said, “Sorry to say, she’s levied another complaint against you. She claims that either you’re mentally challenged or lying about your name.”
“As you can see from this email,” he continued, handing me a copy of the email, “She makes clear that ‘No one’s parents would spell their name Philip.’ Therefore, either you’re mentally slow, or you’re lying.” She went on to say that it likely was the latter, and that I used this nasty scheme to get out of work.
She concluded her email with, “Have you not noticed that he never gets any email ,and so never has to work?” She’d consider letting this go only if I was fired with proof that I was, in fact, fired, not just allowed to quit. She also expected the company to blackball me from the industry.
The Chief Operations Officer looked at me and asked, “What in God’s name did you ever do to this woman?”
I looked back and said that unless we met in a prior lifetime, nothing. She was a new client, we’d never met, and I wasn’t the one who did her setup. We’d never spoken on the phone, and her name rang no bells.
“Okay,” he said, “We’re not firing you, but stay far, far away from her.”
When I was ten years old, I disappointed my parents so severely that my mom actually told me that she was ashamed of me.
We had a new teacher at school, a young and attractive woman who I didn’t particularly like. There was a weekly magazine and TV guide that always featured a naked woman who was chosen from readers who sent in their pictures. You can probably guess where I’m going with this. Another kid happened to find an old edition of the magazine that featured our new teacher as the weekly babe. We convinced one teacher that another had sent us to make copies of some worksheets, and made about a hundred copies of the picture. We distributed them all around the school.
The teacher was around 25 years old, and the pictures were taken years earlier, when she was just 17. This wasn’t before the internet existed, but it was before it evolved into the black hole of revenge porn and shame that it is today. She had no reason to think that the old picture would come back to haunt her nearly a decade later, and she was shocked and humiliated.
When I close my eyes, I can still see my parents’ faces the way they looked when they were called to the school and informed of my actions. It was so painfully clear that they couldn’t believe I’d let them down like that. Yes, I discovered something shocking about my teacher, and my immature reaction was to share it with the world for my own amusement. It has been more than 21 years, and I swear that writing this is making me turn red with shame.
EDIT: The world is a big place, and most of it falls outside the jurisdiction of US law. Remember that age of consent – and majority – varies throughout the world.
People whose initials are ‘JC’ are 85% more likely to get laid
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Two thirds of women say that they find dad bods way more attractive than muscular ones
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People who like the same colour have the longest marriages
image 46
Go up to a stranger and stare right into their eyes without blinking. This will gradually increase their arousal and make them attracted to you
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To find your soulmate, lick the armpit of your closest friend. If it tastes like grass, they’re definitely your soulmate
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Hearing a loved one’s laughter extends your lifespan by three weeks
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Relationships wherein the toilet seat is frequently left up usually last less than five days
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Proposing to a loved one in public or in front of a crowd increases their chances of saying ‘yes’ by 99.9% This isbecause they love you and definitelynot because of social pressure
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Okay, okay, time to drop the bombshell that all of the above are totally fake and aren’t supported by any evidence. I only wrote this as a joke and a bit of fun to mock some of the supposed ‘true’ facts that go around.
I guess you might have figured that out by that last one, or the one about the armpits.
Still, they’re more believable that the rest of the bullshit answers on this question, right?
It costs ₹1.5 Lakhs in India and around $ 1500 in most countries on an average
Say tomorrow someone creates an equally good phone of equally good quality and offers it for $ 600
It’s evident that the Average consumer will go for the lower cost option because HE IS NOT A FOOL
That is exactly what China brings to the table with its Technological Progress
China can create the same or better quality product at a lower retail price and soon OUTPRICE the West from any fair & neutral market
It started with things the West couldn’t care less about
Textiles, Pencils, Stationery, Low Grade Machines, Belt Buckles, Buttons, Sports Equipment and Toys
Then it moved to Electronics
Then to Computational Devices
Its been going on for sometime now
It extended to TRAINS
China has cornered the market for Train Bodies, Engines, Fiber Plastics , Carbon Fibre and Electrified Tracks and the cost per Km is 35% cheaper than Japan and 60% cheaper than Europe
To Aerospace Materials
China first began producing for itself. Now it has begun selling to Egypt, Russia, Belarus and even Teeny Tiny Singapore. Heat Shields, Propellant Cladding, Guidance Engineering Consoles all for 50% the price charged by Europe & USA
To Green Energy
To Electric Vehicles
Everywhere China has created it’s own supply chain and a niche for its products at a lower cost beating the US in a competition and ensuring US Products are TOO PRICEY FOR THEIR VALUE
Now the BIGGEST FEAR for the US is in the area of Defence!!!
China was once projected to be the largest market for Defence imports in 1999 by the Pentagon
Nobody in their WILDEST DREAMS could imagine China would one day, especially 20 years later be almost entirely self sufficient and produce weapons of global quality
In fact in 1999,it was estimated that INDIA would develop a Weapons Chain of its own by the Pentagon especially after the 1998 Pokhran Test and after APJ Abdul Kalams visionary speech on 1/1/1999
Today China develops its own weapons and has a near full supply Chain
image 39image 38image 37image 36image 35
China makes everything from Fighters to Drones to Artillery Guns to Hypersonic Missiles to Destroyers
Indigenously for most part and definitely not dependent for anything on the West
And gradually having a MARKET for its defense exports, especially Military Drones
Now of course everyone reads Western Journals and says Chinese products are junk
Yet China always has demonstrations and allows its clients to handle its weapons and most clients come back highly impressed because they are TOP QUALITY
In 2017 – US and Israel were top Military Drone exporters
In 2023 – Its China
Its very likely that sooner rather than later, more and more neutral nations keen on arming themselves would prefer to buy from China at a lower price and similar quality and FAR BETTER FINANCING
The US has two options
Keep developing better and better weapons OR
Keep Throttling China
Sadly US knows it cant endlessly keep producing better and better weapons
China has more researchers, more scientists and a far less SELFISH AND GREEDY Military Industry
For instance from 2018–2023 – US Defence Industries combined spend 3.7% of their Profits for R&D
Chinas Defence Industries have spent – 17%
Almost 6 times more
Plus Chips!!!!
Today US controls everything needed to make 3/5 nm process Chips
Tomorrow if China manages to indigenously crack the same?
It will flood the world with Chips at a third the cost and that’s the end of TSMC and other players like Intel
Now this is not the first time the US is playing dirty with a nation it regards as a rival
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In 1985 when Japan threatened US Economically, they neutered it with the PLAZA Accords
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When SE Asia threatened the US with potential independent decisions, they Neutrered them with AsianFinancial Crisis
Causing currencies to bloat up and then ensuring their crash with an evil grin
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Remember George Soros????
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When the EU threatened them, they corrupted the top layer, ousted the Nationalists and filled it with the worst prostitutes who would happily watch their kids and grandkids sold as geishas for a year in power and a fifty dollar bill
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CHINA today is the only nation that the US is unable to break
Whatever they try, China outsmarts them
That adds to their rage and fury and they make more mistakes that lowers their credibility
Seven years ago China was the Aggressor with its wolf warrior diplomacy.
Today the Chinese are looked on as the world’s only peacemakers
CHINA is the toughest opponent they have ever come across in their 200+ years of existence
An Opponent who absorbs every blow and comes back fighting and who in return moves all around them confusing their strategy
And that worries them even more
Yet they see no way to stop China today
Their Anti China Rhetoric is not working beyond influencing a few Idiot rednecks to vote for Biden or Trump to protect US from China
It’s just Economics
China is rising today
I hope India realizes this because India could be the next rising power when China retires if it partners with China
The Alternative is another Western Lackey like it was 200 years ago.
I am from a very small city called Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, India. My father was in UP state govt at a grade C post. He used to earn just enough money to live on and nothing extra. Despite holding a post where he could have earn a lot of money he chose not to do it and lived proudly. Sometimes, he used to get his salary after 5–6 months delay but that time he had friends to help him out and shopkeepers used to lend things such as groceries, milk etc. In short, we were living hand to mouth with no extra financial support.
One day my mom got angry for few reasons and shouted at me that why I am wasting hard earned money if I am not serious. I felt so bad that I decided I will never ask for money. I started giving tution at one house who used to give only 250 rs. for two kids, that too in installments. While going to his home for tution, sometime I used to stop by a roadside eatery shop who used to sell “Bati chokha” as shown below. 2 Rs for each piece. 4 Rs for a plate of two.
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I always tried to suppress my desire to eat to save money but when I was too hungry then only I used to stop by and eat just one for 2 Rs. That time shop was quite famous and especially evening time, it used to be full with a lot of crowd. And many a times I escaped without paying his 2 Rs. I am not sure whether that shopkeeper also intentionally ignored me every time. Though I knew what I am doing is wrong and always had a feeling of guilt which I used to ignore after having a free meal.
Fast forward to today. I earn well now and work as scientist in a premier research institute in India. Sole source of income is my salary which is more than enough for my needs.
Sometime back I visited my hometown and had a chance to go his shop again. Now this shop was being run by shopkeeper’s sons. I ordered one plate again. The taste was not the same as it used to be. but I was hit by nostalgia. More than the taste I was thinking about how I used to escape without paying this poor fellow. After finishing I asked ‘how much?’
He said ’10 Rs. babu ji”
I handed over newly launched 2000 Rs. note.
“Kya babu ji! itna chutta kaha se laun?” (Sir how would I get so much of change?)
Koi nahi, Mai ek ghante bad idhar wapas aaunga, tab le lunga change” I said (Never mind, I will come back this side after one hour and will collect the change from you.)
I left the place and did not go back. First time ever, I had a feeling of satiety after having Bati Chokha. And this was first time ever, I felt wealthy.
Turns Out None Of My 5 Children Are Mine & Now My Wife Is Baffled As Why I Abandoned Her Forever
The four largest church auditoriums in the world now sit on Nigerian soil—colossal structures built with billions of Naira.
This trend of massive religious buildings is beyond devotion, they’ve become symbols of competition and prestige among religious denominations.
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Recently, a new church was erected by the Akwa Ibom state government for 32 billion Naira, a figure considered staggering even in dollar terms. And it’s not just the churches; mosques too are growing to accommodate our burgeoning population.
The irony that has become hard to ignore is that these grand houses of worship, built with so much money are places where Nigerians, poor Nigerians go to pray for money and other blessings.
Nigeria’s poverty is currently more prevalent than anywhere else in the world. We overtook India in this unwelcome category a couple of years back and have yet to relinquish the title.
Nigeria is also one of the most conflict-ridden countries globally. Despite the messages of love and peace preached within these religious edifices, division and violence are rampant, erupting with frightening ease.
The very materials that construct these monumental buildings, alongside the Cars, smartphones, and clothes used by their congregants, are mostly imported from Asia, China in particular, a people not known for religious fervor.
The irony deepens when considering the potential uses of these funds;
Imagine if these billions were redirected towards constructing factories or providing business grants to Nigeria’s innovative youth. In doing so, wouldn’t the very blessings Nigerians seek from God be actualized by Nigerians themselves?
Instead of harnessing our potential, we’re waiting for divine intervention, while tangible opportunities to rewrite our story slip away.
Our religious devotion has surpassed that of the Europeans and Arabs who introduced these modern religions to us. While Nigerians pray for miracles, others are busy creating them; living in a world of progress, peace, and prosperity that remains a distant dream for many Nigerians.
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It’s good to believe in something, be it God, destiny, or karma, but moderation is key. Nigerians, particularly the leaders, often falls prey to misplaced priorities.
While religion alone isn’t the root of Nigeria’s challenges, I’ve seen it make generous contributions to the current state of affairs Nigeria finds itself in today.
We were living in Amman, in Jordan, where my husband Bob was a senior diplomat. It was Ramadan and it was hot. In Ramadan Muslims do not eat or drink while there is light and in Summer it was light for a long time.
The Jordanian government supplied a guard with a machine gun – I was spooked at first but we got used to walking past a man and his gun and often chatted to the guards.
On the first day of Ramadan the guard of the moment tapped on the window between the open garage and the kitchen and asked our lovely Filipina helper if she could open his can of tuna to break his fast.
He was holding a half bottle of lukewarm water. I was in the kitchen at the time. That tuna was cheap and terrible – greyish flakes drifting in salt water. I would not have fed it to a cat.
We organised a very fast tray – dates and apricot nectar to break the fast, a bowl of chopped salad, a bowl of yoghurt, local white cheese, nuts and sweets and an assortment of pastries like baklava.
We handed it out – with his tuna and hot tea – as the call to prayer sounded the moment when he could eat. He was stammering in gratitude but it took us only five minutes. I added items to our regular shopping list.
Each day we prepared a big tray and included a hot vegetarian dish. I was concerned that the guards might not eat meat from a non-Muslim household in fear of pork.The numbers grew. There were two guards on the second night.
Four after three days. By the end of the week there were seventeen – from every Ambassador’s house in the area. Some left their post and walked several blocks.
We just put out big serving bowls and fistfuls of cutlery and they shared. They came every night for a month. We did that every year for four years. At the end of our posting my husband, Bob, called to say farewell to King Hussein.
The King called in Queen Noor – and together they thanked us for feeding our guards through Ramadan. When Bob recovered from the shock he asked how they knew.
“On the second night of your first Ramadan the head of the elite guard asked how to manage a problem. The guard for another ambassador wished to leave his post to go to the Australians as they were giving food and drinks.
He was asking permission to leave his post and I am the only one who can grant that permission. I told him that if the Australians are willing and generous to the guards and others are not, then guards from other embassies can leave their posts to eat.”
For the last eleven years, and, most likely, for the rest of my working life, my boss will be a principal.
I’ve had six principals over four schools during my career as a teacher. All of them were women. Two of them were younger than me, for what it’s worth.
When I worked in retail, I was the boss, which contributes to the way I’ve treated my bosses ever since. I’ve been on the receiving end of that scenario.
With that in mind, here are my top three rules for dealing with your boss:
Don’t take anything they say personally. You’re both there to make money, not friends. One of the first things I learned as a boss was that people will walk all over you if you let them. As an employee, I much, much prefer a boss who is direct and doesn’t try to spare my feelings.
Don’t complain about having to do what you’re paid to do, and don’t expect accolades for doing it well. Your accolade is your paycheck. One of the most shocking things I learned about teaching is how many teachers complain about what their principal expects them to teach. That’s… why you were hired, no?
Your job is to make the boss look good, so don’t get upset when that happens. You know what makes principals look good? Increased standardized test scores. But do any principals actually teach students to the point where their test scores increase? No. But the principal gets the pat on the back when the scores go up. That’s how the world works, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Italian Hot Sausage Sandwiches
2024 02 03 13 00
Ingredients
1 large onion, sliced
1 green or red bell pepper, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 pounds hot sausage cut into 6-inch lengths
2 cups tomato sauce, preferably homemade
1 1/2 cups canned whole tomatoes
Parsley
Basil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Brown sugar (optional)
sausage and peppers 3 696×1024 1
Instructions
Sauté the onion and pepper in the olive oil and butter until soft in a heavy pot or casserole. Remove and set aside.
Add sausage to the pot and sauté until browned on all sides. Return the onions and peppers to the pot. Add tomato sauce.
Place whole tomatoes in the blender and whirl with a handful of parsley and a few basil leaves. Add to the sausage mixture.
Simmer the mixture for an hour. Season with salt and pepper. If the sauce seems to acidic, add a tablespoon of brown sugar.
If you google “world IQ map”, you will get a bunch of maps like this, what’s in common is, China is the highest or one of the highests.
But I don’t think Chinese people is naturally smarter than the rest. Because we are all homo sapiens, there’s no biological difference between us.
Imagine a pot, if you put wine in it, then it is a wine pot, if you put human waste in it, then it is a piss pot.
Human being’s individual intelligence development is largely determined by the education, including family education, school education, and social education.
If your parents believe Covid is a hoax, the white house is controlled by lizard men;
If your school forbids teaching evolution theory but telling you the earth is created by God 5000 years ago;
If your contry is full of useless debates on genders, tolerant to cults and conspiracies and calling it free speech;
It’s hard to imagine its people can keep on right track in intelligence development.
Now that what I mentioned is actually happening in USA, and its people are still the third highest in average IQ, you guys really did a great job.
I’ve seen so many great responses in this answer thread, so I’ll join in.
The picture below is of Anna Bagenholm,
[1] a Swedish radiologist. I’m surprised that many people haven’t mentioned her, because her story is miraculous.
She was frozen alive, and then brought back to life. She is a survivor of probably one of the worst cases of hypothermia, and officially set the record for the lowest human body temperature ever recorded.
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In 1999, Bagenholm was on a skiing trip with her friends along a trail in Narvik, Norway, as was her daily routine after work — but the accident she faced a few minutes later was terrifying and nearly unsurvivable.
While attempting to maneuver around a nearly frozen waterfall, she fell headfirst into a hole in the ice and got stuck with only her feet protruding from the water. Her friends attempted to help her out of the hole, but the ice-cold stream took her even deeper into the freezing ice. Because of that, her friends decided to call an emergency rescue team on their phone. But one way or another, she was able to last a full 40 minutes inside after finding an air pocket between the water and the ice.
By the time the rescue team assisted her out of the stream, she had been submerged for 80 minutes total. Bagenholm’s temperature had dropped down to what was at the time the lowest recorded (about 56.6 degrees Fahrenheit and 13.7 degrees Celsius), her pupils were dilated, and her heart had stopped beating. The emergency team tried to give her CPR, but they failed. For a short time, she was dead.
A helicopter took her to a hospital. When she arrived, she was hooked into a bypass machine. The team would try to warm up her blood until she regained her pulse and her body temperature went back to normal.The plan was successful, and she survived. Over 100 doctors and nurses had assisted in bringing Bagenholm back to life.
Dr. Mads Gilbert, an anesthesiologist who worked at the hospital, believed the subzero temperatures actually helped. To quote: “Her body had time to cool down completely before the heart stopped. Her brain was so cold when the heart stopped that the brain cells needed very little oxygen, so the brain could survive for quite a prolonged time.”
[2] Fortunately, she suffered no visible brain damage. But she had to pay a price for surviving that accident — the damage it did to her nerves made it more difficult for her to use her hands when it came to writing and cooking, for example. At least she was still able to go skiing.
To conclude: I just wish I could survive the cold like she could. Well, don’t we all?
Been cleaning up all the bull-shit trolls that creep in my lesser-policed feeds. Same MO though. Almost all are first-timers, with join dates five or more years ago. All are not active anywhere else. Just land on MM, and shit on it.
I do a purge. Erase, block, and delete.
Move on to the next. Ugh. What a pain in the ass.
♫WE ARE The 2000’s♫ (Mashup By Blanter Co)
How can the U.S. counter BRICS?
BRICS is based on China’s huge infrastructure projects for last 30yrs and something that the USA cannot do unless it completely remodel itself as an economy that relies on the real economy, ie infrastructure and manufacturing. And cuts current reliance on military production, Tbills/usd printing and Wall St finance that creates wealth from trading equities. Highly difficulty given the laws and structure of the USA, and the West are already skewed to compete in those industries.
By end 2000s, Chinese construction companies had nearly completed China’s massive infrastructure building program and had huge amounts of surplus infrastructure building capacities and expertise. At the same time, Chinese economy needed lots of resources to fuel growth and Chinese trade surpluses accumulated so much capital, they needed to recycle the capital. Xi’s team realised that the clever way to solve all these problems were to build infrastructure along the ancient Silk Road. And it resonated with countries in those lands because they needed the capital and infrastructure to fuel their own growth and ship their produce to China and the world to better the lives of their people.
The way the scheme works, these countries proposes their own infrastructure needs to China and its companies, and they work out the feasibility of these projects based on the resources and produce that can be sold to ultimately fund these projects. If corruption does not interfere, the process should be sensible and feasible. This is actually a simple HP contract with China providing the capital and infrastructure, and getting paid over time with goods and resources sold by client countries. There is good economic logic to the whole process. Of course, there will be ruffians that will try to profit from corruption but by and large, the projects do increase trade in the entire BRI belt.
China BRI trade with 140 countries tops $9.2 trillion
China’s Belt and Road Initiative is “a public road open to all” and is not “ideologically biased” according to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, addressing a conference on future plans for the programme.
Wang was speaking at the Asia and Pacific High Level Video Conference on Belt and Road, which took place on June 23. He gave an update on China’s Belt and Road Initiative and called on nations to join and support the use of the BRI as a superhighway for vaccine roll-outs, sustainable development and building digital connectivity.
According to a statement by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, political leaders from 29 countries, including Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez, were present via video-link.
The conference was organised to “enhance anti-pandemic cooperation and boost economic recovery”.
140 partner countries Wang said that from its inception in 2013, the “important initiative” has shown strong vigour and vitality.
“Over the past eight years, the BRI has evolved from a concept and vision into real actions and reality, and brought about enormous opportunities and benefits to countries around the world.
To date, up to 140 partner countries have signed documents on Belt and Road cooperation with China.
Trade between China and BRI partners has exceeded $9.2 trillion. Direct investment by Chinese companies in countries along the Belt and Road has surpassed $130 billion.
The BRI has truly become the world’s broadest-based and largest platform for international cooperation.” Wang Yi added that even through the COVID-19 outbreak , Belt and Road cooperation did not come to a halt.
“It braved the headwinds and continued to move forward, showing remarkable resilience and vitality.
Together, we have put up an international firewall of cooperation against COVID-19, provided a stabiliser for the world economy, and built new bridges for global connectivity.”
This “fruitful” Belt and Road cooperation was as a result of the solidarity and cooperation among BRI partners, guided by the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, he said, adding that BRI practices the concept of open, green and clean development, aimed at high-standard, people-centred and sustainable growth.
“All cooperation partners, regardless of economic size, are equal members of the BRI family.
None of our cooperation programs are attached with political strings.
We never impose our will on others from a so-called position of strength. Neither do we pose a threat to any country. “We are always committed to mutual benefit and win-win.
The BRI came from China, but it creates opportunities and good results for all countries, and benefits the whole world.
We have strengthened policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity to pursue economic integration, achieve interconnected development, and deliver benefits to all.
“The BRI is a public road open to all, and has no backyard or high walls.
As the countries trade and projects grew, these BRI trade and projects are now defining China’s role with the rest of the world. And they are now a principle reason China can afford to reduce reliance on West markets.
And as these countries grow their capital, China is now encouraging them to use rmb and bilateral currencies to trade, and this will further erode the powers of the West’s financial systems. In fact, the more the West struggles to smear it and to attack it, the more these countries will wean themselves away from the euro/usd world and move the world towards a multi currency system.
West has no ability to propose alternatives because they do not have the massive infrastructural capacity and expertise of China at this point. And years of backing US wars and the 2008 Wall Street subprime collapse have also weaken US/EU financial systems and govt debts to point they have not much capital to spare on building the developing world’s infrastructure. The world knows that USA is fully reliant on the usd reserves status to print endless amounts of Tbills/usd to sustain only.
EU should adopt a different strategy from US, Chinese infrastructural capacity and expertise will be boosted if they join these projects, and China will gladly welcome them to boost growth of markets everywhere.
After all, these roads, rails and ports link up the great EurAsia Africa continents and can be one super economic massive continental group.
Even the USA can benefit if they drop an aggressive US hegemonic model that benefits only the US MIC billionaires.
A super huge market can drive many US companies too. So silly to cling onto a model that relies on endless wars, endless arms sales, endless printing of Tbills that is actually robbing monies from American taxpayers to pay US MIC billionaires.
Blinken, rogue and ignored
China is refusing to let US secretary of state Antony Blinken visit Beijing
Four people familiar with the negotiations said China had told the US it was not prepared to reschedule a trip that Blinken cancelled in February
countries of the world are sick of the continuous toxic diatribe, lies and lectures spew by the Americans
In this case, China was concerned that the FBI would deliberately release manufactured lies regarding the results of an investigation into the downed suspected Chinese “spy balloon”.
This Is How They’re Going To CONTROL You!
Neua Yang (Charcoal Broiled Beef
in a Hot/Sweet Sauce – Thai)
Yang dishes are the Thai equivalent of Thai barbecue food. The most common is undoubtedly kai yang (chicken) where a chicken is split open, beaten flat, and gripped in a cleft stick to grill over the brazier.
2023 04 16 15 29
This version – neua yang or barbecued beef – has a more assertive sauce to go with the stronger flavor of the beef. It is best accompanied with a bottle of strong beer, especially when eaten as lunch during a break from working in the paddy fields. At dinner a good Italian red wine is I think the best choice.
And of course if you don’t have a charcoal brazier, or the weather is a shade cooler than here (it’s 38 degrees C (100 degrees F) outside as I type this…) then you could just as easily prepare this dish on a griddle or broil it in the oven (but it *does* taste best if it can absorb the flavor of the charcoal smoke).
For an evening meal I would suggest serving it with a salad such as the yam polamai (that I will post next), and a soup such as tam kha kai (chicken soup with a coconut milk stock).
Ingredients
Sauce
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon dark sweet soy sauce
3 tablespoons shallots (purple onions), sliced very thinly
1/2 tablespoon palm sugar (or honey)
1/2 tablespoon prik phom (powdered dried red chiles)
1 tablespoon sliced spring onion/scallion/green onion, including tops
1 teaspoon bai chi (coriander/cilantro leaf), chopped
Instructions
First prepare a serving platter, lined with lettuce leaves, and decorated with sliced cucumber.
Combine the ingredients to make the sauce. taste and if required add extra sugar/honey, lime juice and/or prik phom.
Barbecue half a pound of steak to whatever “doneness” you prefer, then slice into slices an eighth of an inch thick, and then cut the slices into bite sized pieces. Place on the lettuce, and pour the sauce over the steak.
Accompany with the usual Thai table condiments (prik phom, sugar, and prik dong (red chiles in vinegar)).
You can substitute sautéed onion for the shallots if they are unavailable.
Also, remember when using prik phom (and sugar) in sauce preparation that the diners can always add more at the table, but they can’t remove it if you put too much in!
Served as a one-plate dinner, this serves one fairly hungry diner, but with the soup and salad should be adequate for four people.
US March Toward War – Ukraine Offensive, War Over Taiwan (w/Danny Haiphong)
The world needs more diplomats like Russia's Sergey Larov and China's Wang Yi. not American "diplomats" (if they can even be called such) like Jake Sullivan, Anthony Blinken, John Kirby, etc.
Anonymous Artist Is Photoshopping Kids Books, And The Result Is Hilarious
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Mark March 11th on your calendar, for it is a day that will go down in history as the founding date of Paperback Paradise, “The world’s #1 used book store.” After the Berenst(E)ain Bears Conspiracy of 2015, it should come as no surprise that many of the books that you read in your childhood are not as you remember them. In particular, that their titles are radically different.
Renzo Gracie, a Brazilian jujitsu fighter, was in a New York underground station, accompanied by a friend after training at the gym. The two were speaking in Portuguese.
Suddenly, an American approached shouting ‘Speak English here! ‘ and pushed his way towards the duo. Not knowing that he was attacking a professional wrestler, the man was choked and restrained until he apologised.
The case is reverberating internationally and Renzo has already given his opinion: ‘There was no fight… an educational moment’.
main qimg 9a59763a824cef7ed5be32ea85d24b8b pjlq
2023.04.16 Poisoning The Well
The "people of the ziggurat."
ABC Television Guest: “Can’t see the difference between the Christian Right and the Taliban”
ABC Television in the United States has a show called “The View” wherein ignorant, kackling, women say really stupid things. Most recently, guest Patti LuPone said “I don’t know what the difference between our Christian Right and the Taliban is.”
She went on to say “What’s happening in this country right now in the name of religion is just so dangerous.”
What is she talking about?
Is it Abortion?
Killing babies inside their mother’s womb is somehow “good?” Stopping that is somehow “bad?”
As to the difference between the Christian Right and the Taliban, we in the Christian Right aren’t cutting people’s heads off. That’s kind of a major difference, but what do I know . . .
Where does ABC Television come up with people like this whose opinions are shear idiocy?
Yet, THIS is what’s on American TV:
This is yet another example of why people must beware what they see and hear on TV. The people you are seeing and hearing may very well be actual idiots!
Portugal tells the U.S. to STAY OUT of its business with China
Green Curry Beef
If you’ve never cooked Thai before, start with this one. It introduces you to many ingredients and flavors at once, is spicy but not too fiery, and is simple to make. Look for the best quality commercial curry paste you can. The first time you make this dish, start with half the curry paste and taste after combining with the coconut milk; you can increase the intensity at this point if desired. Be sure to use unsweetened coconut milk.
thai green beef curry 100362 1
Ingredients
1 pound (450 g) lean beef steak
2 tablespoons (25 mL) peanut oil
3 tablespoons (50 mL) green curry paste, or to taste
1 (14 ounce) (400 mL) can coconut milk
4 fresh red chile peppers, seeded, ribbed and sliced
Cut the beef into thin slices about two inches long (you may want to partially freeze the beef to make cutting easier). Set aside.
Heat a wok or large skillet until hot. Add the oil, and when hot stir in the curry paste. Stir fry for 30 seconds.
Drizzle in the coconut milk, stirring constantly.
Add the sliced chiles, fish sauce, salt, sugar, lime leaves and stock. Bring to a boil.
Add the beef slices and green onions. Turn the heat to low and simmer the dish uncovered for 15 minutes until the beef is tender and the sauce slightly thickened.
A US Air Force B-52 nuclear bomber flies over Canberra’s parliament house in a fly past that seemed, to some at least, to be a darkly ominous message about who holds deep power in the nation’s capital. Media at the time referred to it as ‘a symbol of the enduring friendship between Australia and the United States of America’. (Photo: Supplied.)
Amajority of Australians want Australia to adopt a policy of neutrality when it comes to considering a US war against China, according to the latest polling
by the Lowy Institute think tank.
The poll, conducted in 2022, found 51% of Australians said they’d prefer Australia to remain ‘neutral’ in any US military conflict with China over Taiwan, down from 57% in 2020. [Fig: 1]
This runs so contrary to mainstream media representations of such polling that it’s worth stating again: The majority of Australians (51%) say they want Australia to maintain ‘neutrality’ in any US military conflict with China over Taiwan.
by the Lowy Institute that found most Australians, while happy to support our military involvement in humanitarian interventions or peacekeeping, do not want the country to ‘support US military action’ in a war against China – and the number of Australians saying this is increasing
each year polled (2020 63%, up from 2013 60%). [Fig: 2]
At a time of hysterical pro-war reporting in many of Australia’s major mainstream news outlets
, the views of the Australian public against the US alliance and the US push for confrontation with China, should gain some higher prominence; if our media was interested in balance. Media’s ignoring the majority view is undemocratic and not in Australia’s national interest.
Support for a US war with China low
2023 04 16 20 40
The earlier poll conducted in 2020 found 63% of Australians do not support Australian military joining US military action in a conflict between China and Taiwan. The opposition to US military action against China has increased
] by 9% from 2019, when 54% were against such military action.
Since that remarkable result, Lowy Institute changed the polling question slightly in 2021 and 2022, but despite that they still found that most Australians want the country to remain neutral in any US military conflict with China over Taiwan.
different question about if China ‘invaded Taiwan’. This saw Australian opposition to sending military forces that was at a majority of 54% in 2019, dropping to 47% in 2022. This near repetition of an earlier question in the same poll may seem odd, but it may be a case of asking varying versions of a question until finding the ‘right’ answer.
The Lowy pollsters seem to talk down the notable result on neutrality when they state
: ‘A bare majority say Australia should remain neutral… almost half say Australia should support the US in this conflict.’ The last time I looked, a majority is still a majority in most democracies.
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Figure 1: The 2022 Lowy Institute Poll has shown what Australians think of prospects of war between US and China:
Australians want a policy of neutrality. (Image: Lowy Institute)
What is fundamentally clear from this polling, however, is that in most polling the majority of the Australian public has made it known they do not want Australia to join a US war against China over Taiwan.
Support for ANZUS Alliance low
Australian ‘support’ for joining the US in any conflict under the ANZUS military alliance is also waning, the 2020 Lowy polling
also shows. [Fig: 2]
A minority (40%) of Australians in 2020 agree with Australia supporting the US under the ANZUS alliance in a war in the Middle East, a reduction from 2013 when 48% supported such action under the Alliance. And that prior to the debacle in Afghanistan, the Taliban’s victory and Australia’s hasty retreat in 2021.
Even fewer Australians support Alliance action in our own region. In 2020 a smaller minority of just 34% of Australians agree with supporting the US under the ANZUS alliance in a war in Asia, a decrease from 2013 when 37% supported it.
The clear majority of Australians (68%) in 2020 say Australia ‘should only support US military action if it is authorised by the United Nations’.
2023 04 16 20 41
Figure 2: The 2022 Lowy Institute Poll has shown what Australians think of prospects of military action under ANZUS:
Australians don’t want to be a part of it. (Image: Lowy Institute)
However, with all statistics, it depends on what questions are asked, and what answers are publicised. The Lowy report emphasises an obvious truism when it asks a different question
in the 2022 poll, showing a majority of Australians generally consider the US alliance as ‘important’.
This ‘motherhood’ question allows pro-war media to shout: ‘Most Australians say Alliance is important.’ But while they may say it’s important, Australians don’t actually support it being used for Australia to join US wars.
: ‘There is persistent reluctance to support military action under ANZUS. The majority of Australians (68% ) say “despite the alliance, Australia should only support US military action if it is authorised by the United Nations”.’
Clearly most Australians would rather support the UN-based ‘international legal order’, than the US-designed ‘rules-based order’.
supports this finding. A 2022 poll by the US Studies Centre shows that a large majority of Australians (76%) believe Australia should ‘develop a foreign policy that was independent of the global powers’.
Most say a US China war not in national interest
A further question in the Lowy poll shows that Australians, despite their antiwar majority, do well understand the current state of Australian democracy. They know that their wishes face headwinds in being translated into actual policy, and that, as with the Iraq war, it is probable they will be ignored and be dragged against their will into the next conflict.
77%, the large majority of Australians, acknowledge the grim fact that ‘Australia’s alliance with the United States makes it more likely Australia will be drawn
into a war in Asia that would not be in Australia’s interests’.
They call it democracy but know they have little input to any decision to commit the nation to war. That’s because the decision lays solely in the hands of the Prime Minister of the day, not in the elected parliament. A majority
of Australians would like to see that changed too.
The sceptical public has decided. After 20 years of illegal and failed wars led by the United States, Australians are increasingly making it clear they have had enough. The collapse of all the dubious rationales for war have been noted by most of the population.
2023 04 16 20s 41
An estimated 240,000 were killed during the 20-year failed allied occupation of Afghanistan – most of them Afghan citizens. Here the body of one Australian soldier, Sgt Blaine Diddams of SASR, is returned home to his family and friends waiting at RAAF Base Pearce, Western Australia, on 9 July 2012, after being killed in a clash the Chorah region of Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan. (Photo: Cpl Chris Moore, Department of Defence)
Australians have seen through the lies over the non-existent Iraqi ‘weapons of mass destruction’, the dismal failure of the ‘nation building’ experiment in Afghanistan, and the thin arguments for our secretive war against Syria. And now, that well-founded scepticism has affected their views of a prospective war with China – the majority don’t want any part of it.
Fear-mongering up, fear up
Polling has seen Australians’ overall perception of safety drop, and fear levels jump. Is it little wonder? The high media prominence in 2022 of the new war between Ukraine and Russia, and repeated confrontations
with China by US and Australian military ships and planes, has guaranteed that.
Over the past year, Lowy polling shows fear levels
rose of China becoming ‘a military threat in the next 20 years’ with 32% now seeing in as ‘very likely’, up from an average of 16% with that view over the past decade. [‘Somewhat likely’ rose 31% to 43%.]
The Lowy Institute’s head of polling, Natasha Kassam, says
“Anxiety about China has characterised Australian public opinion for the past three years, and now the vast majority of Australians believe China will pose a military threat to Australia in the next two decades.”
But that growing fear of the prospect of war with China is tied up in Australians’ overall wariness of the United States, and has not translated into a belligerent attitude against China.
Despite all the voices of the pro-war lobby on China, the scare-mongering by think tanks, the spruiking by the weapons merchants, the malign leaks to journalists, the assurances by defence officials, and dubious assertions of their political leaders – it seems the public is awake to them.
2023 04 16 20 4c2
Cracking a smile after being given a birthday cupcake and a can of Coca Cola, Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, July 2022. (Photo: Defence Department)
It is perhaps surprising to see that, in the face of all this, the public’s support for a US war against China is actually persistently dropping.
Those pro-war voices may not have adequately considered that Australians live in a democracy. They could start to acknowledge this by reflecting the public’s view in statements and reporting, and in policy.
The singularly pro-war stance of most mainstream media outlets has not convinced the majority. So we should expect a boost to the fear-mongering, more tales of spy cells, strange cyber hits, media embeds with military forces, smiling US Generals, new ‘cool
’ attack warplanes, a rise in the US cultural push, and more empathy-building stories of nice Americans surviving terrible storms in Texas.
, published by Nine/SMH-Age, titled ‘Red Alert’ is an example of the biased reporting. The series would have been better titled ‘Red Scare’.
The large three-day special report relies on five ‘experts’, but the article fails to say four of them are connected to a highly controversial think tank, Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI
), as staff, board member or contributor. Nowhere are the pro-war stance, foreign government funding, and weapons industry connections
of ASPI mentioned.
2023 04 16 20 42
The alarmist ‘Red Alert’ reports in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on 7 March 2023 gave an increasingly common biased ‘red scare’ line that is driving many readers to more independent media carrying a range of views, such as Declassified Australia, Pearls and Irritations, and Michael West Media.
Despite such media abuse, the public remains consistently opposed to US wars. The inability of the mainstream media to convince the majority is in fact driving their readers and viewers away. And they are heading to the internet and serious independent
There are other messages that the majority of Australians can take away from the Lowy polling.
While the majority of Australians oppose war, they overwhelmingly support the use of Australian military forces for humanitarian operations, and in peacemaking and peacekeeping roles. Between 75 and 80% of Australians expressed support
for such military operations in the 2019 and 2022 polls.
But there is danger here. Those pushing us to war may be guided by this polling result and therefore dress up their arguments in words about ‘humanitarian war’ and ‘peacekeeping’. The overwhelming public goodwill towards the peacekeeping and humanitarian missions to assist the people of East Timor (1999-2007) and Bougainville (1998-2004), is open to being abused by the pro-war lobby.
The public should be on the lookout for pro-war voices using humanitarian justifications to advocate for Australia to join the US in their next war against China, as the Lowy poll put it, ‘to stop a government from committing genocide and killing large numbers of its own people’.
The pro-war voices may have an increasingly difficult task, however, as they face being washed away by a generational tsunami. Polling shows that support for the United States is lowest, and declining, amongst young Australians. This is an amazing ‘fact on the ground’.
While 43% of people aged over 45 say Australia should remain neutral in a military conflict between the US and China, a whopping 60% of Australians aged 18-44 prefer neutrality, according
to the Lowy’s 2022 polls. [Fig: 1, text]
We can expect the pro-war voices to increasingly target younger audiences.
Pushing the polling
“Australia’s new government will find support [in the polling results] for more defence spending, tough policies towards China and Russia, and stronger engagement in our region and on the world stage,” claims
the Lowy Institute.
However what it won’t find is a high level of support for US wars, including against China.
The Lowy Institute polling is an important measure of Australian opinion towards the United States. It is watched closely by foreign affairs and defence officials in Canberra, and in Washington.
The polling each year contains a grab-bag of information, with something for everyone. The actual results showing a drift from the US alliance and a favouring of neutrality, have been de-emphasised in much of the news reporting which has been dominated by the war in Ukraine and the fanning of a war with China.
The particular poll results preferred by the pro-war lobby will be wheeled out, and will be so-gleefully repeated in much of the media. But this present examination of the polling results show there is a hopeful message to be had in the actual attitudes of Australian, if only we are told of them.
Peter Cronau
Douglas Macgregor: “Ukraine IS FALLING, THIS IS IT!” in Exclusive Interview
https://youtu.be/lfUU8981v80
Whats life like in China compared to Western countries?
Trust me it’s like going to 2050 if you lived in a US City and are moving to Shanghai or Hangzhou
main qimg 6debe5b38bada0286ae4c8eaa1752b76
There is ALMOST NO PAPER anywhere
Everything is QR Code, QR Code and QR Code
Everything is Digital
You want to book a train ticket?
main qimg 12274e6aec04e647cda0cf457561a63e
It’s Digital all the way into the Train Station and into the Coach. You walk to a machine and get your paper ticket by scanning the QR Code but even that’s becoming obsolete
Most Young Gen Z simply scan their QR Codes and enter directly bypassing the paper ticket
Movie Ticket?
QR Codes all the way
Taxi?
main qimg ea91a1c8afb9575dbd9a0a8b955f51bb
QR Codes all the way
Banking?
These guys have an App where you can literally issue Electronic Cheques with QR Code
If you pay in paper money, they glance at you in a strange manner. Every payment is Digital.
Doctors Office?
Again Digital.
Your Insurance Profile has a QR Code. Just Scan it and that’s all it takes.
Visitation – 90 Yuan
State Insurance – 52 Yuan
Employers Insurance – 38 Yuan
You pay – NOTHING
Just walk in meet the Doctor and come
The Doctor will use your QR Code to order medicines which you collect by scanning your QR Code
It’s like a Land of the Future literally
Even India is moving there and has more digital stuff than a US City today
I now asked a question – What if your Smartphone runs out of Charge? What is you lose your smartphone?
No Problems
They have Online Backup and using a username and password you can change your registered mobile number in exactly 60 seconds
Sadly India doesn’t have this facility and we struggle to get things corrected
The only small flaw I noticed was
MANY OF THEM STILL GO TO FOOT REFLEXOLOGISTS AND ACCUPUNTURISTS for Medical Health
Even People in their 40s prefer going to a Foot Reflexologist Or Accupunturist and getting their foot poked with sticks or needles as a cure for many ills
I am serious
Unlike India where most of these practitioners are regarded quacks, in China they are deemed eminently respectable and have huge crowds
There is some mind magic at work because many people actually claim it works wonderfully
The Guy who showed us homes said his mother had gallstones cured by foot reflexology. I hope to God the woman doesn’t think poking your feet can cure Gallstones
Nonetheless this is a part of Culture there and it’s the only blip I found in an otherwise futuristic city
BRICS to surpass G7 in share of global economic growth
Members of the BRICS group – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – are expected to outpace the US-led G7 in terms of their contribution to the world’s economic growth, from this year, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
According to the outlet’s calculations – based on the latest IMF data –the BRICS countries will contribute 32.1% of the world’s growth, compared to the G7’s 29.9%.
The Group of Seven nations (G7) – consisting of the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan – has long been considered the most advanced economic bloc of countries on the planet. Russia was a member, until 2014, when it was expelled due to the fallout from the Western-backed Maidan coup in Ukraine.
The report indicated that in 2020, the contributions from BRICS countries and the G7 to global economic growth were equal. Since then the performance of the Western-led bloc has been declining. By 2028, the G7’s contribution to the world economy is predicted to decrease to 27.8%, while the BRICS will account for 35%.
Bloomberg calculations show that China will be the top contributor to global growth over the next five years, with its share set to be double that of the US. China’s share of global GDP expansion is expected to represent 22.6% of total world growth by 2028, the outlet wrote. India is projected to contribute 12.9% of global GDP.
“In total, 75% of global growth is expected to be concentrated in 20 countries and over half in the top four: China, India, the US and Indonesia. While Group of Seven countries will comprise a smaller share, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and France are seen among the top 10 contributors,” the outlet wrote.
A recent study by a UK-based macroeconomics research firm has also found that the gap between the two groups in terms of global economic weight is expected to continue to grow. The analysts noted that China and India have been experiencing robust economic growth, and more countries are interested in joining BRICS.
Earlier this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that “more than a dozen” nations have expressed interest in joining BRICS, including Algeria, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Egypt, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Bangladesh have acquired equity in the New Development Bank, the funding organization of BRICS.
Last year, BRICS countries proposed the creation of their own currency in order to move away from the US dollar and the euro in mutual transactions.
HAL TURNER ANALYSIS
This fact – CREATION OF THEIR OWN CURRENCY – is the single greatest problem for the USA because it will render US “economic sanctions” utterly useless. Countries around the world won’t need to comply with US Sanctions because they will have another reliable currency to utilize in place of the dollar.
This is taking place because the US government has abused countries all over the world, for decades, with economic sanctions, and the world has grown tired of our meddling in their affairs.
As country after country changes from using the US dollar to using other currencies, all the “Dollars” presently held in foreign central banks, will come flooding back to America. This will cause the value of the US Dollar to plummet against foreign currencies.
As the value of the US Dollar plummets, it will cost more and more and more for Americans to buy goods; especially since the US does not manufacture many things anymore. The inflation that Americans will suffer will be reminiscent of the Weimar Republic.
All this, because our US government refuses to stop meddling in the affairs of other countries with economic sanctions. The rest of the world is now telling us to stick our Dollars where the sun doesn’t shine. In the end, it is AMERICANS who will suffer the most through hyper-inflation, which will literally break the country.
“The whole world hates America”- Turkey says and America using Europe as a pawn
Filipinos Told “Leave Taiwan” – Return to Philippines
Today I received an email from a Filipino source who has family working in Taiwan. The Philippines are telling anyone from that country working in Taiwan to “Leave Taiwan and return home immediately; war is developing.”
I also got a SECOND email today from another source who told me:
Hal,
I just got a message from a filipina who works overseas that all citizens of the Philippines who work in Taiwan are being called home.
She said it had something to do with the United States.
(NAME REDACTED TO PROTECT IDENTITY)
It appears that China is going to reunify Taiwan and may use force to do so. It also appears the US may try to interfere with that and war between the US and China may result.
.
Russia Launches at least SIX Akula Fast-Attack Subs into Pacific
Within the past 72 Hours, Russia sortied at least SIX (6) nuclear-powered “Akula” and other model fast-attack submarines into the Pacific Ocean. It is now believed they are enroute to the U.S. west coast.
The Russian Ministry of Defense even published an official video showing the vessels all leaving port at the same time:
Clearly visible are several Akula-class and even one ultra-modern YASEN-class ballistic missile submarines.
The YASEN-class are cruise missile subs that are designed to attack Carrier Battle Groups and can destroy hostile ballistic missile submarines, attack submarines, and ships. They can also be land-attack submarines.
To strike enemy Carriers, the YASEN’s carry the (3M55) “Onik” missiles with a range of 320 nautical miles or 592.64km. In their land-attack role, the submarines carry the (3M14K) “Kalibr” cruise missile with a range of 1600 nautical miles or 2963.2km.
Each YASEN has eight (8) (CM-346) complex (3p-14B) vertical launch tubes that can fire either Onik or Kalibr missiles, and can launch either surfaced or submerged.
The upgraded YASEN-M can also fire the hypersonic “Zircon” missile at either ships or land targets.
According to Michael Peterson of the Russia Maritime Studies Institute, for the first time in its history, Russia can now lay off the coasts of either Europe or even the United States, and present a persistent land-attack threat with very highly precise weapons.
This new ability concerns NATO leaders as a threat to physical infrastructure such as ports which would be critical during wartime.
A 2009 report by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) says the YASEN is “the quietist of Russian-made submarines.”
Moscow has “significantly modernized its submarine force in recent years,” with 11 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines and 17 nuclear-powered attack submarines. By this data count, Russia also has nine nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines and 21 diesel-electric attack submarines.
The fact that all these submarines are now in the Pacific Ocean and heading toward the US west coast OUGHT TO BE a signal to the US to knock off its interference in the Russia-Ukraine situation. Sadly, it appears no one in the US is listening or even looking for messages from Russia.
It seems the US will only acknowledge the cost of our meddling in Ukraine when bright, white, flashes start appearing over US cities from Russian submarines and ICBM’s.
BREAKING! The UNTHINKABLE is About to Happen: A 2023 Timeline of Nuclear War
Christmas holiday. Everyone in China is sick, and most are staying at home. I’m throwing up a very simple post today. Still getting better, over the Coronavirus. Please enjoy this post…
Today we are going to watch a bunch of online scammers (why are all of them out in India?) get “owned” by some hackers. You don’t need to watch all of them, but you will learn a lot from this post.
You will learn about organized smash and grabs in California, and Indian scammers getting “owned”.
Destroying SYSTEM32 on a Scammer’s Computer
Pay back time!
Car Thieves vs the Final GlitterBomb 5.0
Check out this FUN video! If there is a video that you should watch today, then this is it. The only difference, that I would advise is to use Cadaverine. This chemical smells like a rotting corpse.
Cadaverine is an organic compound with the formula (CH2)5(NH2)2. Classified as diamine, it is a colorless liquid with an unpleasant odor. It is present in small quantities in living organisms but is often associated with the putrefaction of animal tissue.
We turned this Scammer’s Webcam ON
https://youtu.be/juErRb4tArQ
Entire 𝙎𝘾𝘼𝙈𝙈𝙀𝙍 Call Center Panic dials Police
Scammer BEGS For His Deleted Files As I Drink His Tears
DESTROYING An ENTIRE Scam Call Center!
I Delete Thousands of This Scammers FILES and Share his Location
Beating Scammers at Their Own Game | Super Users
Pranks Destroy Scam Callers- GlitterBomb Payback
Scammer Boss Panics After His Team Gets Hacked
Hacker turns on Scammers Webcam
We told a 𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗢𝗦𝗦 we would find him…so we did
Today, this post will be one of my you-tube videos. I believe that it is critically important that everyone understand and appreciate what a Rufus is, and how it manifests. While I talk a lot about it, it means much more than heroic action. It means compassion and understanding, and to stand up for the little guy.
Many of the snippets are in Chinese, and the dialog is in Chinese, but you can guess what is going on and infer the dialog.
One is a daughter …
One is an employee…
One is a relative…
The dialog can get confusing in the translation. Translation is from the Wechat scan function, switched to translate into English.
x
A Rufus builds people up. They don’t tear them down.
x
A Rufus stands by the downtrodden and supports them.
x
A Rufus accepts people as they are.
The roles are not important.
What is important is whether these people are making the world a better place, or are they being selfish, demanding, uncaring and obstinate.
Watch for yourself.
Then, pay attention to the reactions of the innocent bystanders who overhear the discussion. Watch them leap into action as only a real Rufus would…
This post is by request. Actually, multiple requests by a singular individual. It’s a big and important issue with him.
Why this fixation? I guess it resonates living in SE Asia.
And so when he reads these “reports” he views the reports from the lens of his own personal experience, and that makes him concerned. Any good Rufus would (of course) be enraged.
And he, I am sure, is no exception.
"Estimates vary on the number of children who go missing in China every year. Some put the number at 70,000, others say it’s closer to 200,000. Regardless, most studies agree that only a very small number — perhaps as few as 0.1% — are ever found and reunited with their families.The country’s family planning policies and an emphasis on “continuing the family line” (and therefore the need to have children, even sometimes if they’re not actually your own) are among the root causes for such statistics, but they’re compounded by the lack of a proper system for tracking down missing children and returning them to their original families — despite China’s ever-increasing surveillance over its citizens.“In the United States, there are ‘amber alerts’ to find missing children, but China still does not have this type of system,” says Beijing-based entrepreneur Cheng Xian. “The Ministry of Public Security is actively building a ‘reunion’ system that belongs to China, but this involves a very long data accumulation process.”"
-Radiichina
Who is this group? It was set up by a Californian entrepreneur. He grew up in Palo Alto, California. He lives and operates this NGO inside of California, USA.
RADII was founded by Brian A. Wong, former Vice President of Alibaba.
Brian A. Wong is Founder and Chairman of RADII. He is a Chinese-American entrepreneur and his career has spanned decades, industries, and continents. But a desire to understand China kept him coming back.
Brian wanted to create a platform that empowers the next generation to share their own stories to bridge cultural understanding between the East and West and to provide a window into the transformations shaping one of the world’s most dynamic places on earth.
Prior to creating RADII, Brian joined Alibaba when it was an apartment start-up as its 52nd employee.
Brian is a China Fellow with the Aspen Institute, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a member of the Committee of 100.
Growing up in Palo Alto, he is proud to say he also served as a technical advisor to HBO’s TV series Silicon Valley.
How is this group funded? Ah. It’s an NGO with income from various Davis associations, all who obtain massive subsidies from the United States government.
How is their information disseminated? Well, look at the “bubble cloud” from their website…
2022 06 07 13 49
Every single one of them have an Anti-China slant to their reports. It’s an overwhelming negative slant.
The MM full report and article is here. It is found on my MM you-tube channel. Personally, you cannot have a “totalitarian police state” and “missing children” simultaneously. The two are totally incompatible.
The Ukraine invasion has set forth a domino effect; a chain of events that is reshaping the globe. And it is all to plan. It’s a plan made by China, Russia, India and Iran.
The (so called) petro-dollar; the USD is starting to fall apart, and with it, the economies of those that have been propped up by this fiat “currency”.
Whether or not Russia is “losing” or “winning” in the Ukraine is of no concern.
What is of concern, and what is actually happening is that a new world order has arisen from the ashes of the old. It’s an East and a West. And the West is collapsing in real time, while the East is rising.
Here, in this article we will cover a section of topics that cover these events in chunks. Not comprehensive, but enough to give you all an idea of what is actually going on.
Key Points
As you read this article, you need to keep in mind a few key points…
The world is undergoing a geopolitical realignment.
This alignment is dividing into two separate entities (East and West).
The two sides have a very different view of how the world should be.
The West is trying to maintain a uni-polar single world government ruled by the United States.
The East is trying to maintain a multi-polar world of equals of various unique social structures.
Key to this manifestation is the control of the currency of exchange.
The West is trying to maintain the USD, or an electronic version of it.
The East is trying to use commodity-based currency by labor, materials and products.
Issues about Ukraine or Taiwan are simply the desperate plans of the West in a plan to maintain a uni-polar world.
Do not get sidetracked from what is REALLY going on.
The technical definition of money is “something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment.”
For most people this has always meant the legal tender of their homeland.
Until fairly recently, this was a coin with the face of the king on it.
Thus, the better the reputation of the king, the more valuable his coin, because traders were more likely to accept it. A good king made sure his coins had a consistent amount of gold or silver in it.
The reason for that is precious metals like gold and silver were always the world’s reserve currency.
Everyone in the world would accept gold and silver for payment, even in places that restricted the use of the metals. You could always take the metal to the king’s mint and exchange it for his coins.
Granted, he took a fee for himself and you were charged the cost of minting the coins, but that was predictable.
In the end, all currency was measured in gold and silver.
…
But, we no longer use gold coin for money.
Every country in the world uses what the economist call fiat currency.
This is a government-issued currency that is not backed by a physical commodity, such as gold or silver.
Instead, it is backed by the “full faith and credit” of the issuing government.
That dollar = faith in the government issuing the paper.
Money is now an expression of the government power behind it.
The US dollar is the reserve currency of the world largely due to the fact the American government was the most trusted.
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Hard money enthusiasts assume this means the United States can print as much money as it needs, but this is not exactly true.
The international monetary system that evolved after the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in the 1970’s is a framework that controls the exchange rate of the major currencies.
Every major currency is based on the dollar, just as oil and gas are priced in dollars.
The petrodollar was created in the 1970’s when the Bretton Woods system collapsed.
The dollar was replaced by the Petro-dollar.
What the current system does, in effect, is link currencies to the supply of crude oil through the dollar.
How much oil you can buy with your home currency is dependent upon how many dollars you can buy with it.
It is not a direct link, as oil production rises and falls and the supply of dollars rises and falls, relative to other major currencies like the Euro or Chinese Yuan.
In effect, America controls the world by controlling the price of commodities like crude oil and natural gas.
American dollar = global use of oil and gas commodities.
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In the old days, minting coins was a profit center for the king.
A strong king would restrict the use of other coins in his domain.
His people had to take their foreign coins, gold and silver to his mint for conversion to his coin.
In addition to the cost of production, he tacked on a profit for himself. This is called seigniorage and it works the same for fiat money as it does hard money.
This profit from controlling the global currency is one way the United States has grown so rich.
The USA uses this petro-dollar as a mechanism to make debt.
One of the consequences of this system is the world has an insatiable appetite for US government debt.
Because it is denominated in dollars and considered the safest of financial bets, it makes the ideal collateral.
This has allowed the United States and other Western countries to run massive trade and spending deficits.
The world wants the debt and the world wants to sell the West their products.
US debt was 30% of GDP in 1980 and now it is 127% of GDP.
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This is the subtext of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Russia and China, especially China, are tired of this arrangement.
They correctly see it as to the advantage of Washington at their expense.
This is (partially) why China is backing Russia’s play to demand rubles for its energy and agricultural products.
This would pave the way for China demanding yuan for its products and the right to pay for energy in yuan.
India is also quietly supporting what the Russians are doing for the same reasons.
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This is (partially) why Washington is in no mood to strike a deal over Ukraine.
It is not the only reason, but it is a big part of the plan to protect the dollar.
It is believed that if Washington can break the Putin government through financial war, China and India will drop their plans to buck the dollar in the global economy.
A century after the Great War, the new global war is being mainly fought in finance.
The West, led by America, is now at war with the world over control of the global currency system.
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It is probably a war that the West cannot win.
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The reason is the same reason the king would put his face on his coins.
Money is the physical expression of power.
The strong king could enforce his monetary policy in his domain and his money had a predictable amount of gold and silver.
In effect, his money was the representation of his people and the cultural that defined them.
The legal tender of a country is the measure of that country’s wealth and power relative to the world.
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The West no longer makes or invents anything useful.
The power of the West is the legacy power to control the financial system.
It is a system arranged by Mercurian people in order to control the Apollonians.
The former are the people who operate as middlemen and service providers, while the latter are the people who grow the food, make the goods and keep the gears properly lubricated.
The former operates in the West, while the latter exist in the East.
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Reality is the thing that does not go away when you stop believing in it.
And reality says that growing and making things counts for more than thinking about things.
The reason Washington has not crushed the Russian economy is the world needs the stuff Russia pulled out of the earth.
In this economic war of attrition, Russian can feed itself and keep its homes warm, while Europe will have to hope America can provide the food and energy at a reasonable fee.
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The most likely outcome of this global conflict is something people have suspected for quite some time.
The global currency will become a basket of commodities like natural gas and crude oil.
Maybe agricultural products will be in the mix.
The reason for this is the world runs on energy and food.
Bretton Woods III, as some are calling it, will be a new set of currency arrangements whereby money is based on its purchasing power for the agreed upon basket of products.
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What this means in the short run is that the West is about to get poorer as governments are forced to cut spending and debase the currency to get out from under domestic debt obligations like pension payments.
It also means the end of globalism as has been defined by Washington for three decades.
Trade will continue, but between countries rather than independent global enterprises.
Thirty years after the Cold War the world is about to start healing and return to something close to normal.
The Emotions “Don’t Ask my Neighbor”
Yeah. By mixing up topics such as food, hobbies, movies and pretty girls in my articles I have completely ZEROED out all the trolls, ‘bots and DDos attacks. Man, I’m telling you. It friggin’ works!
About this song…
Throughout my Senior year in High School I fell in love with soul and funk. I added it alongside my love of hard rock, and it greatly shaped my absorption of the culture of the 1970s at that time.
One of my favorites (in regards to soul) at that time was this group that has passed into obscurity known as “The Emotions”. It’s a trio of three attractive ladies with real heart.
Here’s one of their classic songs.
What is a “Blue Blood”?
This term has come to define the ruling oligarchy that operate the United States from behind the veil. But from whence did this term originate?
The blue bloods... arises from eating from a silver spoon and drinking from a silver cup. Silver accumulates in the system and turns the skin blue. Literally. No doubt the blue blood class have moved to gold these days for their eating utensils though the Americans seem to like their grow light suntans.
Ukrainians to use American weapons, and American tactics.
It’s a core principle behind the RAND operational study.
"Since the US-engineered 2013-14 coup in Ukraine, American forces have taught Ukrainians, including neo-Nazi units, how to fight in urban and other civilian areas. Weaponizing Ukraine is part of Washington’s quest for what the Pentagon calls “full spectrum dominance.”
Chinese scientists at the Xian Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics have developed a fully functioning prototype of the “ZKZM-500 laser assault rifle.”
The 15mm caliber weapon is being compared to an AK-47 because of its similar 6.6-lb weight, but it’s firepower capabilities sound like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.
According to researchers who wish to remain anonymous, the ZKZM-500 fires an energy beam undetectable to the human eye that can pass through glass and cause the “instant carbonization” of human flesh from half a mile away.
“The pain will be beyond endurance,” one researcher said. “[It can] burn through clothes in a split second. If the fabric is flammable, the whole person will be set on fire”.
“Nobody will know where the attack came from,” another anonymous researcher added. “It will look like an accident.”
2022 04 05 08 25
Each will cost $15,000 to manufacture at large-scale production and can fire 1,000 “shots” on a single charge from a lithium ion battery.
In the event of a hostage situation it could be used to fire through windows at targets and temporarily disable the kidnappers while other units move in to rescue their captives.It could also be used in covert military operations. The beam is powerful enough to burn through a gas tank and ignite the fuel storage facility in a military airport.The lasers cannot kill a target with a single shot, but if fired at a person for long enough the weapons would start to burn a hole in their body, cutting through them like a surgical knife.
Anti-terrorism squads in the Chinese Armed Police will likely be the first to test these laser guns in the field.
Frank Black – Headache
This is from sometime in the 1990s. I love it because the video is done in retro 1940s theme and the subject matter was meaningful to me back then. In those days, I worked in cubicle farms as engineering drones.
Do you remember this one?
Americans should budget an extra $5,200 this year to cover rising prices, Bloomberg economists estimate
“Americans haven’t had to worry too much about factoring inflation into their budget for the past four decades. That’s changing in 2022.
The red-hot inflation expected to last throughout the year will leave the average US household spending $5,200 more compared to the year prior, Bloomberg economists Andrew Husby and Anna Wong said in a Tuesday article. That boils down to an extra $433 per month on the same goods and services as last year.”
The S.O.S. Band | Just Be Good To Me (1983) | Extended HQ version
Another of the songs that was big right after I joined MAJestic and was set loose on the world on my own. Actually, this song was very big in the dance club scene at that time. Not so much on the music charts then, but in the clubs, well yeah.
And this singer. Well, wow! So hot! Look at her smile. Her moves. Her hair. She’s so, so chocolate fudge on waffle topped with whipped creame. And brandy. In a glass with ice. Big cubes, not little ones.
She’s such a treat.
Events Like These Only Happen Once Every Century (Sergey Glazyev)
“Events like these only happen once every century”: Sergei Glazyev on the breaking of an epoch and the change of ways.
Is it possible to stabilize the ruble in three days? And why are the Ukrainian ‘zombies’ not giving up?
“After failing to weaken the People’s Republic of China head-on through a trade war, the Americans shifted the main blow to Russia, which they see as a weak link in world geopolitics and economics.
The Anglo-Saxons are striving to realize their age-old Russophobic ideas of destroying our country, and at the same time weakening China, because the strategic alliance of the Russian Federation and China is too tough for the United States.
They have neither the economic nor military power to destroy us together, and not separately,”
- Sergey Glazyev, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, former adviser to the President of the Russian Federation.
About what opportunities are now opening up for the Russian economy, whether the Central Bank panders to the enemy and whether a new world currency will replace the dollar, Glazyev spoke in an interview with BUSINESS Online.
The new world economic order is socialist in ideology
“The new world economic order is socialist in ideology”
– Sergey Yuryevich, commenting on today’s tragic events.
Q: Sergey wrote in your Telegram channel that we should have read your book about the “last world war”, written about 6 years ago. How did you manage to predict everything so accurately?
A:The fact is that there are long-term patterns of economic development, the analysis and understanding of which makes it possible to predict the events that are taking place at the present time.
We are now experiencing a simultaneous change in the technological and world economic structures, while the technological basis of the economy is changing, there is a transition to fundamentally new technologies, and the management system is also changing.
Events like this happen about once a century.
However, technological structures change about once every 50 years, and their change is usually accompanied by a technological revolution, depression and an arms race.
And world economic structures change once every 100 years, and their change is accompanied by world wars and social revolutions.
This is due to the fact that the ruling elite of the countries of the core of the old world economic order impedes changes, does not take into account the emergence of more effective management systems, tries to block the development of new world leaders using them, and tries to maintain its hegemony and its monopoly position by any means, including military and revolutionary ones.
Say, 100 years ago, the British Empire was trying to maintain its hegemony in the world.
When it was already losing economically to the combined resources of the Russian Empire and Germany, the First World War, provoked by British intelligence, was unleashed, during which all three European empires self-liquidated.
I am talking about the collapse of tsarist Russia, the German and Austro-Hungarian empires, but here we can even put a fourth – the Ottoman Port.
As for Britain, for some time it retained global dominance and even became the largest empire on the planet. But due to the inexorable laws of socio-economic development, the colonial world economic structure, based in fact on slave labor, could no longer ensure economic growth.
The two fundamentally new political models that emerged – the Soviet and the American ones – demonstrated a much greater efficiency of production.
This is since they were already organized on other principles: not on private family capitalism.
They were organized on the strength of large transnational corporations with centralized structures for regulating the economy and with limitless monetary emission of credit through fiat money (paper or electronic means – ed. note).
They enabled the mass production of products much more efficiently than the administrative systems of the colonial empires of the XIX century.
The emergence of social states in the USSR and the USA with centralized control systems made it possible for a sharp jump in their economic development.
In Europe, the corporate governance system was formed, unfortunately, according to the Nazi model in Germany, and also not without the help of British intelligence.
Hitler, relying on the support of the British intelligence services and American capital, quite quickly deployed a centralized corporate management system in Germany, which allowed the Third Reich to very quickly capture the whole of Europe.
With God’s help, we defeated this German (more precisely, European – taking into account today’s realities) fascism.
After that, two models remained in the world.
Which I attribute to the imperial world economic structure: Soviet and Western (with the center in the USA).
Soviet model
Western model
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, (which could not withstand global competition due to the fact that the directive system of government was not flexible enough to meet the needs of technological progress), the United States seized global dominance for a while.
Better-Than-Ever Meatloaf
American meatloaf.
Meatloaf is an American favorite, right up there with Mom’s freshly baked apple pie. And while we know that everyone has a favorite way they like to make their meatloaf, we think our Better-than-Ever Meatloaf is sure worth a try.
What You’ll Need
2 pounds ground beef
1 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs
2 eggs
3/4 cup water
2/3 cup ketchup, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
What to Do
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a large baking pan with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except 1/3 cup ketchup; mix well.
Place mixture into prepared baking pan and shape into a loaf. Spread remaining 1/3 cup ketchup over top.
Bake 1 hour or until done.
Notes
If you want to cook this in the microwave, simply combine the ingredients as above, then place the mixture in a 2-quart oblong microwaveable baking dish and shape into a loaf. Microwave, uncovered, on High (full power), turning the dish occasionally, for 25 minutes or until done. Remove from the baking dish and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes before serving.
Want to try a lighter version of this meatloaf recipe? You can use very lean ground turkey or chicken instead of ground beef!
The end of the unipolar moment
Q:But now this period of “American unipolar loneliness” is already ending, and, probably, not only thanks to Russia, but primarily to China and the Asian regions as such. Is it not?
A:Indeed, the hierarchical vertical structures characteristic of the imperial world economy turned out to be too rigid to ensure continuous innovation processes.
They lost their comparative effectiveness in ensuring the growth of the world economy.
On its periphery, a new world economic order has been formed.
It was one, which is based on flexible management models.
As well as a network organization of production, where the state works as an integrator, uniting the interests of various social groups around achieving one goal – raising the public welfare.
The most impressive example of such an integral world economic structure today is China, which for more than 30 years has outpaced the growth rate of the American economy by three times.
At the moment, China is already surpassing the United States in terms of [1] output, [2] exports of high-tech goods, and [3] growth rates.
Another example of a model of a new world economic order, which we called integral (due to the fact that the state in it unites all social groups of different interests), is India.
It has a different political system, but it also has the primacy of public interests over private ones, and the state seeks to maximize growth rates in order to fight poverty.
In this sense, the new world economic order is socialist in ideology.
At the same time, it uses market mechanisms of competition, which makes it possible to provide the highest concentration of resources for making a technological revolution with goals to ensure economic leaps based on a new advanced technological order.
If we look at growth rates after 1995, we see that the Chinese economy has grown 10 times, while the US economy has grown by only 15 percent.
Thus, it is already obvious to everyone that at present the pace of world economic development is shifting to Asia: China, India and the countries of Southeast Asia already produce more products than the US and the EU.
If we add to them Japan or Korea, in which the management system is similar in its principles to the integration of society around the goal of increasing public welfare.
Then we can say that today this new world economic structure already dominates the world, and the center of reproduction of the world economy has moved to Southeast Asia.
Of course, the American ruling elite cannot agree with this.
Q:To come to terms with it, I would say…
A:Yes. They, like the British Empire once, seek to maintain their hegemony in the world.
The events taking place today are a manifestation of how the US financial and powerful oligarchic elite are trying to maintain world domination.
It can be said that for the past 15 years it has been waging a world hybrid war, seeking to chaoticize countries beyond its control and restrain the development of the People’s Republic of China.
But due to the already archaic system of governance, they cannot do this.
The financial crisis of 2008 was such a transitional moment when the life cycle of the outgoing technological order actually ended.
And the process of massive redistribution of capital into a new technological order began.
The core of which is a complex of nanobioengineering and information communication technologies.
All countries began to pump up their economies with money.
The simplest thing a modern government can do is to give all businesses access to cheap long-term money so they can adopt new technologies.
But, in America and Europe such funds went mainly into financial bubbles and covered the budget deficit.
While, in China this colossal money emission was completely directed to the growth of production and the development of new technologies.
There were no Chinese financial bubbles.
And the ultra-high monetization of the Chinese economy did not result in inflation either.
Instead, the growth of the money supply was accompanied by [1] an increase in the production of goods, [2] the introduction of new advanced technologies and [3] an increase in public welfare.
Today, economic competition has already led to the fact that the United States has lost its leadership.
If you remember, Donald Trump tried to contain the development of China through a trade war, but nothing came out of it.
Man-Eating Sex Queen of Great Neck, New York, Dorothea Matthews
201 Clent Rd Great Neck NY
This English Tudor house, located at 201 Clent Road, Great Neck, New York, may not look like much of a love nest. But in 1948, its chief female resident, Mrs. Dorothea Matthews turned this house into something approaching the Playboy Mansion, East. It wasn’t until Mrs. Matthews’ divorce proceedings from her husband Mark Matthews in 1948 that we began to see that wanton sexual escapades did not begin in the groovy Sixties. According to court documents, Mrs. Matthews racked up a large number of sexual partners.
Mrs. Dorothea Matthews 1948
As a slim, shapely 28 year-old woman with plenty of time on her hands, Dorothea had many sexual options beyond her husband Mark, and she took advantage of so many of them. Mrs. Matthews was a very forthright individual; or, to put it in the words of the New York Daily News , she was “socially minded.” Mrs. Matthews managed to bed down a good number of men and women in Great Neck, Upstate New York, trains in transit to Florida, Manhattan, and probably lots of other places.
Mrs. Dorothea Matthews January 7 1950
Yet her taste in sexual partners was not indiscriminate. A doctor, art historian, student, actor, secretary, and her husband, who was a Ping-Pong champion and owned a messenger service, filled her sexual roster, and those are only the ones we know about. And of course, a murderer would be one of her conquests.
All in all, I would say that she lived a FULL life.
“The Americans have opened a biological front of war by launching the coronavirus in China”
Q:Why? Did Trump, accustomed to taking risks and going all-in, lack the determination?
A: And even Trump (of all people) couldn’t get (the United States) out (of it’s situation), because China has a more efficient management system that allows you to concentrate the available production resources to the fullest.
At the same time, effective money management keeps money emission in the contour of expanded reproduction of the real sector of the economy, focusing on financing investments in development.
China has the highest savings rate of any country, with about 45 percent of GDP invested, compared with 20 percent in the United States or Russia. This, in fact, ensures the ultra-high growth rates of the Chinese economy.
In short, the US was doomed to lose this trade war because China could produce more efficiently and finance development cheaper.
The entire banking system in China is state-owned, it works as a single development institution, directing cash flows to expand production and master new technologies.
In the United States, the emission of money goes to finance the budget deficit and is redistributed into financial bubbles.
As a result, the efficiency of the US financial and economic system is 20 percent – there only every fifth dollar reaches the real sector, and in China almost 90 percent (that is, almost all the yuan that is created by the Central Bank of the PRC) feeds the contours of the expansion of production and ensures ultra-high economic growth.
Trump’s attempts to limit China’s development through trade war methods have failed.
At the same time, they boomeranged at the United States itself.
Then the Americans opened a biological war front by launching the coronavirus in China, hoping that the Chinese leadership would not cope with this epidemic and chaos would arise in China.
However, the epidemic has demonstrated the low efficiency of healthcare and has created chaos in the United States itself.
The Chinese system of government has shown much greater efficiency here as well.
In the Celestial Empire, the mortality rate is significantly lower, and the pandemic was dealt with much faster there.
Already in 2020, they even reached economic growth of 2 percent, while in the United States there was a decline of 10 percent of GDP (analysts noted the largest drop since the Second World War – ed. note).
Now the Chinese have restored the growth rate of about 7 percent per year, and there is no doubt that the PRC will continue to develop confidently, expanding the production of a new technological order.
In parallel with the trade war against China, American intelligence services were preparing a war against Russia.
This was because the Anglo-Saxon geopolitical tradition considers our country the main obstacle to establishing world domination of the US and British power and financial elite.
It must be said that the war against the Russian Federation unfolded immediately after the annexation of Crimea and after the American special services organized a coup d’état in Ukraine.
It can be said that they tricked Russia into agreeing to the American occupation of Ukraine, considering it as a temporary phenomenon.
However, the Americans took root on ‘Ukrainian Independence’, created not only [1] strongholds, growing Nazis under their wing, but also [2] trained the Nazi armed forces.
This gave the Nazis the opportunity to receive a military education, trained them in their academies, ‘sewed together’ all the Armed Forces of Ukraine with them.
And for 8 years they have been preparing the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the fight against the only enemy – Russia.
While the mass media, which in Ukraine are also completely controlled by the Americans, formed the image of the enemy in the public mind.
In addition, the United States used the monetary and financial front of the hybrid war against the Russian Federation.
Already in 2014, they introduced the first financial sanctions and knocked out a significant part of Western loans from the Russian economy.
Now we are witnessing the next phase, when they have actually disconnected Russia from the world monetary and financial system, which they dominate.
However, I predicted all this 10 years ago.
I did so based on the theory of changing world economic structures and the specific logic of the US ruling elite.
A logic which was focused on world domination.
Anglo-Saxon geopolitics is traditionally oriented against the Russian Empire and its successors, the USSR and the Russian Federation.
This is because, since the days of the British Empire, Russia has been seen as the main opponent of the Anglo-Saxons.
All the so-called geopolitical science that was being written in London came down, in fact, to a set of recommendations on how to destroy Russia as the dominant force in Eurasia. I mean all sorts of speculative constructions like “countries of the sea against countries of the land” and so on.
Q: How did Russia get in the way of the ‘sea countries’ that much? After all, geographically with the UK, we have never bordered.
A: In this regard, a formula was invented: whoever controls Eurasia controls the whole world.
Actually, applied developments have already gone further.
Zbigniew Brzezinski’s theorem is known that in order to defeat Russia as a superpower, Ukraine must be torn off from it.
All this political dogma, which, it would seem, has long gone down in history, is nevertheless reproduced today in the thinking of the American political elite.
I must say that there are still courses in geopolitics of the past 19th century at Harvard and Yale University, sharpening the brains of future American politicians against Russia.
So they, in fact, jumped on this old and time-tested Russophobic stream, which has always been characteristic of Anglo-Saxon geopolitics.
And, considering Russia as the main opponent of their dominance in the world, in accordance with the proposal of Brzezinski.
Thus, they used Ukraine as an outpost, more precisely, as a tool to undermine Russia, weaken it and, in the long run, destroy it as a sovereign state.
So, what is happening today was easily predicted based on a combination of long-term patterns of economic development.
This, actually doomed the world to a hybrid war, and the traditional Russophobia of the Anglo-Saxon political elite.
After the weakening of the PRC did not work out through a trade war, the Americans transferred the main blow of their military and political power to Russia.
It was a logical step as they consider to be a weak link in world geopolitics and economics.
In addition, the Anglo-Saxons seek to establish dominance over Russia in order to realize their age-old Russophobic ideas of destroying our country, and at the same time weakening China, because the strategic alliance of the Russian Federation and China is too tough for the United States.
They have neither the economic nor the military power to destroy us together, neither separately, which is why the United States initially sought to quarrel us with China.
That didn’t work for them.
But they, using our, I would say, placidity, and seized control over Ukraine.
And thus today they are using our fraternal republic as a weapon of war to destroy Russia, and then to seize control of our resources in order.
I repeat, to strengthen their position and weaken China’s position.
In general, this is all obvious, like two plus two equals four.
Q: “The Americans will not be able to win, just as the British did not succeed in their time”
A: Probably, this is obvious, but not for everyone. Among the Russian elite there are many opponents of an alliance with China. At least, before the special operation in Ukraine, it seemed to these people that American and Western culture is more understandable and closer to us than hieroglyphic Chinese wisdom, and that we will always find a common language with our “Western partners”.
You know, back in 2015 I wrote the book “The Last World War. The USA is Starting and Losing”, which you mentioned at the beginning of the conversation everything was thought out and justified there.
The United States embarked on a worldwide hybrid war.
It started with the Orange Revolutions to disrupt regions of the world it did not control.
It did this in order to strengthen its position and weaken the position of geopolitical rivals.
After the famous Munich speech of President Putin (February 2007 – ed. Note), they realized that they had lost control over Yeltsin’s Russia, and this seriously worried them.
In 2008, the financial crisis broke out and it became clear that the transition to a new technological order was beginning.
And with this, the old world economic order and the previous management system no longer ensured sustainable economic development.
China was now leading the way.
Well, then afterwards the logic of deploying of a world war happens, only not in the forms that existed 100 years ago, but on three conditional fronts…
monetary-financial (where the United States still dominates the world),
trade-economic (where they have already lost superiority to China) and
information-cognitive (where the Americans also have technologies that are superior to ours).
They use all three of these fronts in an attempt to keep the initiative and maintain the hegemony of their corporations.
Well and finally, the fourth front is the biological one, which opened with the advent of the coronavirus from the US-Chinese laboratory in Wuhan.
Today we see that a whole network of biological laboratories existed in Ukraine.
So the United States has long been preparing to open the biological front of the world war.
The fifth, and most obvious, front is, in fact, the front of combat fighting – as the last tool for forcing the states that they control into unquestioning obedience.
Today, the situation on this front is also escalating.
That is, active operations are underway on all five fronts of the world hybrid war, and the result can be predicted.
The Americans will not be able to win, just as the British did not succeed in their time.
Although Britain formally won World War II, they lost politically and economically.
The British lost their entire empire, losing more than 90 percent of the territory and 95 percent of the population.
Two years after World War II, where they were the winners, their empire collapsed like a house of cards, because the other two winners – the USSR and the USA – did not need this empire and viewed it as an anachronism.
Now today, the world will not need American transnational corporations.
They will not need the American dollar.
They will not need the American monetary and financial technologies and financial pyramids.
All this will be a thing of the past in the near future.
Southeast Asia will become the obvious leader in world economic development, and a new world economic order will be formed before our very eyes.
Q:To paraphrase [Erich] Remarque, we can say that changes have finally come on the western front. But what signs do you see of this powerful global system soon becoming a thing of the past?
A: After the Americans seized first [1] the Venezuelan foreign exchange reserves and handed them over to the opposition, then [2] the Afghan foreign exchange reserves, before that [3] the Iranian ones, and now [4] the Russian ones, it became completely clear that the dollar ceased to be the world currency.
Following the Americans, the Europeans also committed this stupidity – the euro and the pound ceased to be world currencies.
Therefore, the old monetary and financial system is living its last days.
After American dollars that no one needs are sent back to America from Asian countries, the collapse of the world monetary and financial system based on dollars and euros is inevitable.
Leading countries are switching to national currencies, and the euro and the dollar are ceasing to be foreign exchange reserves.
Q:How do you see the world after the disappearance of the dollar monopoly?
A: We are currently working on a project for an international treaty on the introduction of a new world settlement currency.
It will be pegged to the national currencies of the participating countries and to exchange commodities that determine real values.
We won’t need American and European banks.
A new payment system based on modern digital technologies with blockchain is developing in the world, where banks lose their importance.
Classical capitalism based on private banks is fading away.
International law is being restored.
All key international relations, including the issuance of world currency circulation, begin to form on the basis of agreements.
At the same time, the significance of national sovereignty is being restored, because sovereign countries are coming to an agreement.
The basis of global economic cooperation is joint investment in order to improve the well-being of peoples.
Trade liberalization ceases to be some kind of priority, national priorities are respected, each state builds such a system for protecting the internal market and its economic space that it considers necessary.
That is, the era of liberal globalization is over.
Before our eyes, a new world economic structure is being formed – an integral one, in which some states and private banks lose their private monopoly on the issue of money, on the use of military force, and so on.
Pretty Chinese girl
I just cannot let a post go without a pretty Chinese girl, don’t you know. video 4MB
Sergei Lavrov: Russian FM hails China as part of emerging ‘just world order’ – The Economic Times
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrovon Wednesday said Moscow and Beijing are leading the way towards a fairer world order, as he makes his first visit to the key ally since Russialaunched its invasion of Ukraine last month.
“The third scenario is catastrophic. Destruction of mankind”
Q: Why did you call your book “The Last World War”? What feeds your hope that this global war is really the last one?
A: I called this world war the last one, because we see that there are several scenarios of movement out of today’s crisis.
The first scenario, which I have already talked about, is calm and prosperous.
It consists in overcoming the US monopoly.
In order to do this in the financial sector, you need to abandon the dollar.
In order to overcome the monopoly in the information and cognitive sphere, it is necessary to isolate our information space from the American one and switch to our own information technologies.
Creating their own contours of the reproduction of the economy, but without the US dollar and the euro and relying on their information technologies for managing money, the countries of the new world economic order ensure high rates of economic development.
They do this while the Western world is collapsing.
There they have a situation of collapse of financial pyramids, disorganization and a growing economic crisis, aggravated by growing inflation due to the uncontrolled issue of money over the past 12 years.
The second scenario of a possible development of events is similar to the one that Hitler wanted to realize during the period of the change of previous world economic structures.
This is an attempt to create a world government with a superhuman ideology.
If Hitler conceived the German nation as superhumans, then the current ideologists of world domination impose on humanity the transition to a post-humanoid state.
In contrast to the post-humanism of the West, the core countries of the new world economic order are characterized by a socialist ideology.
This means respect for private interests, protection of private property and the use of market mechanisms.
In China, India, Japan, and Korea, socialist ideology dominates.
Or rather, a mixture of socialist ideology, national interests, and market competition.
It is this mixture that forms a fundamentally new power-political elite, focused on economic development and the growth of the well-being of nations.
It is very different for Western politicians, intellectuals and businessmen.
What we see today in the West is an attempt to form a certain image of a new world order with a world government at the head.
And, where people are driven into an electronic concentration camp.
You can see by the example of restrictions during the pandemic how it happened: all people are given tags, access to public goods is regulated through QR codes, everyone is forced to walk in formation.
By the way, in the scenario of the Rockefeller Foundation back in 2009, the pandemic and, in fact, everything that happened in connection with it, was amazingly sorted into pieces – they actually predicted the future.
This scenario was called Lock Step, that is, “Walk in formation”, and the Western world followed it.
Sacrificing their own democratic values, they try to force people to obey commands.
International organizations, including the World Health Organization, are used as a kind of stronghold for assembling a world government that would be subordinate to private capital.
But, I must say, Donald Trump greatly interfered with these plans.
This is because he stopped the signing of agreements on Transatlantic and Trans-Pacific partnerships.
In those partnerships, where all countries participating in the agreements sacrificed national sovereignty in all disputes with big business.
And you need to understand that today any transnational corporation can act as a foreign investor, including in the United States.
According to these agreements, if there is foreign capital in the business, then in a dispute with the national government, some kind of international arbitration court is formed, it is not clear how and by whom it was drawn up.
And these unelected judges, appointed, in fact, by big international business, these disputes are resolved.
In fact, it was about the fact that the state was losing all sovereignty in regulating relations with big business.
However, Trump stopped the agreement – the United States never signed it.
Thus, the process of forming a world government was stopped.
This is the second alternative, and it is now in crisis due to the collapse of the idea of globalization and the gradual abandonment of ‘pandemic’ restrictions.
It must be understood that the option of a world government is incompatible with sovereign Russia, with our independence and role in the world.
Within the framework of the globalist scenario, the Russian Federation is viewed as a territory that is intended for exploitation by Western transnational corporations.
The “indigenous population” must serve their interests.
Under such a scenario, Russia disappears as an independent entity, just like China, by the way.
The Western world government may incorporate some of our oligarchs into its version of the future, but only in second and third-rate roles.
Another pretty Chinese Girl
They are everywhere in China, don’t you know. video 2MB
The third scenario is catastrophic. The destruction of humanity…
Q:That same apocalypse which everybody talks about?
A:Well, not everyone… But everyone, of course, is afraid.
By the way, about the American biological laboratories that are engaged in the synthesis of dangerous viruses, it was mentioned in my other book, which was published a little later: “Plague of the XXI century: how to avoid disaster and overcome the crisis?”
I remember back in 1996, when I had to work in the UN Security Council, I proposed to develop the concept of national biological security.
Because even then, almost 30 years ago, genetics was a sufficiently developed science to synthesize viruses directed against people of a certain race or a certain gender, a certain age.
This has been possible for a long time.
It is possible to make a virus that will only work against whites, or vice versa, only against blacks, only against men, or only against women.
Now the Americans are going further – you see that, data which agrees with our Ministry of Defense, they announced the day before, that American biological laboratories were developing viruses targeted against the Slavs.
Apparently, it is possible today – to make a virus against some ethnic group that has its own genetic code.
What is happening in Ukraine today is an echo of the agony of the US power elite, which cannot come to terms with the fact that they will no longer be a world leader.
This becomes clear to everyone – at least to those who are not connected with the Americans by their own interests and are not subject to their cognitive influence.
I’ll give you an example.
When the US imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014, I asked my Chinese colleagues: “Do you think the Americans can impose sanctions with regards to China?”
They were certain that they can’t.
They said that it was impossible, because the US depends on China just as strongly as China depends on the US.
That is, America will be more expensive for itself.
Two years had passed, and Trump launched a trade war against China.
And Beijing now understood that America is an enemy that will drown the Chinese economic miracle by any and all means.
Prior to this, my reasonings with my Chinese colleagues were not very convincing, just as, however, my book you mentioned did not greatly influence our political and economic elite.
My arguments were dismissed.
Although we have been saying for many, many years that the dollar should be refused.
Foreign exchange reserves should have been removed from dollar instruments, from the euros-to-gold.
It is necessary to switch to ones own monetary and financial systems.
Nations should have developed our own settlements in national currencies with partners.
We have been offering all this since the 2000s, when it was already clear what the world economic development was leading to. And now, finally, everyone has seen the light.
Another Pretty Chinese girl
Here we have yet another view inside of China. video 10MB
“The Americans zombified Ukrainians and turned 150-200 thousand people into a fighting machine that works without thinking”
Q: Judging by the heart-rending howl that comes from the camp of the liberals, as well as the events in Ukraine, not everyone has seen the light yet.
A: Yes, we are faced with the fact that in 8 years the Americans have managed to fool the Ukrainian people so much that the people who resist the Russian army, the so-called Armed Forces of Ukraine, look simply zombified.
They are manipulated like puppets.
It is not Zelensky who commands the Ukrainian Army, not even the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the General Staff – but the Pentagon.
It commands very effectively from the point of view in the fight of “to the last Ukrainian soldier”, because these zombie guys do not give up.
But they are in an absolutely hopeless situation.
All experts have already acknowledged that Russia won the military special operation, that the Ukraine has no chance of resistance, that the entire military infrastructure has been destroyed…
The Armed Forces of Ukraine is only left with surrendering in order to minimize human losses.
However, Ukrainian officers (and especially, of course, nationalists) act like zombies controlled from the outside – they follow instructions from the Pentagon that come to their personal computers and special tablets.
Moreover, the Americans command their marionettes from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, breaking them into the appropriate units.
Each unit is assigned a number, and every number is given artificial ‘military intelligence’ with tasks every day.
They really turned 150-200 thousand people into a fighting machine that works without thinking, only stupidly follows all their orders.
For 8 years, they have achieved that they forced a significant part of the youth of Ukraine not only to stand up against Russia, but through brainwashing made them their weak-willed tools.
Not just cannon fodder, but controlled cannon fodder.
Being in an absolutely hopeless situation, surrounded, deprived of any supply at all, they still continue the senseless war, dooming themselves to death, and dragging the surrounding civilians with them to the grave.
This is a clear example of how modern American technology works.
We must understand that in front of us, we have a very powerful force.
You know, before [the war], we have heard from Russian experts and politicians that the Ukrainians themselves will suffocate economically and then crawl to us, and in general where will Ukraine go without us?
After all, it will not be able to ensure the reproduction of the economy without our resources and cooperation with us.
Indeed, Ukraine has entered a state of economic catastrophe, as we expected, as we explained to our Ukrainian colleagues.
The Ukrainian republic has become the poorest state in Europe along with Moldova.
Due to the fact that Ukraine has terminated ties with Russia, its losses amount to more than 100 billion dollars.
Nevertheless, this did not prevent American and British political strategists and instructors from forming a 200,000-strong army of thugs and murderers who completely inadequately imagine reality and are an obedient instrument of American interests.
Q: Aren’t there equally obedient American marionettes in Russia? Is it only Ukrainians who were zombified?
A: Yes, and here it should be noted that practically the same thing is happening with the Central Bank, but only on other issues.
Q: Before we move on to the Central Bank, let me clarify. You said that you are working on introducing a new currency. And in what format and with what team?
A: We have been doing this for a long time as a group of scholars. 10 years ago, at the Astana Economic Forum.
We presented the report “Toward sustainable growth through a fair world economic order” with a project for the transition to a new world financial and monetary system.
There, we proposed to reform the IMF system based on the so-called special drawing rights, and on the basis of a modified IMF system – to create a worldwide accounting currency.
By the way, this idea aroused great interest then: our project was recognized as the best international economic project.
But in a practical sense, none of the states, represented by the official monetary authorities, was interested in this project.
Although it was followed by Nursultan Nazarbayev’s publications, which proposed a new currency. If I remember correctly, he offered Altyn.
Q: Altyn? That is interesting.
A: Yes, the publication of his article on this topic even took place in Izvestia.
But the matter did not come to negotiations and political decisions, and to this day it is rather a proposal of experts.
But I am sure that the current situation is forcing us to create new payment-settlement instruments very quickly.
This is because the dollar will practically be impossible to use.
And the ruble, due to the incompetent policy of the Central Bank, which, in fact, acts in the interests of international speculators, cannot find sustainability.
Objectively, the ruble could become a reserve currency along with the yuan and the rupee.
It would be possible to move to a multi-currency system based on national currencies.
But we still need some equivalent for pricing…
Now we are working on the concept of the exchange space of the Eurasian Economic Union, where one of the tasks is the formation of new pricing criteria.
That is, if we want metal prices to be formed not in London, but here in Russia, just like oil prices.
Then this implies the emergence of some other currency.
This is especially true if we want to act not only within the Eurasian Economic Union, and in Eurasia in a broad sense.
Were Eurasia would be at the center of a new world economic order, to which I include China, India, Indochina, Japan, Korea and Iran.
These are large countries, all of which have their own fundamental national interests.
After the current stories with the confiscation of [Russia’s] dollar reserves, I think no country will want to use another country’s currency as a reserve.
So a new tool is needed.
And from my point of view, such a tool, for a start, can become some kind of synthetic settlement currency, which would be built as such an aggregated index.
Q:Can I have some examples? What it is?
A: Well, let’s say, ECU ₠ (European Currency Unit) – there was such an experience in the European Union.
It was built like a basket of currencies.
All countries that participate in the creation of a new accounting currency should be entitled to the presence of their national currency in this basket.
And the common currency is formed as an index, as a weighted average component of these national currencies.
Well, to this we must add, from my point of view, commodities: not only gold, but also oil, and metal, and grain, and water.
Its a sort of commodity harness, which, according to our estimates, should include about 20 goods.
They, in fact, form world price proportions and therefore must participate in the basket for the formation of a new accounting currency.
And an international treaty is needed, which will determine the rules for the circulation of this currency and create an organization like the International Monetary Fund.
By the way, 15 years ago we proposed reforming the IMF, but now it is already obvious that a new monetary financial system will have to be built without the West.
Perhaps someday Europe will join it and the US will also be forced to admit it.
But so far it is clear that we will have to build without them.
For example, on the basis of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
However, these are just expert developments, which we will submit to the authorities in the coming month.
Q: And at the level of the government or at the level of the president?
A: We will first send it to the departments that are responsible for these issues. We will hold discussions, develop some kind of common understanding, and then go to the political level.
Russia abandons the ISS space station
Without Russian rocket engines, there is no American/EU space station. No space X. So it really doesn’t matter. My guess is an earlier than planned retirement of the space station for “fiscal reasons” (wink. Wink.)
One of the many reasons why I love living inside of China. Beauty abounds. So sexy cooking food. video 4MB
“The Central Bank continues the policy of pandering to the enemy”
Q:In your Telegram channel, you write that all that remains is to nationalize the Bank of Russia. Why hasn’t it been done yet? For example, there is a point of view that Elvira Nabiullina remains at her post as a screen, but will no longer manages anything serious. Can you refute or confirm this?
A: You know, I don’t want to engage in conspiracy theories.
Q:This is a conspiracy theory?
A: Yes, we can talk about the American Deep State in conspiracy terms.
In this case, conspiracy theories are a very appropriate direction of thought, because in America, behind the screen of presidents and congressmen, there are some deep forces – special services.
And in our Fatherland, everything is simple.
We have a president, a head of state who has built a vertical form of power.
It is absolutely clear in our country how the parliament and the judiciary are formed.
Here, no conspiracy theory, in general, can be applied.
The same goes for the Central Bank.
Let me remind you that, according to the law on the Central Bank, all its property is federal property.
Therefore, the Central Bank is a state structure, there is not the slightest doubt about it.
Q:And they always said that the Central Bank was separated, as if on the sidelines.
A: The Board of Directors of the Central Bank is appointed by the State Duma on the proposal of the President.
I served for many years as its representative on the national banking board, which oversees the activities of the Central Bank.
I can say that there is no doubt that the Central Bank is the state body for regulating monetary circulation, and it is also the main financial regulator in the country.
But there are nuances.
The Constitution stipulates that the Central Bank conducts its policy independently, that is, it is independent of the government.
But this does not mean that it is independent of the state.
This is a state-owned agency.
Here the judicial system in our country is also officially independent of the government.
Therefore, being an independent body, the Central Bank is nevertheless formed as a state regulatory body and must perform the tasks that are necessary for the development of our economy.
To do this, it is necessary to involve the Central Bank in strategic planning.
The classics of monetary circulation stipulates that the main goal of the monetary authorities, that is, the Central Bank, should be to create conditions for maximizing investment.
That is what the banking system should be doing – maximizing investment.
Because the more investments, the more production, the higher the technical level, the lower the costs and the lower the inflation, the more stable the economy.
It is possible to achieve macroeconomic stabilization in the modern economy only on the basis of accelerated scientific and technological progress.
Attempts to target inflation (such a buzzword), which the Central Bank has been practically imitating for the past 10 years, by manipulating the key interest rate against the backdrop of a freely floating ruble, is short-sighted, primitive and counterproductive.
Usually these measures are recommended by the IMF for underdeveloped countries that themselves do not know how to think.
What is inflation targeting in practice?
This is an extremely primitive and internally contradictory set of measures, the application of which drives the economy into a stagflation trap.
The Central Bank threw the ruble into free float, which is absurd from the point of view of inflation targeting in an open economy, where the exchange rate directly affects prices.
And we see how the devaluation of the ruble periodically accelerates prices.
In addition, they reduced monetary policy to only one absolutely primitive tool – the manipulation of the key interest rate.
But the key rate is the percentage at which the Central Bank lends money to the economy and withdraws money from the economy.
Its attempts to suppress inflation by raising the interest rate cannot succeed in today’s economy, because the higher the interest rate, the less credit, the less investment, the lower the technical level and competitiveness.
The decrease in the latter entails the devaluation of the ruble in 3-4 years, after they raise the interest rate, supposedly to fight inflation.
Having let the ruble exchange rate float freely, they, in fact, gave it at the mercy of currency speculators.
The Americans really like these politics, so they praise the leadership of our Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance in every possible way.
After all, what is important to them?
So that everything is tied to the dollar, so that the ruble is a ‘junk’ currency that is unstable.
And this is a paradox, because the amount of foreign exchange reserves of the Russian Federation has recently been 3 times more than the ruble money supply!
This means that the Central Bank could have stabilized the exchange rate at any level. But it didn’t do that.
And who are the speculators to whom the Central Bank actually threw the ruble to be torn to pieces?
The main speculators are American hedge funds, which actually shape the ruble exchange rate by manipulating the market.
But the Central Bank does not notice this, or rather, pretends to not notice.
In order to keep them in the foreign exchange market by raising the interest rate, the Central Bank kills credit and makes our economy dependent on foreign sources of credit, and the foreign exchange financial system dependent on the interests of speculators.
This is in whose interests the Central Bank works, hiding behind cool buzzwords like ‘inflation targeting’, which has shamefully failed in these past years in terms of real price dynamics.
So in our country the weakest point of the entire national security system in general is the Central Bank.
Its leadership is hit by the enemy’s cognitive-weapon, in other words, zombified by it. In fact, our monetary authorities are doing what the enemy needs.
By the way, I proved mathematically and chronologically that the first wave of sanctions was imposed against Russia only after the Central Bank prepared the ground for this.
Namely, it let the ruble exchange rate float freely and announced that it would raise the interest rate, if inflation would start in the country.
As soon as the Central Bank moved to this strange policy, the Americans immediately imposed sanctions.
Their speculators ensured the collapse of the ruble exchange rate, this caused an inflationary wave, and the Central Bank, on the instructions of the IMF, raised the interest rate, which completely paralyzed our economy.
The total damage from this policy today has already reached 50 trillion rubles of non-produced products and about 20 trillion rubles of unfinished investments.
Now you have to add to this the 300 billion dollars invested in foreign assets, which are now frozen – that’s the damage.
Therefore, when we talk about the nationalization of the Central Bank, we are not talking about formally nationalizing it (it has already been nationalized), but about bringing it into a policy of conformity with national interests.
Right now, its policy is contrary to national interests.
And there is no conspiracy here.
We see in whose interests such a policy is pursued.
The Central Bank raised interest rates to 20 percent, giving the bankers a dominant position in the economy.
Possessing the most expensive and scarce resource, money, they determine which enterprise will survive, and which enterprise will die, go bankrupt, and so on.
Rising interest rates are holding the entire Russian economy hostage to a handful of bankers.
This is the first.
Secondly, the leadership of the Central Bank allowed another collapse of the ruble exchange rate and closed the currency exchange.
As a result, today banks have become the main currency speculators: they buy currency for about 90 rubles per dollar, and sell it for 125. The difference settles down for them as excess profit.
Q:But why, in your opinion, does the Central Bank of the Russian Federation pursue a policy in the interests of the enemy?
A:As I said, it does this on the recommendation of the International Monetary Fund.
But its interests are also shared by our large banks, which objectively like this policy, as well as our monetary and financial structures, which are also involved in manipulating the ruble exchange rate.
Therefore, an influential lobby is formed around this policy, which supports this policy based on its own private interests.
These interests run counter to the interests of the country, they are directly opposite to them.
And, if you look at what the Central Bank is doing today, I have no doubts that it continues the policy of actually pandering to the enemy.
It undermines macroeconomic stability by allowing international speculators to manipulate the ruble exchange rate and does not control the foreign exchange position of banks that have become currency speculators.
Although the Central Bank could easily withdraw banks from the foreign exchange market by fixing their foreign exchange position, forbidding banks to buy foreign currency.
And secondly – by raising the interest rate, the Central Bank actually killed investments in the development of the Russian economy.
Which are very much needed right now.
Primarily for import substitution and for the restoration of economic sovereignty.
While our leadership says that we should not be afraid of sanctions, because they create conditions for economic growth, for import substitutions…
Look, about a third of EU imports have left our market. These are huge opportunities for import substitution.
If we assume that our enterprises begin to develop these markets, then we will develop at a rate of 15 percent per year.
But this requires loans.
Import substitution cannot arise without loans.
We need loans to set up production facilities, to master new technologies, to load idle production capacities.
We have long developed such a strategy of advanced development at the Academy of Sciences, and we are promoting it.
But, unfortunately, the insane, from our point of view, policy of the Central Bank has quite specific influential structures which it likes and supports. That is why the policy is so stable.
Veteran diplomat warns against Australia being a US proxy in war against China
Watch “CITIZENS INSIGHT – Veteran Australian diplomat speaks out against war danger – John Lander” on YouTube
Here’s another fine Chinese girl. I think that pretty girls are everywhere, but you know, there are a lot of them inside of China. video 2MB
“It is possible to stabilize the ruble in three days”
Q: Sergey Yuryevich, if this is not conspiracy theory, then why does the Central Bank continue to pursue such a policy? Only based on the interests of lobbyists?
A: To whom is the war, and to whom is the mother dear.
Commercial banks earn a 40% profit on currency speculation.
You bought 90 rubles per dollar – sold it for 125. 35 rubles – nothing is easier!
As a result, we have inflation, imports are becoming more expensive, everyone sees this insane rate.
Prices for all goods are rising, but the banks are making super profits.
Again, a very influential lobby has formed around this policy, and admitting the failure of such a strategy for many people means, in fact, admitting their incompetence and even sabotage.
And speculators with large banks are quite influential structures in our country that influence decision-making.
Q:Well and what, does this information not reach the first person (Putin), is it blocked?
A: When I was an adviser, I communicated this information.
Q:Were you listened to?
A: Yes, there were discussions, discussed at the Economic Council, then it was closed so as not to irritate the officials.
Now I don’t want to comment on it.
We see today that if we do not change the monetary policy, then it will simply be impossible for us to survive in this hybrid war.
We now need to counter economic sanctions with a serious increase in domestic production.
There are production facilities for this, people, raw materials, brains – too, but there is no money.
Right now, the simplest thing that the state can give people is money.
Q:What is your feeling? Is there an understanding at the top?
A: I think that you need to directly address this question to them.
Q:But many people call you almost the Number 1 person in the current situation – a public figure who can save Russia.
A: Thank you for this review. I try my best.
Q: I just want to understand: if before there was no prophet in our Fatherland, now has he appeared? Is this a temporary situation with the Central Bank?
A: It is so protracted, I would say, for 30 years.
If we had carried out a competent monetary policy in accordance with the requirements of the new world economic order, the integral system, we would have developed like China – by 10 percent a year.
There were such possibilities.
And we basically been stomping in the same spot for these past 30 years.
So the point is not even whether they listen or not, you just need to look objectively and see how China and India are developing and how we are developing.
What prevented us from developing in exactly the same way?
Moreover, the control system of the new world economic order, which I describe in my books, is universal.
She worked successfully in Japan before the Americans broke the Japanese economic growth.
And even in Ethiopia, where they also began to form this management model (and achieved growth by several times).
That is, this universal management model of the modern economy, focused on the growth of social welfare through investment in a new technological order, needs to be implemented.
At the same time, of course, the targeted use of money implies a high responsibility.
Throwing money from a helicopter – is not our thing.
Q: It’s not our path.
A: We are talking about targeted credit emission based on modern digital tools with a strict control system focused on investments in new technologies.
We know how to do this, how to minimize the human factor through the introduction of digital technologies, including the digital ruble.
But this is disadvantageous for those who still adhere to the old strategies.
They made a cash cow out of Russia, they sucked out 100 billion dollars from it abroad to offshore companies.But now the Americans have closed offshorization for us. There is a real opportunity, we must use it.
Q: What would you advise people? Now the main query on the Internet search engines is where to invest money in an era of turbulence. What should people do?
A: First of all, do not make sudden movements, I would say that.
In any case, what certainly is not necessary – to run after dollars or euros.
Because we do not know what will happen next with these currencies.
If our system is disconnected from the Western system, then our banks cannot effectively invest dollars and euros anywhere except in currency speculation.
But I hope that our authorities will still curb the foreign exchange market.
In this context, what the banks did, raising the interest rate on foreign currency deposits sharply, turned out to be a clear overkill, which spurred panic.
I think the ruble will stabilize if, of course, speculators are removed from the foreign exchange market and foreign currency is sold only for importers and people who transfer money abroad within reasonable limits to relatives or are going on a business trip in accordance with the regulations.
The rest is to block the channels of currency leakage.
Then our foreign exchange inflow will normalize again.
You know, we have a very positive trade balance.
Mandatory sale of 80% of foreign exchange earnings has been introduced.
If this revenue is sold on the stock exchange, then the amount of currency will be more than what importers need.
We will have a surplus of currency.
This means that the ruble will strengthen, that is, it will return to the old indicators – 80 or even 70 rubles per dollar.
But until the Central Bank removes speculators from the market and allows commercial banks to become such, the ruble exchange rate will not stabilize.
So, unfortunately, the monetary authorities have not yet come to their senses and have not begun to implement the correct policy of macroeconomic stabilization, I can’t give any advice other than investing in gold if possible (especially since the government removed VAT from gold).
There are no other real assets and no safe haven.
Q:So, buy gold?
A: Buy the essentials.
Or invest in real estate, in something reliable.
As for investments in dollars and euros… They have ceased to be a currency for us.
This is no longer a currency, but some obligations of other countries that may or may not be fulfilled.
So we need to look for other possibilities.
But I would like to emphasize once again that with the right policies, we can very quickly stabilize the ruble and even restore its purchasing power.
Q: And in what perspective, after all?
A:It can be done even tomorrow, you understand? The Primakov government and [Viktor] Gerashchenko did it in one week.
Q:Is the government capable of doing this?
A: Of course it can.
To do this, in general, two decisions need to be made: to fix the currency position of commercial banks and introduce the norms for the sale of foreign currency for non-trading operations, to keep the freely convertible foreign exchange market only for trading operations.
That’s all.
This can be written in 15 minutes and announced within a day, introduced within three days – and the ruble will stabilize.
Now the USA is trying to “Strong Arm” Pakastan
After a recently failed NGO backed coup.
Statecraft | Pakistan PM Imran Khan Insists on Foreign Conspiracy With Alleged Threat Letter .
US seek to overthrown Pakistan PM:
Olivia Newton John – Magic (live on the midnight special)
After I left the Navy, but before I was sent a searching, I was in this “in-between” funk. I was between two worlds and perhaps a bit lost. It was a phase that I had to grow though. And I did, don’t you know.
I believe that everyone goes through this period of “void”. Where they feel out of sorts, and without aim, direction, purpose or meaning. For me, it was a new experience, and very uncomfortable.
I was, though events, able to regroup and seek out my next phase in life. We all do. But when you are in this funk, it’s a road and path that is difficult to define and impossible to get help with.
I will tell you that this is the song that was topping the radio tops at that time, and the song that I exercised to the most. I well remember doing arm curls and sit-ups to this song. To you readers it is just an old song. But to me… well, it represents that strange period of time that I went though; a time of great uncertainity and confusion about who I was, and what my purpose in life was.
Give the song a spin…
Blinken says Russia has already seen a ‘strategic defeat’
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday said Russia has already experienced a “strategic defeat” in its invasion of Ukraine.
“If you step back and look at this, this has already been a dramatic strategic setback for Russia, and I would say a strategic defeat,” Blinken told co-anchor Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked about additional sanctions the U.S. may impose on Russia.
Blinken said Russia has already failed in the three main goals it had at the start of its invasion of Ukraine.
“They had three aims going into this. One was to subjugate Ukraine to Russia’s will, to take away its sovereignty and independence. The second was to assert Russian power. The third was to divide the west and NATO. On all three fronts, its already lost,” Blinken said.
Actually, those three things were not the Russian objectives. The objectives were all clearly stated by Putin himself.
So either [1] Biden is lying, [2] he is being advised by idiots, or [3] he's confused Ukraine with another nation. -MM
Cinnamon-Raisin Bread Pudding
All that I can say is yum!
Who doesn’t love making bread pudding in the slow cooker, and this Cinnamon-Raisin Bread Pudding is no exception! Butterscotch chips and pecans add an extra-special touch that’s sure to please. It’s fast. It’s easy. It’s tasty. Just why aren’t you making it?
What You’ll Need
3 large eggs
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup milk
1 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 (1-pound) cinnamon-raisin bread loaf, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 cup butterscotch chips (see Note)
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted
Sweetened whipped cream (optional)
What to Do
Whisk together first 3 ingredients in a large bowl; stir in milk and next 3 ingredients. Add bread cubes, stirring until moistened. Stir in butterscotch chips and pecans. Pour into a lightly greased 4-quart round slow cooker.
Cover and cook on LOW setting 2 hours or until center is set. Carefully remove slow cooker insert from heat element. Let stand, covered, 30 minutes. Serve pudding warm with whipped cream, if desired.
Notes
For more cinnamon flavor, you can substitute an equal amount of cinnamon chips for the butterscotch chips. Cinnamon chips tend to be a seasonal item — available only during the holiday months — so, if you love ’em, stock up.
20 Facts About The Emerging Global Food Shortage That Should Chill You To The Core
A very alarming global food shortage has already begun, and it is only going to get worse in the months ahead. I realize that this is not good news, but I would encourage you to share the information in this article with everyone that you can. People deserve to understand what is happening, and they deserve an opportunity to get prepared. The pace at which things are changing around the globe right now is absolutely breathtaking, but most people assume that life will just continue to carry on as it normally does. Unfortunately, the truth is that a very real planetary emergency is developing right in front of our eyes. The following are 20 facts about the emerging global food shortage that should chill you to the core…
#1 One of France’s most important government officials is telling us that we should brace ourselves for an “extremely serious” global food crisis…
France’s Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the EU must get to grips with the prospect that the war in Ukraine could prompt an “extremely serious” global food crisis.
#2 Joe Biden recently admitted that food shortages are “going to be real”, and his administration is now openly using the word “famine” to describe what is coming…
The Biden administration is worried Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will cause famine in parts of the world, White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Cecilia Rouse told CNBC on Friday.
#3 It is being reported that food prices at German supermarkets will soon go up between 20 and 50 percent…
Just days after Germany reported the highest inflation in generation (with February headline CPI soaring at a 7.6% annual pace and blowing away all expectations), giving locals a distinctly unpleasant deja vu feeling even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine broke what few supply chains remained and sent prices even higher into the stratosphere…… on Monday, Germany will take one step toward a return of the dreaded Weimar hyperinflation, when according to the German Retail Association (HDE), consumers should prepare for another wave of price hikes for everyday goods and groceries with Reuters reporting that prices at German retail chains will explode between 20 and 50%
In Spain, the country started experiencing sporadic shortages of different products like eggs, milk and other dairy products almost immediately following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. In early March, major supermarkets like Mercadona and Makro began rationing sunflower oil.
In Greece, at least four national supermarket chains have started rationing food products like flour and sunflower oil due to critically low supplies caused by the crippled supply chains coming out of Russia and Ukraine.
On Tuesday, BlackRock Inc. President Rob Kapito told an audience in Austin, Texas, hosted by the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association, that an entire younger generation is quickly finding out what it means to suffer from shortages, according to Bloomberg.“For the first time, this generation is going to go into a store and not be able to get what they want,” Kapito said. “And we have a very entitled generation that has never had to sacrifice.”
#7 Since this time last year, some fertilizer prices have gone up by as much as 300 percent.
#8 Many farmers in Africa will not be able to afford fertilizer at all this year, and it is being projected that this will reduce agricultural production by an amount capable of feeding “100 million people”…
With prices tripling over the past 18 months, many farmers are considering whether to forgo purchases of fertilizers this year. That leaves a market long touted for its growth potential set to shrink by almost a third, according to Sebastian Nduva, program manager at researcher group AfricaFertilizer.Org.That could potentially curb cereals output by 30 million tons, enough to feed 100 million people, he said.
Russia is a key global player in natural gas, a major input to fertilizer production. Higher gas prices, and supply cuts, will further drive fertilizer prices higher. Russia is one of the biggest exporters of the three major groups of fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium). Physical supply cuts could further inflate fertilizer prices.
#10 In a typical year, Russia and Ukraine collectively account for approximately 30 percent of all global wheat exports.
Armenia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Eritrea have imported virtually all of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine and must find new sources. But they are competing against much larger buyers, including Turkey, Egypt, Bangladesh and Iran, which have obtained more than 60 percent of their wheat from the two warring countries.
#13 One Russian official is warning that his nation may soon only export food to “friendly nations”…
A Russian government official has threatened that Russia will limit its vital food exports to only nations it considers “friendly”.Dmitry Medvedev, a senior Russian security official who previously served as the nation’s president, has threatened that Russia may soon cut off the West from food exports.
#15 The death toll from the bird flu in Iowa alone will be pushed beyond 13 million as a result of this latest incident.
#16 Overall, this is what the total national death toll from the bird flu currently looks like: “22 million egg-laying chickens, 1.8 million broiler chickens, 1.9 million pullet and other commercial chickens, and 1.9 million turkeys”.
#17 China’s agricultural minister has announced that the winter wheat harvest in China could be “the worst in history”.
#18 We are being warned that the winter wheat harvest in the United States will be “disastrous” due to severe drought.
#20 The head of the UN World Food program says that what the planet is now facing is unlike anything that we have seen since World War II…
“Ukraine has only compounded a catastrophe on top of a catastrophe,” said David M. Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Program, the United Nations agency that feeds 125 million people a day. “There is no precedent even close to this since World War II.”
Like I said at the beginning of this article, I hope that you will share this information with as many people as possible, because this crisis really is going to affect every man, woman and child on the entire planet.
In my entire lifetime, I have never seen anything like this, and conditions are getting worse with each passing day.
Stomu Yamashta – Go (Full Album)
I came across this album in the discount bin at the local music store in Butler Pennsylvania when I was a Junior / Senior in High School. I think that I bought it for a dollar. Which was a good deal, as at that time a single album of maybe fifteen songs cost $20.
Crazh huh?
Aside from just loving the high quality artwork of the artists eating at a table with bread and wine, the music itself was haunting and melodic. It really stood apart from the funk, soul, rock, and country and western music that i was getting into at that period in my life.
I suggest you all give it a spin…
Stomu Yamashta’s supergroup Go, and their self titled album. This album shows such great musicianship and I wanted to share it with everyone. This album is legendary, and I believe it should be listened to in it’s entirety.
Good news for the world: the United States led Western DNA countries are beginning to feel the pain after bullying, threatening, and looting Russians foreign reserve, bank account, investment, and private assets.
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There are mass protests across Europe against inflation. Germany is just an example of how sanctioning of Putin the great affect food prices:
Paper models are cheap and fun. You pay perhaps a few dollars, and you down load a PDF file. Then you print out the PDF. Once printed, you cut out the patterns and glue or tape together.
62BD6C5C BFF1 442D B7E9 6C649311549A scaled 1
There are all sorts of these operations on the internt. Some a just fun with silly little items, while others are quite serious and very detailed. How about a 440 automotive engine, perhaps?
This operation; AXM Paper Models, specializes in modern and contemporaneous spacecraft. They are serious with scale and detailed drawing and patterns. In this installment, I am just going to provide a gate way to their inexpensive models of Chinese space station components. It’s all pretty nice.
All in all, no matter what the “news” says, you need to keep in mind a few key points…
The world is undergoing a geopolitical realignment.
This alignment is dividing into two separate entities (East and West).
The two sides have a very different view of how the world should be. That should be quite clear by now, and everyone seems to agree on these points. Including the leadership of the two sides.
The West is trying to maintain a uni-polar single world government ruled by the United States. It wants the work to choose sides. You are either freinds or you are enemies. There is no in-between.
The East is trying to maintain a multi-polar world of equals of various unique social structures. They want to strengthen the UN charter, and empower it, and cut out and gut the legacy corruption that was built internally to it.
Some people, as the articles above state, consider a five point plan. WHile others jsut consider the plan to be some kind of “hybrid war”. I argue that a war is a war, irregardless as to what you call it.
But everything, right now, boils down to the purchase of energy and how that purchase comes about. Key to this manifestation is the control of the currency of exchange.
The West is trying to maintain the USD, or an electronic version of it.
The East is trying to use commodity-based currency by labor, materials and products.
Issues about Ukraine or Taiwan are simply the desperate plans of the West in a plan to maintain a uni-polar world. Sure they are important, but nto as important as the “news” would lead you to believe.
Do not get sidetracked from what is REALLY going on.
Keep clear headed. Keep focused. Keep frosty. I believe in you.
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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.
I just checked my American news sites. It’s still full of the nonsense that the American government wants you to believe. Some people have commented that the outrageous shrilling is an indication of failure. Maybe so.
When the amount of money used to control the narrative exceeds that in putting a man on the moon, then any reasonable person can well conclude that “something is amiss”.
Here, in this article, I will present a few vetted news items.
Not the Rah-Rah-Rah America is great nonsense. Nor, the Ha-Ha-Ha Putin is failing and it’s karma payback time. Nope.
Instead, it’s a serious look at a serious subject, organized in a serious way to make a point. And the last article might be an indicator of something quite deadly serious.
Enjoy…
What is the death of a few journalists compared to democracy?
The credability of the Western “journalsim” already dying, has recieved a death blow with the Ukraine invasion.
This blogger (James Fetzer) went over the “proof” that Russia is being defeated by the brave Ukranians, and that Russia is killing innocents.
He took the videos and the pictures and did a reverse image search and came up with where the pictures ACTUALLY came from. Interesting. Mind blowing, if I didn’t already know this.
Other nations are saying “Let’s stop using the USD”
De-dollarization has become a trend between nations bullied by the United States. Other nations are saying “forget about the USD let’s trade using something else”. It’s a prudent move. Now is the time to start doing so.
A sudden hot buying of Russian products in China has resulted in empty shelves, and an urgent market for all things Russian. In fact, President Putin is looked upon as a major hero standing up against the insanity that is the West today. My feeds are full of pro-Russian videos, and many, many douxing videos are depicting President Putin as a real leader making hard decisions.
But, you know that the United States does not like this relationship one bit.
China’s Largest Chipmaker Will Be ‘Shut Down’ If It Sells To Russia Says U.S. Official
Threats from the US to China Sound more and more Hollow! Since when does some trivial “US official” tell China what to do? I tell youse guys, these people don’t know their place.
Reuters has spread a rumor that China refused to supply Russia plane parts.
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China responded to it. China’s banking and insurance regulator said on Wednesday (9MAR22) that the country opposes and will not join financial sanctions against Russia.
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Below is the formal and exact China open policy:
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"China's position has been stated clearly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Our international policies are consistent,"
-Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, according to a CNBC translation.
Guo, who is also Chinese Communist Party secretary of the People’s Bank of China, added that he hopes all sides will maintain normal economic exchanges and that the sanctions have had no apparent impact on China so far.
China to double yuan’s trading band with ruble to 10% in first-of-its-kind move – Global Times
The China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) announced on Thursday the decision to double the Chinese yuan’s trading band with the Russian ruble in the inter-bank foreign exchange market in the latest economic measure to respond to the development of market’s needs.
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So much for economically isolating Russia.
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Starting Friday, the rise or fall of the Chinese yuan’s daily spot trading price against Russia’s ruble in the interbank forex market will be capped at 10 percent, doubling the current band, according to the statement by CFETS on Thursday.
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The wider trading band could help prevent currency arbitrage in the wake of the ruble’s recent plunge and facilitate trade settlements, analysts said.
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The revision is a first-of-its-kind move that widens the yuan’s trading band with a foreign currency to 10 percent, China Business Network (CBN) reported on Thursday.
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Currently, the yuan’s daily rise or fall against the US dollar is capped at 2 percent while its fluctuation against other currencies are subject to 5 percent in either direction.
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Guan Tao, chief global economist at BOC International (China) Co mentioned in CBN’s report that the conversion of the yuan into rubles falls under an exchange rate, while trading on rubles against the dollar is done with another rate, resulting in the yuan-ruble cross rate based on the previous quotes.
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With the ruble’s value currently subject to wild swings against the dollar, if the yuan’s trading band with the ruble cannot be widened, the ruble-dollar fluctuations might not be offset sufficiently, Guan explained, speaking of the necessity of the move.
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This came in tandem with the announcement on Wednesday by Russia’s VTB Bank that it will launch yuan savings services, with an annual interest rate of up to 8 percent, with durations ranging from three to six months, Bloomberg reported. This measure came as a way to counter strict sanctions from the US and its allies, which seek to isolate Russia from the US dollar dominated interbank communication system SWIFT, according to media reports….. Read more
Russia’s defense minister reports that there are 16,000 volunteers in the Middle East who are ready to come to fight in the Ukraine. They will join with Russian-backed forces in the separatist-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk areas of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
The stupid European Union, and their most corrupt and obviously incompetent politicians, only just now realized the harsh economic reality of their actions. By allowing the United States to provoke war, it has ended up hurting the EU and benefiting the United States to their detriment.
EU investment capital is gushing out and bleeding Europe dry!
As the Ukraine war drags on, the EU is beginning to realize that it is shackled by NATO. And that shackle leads straight to the US. Because of this, it is losing millions of euros every hour.
The NATO sanctions against Russia are now resulting in a huge outflow of investment capital from EU to US.
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The European Union now has to import 40% of oil, gas, fertilizers and cereal from the US at a much higher cost than from Russia.
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So, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has spoken out strongly to get China to mediate to restore peace.
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He argues that only China has the ability to do so because she is friendly to both Russia and Ukraine and is the largest trading partner of both countries.
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As for the US, it is in her interest to keep the war going, so long as their soldiers are not sacrificed. The neocon military-industrial complex benefits. And no Americans are killed. From an American point of view, it’s a win-win.
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For every day the war goes on, the US is earning 10s of millions of dollars in the sales of oil, gas and cereal to the Europeans as well as keep their complex defense contractors operating at full steam.
“China to open space station to commercial activity”
China kicked off The Tiangong Space station Program after Being rejected to join international ISS space program (2001) later forbidden by “wolf law(2011)“
Now, decades later China own space station Tiangong (天宫太空站）is circling in space. Now China is to open space station to commercial activity. The rejector and wolf law makers are going to cooperate.
This story is pretty much telling us
1. Sanction will not work to kill competition
2. shoe is on the other foot（三十年河东三十年河西）
Compare the below Australian and United States reports. A coincidence or what? From my “untrained eyes” it looks like Australia has become an arm of the United States, and just copies and approves everything without a critical look. Next step… statehood.
2022 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community
Russia owes Western banks $120 billion. They won’t get it back – CNN
International banks are owed more than $121 billion by Russian entities, according to the Bank for International Settlements, which suspended Russia’s membership on Thursday.
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European banks have over $84 billion total claims, with France, Italy and Austria the most exposed, and US banks owed $14.7 billion.
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Goldman Sachs (GS) earlier disclosed that it had credit exposure to Russia of $650 million in December 2021. While JPMorgan Chase (JPM) said its current activities in Russia are “limited.”
Russian Defense Ministry releases materials of U.S. bio-military operations in Ukraine. It’s a treasure trove. Better grab it before the NSA takes all the information down.
The standard mode of operation; the USA “playbook” has just been thrown into the firepit. If the USA ships any weapons to the Ukraine, any forces, any “advisers”; the United States will be treated as a hostile nation emgaging in war against Russia.
“Statements made today by Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergey Ryabkov, have officially put the U.S. and its allies on notice that any weapons shipments into Ukraine will be viewed as legitimate targets and potentially attacked as such.”
‘We warned the United States that the orchestrated pumping of weapons from a number of countries is not just a dangerous move, it is a move that turns these convoys into legitimate targets,” Ryabkov told state television.
He went on, warning “about the consequences of the thoughtless transfer to Ukraine of weapons like man-portable air defense systems, anti-tank missile systems, and so on.”
NASA Astronaut “Enraged” by Russian Threat to Leave American Stranded in Space
The United States is so very used to bully the world into submission. It comes automatically. As a result, their leaders have developed a one singular way of thinking. They only think how their actions will hurt the enemy, and not the other way round.
Biden considers digital dollar—here’s how it could differ from regular money
So the USA is going to try to compete against the e-yuan. Good luck. The e-yuan is backed with gold.
The problem with using the USD is that…
Inflation through $30 trillion debt and unlimited spending undermines it’s stability making it a volitile medium.
American government and banking interests are mercurial. It’s easy to lose everything by some whim by politicians or faceless bureaucrats.
It is not backed by any commodities, gold, hard precious metals, manufacturing ability, reserves, or talent.
Biden’s order said a US-issued digital currency could be used to “support efficient and low-cost transactions, particularly for cross‑border funds transfers and payments, and to foster greater access to the financial system, with fewer of the risks posed by private sector-administered digital assets” such as bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Video of SWAT Arresting a man who was about to give evidence of Ukrainian Biolabs in 2009
It seems rumors of the US running biolabs in Ukraine date back to 2009. Here’s a video of a SWAT takedown of a “whistleblower”. He’s probably either killed or doing time in prison as a sex offender. .
China trade: export growth slowdown in January-February ‘alarming’ despite beating expectations
Imagine that. The growth is much larger than expected, and it is reported in the pro-USA SCMP as “alarming”! Words like “catastrophic”, “fiasco”, “disastrous”, and “clamorous” are are words that have negative connotations, that should not be used when positive unexpected news occurs.
SCMP referrers to a 16.3% growth rate as alarming. Sheech! The anti-China media simply and automatically run negative wording on all and any Chinese achievements.
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2022 Exports grew by 16.3 per cent in combined figures for January and February compared to a year earlier
2021 Imports grew by 15.5 per cent in combined figures for January and February from a year earlier
Not that it matters. The money (US greenbacks) are really losing their value.
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US President Joe Biden signed a decree banning the sale of dollar bills to Russia.
"The following is prohibited... export, re-export, sale or delivery directly or indirectly from the United States, as well as from individuals or companies in the United States, regardless of their location of banknotes denominated in US dollars, to the Russian Government or to any person located in the Russian Federation,"
In addition, Joe Biden restricted the import of alcoholic beverages, diamonds and seafood from Russia, as well as the export of luxury goods to the country.
Recall that Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in the Donbass. He announced this in his video message to the Russians on February 24, 2022. As the Head of state emphasized, the Russian Federation does not plan to occupy Ukraine, but aims to demilitarize the country.
Well, if it’s going to seize anything Russian, then Russia can play the same game…
McDonald’s, IKEA, Apple are included among 59 companies that the Russian Federation may nationalize, as a response to widespread corporate withdrawal.
Long live! Putin the Great.
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Putin already expected this, as this is not his first “Rodeo”.
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As such, Xi Peng (China) is prepared as well. China as already erected an anti-sanction law a few months ago to do the same against any foreign companies complying with US government sanction policy.
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If you sanction China, say good-by to billions, if not trillions of USD and investment.
Yes. While the West just keeps printing money out of thin air, the world pivots back to hard tangibles, instead of paper, then the collective West is in for a real shock.
The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis scared developing countries into accumulating more funds to shield their currencies from crashes, pushing official reserves from less than $2 trillion to a record $14.9 trillion in 2021, according to the International Monetary Fund. While central banks have lately sought to buy and repatriate gold, it only makes up 13% of their assets. Foreign currencies are 78%.Barring gold, these assets are someone else’s liability—someone who can just decide they are worth nothing. Last year, the IMF suspended Taliban-controlled Afghanistan’s access to funds and SDR. Sanctions on Iran have confirmed that holding reserves offshore doesn’t stop the U.S. Treasury from taking action.Yet the entire artifice of “money“ as a universal store of value risks being eroded by the banning of key exports to Russia and boycotts of the kind corporations like Apple and Nike announced this week
Dmitry Orlov Discuss Russia, Ukraine and the United States
It’s a great You-Tube video found HERE. Over an hour long.
But there’s one particular section that is REALLY important. It’s about energy and the hopeless, fucked up situation that the USA is in right now. It really fits in with my belief that both Russia and China have war-gamed all steps and are playing chess, while the United States doodles on the wall with crayons.
The secret of scaring people is not to tell lies – but rather it is to tell really really BIG LIES. That has always been the strategy of successful war propaganda machines – from Goebbels to Putin.
Here trainee Senator James Paterson (friend of fellow professional China scaremonger Andrew Hastie) really makes me laugh. His analysis (or big lies) misses they key point – that is – Australia is already a vassal state of the USA.
Australians appoint Americans like Heather Cook to lead ASIO.
Australians commit hundreds of billions of dollars to buying weapons, planes and submarines that we don’t need (instead of spending on jobs, hospitals, disaster recovery, education, indigenous equality).
Australia even allows an American political project to control 70% of Australian media channels!
Even when a million Australians support a petition crafted by a former PM to stop the dominance of the divisive News Corp – nothing happens!
Why is the supposed Australian think tank – ASPI- funded by the US department of defence and US defence industry contractors?
Canberra is simply too scared of Rupert and Washington. That fear is unAustralian and is the root cause of us being a sacrificial pawn, a puppet, in US foreign policy. That why being a vessel for US policy makes us a vassal. Australia should be better than that, braver than that .. because, after all, Australians have a decorated history of bravery!
In comparison – please ask yourself – are a couple of Chinese diaspora polital candidates and a few campus activists actually a threat? In reality is China – a country with 1 (one!) overseas military post compared to the US with its 800 (eight hundred!) overseas military posts the actual threat?.. of course not. Hence the need for BIG LIES. And lots of them.
By the way, not only did the United States ban Russian imports on oil but it also banned their imports on precious metals, many of which are used in the manufacture of automotive parts, batteries, etc.
Inflation, combined with unbearably high gas prices and ridiculously high priced vehicles due to material shortages and therefore price hikes, will eventually lead to the American consumer ditching gas powered vehicles in favor of alternatives (what ever they might be).
DuckDuckGo ends neutrality, will down-rank sites “associated with Russian disinformation”
“Like so many others I am sickened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the gigantic humanitarian crisis it continues to create,” DuckDuckGo CEO and founder Gabriel Weinberg tweeted. “At DuckDuckGo, we’ve been rolling out search updates that down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation.”
Like the conservatives, independent companies destroy themselves by trying to imitate what seems to be the going trend, in the process erasing what made them an option to the delight of those promoting the trend.
The exodus of Western companies from Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine has left a business vacuum that China is very interested in filling.
Notably, China is interested in taking advantage of the oil, gas, and metals projects that have been left behind by various companies boycotting Russia.
It seems that sanctions and boycotts on Russia may have the unintended consequence of strengthening China’s efforts to internationalize the yuan.
This is an opportunity for Russia to nationalize western retail chains all across Russia, and sales the outlets to Russian citizens and retain the domestic consumption profit at home. That will create a higher multiplier effect for the Russian economy.
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China investment will not be involved in politics like western capital. Therefore, a door shut by the west, will be replaced by a friendly investor is a win-win for both Russia and China.
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Russia-Ukraine-NATO: It Keeps Getting Worse
The Special Military Operation by Russia in Ukraine, which NATO continues to interfere with, got very much worse overnight. A particular escalation too place overnight that has alarm bells ringing in the heads of all thinking people.
Russia will treat western arms shipments to Ukraine as legitimate military targets, deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov says.
"We warned [the US] of consequences from the insane transfer to Ukraine of weapons like mobile anti-aircraft systems, anti-tank missiles, and so on."Now, Ryabkov's statement does not reveal if treating weapons shipments as legitimate military targets means hitting such weapons inside Ukraine, or taking them out before they get to Ukraine, which means hitting them in another country. No matter how one looks at it, this is now an aggressive new escalation.
The current Ukrainian crisis entails secondary, but no less serious, consequences on the geopolitical balance between China and Taiwan.
Russia and Ukraine are the only producers of palladium and neon, which are indispensable for the production of microchips.
Moscow’s possible retaliation has attracted more attention in recent days after market research group Techcet published a report highlighting the dependence of many semiconductor manufacturers on materials of Russian and Ukrainian origin such as neon, palladium and others. According to Techcet’s estimates, more than 90% of U.S. supplies of semiconductor neon come from Ukraine, while 35% of U.S. palladium comes from Russia. […] According to the US International Trade Commission, neon prices rose by 600% before Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, because chip companies relied on some Ukrainian companies […]If it is true that a Chinese invasion of Formosa would put the global technology supply chain at risk, it is also true that a sudden shortage of raw materials from Russia could stop production, so as to make the island lose the “microchip shield” and induce Beijing to attempt the annexation of Taipei.
Many people maintain that we are very close to a world war. But does “very close” actually mean anything? It is quite possible to stand for hours with your toes hanging over the edge of a cliff and never jump. Suicide is a big decision: big even for a person, much bigger for a large country.
On March 1, 2018 president Putin unveiled Russia’s new weapons systems against which the United States is defenseless and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Previously, the plan was to surround Russia with military bases and missile batteries, then launch a preemptive first strike, destroying its ability to retaliate and forcing it to capitulate.
This plan has now conclusively failed, and a US/NATO attack on Russia is once again assured to be an act of suicide. Worse than that, even limited military confrontations are now mostly unthinkable because Russia can now inflict unacceptable damage on US/NATO forces from a safe distance without putting any of its own assets at risk. If Russia won’t attack and the US/NATO can’t attack, then how likely is a war?
An exceptional FOX “news” opinion piece on the USA economy. Go to YOU-TUBE here.
2022 03 13 20 38
Why the USA is the master of propiganda…
…during the strange and tumultuous twentieth century during which the US briefly flashed across the world stage, these three countries went by different names, which all ended in “empire”:
The Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire.
Of these three, the Russian and the Ottoman empires were heirs to the Holy Roman Empire, whose eastern half, with its capital Constantinople, went on for centuries after Rome had turned into a depopulated ruin and a dark age had descended on Europe.
After Constantinople fell to the Turks and Islam took over the region, the center of Orthodox Christianity migrated north to Moscow.
Now add China, or the Chinese Empire if you like, which is now aligned with Russia, and complete the picture: all of the greatest and most ancient Eurasian empires have come back and are talking and cooperating, while the has-been upstart on the other side of the planet isn’t even invited.
Given this situation, what is the US to do?
It has three choices.
The first is to start a major war, thus committing national suicide (while taking other countries with it). It lacks the political will to make this decision, although it could blunder into a major war by accident.
The second choice is to basically just fold: give up trying to project power around the world, retreat into its own borders and lick its wounds. It lacks the political will to do this as well; all that remains in the realm of possibility is to pretend that everything is still fine for as long as possible.
But how is it possible to pretend that everything is still fine even as everything is falling apart? The answer is to start faking it.
The third choice is to fake it. If the US manages to convince enough people, at home and around the world, that it is still dangerous, then it will be able to hide its increasing enfeeblement for a while longer.
It may no longer be capable of achieving any of its aims, but it is still very much capable of mass murder, as was recently demonstrated by the US “coalition” bombings of Mosul and Raqqa, which now lay in ruins. Similar wanton acts of mass murder have been committed America’s Saudi-Arabian proxy in Yemen, and by their Ukrainian proxies in the Donbass.
But even the opportunities to commit mindless mass murder with impunity are now becoming fewer and farther between, forcing the US to resort to more boutique acts of violence. To justify these acts, the US (and much of Europe) curtains itself off from the rest of the world using an elaborately constructed wall of complete nonsense…
And that my friends is why the United States funds propiganda so lavishly.
Mainstream media are not all bad. Sometimes they may even make a mistake and tell the truth.
Here is a one-year old Time report on White Supremacist Militia in Ukraine, a fact the West and its lying hypocrites are not allowed to mention any more.
Even better. We have a report from the Beast’s mouth. BBC has an eight-year old report on Neo-Nazi threat in New Ukraine. Have the Nazis disappeared or have they taken over?
The Guardian won’t be left out. Four years ago, they knew about Ukraine’s far-right children’s camp. It was all fun and guns then. Are the kids out there killing yet?
I almost forgot to mention DW. This is another one that can’t seem to speak a single truth about China or Russia. But they reported five years ago on the Azov battalion.
What d’ya know? Canada, the neighborly henchman of America, reported about official meetings with the Azov battalion. It was clear that everyone knew about the Nazis in Ukraine. The story even compared the Ukrainian Neo-Nazis with ISIS. How delicious! But somehow they’ve all disappeared from the narrative.
And four years ago, Max Blumenthal, a real reporter who shows you his material, knew about the US arming Ukraine’s Neo-Nazis. It’s American tax dollars at work, folks. This is what happens when your democracy produces liars, miscreants, and war criminals to represent you.
Is anyone in the West indignant. Actually yes! Here is Irish MEP Clare Daly giving them hell. And here is Clare Daly again exposing her EU colleagues as hypocrites. She’s the female version of Mick Wallace. What’s with Ireland always coming up with politicians who tell the truth?
The Nazis tried to leave Mariupol under the guise of civilians. The deception failed, and again accused Russia of disrupting the evacuation.
I’ll keep it short. I read Facebook and again came across a note about the “cruel Russians” who allegedly once again disrupted the evacuation of civilians from surrounded Mariupol. Well, as if nothing like surprising, quite a common thing-Russia is to blame for everything. If not for the comments in which the Ukrainians unwittingly handed over their “heroes” in full.
So, according to them, it was like this:
– the opening time of the humanitarian corridor has been agreed,
– a column of Mariupol women is approaching, some with children,
– Russian troops issue an ultimatum – personal search of each refugee,
– the Ukrainian side is trying to demand that everyone be allowed to pass without exception and without being searched,
– the Russians refuse,
-quote “not a single Azov fighter will be released from the city”,
“the column turns around in a hurry and goes back.
Ah, what bad Russians… the “humanitarian action”was disrupted again.
Realizing that the trick failed, “Azov” returned back to the city, without releasing the real women with children. After all, “heroes” need someone to hide behind that…
Another pesky French journalist. How dare you break our illusion and report that there were crimes against humanity in Donbas? How dare you agree with Putin of Nazi forces attacking civilians in Donetsk and Luhansk ?
"The French Embassy in Kiev, alerted at the time, did nothing to help them and hushed up the matter. It is because we were already supporting the Ukraine of murders and massacres."
US national debt exceeds $30 trillion for first time in history
The national debt has expanded by approximately $7 trillion since January 2020, weeks before the pandemic began, as the Trump and Biden administrations dispersed stimulus payments and took other measures to support the economy.The $30 trillion debt is equivalent to $231,000 per US household and $90,000 per person, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. If every US household paid $1,000 per month toward covering the debt, it would take 19 years to pay down the sum.
Democracy has bankrupted itself. It will take either [1] a world war or a [2] default to get out of this hole.
Beijing calls Moscow its most important strategic partner
Russia considers Chinese payment system, as Beijing calls Moscow its ‘most important strategic partner’
Mr Wang said China’s alliance with Moscow constituted “one of the most crucial bilateral relationships in the world”.China has broken with the US, Europe and others that have imposed sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine and said sanctions create new issues and threaten a political settlement of the conflict.“No matter how perilous the international landscape, we will maintain our strategic focus and promote the development of a comprehensive China-Russia partnership in the new era,” Mr Wang told reporters at a news conference.
Germany rejects American sanctions against Russian Energy
Anyone that deals in trade with Russia will automatically be sanctioned as well. This does not bode well for Germany, as well as China. While China says “bring it on”, Germany is much more pragmatic.
Washington said at the weekend it was in “active discussions” with its European allies about imposing a boycott.But Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, issued a statement rejecting the idea on Monday.“Europe deliberately exempted Russia energy exports from sanctions. There is currently no other way of securing Europe’s supply of energy for heating, for mobility, for power supply and for industry,” he said.
UN Representative for Brazil Calls for Biological Weapons Investigations in Ukraine
"Brazil strongly condemns the use or threat of use of weapons of mass destruction, including biological and chemical weapons, anywhere by anyone under any circumstances."
COVID-19 is not a pandemic, but an undeclared biological war
Covid Bioweapons: Made in the US, aimed at China
The United States has been waging a covert biological war against it’s “enemies” for the last decade if not longer. Evidence found in Ukraine clearly show that Russia was the next target. This information recieves zero attendtion in the Western “news”, but it should. You see, if the United States wages WMD against Russia and China, they will slam WMD right back.
…
One of the reasons why the topic of biological warfare came to the fore in a number of media outlets is the information that Russia received and continues to receive during the special military operation in Ukraine.
On the eve of the operation, the media reported that at least 15 biolabs under the control of the United States operate on the territory of Ukraine.
Then it turned out that the number of such biolabs is twice as large. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, these biolabs were working in the interests of the US Military Department (Pentagon). This biological weapon is aimed at the Russian Federation with its tip.
In 1972, many countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union, signed the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction (BTWC).
Washington has been strangely passive in monitoring the implementation of the BTWC.
In 2001, he disrupted the signing of the protocol, on the basis of which it was planned to create a mechanism for mutual checks, created and maintained biolabs on his territory that had a secret mode of operation.
For more than two decades, there has been an extremely unpleasant situation in the world: there are no mechanisms to check the content of many American biological programs.
Moreover, Washington began to rapidly create a network of biolabs outside the United States.
America has established 336 laboratories in 30 countries over two decades.
A considerable part of them is located on the territory of neighboring countries of Russia.
Now the topic of “pandemics” somehow quickly went to the second or even tenth plan, but it seems to me that this topic and the topic of biological warfare should be combined.
They complement each other.
In the first year of the” pandemic”, the first version of natural origin of covid prevailed. They say that the pathogen COVID-19 itself appeared in nature. However, gradually accumulated more and more facts that cast doubt on this version.
The second version was the assumption that Covid was born in a biolab in the Chinese city of Wuhan and accidentally (more precisely, by someone’s mistake) broke free. At first, it began to amaze the residents of this large city (11 million inhabitants), then spread to other cities in China and eventually entered the world. Washington also switched to this version, which made it possible to accuse Beijing of all serious crimes and even demand astronomical compensation for the damage that the” pandemic ” caused to America.
However, the “Wuhan” version is not completely convincing. It doesn’t matter how this virus originated, but after a while it would spread evenly and affect people in China, Europe, and America in approximately the same way.
However, covid-19 statistics compiled by Hopkins University, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other agencies show a strange picture. Yes, there can and should be differences, but when covid-19 mortality varies by country (based on 1 million inhabitants) ten, a hundred times, there is something to think about.
They usually say about American biological laboratories: they should be closed, because they can be used for conducting biological warfare. But those people who think about the oddities of covid statistics say differently: American biolabs should be closed, because they are already waging a biological war against humanity. And the weapon of this war is the COVID-19 pathogen. Such “non-standard” experts emphasize that there is a “targeted” use of the pathogen (the target can be an individual, a certain group of people, the population of one country).
A prominent representative of such “non-standard” experts is an American Ron Unz. He comes from a Ukrainian-Jewish family, is a billionaire with a high-tech business in Silicon Valley, a conservative politician, and a writer.
From 2007 to 2013, he was a publisher The American Conservative, and has been a publisher and editor since 2013.
The Unz Review. This is a website where Unz accumulates alternative to official American points of view on what is happening in the country and in the world.
Since the beginning of 2020, the main topic of his publications has been “pandemic”.
Unza’s views on this topic are so far out of step with Washington’s official position that many of the materials published in the article are based on the fact that The Unz Review is blocked. And last year, he published the book “Our Covid-19 Disaster” (Our Covid-19 Catastrophe).
Ron Unz denies the natural origin of the pathogen.
In the version that Washington is still trying to adhere to, the story looks like this: the virus broke out of a laboratory in Wuhan and struck people who were at a seafood market in the same Wuhan. At first glance, it is plausible. However, Unz specifies that the distance between the laboratory and the market is 20 kilometers.
For some reason, there were no casualties in the immediate vicinity of the lab.
Unz is not at all sure that the injection of the pathogen occurred from the Wuhan laboratory. And it reminds that, according to many experts, the outbreak of covid in Wuhan did not begin in the first days of January 2020, but in November or even October 2019.
Unz also recalls that at the same time, in October 2019, about 300 American servicemen visited Wuhan as part of the World War Games.
This story is described in sufficient detail in the Unza article “Covid Bioweapon: Made in the USA, Aimed at China” (The Covid BioWeapon: Made in the USA, Aimed at China).
Ron Unz writes:
“This visit [the arrival of the US military in Wuhan] would be the perfect cover for America to slip a couple of operatives into the group and get them to spread the virus around the city. With thousands of foreign troops traveling and sightseeing, any risk of detection would be minimal.”
.
Unz wonders why no one paid any attention to this during the investigations that were conducted both in Washington and through the WHO. He asks,
.
" What would the Americans think if 300 Chinese officers made an extended visit to Chicago, and right after that, a mysterious, deadly virus epidemic suddenly broke out in that city?"
.
Gradually, Ron Unz leads readers to the third version of the origin of covid: it was the United States that conducted a terrorist operation in Wuhan to infect the population with a new pathogen.
By the way, Unz is very surprised by the lack of awareness of some US officials about the status of the Wuhan laboratory.
They, accusing Beijing of leaking the pathogen, call this laboratory “Chinese”. In fact, the lab was French-Chinese. The French designed, built, and filled the laboratory with French equipment. It was put into operation in 2015. This was the Chinese country’s first lab with the highest degree of P4 protection, and now China could start working with the most dangerous pathogens. It was assumed that joint French-Chinese projects would be implemented in the laboratory.
And soon the Americans came to replace the French.
In the face of such serious organizations as DARPA–the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the US Department of Defense, as well as NIH – the National Institutes of Health, which is part of the US Department of Health and closely cooperates with the Pentagon.
These organizations interacted with the laboratory in Wuhan through an intermediary represented by the non-profit organization EcoHealth Alliance (EHA).
Its officially declared mission is to protect people, animals and the environment from infectious diseases, led by Peter Daszak.
DARPA and NIH acted as customers, and EHA transferred money to the Wuhan laboratory.
Today it is known that the EHA worked closely with the US CIA and carried out such tasks that were contrary to the Biological Weapons and Counter-Terrorism Act of 1989 and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.
Unz suggests that the pathogen was imported from the Fort Detrick biolab (USA, Maryland), and was only temporarily deposited in the Wuhan laboratory.
Another important point from Unza’s work: if the first pinpoint strike was carried out by the Americans in Wuhan, China, then the second – in Iran a few weeks after the first deaths from covid were recorded in Wuhan.
Unz writes:
"By the end of February, Iran had become the second epicenter of the global outbreak. Even more surprisingly, its political elite was particularly hard hit: soon as many as 10% of the entire Iranian parliament was infected, and at least a dozen of its officials and politicians died from the disease, including some of them quite high-ranking ones. Neoconservative activists on Twitter have gleefully started pointing out that their hated Iranian enemies are now dying like flies."
Covid had a very rich harvest of deaths in Iran before he started killing people in other countries. At the end of 2019, relations between the United States and Iran sharply worsened.
Today, there is no doubt that the January 2, 2020 assassination of General Qassem Soleimani was targeted.
The Pentagon confirmed that Soleimani was killed on the orders of President Trump.
A few weeks later, representatives of the Iranian elite began to become infected with covid and die one by one.
"So we see America assassinate Iran's top military commander on January 2, and then, just a few weeks later, a significant portion of Iran's ruling elites will contract a mysterious and deadly new virus, and many of them will soon die as a result. Could a reasonable person have considered this a mere coincidence? "
So asks Ron Unz.
So, America’s two leading adversaries – China and Iran – were the first to take a hit in the form of a mysterious, deadly virus.
After getting acquainted with the work of Unza, it seems that 336 American biological laboratories scattered across 30 countries of the world continue to perform (with the exception of 30 Chinese laboratories that have dropped out of the game) the functions of a kind of military bases.
They are engaged not only in research and development of new types of bioweapons and ways to deliver them to the target, but also serve as a kind of hub where the US military places pathogens planned for use against US opponents. COVID-19 is one of them.
In Washington, DC two people got the deadly hantavirus
It’s a good thing that Russia and China aren’t striking back against the US Bioweapon strikes…
The Americas are best known for harboring “New World” hantaviruses, which cause a severe respiratory disease called Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome. And these are much more deadly.
HPS can also begin like a generic infection, with fever, chills, and aches. But, it can progress to an acute, life-threatening cardiopulmonary phase after about a week. And from there, the disease can progress rapidly, with the lungs filling with fluid and people needing hospitalization and often ventilation within 24 hours.
HPS is fatal in about 38 percent of cases, the CDC notes.
But for the most important “New World” hantavirus in the US—the Sin Nombre virus, spread by the deer mouse—the fatality rate is about 50 percent.
Hantavirus is prevalent in the Western United States. Not the East Coast, and certainly not in Washington DC; the capital.
What an odd coincidence.
Conclusion
The United States has ignited a conflict with Russia and China. These nations do not play. If you are ready to step into the boxing ring, you sure as fuck better be in top shape and have upped your game.
It will not matter how many attractive cheerleaders are rooting for you. In this arena, it’s winner take all, and nothing about it will be reported on.
If he dies, he dies.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Well, I have covered this issue on all sorts of articles, each one highly detailed and laid out clearly. What makes this (particular) article different is that we are now watching and observing overt actions, as opposed to covert actions.
Yes, The USA has been carpet bombing China with bioweapons since 2017, but the American mainstream media turned that war effort hidden. It turned it covert.
Now, with each overt action, we see an increase of pressure of a retaliatory nature. This response is against the enormous United States military empire, and its surrogates.
So here, in this article, we are going to cover the first dramatic weapon exchanges in February 2022.
It's biological weapons vs Scalar / directed energy weapons.
No. I’m not going to cover the (supposed) any day now… “war in the Ukraine”. LOL. That’s for the mindless sheeple to believe.
No. We are instead going to talk about real covert and overt activities. Not the manufactured narrative that is there for the sole purposes of population control / fear manipulation and entertainment.
But first a review of the American war plan arrangements using biological weapons.
America’s Bioweapon grand strategy
Here’s the grand scheme…
Suppress foe-nations.
Then take advantage of seeded discord using NED assets.
Generate “regime change”.
Absorb the nations into the unipolar arrangement by proxy.
Functionally, it works like this…
Spread out an array of bioweapons of different classes, globally. While the individual nations are busy trying to develop vaccines, inoculate friendly-nations with mRNA injections.
The advantage of an mRNA injection is that it can be easily and quickly configured “on the fly” for whatever biological entity that is thrown at it.
However, it’s not working as planned…
Back-up military actions are put into place.
Trade delay tactics. These include an ad hoc arrangment of various “incidents” to create a “perfect storm” or situation whereas trade comes to a standstill. Strikes, blockages in canals, pricing, inflation, pandemic rules, price of gas, all of these manipulations are intentionally trying to slow down the American economy (and the economies of its serrogates) to stretch out and lengthen the time to fully implement the grand strategy.
Military encirclement tactics. These include nuclear weapons placed all around the Russian/China landmass. Everything related to American foreign “diplomacy” has been related to this effort in one form or the other.
Suppression tactics. This goes by the terms “friendly hybrid-war”. It’s not. It’s just a full on economic, legal, economic, and social war.
And now, who actually is running this shit-show?
The impression that I have is that Biden and the media are just following a script, and the writers (of the script) are either dead or in a nursing home. It’s on autopilot.
Everything is on auto-piolt. No one, sitting at the helm of any organization would behave like what we are witnessing in Western politics.
It’s all bullshit. Whether it is true or not, or whether it is yet another person trying to jump onto the “war with the Ukraine”, “war over Taiwan”, “war to save Hong Kong democracy”, a “religious war over Tibet”, or a “war to free the oppressed Uighur Muslims” bandwagon, is unknown.
Here we are going to look at an interview with the exact people who are in control of the mess that America is today. This is the person who has orchistrated all this on-going warfare. While not the only individual, his role in it cannot be denied.
He even admits to it on video. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks. He doesn’t give a fuck.
George Soros
Maybe not an “American”, though he sure as fuck controls most American l”leadership”, as well as British, and European “leaders”.
This guy truly would have been the *ideal* actor to play the role of Satan in any movie. Instead, he chose to play the role of Satan in real life. Check him out, this is truly priceless!
Now Israel has been warned. They have been sternly advised, and every warning was presented to them. But like the arrogant fucking son-of-bitches that they are, they decided (after their Beirut detonation of the port on the Southern tier of the BRI) to bomb some Russian bases. Bad move.
We don’t know all the details. As this is not only a war event, but the “news” media is completely silent about this. You have to read Russian media.
Prior history suggests a well planned strike by Israel, and if they followed standing operating protocol, then multiple aircraft were involved.
Prior history, and examples with both China and Russia, suggest a complete disabling of all missiles, avionics, and engine systems of all planes hit by the directed energy beam weaponry.
At the least we can expect the loss of multiple aircraft, munitions and lives by Israel.
[2] American submarine disabled and trapped undersea
Well, I guess the warning wasn’t adequate. I covered that warning HERE.
Oh, you don’t know what I am talking about? Well, I am talking about that well reported covert recovery of an F-35C that crashed in the South China Sea, don’t you know.
You all do realize that “covert” actions are NEVER “well reported” in all the media.
So here’s the cover story…
A Naval Aviator launches from a carrier and suddenly ejects. “Leaked” stories, and “leaked” photos, support the narrative that the “top secret” plane must be recovered as quickly as possible.
Which is a cover story for all those submarine rescue craft that were hurriedly steaming to the “crash zone”.
We don’t know which submarine it is, or what the damage is. My guess is that it’s a complete write-off. The Chinese gave one warning shot. And then, they play “hard ball”.
Obviously, this cannot be reported to Americans. It will have negative political ramifications.
[3] Third time Elon Musk tries to ram the Chinese space station
Well, I guess he didn’t heed the warning from China. I covered that warning HERE. Well, China placed formal complaints, and they also warned SpaceX and the United States government that this kind of behavior was dangerous and threatening, and they will no longer tolerate it.
And the arrogant sons-of-bitches ignored the warning. And tried a third time.
Whoops!
Look at how pretty all those Musk SpaceX satellites fall to the ground. Like hundreds of tiny falling stars.
From HERE. Translated by machine and cleaned up and edited by MM.
49 new satellites and 40 scrapped, Musk throws garbage into space?
It has influenced the Chinese space station! The Foreign Ministry responded, and NASA also spoke out…
2022-02-11 08:02 Daily economic news
Recently, Musk’s “Starlink Satellite” stall has been in trouble.
According to CCTV News, on February 10, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian presided over a regular press conference.
A reporter asked:
According to reports, in a note sent to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs on January 28, the US side denied China's claim that the Starlink satellites had twice endangered the safety of the Chinese space station.
They said that the activities of the Starlink satellites did not meet the threshold of the established emergency collision avoidance standards.
Thus, no emergency notice was required.
The US note also said that before sending a note to the United Nations, China did not contact the relevant US departments to express concerns about the danger caused by the Starlink satellite.
What is China's response?
Zhao Lijian said:
China followed the treaty as prescribed.
China's notification to the United Nations of the dangerous approach of the Starlink satellite to the Chinese space station and the threat to the safety of astronauts in orbit is to fulfill its international obligations under article 5 of the Outer Space Treaty.
In the relevant collision avoidance incident, the US Starlink satellites are in a continuous orbital maneuvering state, and the maneuvering strategy and intention are unknown.
Chinese astronauts in orbit face real and urgent security threats.
China has had to adopt preventive collision avoidance controls.
After the collision avoidance incident, the Chinese authorities repeatedly tried to contact the US side by email, but they did not receive any replies.
Presently, the US side uses the so-called "lower limit of the emergency collision standard" to shirk responsibility and divert attention.
This is not a responsible attitude that a space power should have.
Additionally, the US side has no right to unilaterally set a "lower limit of the emergency collision standard" outside of any UN approved international treaty.
Zhao Lijian then pointed out…
That article 9 of the Outer Space Treaty stipulates that the exploration and use of outer space by all States parties shall be based on the principle of cooperation and mutual assistance.
That all activities of the State parties in outer space shall properly accommodate the equal interests of other States parties.
China has registered the relevant information on the space station with the United Nations and published the number of orbital roots of the Chinese space station on its website.
Proceeding from safeguarding the safety of Chinese astronauts and space stations, China is willing to establish a long-term communication mechanism with the United States and hopes that the United States will take practical measures to avoid the recurrence of such incidents.
China also hopes that all countries will jointly respect the international system of outer space based on international law and work together to safeguard the life safety of astronauts in orbit and the safe and stable operation of space facilities.
Ok, then.
So what is going on?
Well, the public narrative is that;
A statement on its official website on the evening of the 8th local time, saying that due to the impact of the geomagnetic storm, as many as 40 of the company's latest deployment of 49 "Starlink" satellites will be scrapped.
SpaceX said in a statement that on Feb. 3, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 49 Starchain satellites at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket sends the satellites into a predetermined orbit, with a perigee altitude of about 210 kilometers, and each satellite achieves a controlled flight.
However, the satellites were severely affected by geomagnetic storms the day after launch. The storm caused an increase in the density of the atmosphere at the low deployment altitude where the satellite was located. Airborne GPS shows that atmospheric resistance at this altitude is 50% higher than when launched. SpaceX said in a statement that the StarLink team controlled the satellite into safe mode, taking "flanking flight" to minimize drag and avoid the storm. Preliminary analysis shows that up to 40 satellites "will re-enter or have re-entered" the Earth's atmosphere due to increased resistance during low-altitude flights, which prevent satellites from deviating from safe mode for orbital lifting operations.
Geomagnetic storms took out 49 satellites. Yes. 49 satellites suddenly became inoperable all at once, and tumbled out of control and fell to the earth in a firey mess.
Hum.
Really?
Humans have been putting up satellites into space since sputnik in 1957. And this is the FIRST time any of them fell from orbit due to Geomagnetic storms.
According to reference news, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics physicist Jonathan McDowell said on the 9th (February 2022) local time that this event is considered to be the largest satellite collective loss caused by a single geomagnetic event.
I would add that it is the ONLY event. Ever.
…
Coincidences?
According to Wikipedia, Acoincidence is a remarkable concurrence of events orcircumstances that have no apparent causal connection with one another. The perception of remarkable coincidences may lead to supernatural, occult, or paranormal claims. Or it may lead to belief in fatalism, which is a doctrine that events will happen in the exact manner of a predetermined plan. In general, the perception of coincidence, for lack of more sophisticatedexplanations, can serve as link to folk psychology and philosophy.
But if you spent any time even remotely connected to the ONI or MAJ, or perhaps the CIA, you would realize that there is NO SUCH THING as coincidence.
Period.
So, you don’t have to believe me. You can believe the “news”. A war in the Ukraine is going to happen any day now, and it is going to be a long drawn out conventional battle over the ruins of the Ukraine.
Or you can believe me.
World War III is not being televised. It is not being reported, and what is reported is not what is actually going on.
Buckle up. More is in the making.
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.
This is one of my personal stories. It’s a true one, as all my writings are. And it relates to an adventure that I had back in the late 1990’s when I lived in Massachusetts. And at that time, I was able to buy a farm (in Zambia, Africa), staff it, and set it in motion using the pitiful amount of money that I collected and saved from my “day job” as an engineer.
This is the story of that adventure.
Some background
At that time in my life, I was living with a girlfriend in Wrentham, Massachusetts. She was African-African. Meaning, of course, that she was not a hyphenated African-American woman, but a real, honest to goodness traditional (and lovely) African woman.
She was a traditional, conservative, family-oriented girl, and we both “hit it off” and got together great! In short order, don’t you know. We were living together.
She was a lovely woman, and both of my parents absolutely LOVED her. She was kind, sweet, intelligent, and practical. She also had a “rocking” body. She had the most beautiful eyes and lips that I have ever experienced, and her skin was so soft… as were other parts of her magnificence.
And she could cook. OMG! Could she cook!!!!
I have never tasted steak the way she made the steaks. They were absolutely amazing.
Zambian steak.
And she treated me like a king, too. Formal sit down meals, and she would dress up just to be at home. Multiple healthy dishes. Real meats, with breads, cooked fresh vegetables, and desserts. Almost every day.
Saturdays were the day of house cleaning, and she kept our place spotless. My God!
We lived in a little cabin on Lake Pearl. It was rumored to have once been the home of Helen Keller. But I don’t know this for sure.
Lake Pearl in the Fall.
It was a rural and rustic location. It greatly resembled a scene from the movie “On Golden Pond”, and my many cats loved that environment. And you all should know, that Massachusetts is very, very beautiful.
We lived outside the town, and it was a little cul-de-sac that ended on a hillside bluff that overlooked the lake. It was tucked away and secluded. It was very woodsy.
Busy downtown Wrentham, Massachusetts.
We had a wood burning stove, an open kitchen, a little bedroom, and a great view of the lake. It was one of the most memorable places that I have ever lived, and to this day, when I remember those days, they are filled with the fondest memories. I consider those days… my “salad days”.
A house in Wrentham, Mass.
How it came about
We were eating in a diner, as we tended to do when we were washing our clothes in the local laundromat. The diner was down the road in Plainville, it was named “Don’s Diner” and my regular meal at the time was country fried steak and eggs.
Don’s Diner
The meal was something like this. And I would eat it with a nice cup of coffee. (My girlfriend really hated my habit of standing up to leave, and then (while standing) take a final sip of coffee. She thought it wasn’t gentlemanly.)
Country fried steak and eggs.
And of course, the food… well, it was delicious.
At the time, we were talking about (one of her) older sisters back in Zambia. Her (sister’s) son had just graduated from an agricultural college and was looking for work. He got great grades and had a real “nack” for farming and animal husbandry.
So we go on chatting away, and somehow the idea materialized that we could set up an egg farm. Her family had some land growing fallow, and he had the knowledge, and her other relatives had connections and all told, it looked promising. He could raise chickens and sell the eggs to the supermarkets and small stores in and around Lusaka, Zambia.
Lusaka, Zambia
What was involved.
At that time, the United States dollar could buy a lot in Zambia. 1 USD was equal to about 6000 Zambian Kwacha. Today the value is around 20.
Zambian Kwacha.
For a handful of dollars you could buy a bunch of apartments, buildings and land, and labor rates were insanely low.
So what I did was invested around $20,000 USD. (In gradual installments over time.) And ended up buying some land, hiring people to build some basic buildings and structures and allowing the relatives to set everything up. In this role, I was the financial partner, while my girlfriends’ family handled operations and marketing.
I owned a chicken farm in Africa.
And that’s the way life is.
When you see an opportunity, you take it with the resources you have, and give it all that you can. You try to be realistic, and hopeful, but you realize that many things can go wrong.
Getting it set up.
When you go into these kinds of ventures, you either commit fully or you walk away from it. You cannot be timid. You must commit.
As they say…
Consider a plate of ham and eggs. The Chicken was involved, but the pig was committed.
And so, I did my part, and provided the funding and watched the budget.
The entire system came together rather quickly and about 8 to 9 months later, we had a fully functional chicken egg farm (not for meat), we produced eggs and sold them. We had customers and some were large chain supermarkets.
Now, of course, the profit was small, and miniscule, however we plowed the profits back into the enterprise, and the operation grew and grew again.
Counting money.
And collapse.
Then something happened.
After about two years of operations…
No word or reports from our budding, young operations director. All was quiet, and we didn’t know what was going on.
One full month passed by.
When the family went over to investigate, they found the farm abandoned and the chickens starting to die off, and everything locked up and abandoned.
What we discovered, was that our young operations manager was pocketing the profits, taking the investment moneys and pocketing all the profits and running up enormous bills.
Then he skipped town and went to South Africa.
!!!
We tried to hunt him down. We tried to resolve things, and tried to keep the venture alone, but without him, and his skill set and everything else, we were forced to abandon the entire project.
We gave up hunting for him, and wrote the entire project off as a big failure and a lesson learned.
Lessons learned.
The big thing, and the big lesson, is that you really are taking a risk when you put a young person in charge of your operations without vetting them. And the employment of a relative is perhaps a compounding mistake that can make things go from bad to worse.
I hate to say this, but it is true. Many, but not all, young people seem to believe that there is an endless stream of opportunities ahead of them in life, and that they can jump from one to the other without consequence.
If they are in the right place at the right time, they do not appreciate the great nugget of opportunity that they have so early on in their life. They seem to believe that it is just one of a long series of gold nuggets.
Us older folk realize the truth.
The young African dream.
Maybe other opportunities came his way, but chances are that they didn’t. He had one great break early on, and like a typical 20-year-old, blew it all on the belief that bigger and greater things were in his future.
Like a shooting star, he shined bright and then dimmed into obscurity.
For me, I learned a lot.
Seriously I did.
And in the decades that followed, the many lessons continued. Many were quite painful. Almost all were financial failures, but I did end up meeting interesting people, going to strange new lands and experiencing life in broad brush strokes.
But, you know what? I have no regrets.
For, you must understand…
… I actually owned a farm in Africa.
Not the historical notion, but the real experience.
Virtually no one knows about it. But last December, another coup was discreetly thwarted in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
Kyrgyz intel sources attribute the engineering to a rash of NGOs linked with the USA, Britain and Turkey.
That introduces an absolutely key facet of The Big Picture: NATO-linked intel and their assets have been preparing a simultaneous color revolution offensive across Central Asia.On my Central Asia travels in late 2019, pre-Covid, it was plain to see how western NGOs – Hybrid War fronts – remained extremely powerful in both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
Yet, they are just one nexus in a western nebulae of Hybrid War fog deployed across Central Asia, and West Asia for that matter.
Here we see the CIA and the US Deep State crisscrossing MI6 and different strands of Turkish intel.When President Tokayev was referring, in code, to a “single center,” he meant a so far ‘secret’ US-Turk-Israeli military-intel operations room based in the southern business hub of Almaty, according to a highly placed Central Asia intel source.
In this “center,” there were 22 Americans, 16 Turks and 6 Israelis coordinating sabotage gangs – trained in West Asia by the Turks – and then rat-lined to Almaty.
-UNZ
For those who follow the Western Bloc “news” it’s all full of Taiwan independence, Uighur torture and rape camps, and Ukraine NATO membership. The truth however is actually quite different. Instead of this “carefully crafted” narrative, something else has been going on; There has been major fighting to destroy the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) in the heart of Central Asia.
And the usual culprits (The USA, UK, and Israel) are (as usual) failing and floundering left and right.
The BRI is (as I have discussed before) the solution to bypass the liability of the logistic transport from China to the rest of the world.
It’s a land route from China to Asia, Europe, and Africa. It’s faster, and cheaper than sea shipments, and further it is not subject to blockade by the powerful and omnipresent American naval forces.
The real threat of Naval blockade as presented to China by then President Obama.
It has been a top American (warmongering) neocon agenda for nearly a decade now. Stop the BRI at all costs.
Here, we are going to review the latest fiasco; the battle for Kazakhstan. It’s a CIA-sponsored “color revolution” using Turkish assets that was stopped and dissambled within days.
So let’s start off by taking a look at a map.
Where is Kazakhstan with regard to the BRI?
Well, it’s easy to see. Just look at a map.
You can easily see that most of the BRI route corrodors plow through Kazakhstan and the Uighur regions in Xinjiang in Western China.
Kazakhstan is a key rail hub for the BRI. A loss to hostile forces would stop the BRI operational corridors.
It’s very obvious, and as clear as day.
But you all had best be careful in your selection of maps.
Not every map is accurate, and it is becoming more and more predominant that images, text and maps are being rewritten to fit whatever narrative is driving the great American Military Empire.
It’s curious how most maps out of the United States strategically omit that Kazakhstan holds the critical rail lines for the BRI.
Look at this map (below) that omits the key rail lines as shown above. they are all rerouted out of Kazakhstan, and away from the Uighur populated regions in China. Imagine that!
Raw map, blatantly lying about the BRI route corridors.
It’s not at all accurate.
However, what is most interesting is really how carefully the map sidesteps the CIA “color revolution” target areas…
Notice how the BRI corridors are strategically located outside all the CIA-color revolution hot spots. What a coincidence!
Careful, careful.
Don’t step in the target color revolution “hot zones”.
Ok, so, here’s how the ACTUAL MAP should actually look. The BRI corrodors are in brown. The black lines are what “The China Road Project” wants you all to think the BRI actually is.
The first thing an astute MM reader will notice is that the rail lines to Laos, Cambodia, are missing.
Then all the transport and rail lines to the Western part of China through Uighur land is sidestepped.
Then, you will note how Afghanistan, and Iran are somehow ignored. I guess their membership in the SEO means nothing…
Notice how the BRI goes through EVERY SINGLE region that has experienced a color revolution, and being propagandized.
Let’s talk about Some areas of “color revolutions”
Actually, I really hate the term “color revolution”. It’s so very deceptive. Instead, we should be calling them what they are. They are “unorthodox military campaigns” used to create proxy / client states and territories for the United States military bases.
On Monday morning, leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) held an extraordinary session to discuss Kazakhstan.Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev framed it succinctly. Riots were “hidden behind unplanned protests.” The goal was “to seize power” – a coup attempt. Actions were “coordinated from a single center.” And “foreign militants were involved in the riots.”Russian President Vladimir Putin went further: during the riots, “Maidan technologies were used,” a reference to the Ukranian square where 2013 protests unseated a NATO-unfriendly government.Defending the prompt intervention of CSTO peacekeeping forces in Kazakhstan, Putin said, “it was necessary to react without delay.” The CSTO will be on the ground “as long as necessary,” but after the mission is accomplished, “of course, the entire contingent will be withdrawn from the country.” Forces are expected to exit later this week.But here’s the clincher: “CSTO countries have shown that they will not allow chaos and ‘color revolutions’ to be implemented inside their borders.”Putin was in synch with Kazakh State Secretary Erlan Karin, who was the first, on the record, to apply the correct terminology to events in his country: What happened was a “hybrid terrorist attack,” by both internal and external forces, aimed at overthrowing the government.
-UNZ
I list four primary (simply because they are germane to this article topic) color revolution targets.
Belarus
Ukraine
Kazakhstan
Xinjiang (Uighur Ethnic stronghold)
You can find all sorts of detailed information regarding the various color revolutions in these targeted regions. Most of the revolutions failed.
The only successful one was the Ukraine. But it has pretty much split the country in two.
Just like how the American military intervention split Korea into two...
... and split Vietnam into two...
... and Germany into two.
History repeats itself, don't you know.
There is a Russian-leaning (culturally and socially) East with most of the industry and infrastructure, and a Western-leaning (Nationalist / Fascist) Western side, with mostly rural areas.
A split Ukraine.
Additionally, there have been color revolution attempts in…
We will leave out the rout of American military forces out of Afghanistan, and the ongoing “soft” war with Iran. We will jsut say that they are now pro-China, and independent of the Western Bloc.
So it is really NOT BEING REPORTED what is actually going on. The United States have been conducting CIA-sponsored “color revolutions” throughout Central Asia in a very dramatic effort to stop the BRI from manifesting.
The magnitude of the crisis in Kazakhstan has surprised many, including myself.
Some compared what happened to the Euromaidan in Kiev, but that is a very bad comparison, if only because the Euromaidan happened on one square of one city whereas the violent insurrection (because that it was it was!) in Kazakhstan began in the western regions but quickly spread to the entire country (which is huge).
Kazakhstan is huge.
Just by the sheer magnitude of the insurrection (about 20’000 well organized and trained combatants all over the country) and its extreme violence (cops had their heads cut off!), it was pretty obvious that this was not something spontaneous, but something carefully prepared, organized and then executed.
The way the insurgents immediately attacked all TV stations and airports, while bigger mobs were trashing the streets and looting stores, shows a degree of sophistication Ed Luttwak would have approved of!
To me, this is much more similar to what happened in Syria in the cities of Daraa, Homs, Hama, Aleppo, Damascus, and many more.
I will admit that my initial reaction also was…
“wow, how could the Kazakh and Russian intelligence services miss all the indicators and warnings that such a huge insurrection was carefully prepared and about to explode?”.
Then came the news that President Tokaev appealed to The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
Which up until now was a rather flaccid organization.
And that very same evening Russia began an air bridge to move forces to Kazakhstan.
These forces were huge and substantive, including the subunits of the 45th Guards Separate Special Forces Brigade, 98th Guards Airborne Division and 31st Guards Airborne Assault Brigade.
Russian military transporters also airlifted small contingents of Armenian, Kyrgyz, Tadjik special forces.
Most interestingly, the Belarusians also sent one reinforced company from their elite 103rd Separate Guards Airborne Brigade (that is the famous Vitebsk Airborne Division, one of the best Soviet Airborne Divisions).
Considering the current tensions with the West over the Ukraine, the speed with which these forces were sent to Kazakhstan indicated to me that this was clearly a prepared move.
A prepared action.
The breakdown of the messy Kazakh op necessarily starts with the usual suspects: the US Deep State, which all but “sang” its strategy in a 2019 RAND corporation report, Extending Russia. Chapter 4, on “geopolitical measures”, details everything from “providing lethal aid to Ukraine”, “promoting regime change in Belarus”, and “increasing support for Syrian rebels” – all major fails – to “reducing Russian influence in Central Asia.”That was the master concept. Implementation fell to the MI6-Turk connection.The CIA and MI6 had been investing in dodgy outfits in Central Asia since at least 2005, when they encouraged the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), then close to the Taliban, to wreak havoc in southern Kyrgyzstan. Nothing happened.It was a completely different story by May 2021, when the MI6’s Jonathan Powell met the leadership of Jabhat al-Nusra – which harbors a lot of Central Asian jihadis – somewhere in the Turkish-Syrian border near Idlib. The deal was that these ‘moderate rebels’ – in US terminology – would cease to be branded ‘terrorists’ as long as they followed the anti-Russia NATO agenda.That was one of the key prep moves ahead of the jihadist ratline to Afghanistan – complete with Central Asia branching out.The genesis of the offensive should be found in June 2020, when former ambassador to Turkey from 2014 to 2018, Richard Moore, was appointed head of MI6. Moore may not have an inch of Kim Philby’s competence, but he does fit the profile: rabid Russophobe, and a cheerleader of the Great Turania fantasy, which promotes a pan-Turk confederation of Turkic-speaking peoples from West Asia and the Caucasus to Central Asia and even Russian republics in the Volga.MI6 is deeply entrenched in all the ‘stans’ except autarchic Turkmenistan – cleverly riding the pan-Turkist offensive as the ideal vehicle to counter Russia and China.
-UNZ
In other words, at least the Russians had advanced warning and were fully prepared. If so, I doubt they said anything to their colleagues from the CSTO, with the possible (likely?) exception of the Belarusians.
Okay, so let’s explore the implications of the above.
If the Russians knew, why did they do nothing at all to prevent what just happened?
Here we first need to revisit what recently happened in Belarus.
The Belarus “Color Revolution”.
President Lukashenko had pretty much the same foreign policy as President Tokaev. It’s something they call a “multi-vector” foreign policy.
This is a policy I would summarize as follows:
First, pump all the aid and money from Russia,
While suppressing pro-Russian forces inside your own country.
Try to show the AngloZionist Empire that we can be bought, just for the right price of course (this is also what Vucic is doing in Serbia right now).
Now let’s recall what happened in Belarus.
The United States Military Empire and its vassal states in the EU tried to overthrow Lukashenko.
He had no other choice than to turn to Russia for help and survival.
Russia, of course, did oblige, but only in exchange for Lukashenko’s “good behavior” and comprehensive abandonment of his “multi-vector” foreign policy.
Lukashenko prevailed, the opposition was crushed, and Russia and Belarus have already taken major further steps towards their integration.
Result? “Color Revolution” collapsed.
But of the nay-sayers…
Now I know that there are those out there who love to accuse Putin (personally) that he “showed weakness”, “let the US and NATO blow up countries on the Russian periphery”, etc. etc. etc.
To those inclined to this, I ask a simple question: compare the Belarus before the insurrection and after. Specifically, from the Russian point of view, was the multi-vectoring Belarus preferable to the fully aligned Belarus of today or not?
The answer, I submit, is absolutely obvious.
Kazakhstan
Now let’s look at Kazakhstan.
Potentially, this is a much more dangerous country for Russia than Belarus: it has a huge border (7’600km, open and undefended as Kazakhstan is a member of the Eurasian Economic Community!).
It has a strong pan-Turkic underground (supported by Turkey).
It also has an equally strong Takfiri underground (supported by various non-state and even state actors in the region).
As well as ethnic tensions between the Kazakhs and the Russian minority and (of course) very important security ties to Russia.
To have the United States Military Empire take over Belarus would have been very bad indeed, but the Empire taking over Kazakhstan would have been even much MUCH worse.
Yet, as a direct (and, I submit, predictable) consequence of the insurrection, Tokaev now knows that his fate depends on Russia, just like Lukashenko’s.
Is that a bad or a good outcome for the Kremlin?
I will toss in another name here: Armenia’s Pashinian.
Pashinian was a notorious russophobe until the Azeris attacked at which point he had no other choice but to turn to Russia for help and, frankly, survival. (That is also true of Erdogan, but he is an ungrateful SOB who can’t ever be trusted, not even for minor matters.)
Now remember all those dummies who were screaming urbi et orbi that the CSTO is useless, that the Russians just let the Azeris beat the crap of Armenia and could do nothing about it? As soon as Russia got involved, the war stopped and the “invincible” Bayraktars stopped flying.
Is that a good or bad outcome for Russia?
And now, oh sweet irony, the self-same Pashinian happens to be the formal head of the CSTO (more like Stoltenberg really, a official mouthpiece with no real authority) and he had to “order” (announce, really) the CSTO operation into Kazakhstan.
So we have Lukashenko, Pashinian and now Tokaev all ex-multi-vector politicians begging Russia for help and getting that help, but at the obvious political price of ditching their former multi-vector policies.
I don’t know about you, but for me this is a triumph for Russia: without any military intervention or “invasion”.
Putin “cracked” three notorious multi-vectorist and got them to be nice, loyal and very grateful (!) partners for Russia.
By the way, Russia also has a very deep “penetration” into all the other “stans” whose leaders are not stupid and who, unlike the western journos and “experts” all read the writing on the wall.
The impact of what just took place in Kazakhstan will reverberate all over Central Asia.
Central Asia.
Now, about the CSTO operation itself…
We talk about how the “Color Revolution” was stopped.
First, there are the Russian and Belarusian forces. Consisting of about 3’000 Russians and 500 Belarusians. They are truly elite, top of the line, battle hardened, professional, highly trained and superbly equipped forces (the other smaller contingents are more for “PR decoration” than for anything else).
Officially, their mission is only to protect key official (Kazakh and Russian) facilities. However, these forces would be more than enough to make minced meat of out any western or Turkish trained Takfiris or nationalists. THis is regardless of their size or training. This is true, even if their numbers are much higher than the 20’000 estimate.
And, in the worst case which did happen, these forces happened to be in control of key airports were Russians (and Belarusians) could send in even more forces, including at least two Russian airborne divisions. (That was strategically important, to prevent Russian and CSTO resupply, while allowing United States Military resupply and logistics.).
That would be a force nothing in Central Asia can even dream of taking on.
I should also mention that Russia has a large and strategically crucial military base in Tadjikistan which has trained to fight against Takfiri terrorists and insurgents for decades now and which could also support any Russian military operation in Central Asia.
So the objective of these forces are:
To free up Kazakh security and military forces to put down the uprising (which they did.)
To send a political message to the Kazakh security forces: we got your back, no worries, do your job.
To send a political message to the insurgents: you will either lay down arms, flee abroad or die (which is what Putin ordered in both Chechnia and Syria, so these are not empty threats at all).
To send a political message to the US and Turkey: Tokaev is our guy now, you lost him and this country!
To send a political message to the entire Central Asia and Caucasus: if Russia has your back, you will stay in power even if the idiots at CIA/NED/etc. try to color-revolutionize you.
To send yet another message to folks like Erdogan or Vucic – all that multi-vectorness will end up very badly for you, use your head before it is too late (for you, not for us – we are fine either way!).
Suggestions of NATO involvement
Some have suggested that the timing of the insurrection Kazakhstan was some kind of attempt by US/NATO to “hurt” Russia in her “weak underbelly” and to show Russia that she has to back down from her ultimatum to the West (negotiations are supposed to start tomorrow, in an atmosphere of general pessimism). Well, I don’t have any info out of Langley or Mons, but if that was the US plan, then this entire project not only collapsed, but has backfired very very badly indeed.
Remember, the PSYOP narrative was that Putin is either stupid, or weak or sold out to the West, yet when we look at the “before and after” thingie, we see that while the West “almost” (or so they think) “got” Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan and, now, Kazakhstan, the reality is quite different.
The reality is that in each case it appears that the narcissistic megalomaniacs running the West have confidently waltzed into a carefully laid Russian trap. This trap, which, far from giving the Empire the control of the countries it “almost” acquired, made them lose them for the foreseeable future.
Can you imagine the level of impotent rage and frustration in Langley and Mons when the watch that kind of footage on their C3 monitors.
Of sure, the AngloZionist propaganda machine and the clueless trolls (paid or not) who parrot that nonsense won’t say a word about all this, but just use your own common sense, use the “before and after” thing, and reach your own conclusions.
Conclusions
Speaking of conclusions: how about all those who bitched about the CSTO being a toothless wannabe copy of NATO which can get nothing done? You still find it so toothless now?
How does it compare to NATO, no, not on paper, but in terms of combat operations capability?
The Western Bloc wanted to turn Kazakhstan into a “Russian Afghanistan” (same plan for the Ukraine, by the way).
Turkey wanted to turn Kazakhstan into a Turkish-run vassal state.
The Takfiris wanted to turn Kazakhstan into some kind of Emirate.
The United States Military Empire wanted to turn Kazakhstan into a strategic roadblock to the Chinese BRI.
In your opinion, how do you evaluate the effectiveness of a collective security treaty which could foil all of these plans with only a brigade-sized force and in just a few days?
Heavy CIA involvement
One more thing: there is something else which Kazakhstan and Syria have in common: there were A LOT of CIA/MI6/Mossad/etc agents around Assad.
This became quite clear by the number of high-level Syrian officials who either backed the insurrection, or even led it.
Most later fled to the West, though some were killed.
But the point is that the “apple” of the powers structure in Syria was quite rotten.
The same can be said for Kazakhstan where a huge purge is taking place, with the highly influential head of the security services (and former Prime Minister!) not only demoted, but arrested for treason!
Simplified Summary
The “Color Revolution” collapsed and the instigators were rounded up, tortured and executed.
So in plain English, the SVR/FSB/GRU will now have a free hand to “clean house” the same way the Russians “cleaned house” around Lukashenko and Assad (in this case with Iranian help): quietly and very effectively,
Again, I can hear the hysterical and desperate wailing out of Langley and Mons. That’s what you get for believing your own stupid propaganda!
As for those who bought that silly “Putin losing countries all over the former Soviet Union space” PSYOP narrative, they probably feel quite stupid right now, but won’t ever admit it. Speaking of stupid,
No, Putin is NOT, repeat, NOT trying to “re-create” the Soviet Union.
And while that mediocre non-entity Blinken warns about how the Russians are “hard to get out once they come in” (coming from a US Secretary of State this is both quite hilarious and a new, even higher, level of absolute hypocrisy!), the truth is that most CSTO forces will leave pretty soon, if only because there will be no need to keep them in Kazakhstan.
Why?
Simple: the hardcore trained terrorists and insurgents will soon be dead.
Additionally, the looting rioters will get off the streets and hope that they don’t get a visit from the Kazakh NSC (National Security Committee).
The traitors in power will either leave the country for the EU or be jailed.
And the Kazakh security and military forces will regain control of the country and maintain law and order.
So…
Why would the Russian paratroopers and special forces need to stay?
Consider the Russian point of view
The Central Asian nations with Russia and China are chasing the CIA-backed forces out of the area.
Furthermore, Russia has no need, or desire, to invade or, even less so, administer poor, mostly dysfunctional countries, with major social problems and very little actual benefits to offer Russia.
And now that Lukashenko, Pashinian, and Tokaev know that they serve at the pleasure of the Kremlin, you can rest assured that they will generally “behave”.
Oh sure, they will remain mostly corrupt states, with nepotism, tribal affiliation, and religious extremism all brewing at some level, but as long [1] as they represent no threat to the Russian minority in these states and [2] to Russian national security interests, the Kremlin will not micro-manage them.
But at the first sign of a resurgence of “multi-vectoriality” (possibly inspired by the many western corporations working in Kazakhstan) the chairs upon which these leaders currently sit will immediately begin shaking pretty badly and they will know whom to call to stop this.
American United States Involvement
Speaking of weak “idiots” who “lost” countries to the Empire, does anybody care to make a list of countries the Empire has ACTUALLY snatched away from Russia (or any other adversary) and succeeded in keeping? Syria? Libya? Afghanistan? Iraq maybe? Yemen? And that is after the “Mission Accomplished” declaration by a “triumphant” US President 🙂
Okay, the three Baltic statelets. Bravo! Captain America won another Grenada!
Ah, I can hear the voices chanting “the Ukraine! What about the Ukraine!?”.
Well, what about the Ukraine?
There is a Russian saying (цыплят по осени считают) which can be roughly translated as “do not count your chickens before they are hatched“.
Right now, NOBODY can confidently predict what will happen with the Ukraine further down the road.
Not only has the Ukraine become a country 404 deindustrialized shithole, it now is run by an entire class (in the Marxist sense) of Nazis whom, apparently, nobody has the will or the ability to de-Nazify (Russia could, but has exactly zero motive to do so, as for the US/NATO, LOL!!).
Even if Russia and the US agree to some kind of neutral status for the Ukraine, this will not remove a single Nazi from power and, if anything will create the conditions for an even bigger breakup of the country (which is what I think will eventually happen anyway, but very slowly and very very painfully).
The one thing which the Ukraine does have in common with Kazakhstan is that these are both invented countries created by the rabidly Russophobic Bolsheviks.
Not only are their current borders meaningless (and I mean totally completely meaningless), but these borders bring under one totally artificial political “roof” completely different regions and ethnic groups.
The big difference is, of course, that the Ukie leaders, all of them, were, and still are, infinitely worse than either Nazarbaev or Tokaev ever were.
Also, Ukie nationalism is the most hate-filled and demented on the planet, they can only be compared with the Hutu Interahamwe in Rwanda.
Yes, there is definitely a nationalist streak in the Kazakh society (lovingly nourished and fed by the West for decades), but in comparison with the Ukronazis, these are soft-spoken and mostly mentally sane humanitarians.
In my personal, and therefore admittedly subjective, experience, Kazakhs and Russians get along much better than Ukrainians and Russians.
Belarusian-style “housecleaning” in Kazakhstan has already begun!
Last, but not least, it will take decades to de-Nazify the Ukraine, and God only knows who will be willing and capable of doing that (certainly NOT Russia!) whereas Kazakhstan’s insurgents are already being killed, in large numbers (several thousand by some accounts), by Kazakh security forces.
As for the Kazakh oligarchs and officials who assisted them, they are either dead or in jail or already abroad.
Did I mention China?
It is a very important actor in Kazakhstan.
On one level, China and Russia are economic and even political competitors in Kazakhstan, however China absolutely and categorically cannot allow Kazakhstan to be taken over by either the US/NATO, or the Takfiris or the pan-Turkists.
The Chinese have not flexed their military muscle (yet), but they could, and you can be rest assured that they will flex with (immense) economic muscle to prevent such an outcome.
So while the poor Ukraine has Poland as a neighbor, Kazakhstan has both Russia and China which are absolutely determined not to allow any hostile force (anti-Chinese or anti-Russian, these are the same forces) to color-revolutionize Kazakhstan.
They will not all it to turn into the kind of nightmarish shithole the Empire turned so many countries into, from the US-occupied EU to the Nazi-occupied Ukraine.
The bottom line about the Ukraine is this: let’s wait and see what kind of chickens the Ukie eggs will hatch in time and whether the eventual outcome will be worse or better for Russia.
And, by “outcome” I do not refer to the roaring statements coming from western politicians and the talking heads on the idiot box, I mean actual outcomes.
Outcomes, which in such matters can take months or even years before becoming fully apparent.
Conclusion:
What just happened in Kazakhstan was both a US-triggered full-scale insurrection AND an attempted coup.
There is overwhelming evidence that the Russians were aware of what was coming and allowed the chaos to get just bad enough to give only one possible option to Tokaev: to appeal for a CSTO intervention.
The extreme swiftness of the Russian military operation took everybody by surprise and none of the parties involved in that insurrection+coup (the US, the Takfiris and the Turks) had any time to react.
Thus, they couldn’t prevent the quick deployment of (extremely) combat-capable forces which then made it possible for the Kazakh military and security forces to regroup and go on the offensive. Having Pashinian “order” this CSTO operation was beautiful, karmic, cherry on the cake 🙂
All in all, this is just the latest in a series of cataclysmic failures of the leaders of the (already dead) AngloZionist Empire and the (equally dead) USA to actually get something, anything, done. In the confrontation between western hot air and Russian military action, the latter has prevailed, yet again.
Tomorrow the US will try to scare Russia with talks about “sanctions from hell”. Good luck with that!
-Andrei
…
So now with the collapse of the “color revolutions” designed to stop the BRI, the United States Military Empire is insisting on the placment of nuclear weapons throughout the edges where the BRI intersects with Russia and Europe. This is why the Ukraine is so strategicaly important right now.
And the American leadership is engaged in “dialogue” to make sure that they can stop the BRI at all costs…
Washington will not consider Russian proposals on no expansion of NATO, and has no intention of even discussing the idea.
So much for “dialogue”.
It was the first high-level Russia-NATO meeting since 2019 – coming immediately after the non sequitur of the U.S.-Russia “security guarantee” non-dialogue dialogue earlier in the week in Geneva.
So what happened in Brussels? Essentially yet another non-dialogue dialogue – complete with a Kafkaesque NATO preface: we’re prepared for dialogue, but the Kremlin’s proposals are unacceptable.
This was a double down on the American envoy to NATO, Julianne Smith, preemptively blaming Russia for the actions that “accelerated this disaster”.
By now every sentient being across Eurasia and its European peninsula should be familiar with Russia’s top two, rational demands:
No further NATO expansion, and
No missile systems stationed near its borders.
Now let’s switch to the United States / Western Bloc spin machine.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s platitudes were predictably faithful to his spectacular mediocrity.
On the already pre-empted dialogue, he said…
…brace yourself…
…it was “important to start a dialogue”.
Russia, he said,
“urged NATO to refuse to admit Ukraine; the alliance responded by refusing to compromise on enlargement”.
Yet NATO “welcomed bilateral consultations” on security guarantees.
NATO also proposed a series of broad security consultations, and
“Russia has not yet agreed, but has not ruled out them either.”
No wonder: the Russians had already noted, even before it happened, that this is noting but stalling tactics.
Stall.
Stall.
Stall.
STALL. STALL. STALL. STALL.
The Global South will be relieved to know that Stoltenberg defended NATO’s military blitzkriegs in both Kosovo and Libya: after all “they fell under UN mandates”. So they were benign.
Not a word on NATO’s stellar performance in Afghanistan.
Hum.
And then, the much-awaited clincher: NATO worries about Russian troops “on the border with Ukraine” – actually from 130 km to 180 km away, inside European Russian territory. And the alliance considers “untrue” that expansion is “an aggressive act”.
Why?
Because “it spreads democracy”.
Bomb me to democracy, baby
So here’s the NATO gospel in a flash.
Now compare it with the sobering words of Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko.
Grushko carefully enounced how
“NATO is determined to contain Russia. The United States and its allies are trying to achieve superiority in all areas and in all possible theaters of military operations.”
That was a veiled reference to Full Spectrum Dominance, which since 2002 remains the American gospel.
Grushko also referred to “Cold War-era containment tactics”, and that “all cooperation [with Russia] has been halted” – by NATO.
Still,
“Russia honestly and directly pointed out to NATO that a further slide of the situation could lead to dire consequences for European security.”
The conclusion was stark:
“The Russian Federation and NATO do not have a unifying positive agenda at all.”
Virtually all Russophobic factions of the bipartisan War Inc. machine in Washington cannot possibly accept that…
[1] …there should be no forces stationed on European states that were not members of NATO in 1997; and ….
[2]…that current NATO members should attempt no military intervention in Ukraine as well as in other Eastern European, Transcaucasian, and Central Asian states.
On Monday in Geneva, Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov had already stressed, once again, that Russia’s red line is unmovable:
“For us, it’s absolutely mandatory to make sure that Ukraine never, never, ever becomes a member of NATO.”
Diplomatic sources confirmed that in Geneva, Ryabkov and his team had for all practical purposes to act like teachers in kindergarten, making sure there would be “no misunderstandings”.
Now compare it with the U.S. State Department’s Ned Price, speaking after those grueling eight hours shared between Ryabkov and Deputy Secretary of StateWendy Sherman:
[1] Washington will not consider Russian proposals on no expansion of NATO,
[2] and has no intention of even discussing the idea.
So much for “dialogue”.
Ryabkov confirmed there was no progress.
Referring to his didacticism, he had to stress,
“We are calling on the U.S. to demonstrate a maximum of responsibility at this moment. Risks related to a possible increase of confrontation shouldn’t be underestimated.”
To say, in Ryabkov’s words, that “significant” Russian effort has been made to persuade the Americans that “playing with fire” is not in their interests is the euphemism of the young century.
Let me sanction you to oblivion
A quick recap is crucial to understand how things could have derailed so fast.
NATO’s not exactly secret strategy, from the beginning, has been to pressure Moscow to directly negotiate with Kiev on Donbass, even though Russia is not mentioned in the Minsk Agreements.
While Moscow was being forced to become part of the Ukraine/Donbass confrontation, it barely broke a sweat smashing a coup cum color revolution in Belarus. Afterwards, the Russians assembled in no time an impressive strike force – with corresponding military infrastructure – in European Russia territory to respond in lightning quick fashion in case there was a Ukrainian blitzkrieg in Donbass.
No wonder an alarmed NATOstan had to do something about the notion of fighting Russia to the last impoverished Ukrainian. They may at least have understood that Ukraine would be completely destroyed.
The beauty is how Moscow turned things around with a new geopolitical jiu-jitsu move. Ukro-dementia encouraged by NATO – complete with empty promises of becoming a member – opened the way for Russia to demand no further NATO expansion, with the withdrawal of all military infrastructure from Eastern Europe to boot.
It was obvious that Ryabkov, in his talks with Sherman, would refuse any suggestion that Russia should dismantle the logistical infrastructure set up in its own European Russia territory. For all practical purposes, Ryabkov smashed Sherman to bits. What was left was meek threats of more sanctions.
Still, it will be a Sisyphean task to convince the Empire and its NATO satrapies not to stage some sort of military adventure in Ukraine.
That’s the gist of what Ryabkov and Grushko said over and over again in Geneva and Brussels. They also had to stress the obvious: if further sanctions are imposed on Russia, there would be severe blowback especially in Europe.
But how is it humanly possible for seasoned pros like Ryabkov and Grushko to argue, rationally, with a bunch of amateur blind bats such as Blinken, Sullivan, Nuland and Sherman?
There has been some serious speculation on the timeframe ahead for Russia to in fact not even bother to listen to the American “baby babble” (copyright Maria Zakharova) anymore. Could be around 2027, or even 2025.
What’s happening next is that the five-year extension of the new START treaty expires in February 2026. Then there will be no ceiling for nuclear strategic weapons. The Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline to China will make Gazprom even less dependent on the European market.
The combined Russia-China financial system will become nearly impervious to U.S. sanctions. The Russia-China strategic partnership will be sharing even more substantial military tech.
All of that is way more consequential than the dirty secret that is not a secret in the current “security guarantees” kabuki: the exceptionalist, “indispensable” nation is congenitally incapable of giving up on the forever expansion of NATO to, well, outer space.
At the same time, the Russians are very much aware of a quite prosaic truth; the U.S. will not fight for Ukraine.
So welcome to Instagrammed Irrationalism.
What happens next?
Most possibly a provocation, with the possibility, for instance, of a chemical black ops to be blamed on Russia, followed by – what else – more sanctions.
The package is ready. It comes in the form of a bill by Dem senators supported by the White House to bring “severe costs” to the Russian economy in case Moscow finally answers their prayers and “invades” Ukraine.
Sanctions would directly hit President Putin, Prime Minister Mishustin, Foreign Minister Lavrov, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Gen Gerasimov, and “commanders of various branches of the Armed Forces, including the Air Force and Navy.”
Targeted banks and financial institutions include Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank, Moscow Credit Bank, Alfa-Bank, Otkritie Bank, PSB, Sovcombank, Transcapitalbank, and the Russian Direct Investment Fund. They would all be cut off from SWIFT.
If this bill sounds like a declaration of war, that’s because it is. Call it the American version of “dialogue”.
War.
MM Comments.
Tokayev is a very smart operator. Trained by the foreign service of the former USSR, fluent in Russian and Chinese, he is totally aligned with Russia-China – which means fully in sync with the masterplan of BRI, the Eurasia Economic Union and the SCO.Tokayev, much like Putin and Xi, understands how this BRI/EAEU/SCO triad represents the ultimate imperial nightmare, and how destabilizing Kazakhstan – a key actor in the triad – would be a mortal coup against Eurasian integration.Kazakhstan, after all, represents 60 percent of Central Asia’s GDP, massive oil/gas and mineral resources, cutting-edge high tech industries: a secular, unitary, constitutional republic bearing a rich cultural heritage.It didn’t take long for Tokayev to understand the merits of immediately calling the CSTO to the rescue: Kazakhstan signed the treaty way back in 1994. After all, Tokayev was fighting a foreign-led coup against his government.Putin, among others, has stressed how an official Kazakh investigation is the only one entitled to get to the heart of the matter. It’s still unclear exactly who – and to what extent – sponsored the rioting mobs. Motives abound: to sabotage a pro-Russia/China government, to provoke Russia, to sabotage BRI, to plunder mineral resources, to turbo-charge a House of Saud-style ‘Islamization’.Rushed to only a few days before the start of the Russia-US ‘security guarantees’ in Geneva, this color revolution represented a sort of counter-ultimatum – in desperation – by the NATO establishment.Central Asia, West Asia, and the overwhelming majority of the Global South have witnessed the lightning fast Eurasian response by the CSTO troops – who, having now done their job, are set to leave Kazakhstan in a couple of days – and how this color revolution has failed, miserably.It might as well be the last. Beware the rage of a humiliated Empire.
-UNZ
America has been prepping for war for some time now.
Russia knows this.
China knows this.
Now it’s pushing for the fomalities.
Here’s a screen capture of a member of the American leadership with the proud (but out of shape) Marines. He is all full of pomp, and impressive regalia. Aren’t you all proud of the great mighty might of the American Military Empire?
Relax military standards. Relax military rules. Start pushing the rest of the world around, and threatening color revolutions and nuclear war everywhere…
The American military war machine.
Now, let’s compare that with Mr. Putin paying homage to the Russian soldiers that died to save Russia. Determined to move forward in uncertain times when dealing with an out of control, mad-dog, Western Bloc.
Asia is VERY SERIOUS.
And now, let’s compare that to China, and China’s military…
Determined. Disiplined. Lethal.
Honor guards attend a flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square in 2017. Under President Xi Jinping, China has ambitiously pressed its advantage almost everywhere at once.
So now we see the whole picture.
China and Russia, along with the entirety of the SEO and Iran are linking together. They are forming one unified block. The BRI is critical to that unity, and the Western Bloc DOES NOT WANT THAT TO HAPPEN.
And so they are doing everything to stop it.
Look at the picture of the American military review above again. Do you know what it reminds me of?
America comparisons.
Yeah.
It’s frightening that these “people” have inhereted the weapons, technology, and systems of their predecessors. They do not deserve them.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning 3. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Sometimes you come across a really decent, well written article by someone that speaks basic points in clear terms directly. They don’t have enormous paragraph-long sentences, filled with wandering thoughts, jargon, or bullshit. It’s just a very well done article that makes a great deal of sense, and is well written for others to understand.
I read one such article today.
It’s pretty darn American centric, and places some pretty complex situations into rather simplistic terms, but over all, it’s not bad.
And I am going to reprint it here. Well, edited to fit this venue, of course. And then let you all suckle on the savory tidbits that it presents.
But first…
Let me tell you how I came accross it.
I got up, as all of us do, and went to my office. I went in early as I had a scheduled conference call with a salesman in Oregon. It didn’t happen, sigh, as salesmen are always busy being “road warriors”. So I left the office and went down and got myself a burger and a coffee at Burger King. You don’t bitch and moan about what things should be. You adjust and accept them as they are.
The view this morning from infront of the Zhuhai, China office… video 14MB
All is good.
I walked the five minute stroll to the neighborhood Burger King. Up the stairs and inside past the Coronavirus QR. So I ran up to the interior ordering kiosk, and ran through the ordering QR scan and order placment at the kiosk. Paid using wechat. And while waiting for the meal I was reading my feeds.
I no longer really read American “news”.
As time goes on, it all seems so disconnected from reality. Instead I read The Saker, Moon Over Alabama, UNZ, and a handful of other bloggers that report on things as they see them and are not doing it for money. They are doing so in their love of truth reporting.
It’s a new reality. I tell you the truth.
Anyways, you know, I do scan through Drudge Report. That gives me a “birds eye” overview of the current American “news” scene. And yeah. It’s still a lot of bullshit.
Drudge Report 11JAN22
Same Old.
Same Old.
But…
When I grabbed my muffin-hamburger, and swilled my “hot cup of Joe” I read a comment that pointed to this article here.
Chinese version of a muffin breakfast hamburger at Burger King looks a little something like this.
And well, I read it, and thought… “well, this is a pretty decent article to share“, and so when I went back to my office, I sat down and started to share it.
But I have to warn the readership, that the author equates all the problems that the Western Bloc is currently experiencing with Socialism, Marxism, and Communism.
That's not true in the least. It's due to greed, and wealthy powerful oligarchs.
But let's not quibble on the trivial.
A nation that has zero elements of solicalism, zero elements of Marxism, and zero elements of Communism is not falling into decay because of them. It is falling into decay becuase the systems that it is based upon (democracy, wealth generation, and identity politics) are failing.
Here it is…
Found HERE. All credit and so on and so forth. Edited to fit this venue.
To say that last year (2021) was a “game-changer” seems silly really. It was revealing.
For many who don’t follow the financial world, it revealed the incurable monetary problems in the Western led financial system.
For many who don’t follow politics, it revealed the deep state, as from country to country the people’s will was overturned by vested interests.
For many who don’t follow big business, it revealed silicon valley for what it is. A cesspool of Marxist, power hungry technocrats with maniacal tendencies.
What last year was more than anything else, was an accelerant for many of the underlying trends that were already in motion, while bringing on new probabilities and uncertainties.
When looking at the world from a birds eye view, we find that segregating the United States, Canada, Britain and the European Union into separate political and economic entities no longer makes sense.
They are “The Western Bloc”, and are now following the same exact ideological, political and social paths. All without regard to national bourdaries or geography.
Prior to Covid, we had some reservations as to how things would play out, but now the path seems indisputable. For the “Western Bloc” this path is an acceleration of socialism into a blow off top, an authoritarian style of governance, and it will – by necessity – involve printing money in a vain attempt to stave off the collapse.
It won’t matter.
All in the “Western Bloc” will share the same fate.
Screen capture of a screen captures of a Twitter feed.
There is a (non-zero) chance that some type of debt forgiveness is tried.
This will likely coincide with the issuance of a Central Bank Digital Currency for the “Western Bloc”.
But it will not be smooth, and it will be contentious. It will be looked back upon as one of the greatest thefts from the middle class in history, and a final nail in the coffin that is Western hegemony.
Some background
Here’s some background…
Western Bloc Domance
The world we’ve all experienced has been dominated by the Western success model.
All models have their strengths and weaknesses, and over time these change. Nothing is static nor is it linear. This one has been no different.
What has become increasingly evident is that this model has over time decreased in its resilience.
It has been overwhelmed by socialism, which has created an entire society that is incapable of withstanding any hardship, even low intensity hardships.
This societal structure lends itself towards societies seeking out and championing more of what has been instrumental in its weakness, namely socialism. (Read my report entitled What Happens Next on it here.)
We are now in the final throes of its life.
The “Western Bloc” is coming to an end.
The next final step is authoritarian Marxist rule, and final collapse. Coming out of a collapsed society is rarely rapid. Remember; the USSR lasted 80 years.
Manufactured Hysteria
The manufactured hysteria over Covid-19 is being used to extend the life of this dying economic system through what is being sold to an unsuspecting public as “The Great Reset”.
Trendlines
The ESG trend (read this, this, this and this if you’re not up to speed) is part of this “Great Reset” package. It is simply Marxism in new packaging, with an enormous marketing budget.
It’s now dressed up with buzz words such as “sustainability”, “inclusivity” and “equality” and the now much promoted “build back better“.
Strong Narratives
In order to fool convince people, strong narratives are required.
All have been building for years now and one such part of this Marxist agenda is of course “man made climate change”. This has been a tried and tested model.
It was originally labeled as Global Warming, but when the absurdity and inability to pretend it existed in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary (no warming), the buzz word was neatly transitioned to Climate Change.
Importantly, it allows for the instilling of terror in a populace… and once sufficiently terrorised, people are incredibly malleable.
We have been here before.
Too many exhibits but here is a taste for those who can’t recall…
Like this…
And this beauty…
Despite all this, we can now expect “climate lockdowns”.
If you think I’m joking, you’ve clearly not been paying attention.
Charles MacKay the author of “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds” made the following astute observation after studying and documenting follies, manias, popular delusions and sheer madness exhibited by crowds.
The Great Reset; like climate change, extinction rebellion, planetary crisis, green revolution, and now the Covid hoax, are being promoted in order to distract, terrify, and provide justification for greater authoritarian control as the financial edifice crumbles.
All are built on flimsy, junk science produced by dishonest political hacks on the Government payroll, and spoon fed to the public via mass propaganda.
The reasons for these are twofold.
One [1] is to build a protective wall around themselves (as starving, angry masses can become unruly to deal with) and the other [2] is that we are witness to a vain attempt to dramatically slow the consumption of natural resources (lockdowns on air travel and consumer travel) and therefore extend the lifetime of the current system.
It may prove “stimulatory” for a very short while (massive capital being poured into “green energy”) and provide a short term reprieve from the inevitable, but ultimately won’t address the bottom-line problem and will only delay the inevitable.
How long that takes is up for debate.
…
Regardless, it is known that the system cannot continue…
…and so…
…we are living through the attempt to self demolition, with the intent that those in control will be able to rebuild and do so with even greater control.
The collapse of the Western financial system – and ultimately the Western civilization – is the main reasons for this forecast.
Covid is designed as an excuse to try resist this collapse and retain power. It won’t work.
Western Bloc societies, drunk on extreme liberalism, are unable to deal with any real hardship.
So far, the Covid death toll is roughly 2 million people, if we’re being generous.
If we are to add back all those flu and heart disease deaths which have miraculously disappeared then certainly the figure is significantly less.
The risk is clearly not from Covid, as even the most naïve and gullible using rudimentary math will quickly find.
The Actual Risks
The actual risk – the risk that you should be concerned with – is from the Marxist Oligarchy Class takeover we are living through and its ultimate probabilities.
What is now certain is that the economic crisis due to the lockdowns will cause far more deaths than the virus worldwide.
“Globally, the lockdown measures have increased the number of people at risk of starvation to 1.1 billion, and they are putting at risk millions of lives,”Leading epidemiologist Dr. John Ioannidis of Stanford University
“This year has seen a perfect storm that has left 270 million people facing crisis levels of food shortages. That is double the number of people needing immediate assistance this time last year.”Caoimhe de Barra, CEO, Trócaire
And creating untold misery:
“I think that the cost to our nation in continuing to keep these schools closed is substantial, and I’m hopeful that resources that are necessary can be made available… But there has been another cost that we’ve seen, particularly in high schools. We’re seeing, sadly, far greater suicides now than we are deaths from COVID. We’re seeing far greater deaths from drug overdose that are above excess that we had as background than we are seeing the deaths from COVID.”Dr. Robert Redfield, CDC Director
Suicide rates in Australia are forecast to rise by up to 50 per cent due to the economic and social impacts of the coronavirus and tipped to outstrip deaths from the pandemic by up to 10 times.Australian Medical Association modelling, The Australian
My family would 100 percent starve if I don’t beg. What else can I do to feed them when there is no work?Alireza Yousufi, 41, Kabul, talking to the Washington Times
Furthermore, lockdowns will not end.
They will be brought back like a tool, at any time, for any purpose.
American-style Democracy is over.
…
This year will see elections in multiple western countries. We expect to see any opposition to the elites now in power being quashed under “health restrictions”.
Free and fair elections are finished.
The obvious political campaigning that would oppose “The Great Reset” will be made illegal under new laws already implemented.
What’s more is that the “sustainability agenda” which is the “Green Deal” dressed up in different pants, is now being implemented.
It will bring about an astonishing fall in the standards of living, skyrocketing poverty, starvation, stagflation and an acceleration of the breakdown of civil society.
Holding this all together will require a level of authoritarianism few can imagine.
This is being rolled out ahead of time.
They (the oligarchy) know what is coming and are prepared for it.
The populace are still largely ignorant, optimistic, gullible and completely unprepared for it.
The public is unprepared for the consequences of the sustainability agenda – environmental devastation, skyrocketing poverty, starvation, stagflation and an accelerated breakdown of civil society.
…
This persistent and ongoing tide of “woke mob” led politics is going to render the Western Bloc Anglo-Western social and cultural institutions impotent.
The rule of law is being manipulated to preference society’s rights over individual rights.
Evidence, reason and rationality are running headlong into a wall of “cancel culture“, as education and science is being replaced by selected procedural methods.
In effect, the civil structure on which the West was built is being ripped to shreds before our eyes.
We can safely say that much of the Western world today is in second world status, descending rapidly into third world status, masked mostly by the efficiencies of globalisation built over decades that is now reversing (as I recently presented here).
Britain, a former beacon of law and order, is now under martial law with citizens being beaten and imprisoned for visiting their loved ones or going to the gym.
The push towards mass vaccinating the populace via coercion, propaganda and manipulation is in full swing.
“Health Impact Events” and deaths from these experimental unorthodox mRNA vaccines are already mounting and the campaign to suppress the truth is becoming increasingly draconian.
The extent of the economic damage done is already largely incalculable, but already exceeds that of the great depression by at least a factor of 2.
It grows exponentially with each day.
Britain is not unique, as the same is true albeit to a lesser extent for all of the Western Bloc.
The physical infrastructure still remains, but this masks the underlying rot.
Just as an abandoned building in the tropics left uncared for is overtaken by the jungle, this existing infrastructure will slowly, then rapidly deteriorate.
At that point the physical decay and poverty will mirror the intellectual, moral and social decay, and it will finally become visually apparent.
Within a decade, many cities in the West will be unrecognisable.
This is the future of those following The Great Reset, namely Western democracies.
…
The Western economic system has been held together by debt.
After decades of not allowing true busts to happen and kicking the can down the road, we’ve reached the inevitable…
…dead end.
The bond market is no longer functioning.
The vast amount of debt is now bought by the Central Banks themselves, and fully 100% of secondary issuance is owned by the Central banks (EU).
This was done in a bid to hold down the cost of borrowing, while simultaneously being able to print more dollars.
Debt forgiveness is coming.
In a last ditch attempt to detonate the existing system and replace it, the elimination of public debt will be conducted.
It will be the largest, most egregious theft in living memory and millions of people will become impoverished overnight.
This will also coincide with a Digital Central Bank Currency unit tied to UBI (Universal Basic Income).
It will usher in a level of control and enslavement that will be total.
China’s social credit system is the (supposed) model. For more depth go read the IMF and WEF’s own papers on the topic.
It won’t matter, as debt repudiation will not work.
It will likely signify the final nail in the Western Bloc led system’s coffin.
…
When analysing historical data, various systems of governance, and the societies being governed, it is instructive to note that the experience with the Soviet system implemented by the Bolsheviks was quite different to what lies ahead for the West.
Soviet society at the time was far more resilient than Western societies are today.
This was both as [1] a consequence of strong family structures and largely mono ethnic culture, as well as [2] the fact that the preceding wars fought by the soviet population had hardened society to deal with social, and economic hardships.
This is the polar opposite of Western society today, where society is outraged if someone is “misgendered” or if a “person of insufficient colour” makes a burrito (cultural appropriation).
To think that such a culture can sustain itself is beyond laughable.
Three years ago, we forecast that if this wasn’t stopped the west risked descending into tyranny.
We believe it is now too late.
Western societies today sport records in the following:
They are THE most diverse ever,
They are more multicultural than at any time
They are the most personally indebted
Their governments are the most indebted
They experience the highest standards of living
The first two points are important since, in times of economic prosperity multiculturalism and diversity bring creativity, innovation and expansion.
But in times of economic contraction, people turn tribal.
This is exacerbated when they are turned against each other, as is the case across the western world (white privilege, stakeholder equity, toxic masculinity, gender identity).
The last point is important, since they are the least resilient and will suffer the most. Western societies don’t know hardship and when even a minor shock hits, the belief is that not only can the state provide for all who are disadvantaged, but that it should.
This is why they will borrow and print. Society will literally demand it.
Evidence of Western societies lack of resilience is to be found in the degenerate behaviour being disguised as virtue.
We see it in “cancel culture”, hate speech laws, censorship of any apposing views – and now even questions, hijacking of science to fit a narrative (Covid and Climate change being the most aggressively used) and attempts to rewrite history in favour of the perpetually oppressed.
These are all signs of this crumbling system.
Not Like the USSR
To put this into context, when the Bolsheviks took over and created the Soviet system, ten percent of the population died.
Some from outright slaughter, some in Gulags, others from poverty.
The new age Bolsheviks are now in power in the West and this will likely be worse, possibly much worse for the reasons mentioned above.
None of this takes into account the effects of the experimental drugs being used on populations.
The ultimate result; the populations of these countries will decline.
The combination of deaths and migration will ensure this.
The Second and Third World countries
Right now, the jury is largely out on those countries we have formerly termed “second” and “third” world.
We are watching them closely.
Those who follow Western powers and The Great Reset, tying themselves economically and politically to them, will suffer accordingly with civil strife prevalent.
With the collapse of their economic systems, so too will the power vacuum left be filled.
This in itself could become a hair trigger on an international scale.
We have already seen the chess pieces on the board shifting.
China taking Hong Kong (HK was always part of China. China did not “take” HK in so much as it regained control over one of it’s cities. -MM) was a result of the early inning of this power vacuum. China took HK because it could. So much has happened in such a short period of time that has weakened the Western system that it is now simply a matter of time before more power plays are had on the international stage.
The West will experience intensified secessionist movements, which are likely to result this time in violence, as the system becomes authoritarian in a mad bid to hold things together.
It remains highly unlikely that the United States remain “United”.
The term “Domestic Terrorism” will become the norm as anyone diverging from the narrative will find themselves quickly deemed a “terrorist”.
Watch for it.
Second and third world countries – provided they choose NOT to ally themselves to the sinking Western ship – are better positioned to deal with hardship than the Western democracies.
Social safety nets in these countries are effectively decentralized; they are the family unit.
The requirement – and indeed ability – of their governments to “fix” the problems are lacking, and so they won’t.
Those second and third world countries that choose not to follow the West will be following Russia and China, neither of which will follow The Great Reset.
They cannot, as their power structures require a wholly different approach.
They are ideologically opposed to The Great Reset and so cannot be bought as easily as the Western powers have been. This is for both economic, but also cultural and ideological reasons.
Countries that tie themselves to these two will form the new makeup of the post Western world.
This is unfolding now, and is easily seen if you’re paying attention.
At $7.1 trillion, the combined market cap of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google is greater than the GDP of every country in the world with the exception of the US and China.
It is not a coincidence that every single one of these companies has been an avid and enthusiastic supporter of lockdowns.
They are more powerful than many governments, and as we’ve just seen in the US, they are exerting immense political influence.
In the Western system, the corporate elites dictate government policy and they are in the process of attempting to gather as much power as possible to ensure their own survival, and indeed usher in an entirely new system.
They are calling it “The Great Reset”.
Backing this great reset is the grand con masquerading as “philanthropy”.
For instance, Bill Gates wealth has doubled from $54 billion to $105 billion since he started his vaccine agenda, under this carefully constructed guise of “philanthropy” whilst killing thousands, injuring millions and rendering thousands infertile (read this and this for a sample).
“First we got population. The world today has 6.8 billion people. That’s headed up to about 9 billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.”Bill Gates, Ted2010 Conference, emphasis ours
Those paying attention might also raise an eyebrow at his recent foray into disaster capitalism, as the measures he championed for covid-19 have allowed him to become the US’ largest farmland owner and enter a bidding war to buy Signature Aviation, the world’s largest private jet operator.
Otherwise known as “key strategic assets” in a world of government controlled movement and supply chains.
Dangerous megalomaniacs with socialist tendencies who are risking the entirety of humanity with a dangerous, unproven, unnecessary and rushed to market Covid vaccine for a falsified pandemic to further their interests is the stark reality of our current situation.
This is not a movie, or a story.
It is fact.
Geopolitics and Military
The situation between the three great powers has changed dramatically.
The only relevant achievement of the Western powers during the past decade has been the formation of a strategic alliance, both military and economic, between Russia and China.
The relationship between the United States and ASEAN was dealt a serious blow under the Obama administration. Nothing since has been done to repair this and instead China has grown its influence under the Belt and Road initiative.
US influence is now at an all time low…
… and about to get worse.
Into this void has stepped China.
The implementation of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which has created the world’s largest trading block, is a stark reminder of just how rapidly Western influence is collapsing.
It is instructive to note that neither the EU nor the US are party to RCEP.
Moving to Europe and Russia; This partnership is now in tatters as the Kremlin has finally had enough and realised there is little to gain from engagement. The EU never wanted a partnership, but rather a vassal EU state.
For the same reasons that Russia will not pursue The Great Reset, Russia was never going to acquiesce to the EU’s agenda.
This was always the most probable outcome, but the Covid scam, and the EU’s pushing its “Sustainability agenda” which wraps neatly into The Great Reset, is not in Russia’s interests.
If there ever was any doubts as to what would happen with this partnership these have now been conclusively put to rest.
There isn’t and will not be any partnership.
Both Russia and China have been preparing for a major war since 2008, and China has been increasing its military capabilities for the last 20 years. Russia has now completely de-dollarised its economy, built a hoard of gold, and has one of the most stable balance sheets of any sovereign.
They are coincidentally self sufficient in both food and energy, both of which are about to become absolutely critical. As I’ve said many times before:
You don’t have any political security if you don’t have energy security.
Western powers are in the process of virtue signalling away their energy security for brownie points at the Woke table. Whether by intent, ignorance or malice they are ceding autonomy.
Their enemies will use this against them.
Right now, their enemies need not lift a finger, as watching your enemy commit suicide is both cheaper, easier and likely a more gratifying experience.
…
The period of time post World War 2 is that which is in the memory of people today. I would suggest a longer timeframe is required to adequately assess the risks in front of us today.
War is more the norm than most realise.
The entire global world order has been underpinned by American economic, military (especially the Navy) prowess. That order is collapsing right now and at great speed.
This power vacuum WILL be filled.
As of this writing, not one in one hundred in the Western system believes that anything other than a Western led system will lead.
The brainwashing of individuals is complete, and not only do the majority believe the West holds the moral high ground, but they believe in their technological superiority.
This hubris has allowed them to entirely ignore what is taking place around them. We see it with the rise of the supremacy of the emotional arguments over the rational ones (2+2=4 = racist) which are ignored or deprecated.
Rational, objective, evidence based thinking is now uniformly categorised as “conspiracy theory”, and any questioning of the spoon fed narrative is ridiculed and then “canceled”.
That mindset can play a key role in the upcoming catastrophic events.
At least in the Soviet system, the silent majority of the people were aware of the fallacies they were fed. They knew they were bunkum and paid lip service to them in order to survive.
In the West however, we can see that absurd claims are actually completely believed.
Over the course of the 2020s it will become obvious that the new model (The Great Reset) is failing.
This will be taking place while the Russia-China block outperforms.
…
This relative and obvious divergence may lead to war, purely out of desperation (they created a fake pandemic and fake climate alarm so don’t discount a war for whatever reason).
The last piece of hegemonic power is of course… nuclear weapons.
It may be tempting to snatch victory from assured defeat when one has such power in hand.
The historians among readers will understand why we are rushing towards what may be the worlds first nuclear war.
Such a war will not halt the collapse of the western financial, and hence political system. It may just turn it into one where the casualties are counted in the billions.
We hope that such a catastrophe can be avoided.
Right now, unless the technocrats at the WEF are not halted in their tracks, the probability of this falls daily.
‘NATO officials have thumbed their noses at Putin’s concern with Russia’s security. Trump’s National Security Advisor and neocon warmonger John Bolton encourages more provocation of Russia, which as Putin has made clear will result in war.
‘Clearly as 2021 comes to an end, there is no intelligence to be found anywhere in the Western World as all vie to show how tough they are with Russia.
‘When Putin says Russia has nowhere left to which to retreat, he is telling the idiot West that Russia has reached the extent of its ability to avoid war. “We simply have no room to retreat” means Russia has done all she can do to avoid war and now the Americans must get off Russia’s doorstep.
‘Putin is relying on Biden to show awareness and responsibility and to work for peace by acknowledging Russia’s legitimate security concern. But what if Biden is just a figurehead, and the shots are called by the military/security complex who will go for profits despite the risk that Putin will not back down?
‘What if Washington’s concern is limited to destabilizing Russia in the interest of US hegemony and Russia’s security is precisely what Washington intends to undermine, not secure.
‘ . . .
‘2022 could . . . be the year the Western world comes to an end in nuclear war.’
Asia is VERY SERIOUS.
Conclusions
Here, we look at how the investor class are viewing the chaos in the United States. Obviously, it’s very American centric. And they don’t really understand what is going outside of the ‘States. Except to say that it’s really not going in the same direction as the Western Bloc.
I look at things in a far simpler manner.
Let’s use the Western Bloc’s insistence in “The Great Reset” and the requirement that everyone takes the mRNA injections.
Follow what the Western Bloc is doing.
Look at what the Deagal report suggests…
Now…
Follow what the United Asia Bloc is doing.
In their insistence that nations and societies must be socially stable, use tried and true medical and vaccination protocols… what does the Deagal Group say…
Obviously the trends are all approaching unity.
The Western Bloc is racing towards collapse on a number of fronts. This is accelerating with the insistance of mandatory compliance with mRNA injections, uncontrolled military spending which is causing enormus google-sized bubbles.
Remote viewing of the future is strongly suggestive of…
A massive die-off of populations in the Western Bloc.
A restructuring of the geographic boundaries of many Western Bloc nations.
A massive readjustment of the economic and financial situation within those nations.
Turmoil, chaos, and discomfort.
While it is obvious that Asia, and most of the rest of the world will fare much better. They will enjoy strong economies, lush and vibrant cities, and a calm and good lifestyle.
But then you all know about this, don’t you? I’ve covered it extensively.
The big question mark is whether the Western Bloc will take the entire globe down with it as it collapses. To that I have no clear answers.
All indicators point to that senario is indeed building up towards a climax.
[1] Trump launched war in South China Sea
Here’s a youtube video about what the Taiwanese people think.
It failed miserably.
And cost the Military leadership their jobs, and Trump his Presidency.
The eight battle assault carriers steamed back to the United States without incident. Something "spooked them". What it was is not clear, and certainly not reported.
The Tit-for-tat VTOL carrier fires were very illustrative.
First, the USA torches the Chinese Type-075 aircraft carrier in April 2020 in Shanghai, then China torches the USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego in July 2020.
[2] Trump launched Bio-Weapons
Numerous deaths. Mostly American.
But the objectives were not realized. China was not suppressed. Iran did not collapse. Instead, it boomeranged back to the West and the nations are now dealing with the "Covid hoax", and "mRNA Vaxx". Which are creating a very dangerous situation.
[3] Biden placing nuclear delivery systems near China
Terribly provocative.
It is signing the death warrants for many Australians, and Japanese. In process, but will NOT end well.
[4] Biden placing nuclear delivery systems near Russia
Terribly provicative.
Resulted in Putin making an ultimatum after Russian nuclear boomer subs surrounded the United States.
Supposedly there is going to be a meeting between Putin and Biden. The USA is going to use it for propiganda purposes, unaware just how serious the situation is.
I will tell you all; the knife is pointed at the throat of the United States right now. And make no mistake, this is coordinated with the Chinese.
[5] Color revolution in Kazakhstan.
A great you-tube video by a US Marine discussing how this was a US sponsored event.
The revolution is over.
Took a decade to plan and put systems in place. It all collapsed within three days when the CSTO, led by Russia, treated it as a defacto military invasion. They hit hard. All of the participants are either killed or undergoing torture / information extraction.
So what’s next?
Well, that’s a good question. No one really knows. Not really. From my side, The Commander says that “anything is possible”, but they are aiming for “little bads” instead of “big bads”.
The Western Bloc elites are lunitic, drug riddled morons. They have no idea what’s coming their way unless they STOP all this nonsense. Collectively they are acting like a rabid dog, and the rest of the world pretty much called the “Animal Control Officers” and they ahve arrived with shotguns to kill the crazy beast.
Will they shoot? Will the rabid dog lurch and hurt a young baby, mangle a little old lady, or kill a cat? It’s a tense time.
Yes, the next decade from 2022 through 2032 will be quite different.
But…
But…
Once the tense time (dealing with the rabid crazy Western Bloc leadership) is over, we can expect a far, far better overall quality of life all over the globe. Those living in the smaller rural American communities will do better than those in the cities. In general, those living outside of the Western Bloc nations will be doing better than those inside of it. These are general rules with tons of exceptions.
In all cases…
Obtain multiple skills to increase your value outside of a corporate environment.
Become active in your community.
Center your consciousness using Hemi-sync technology.
Conduct prayer affirmations.
Monitor your gravitational influence situation with fate forecasting.
Be the Rufus. Create a bubble of kindness around you.
Some extra suggestions to improve your life…
Replace all lighting in your house with “natural light” bulbs / LEDs.
Eat more fish.
Invite friends over for a dinner at your home or in a restrurant.
Spend some time alone. Everyone needs to have some time to themselves.
Severely cut down on your internet and social media intake.
Severely cut down on fast food, and corporate chain-brand meals.
Exercise, and get a lot of air. Nature, and water and airflow are important.
The chances are that if you follow these simple basic suggestions that you all will exit 2032 in great shape, prosperous, and happier than when you entered it.
I believe in you.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning 2. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
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Sometimes when something is too good to be true, it actually is.
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.
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.
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.
An American Diner.
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 an order.
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.
A cup of “Joe” in an American diner.
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,
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van $2,000,000.00 (Twee miljoen Amerikaanse dollars). Ons moedig jou
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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
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(Coivd-19). Number: SMLL / 2021 / -968091 / 21, which won the 1st
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(Two million United States dollars). We encourage you to contact your
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Mr. Brian Luke
Email: usalotery2@gmail.com
Regards,
Mr. Williams Poker.
International Lottery (Coordinator).
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my Happiness Index.
Like, well for instance, the kinds of books that are being published these days inside of America.
Obliviously, the USA is not a very healthy place.
How and why do you think the United States is spending trillions of dollars it does not have, on trivialities such as social re-engineering, and wars in foreign lands? It’s because the USA has forced the world to conduct international trade using American and European banks. This system of banks is known as SWIFT and is the root behind all the trouble and problems plaguing the world today.
The system takes a million tiny bites out of every financial transaction in the world, and that money is used to finance the enormous American economy, and mindless, and uncontrolled spending.
Well, guess what?
Yep. This dominance of SWIFT is coming to an end. And the rest of the world is eagerly looking forward to it happening. And with it, will be the harsh slap of reality when the ACTUAL value, and the actual worth of American money settles in place.
Some predict a catastrophic collapse.
I don’t.
Instead, I see a swift contraction of all things financial, and the economy will follow suit. If it is managed by a talented and alert bureaucracy, then it will be managed well. Otherwise, it will be a frightening time, and a time where the most unreasonable notions will enter the minds of the American leadership.
But first, let’s review…
[1] America has no REAL democracy
It is instead an oligarchy of selfish and evil corporations that use the American people as cattle to serve them. video 9MB
[2] America Believes that it owns 1/3 of the world
The facts speak for you cannot deny this truth, and the rest of the world is mighty pissed off about it. video 8MB
[3] America is a Military Empire where war is an every-day event
And that might be just fine for blowing up mud huts, and strafing goats and sheep, but it’s really dangerous when the USA tries to bully the BIG players. And that is exactly what is going on. Not only with military threat but hybrid-war at all levels. This is pissing them off to no end. video 8MB
[4] Everyone is suffering because of these facts.
Maybe the ultra-rich are happy, and their enablers are, but the rest of the world is hurting, and it is manifesting in horrible scenes throughout the United States. video 6MB
[5] The wealthy has sucked America bone dry.
How can a nation that is willing to spend trillions of dollars destroying other nations cannot provide food, shelter and health care for it’s own citizens? What is wrong with the system? Because it is broken very, very badly. It is NOT worthy of saving. video 4.7MB
Let’s talk about changing the system…
Well, the wealthy oligarchy in America doesn’t want to change. So “outsiders” will need to force the changes themselves. Thus this…
Washington hawks float expelling Russia from SWIFT but Moscow’s budding geo-economic alliance with Beijing will keep the money flowing
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin spent an hour and 14 minutes in a video conversation on Wednesday. Geopolitically, paving the way for 2022, this is the one that really matters – much more than Putin-Biden a week ago.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov, who generally carefully measures his words, had previously hinted that this exchange would be “extremely important.”
It was obvious the two leaders would not only exchange information about the natural gas pipeline Power of Siberia 2. But Peskov was referring to prime time geopolitics: how Russia-China would be coordinating their countercoups against the hybrid war/Cold War 2.0 combo deployed by the US and its allies.
While no substantial leaks were expected from the 37th meeting between Xi and Putin since 2013 (they will meet again in person in February 2022, at the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics), Assistant to the President for Foreign Policy Yuri Ushakov did manage to succinctly deliver at least two serious bits of information.
These are the highlights of the call:
Moscow will inform Beijing about the progress, or lack thereof, in negotiations with the US/NATO on security guarantees for Russia.
Beijing supports Moscow’s demands on US/NATO for these security guarantees.
Putin and Xi agreed to create an “independent financial structure for trade operations that could not be influenced by other countries.” Diplomatic sources, off the record, say the structure may be announced by a joint summit in late 2022.
They discussed the Biden-hosted “Summit for Democracy,” concluding it was counterproductive and imposed new dividing lines.
Of all of the above, the third point is the real game-changer – already in the works for a few years now, and gaining definitive momentum after Washington hawks of the Victoria “F**k the EU” Nuland kind recently floated the idea of expelling Russia from SWIFT – the vast messaging network used by banks and other financial institutions to make money transfer instructions – as the ultimate sanctions package for the non-invasion of Ukraine.
Putin and Xi once again discussed one of their key themes in bilaterals and BRICS meetings: the need to keep increasing the share of the yuan and ruble in mutual settlements – bypassing the US dollar – and opening new stock market avenues for Russian and Chinese investors.
Bypassing a SWIFT mechanism “influenced by third counties” then becomes a must. Ushakov diplomatically put it as “the need to intensify efforts to form an independent financial infrastructure to service trade operations between Russia and China.”
Russian energy businesses, from Gazprom to Rosneft, know all there is to know not only about US threats but also about the negative effects of the tsunami of US dollars flooding the global economy via the Fed’s quantitative easing.
This Russia-China drive is yet another dimension of geoeconomic, geostrategic and demographic power rapidly shifting towards Eurasia and possibly foreshadowing the advent of a new world system related to other matters Putin-Xi certainly discussed: the interconnection of Belt and Road with the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), the expanded reach of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the coming Chinese presidency of BRICS in 2022.
The US – with US$30 trillion in debt, 236% of its militarized GDP – is virtually bankrupt. Russia-China have already experimented with their alternative payment systems, which will inevitably integrate.
The most important banks in both countries will adopt the system – as well as banks across Eurasia doing business with them, and then vast swaths of the Global South. SWIFT, in the long run, will be used only in exceptional cases if China and Russia have their way.
Maidan redux
Now to the heart of the geopolitical puzzle.
Ushakov confirmed that the Russian Federation has submitted proposals on security guarantees to the US. As Putin himself had confirmed even before talking to Xi, it’s all about “indivisible security”: a mechanism that has been enshrined all across the territory of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe since a 1975 summit in Helsinki.
Predictably, under orders of the powers that be, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg already rejected it.
Both Xi and Putin clearly identify how Team Biden is deploying a strategic polarization gambit under good old divide-and-rule. The wishful thinking at play is to build a pro-American bloc – with participants ranging from the UK and Australia to Israel and Saudi Arabia – to “isolate” Russia-China.
That’s what’s behind the narrative thunderously splashed non-stop all across the West – to which Biden’s Summit for Democracy was also tied. Taiwan is being manipulated against Beijing while Ukraine is being literally weaponized against Russia. “China aggression” meets “Russian aggression.”
Beijing has not fallen into the trap but has asserted at different levels that Taiwan will eventually be integrated into the mainland motherland, without any ludicrous “invasion.” And the wishful thinking that massive American pressure will lead to cracks inside the Chinese Communist Party is also likely generating zero traction.
Ukraine is a much more volatile proposition: a dysfunctional nightmare of systemic instability, widespread corruption, shady oligarchic entanglements and poverty.
Washington still follows the Zbigniew Brzezinski-concocted Maidan plan laid out for cookie distributor Nuland in 2014. Yet seven years later, no American “strategist” managed to understand why Russia would fail to invade Ukraine, which has been part of Russia for centuries.
For these “strategists”, it’s imperative that Russia faces a second Vietnam, after Afghanistan in the 1980s. Well, it’s not going to happen because Moscow has no interest whatsoever in “invading” Ukraine.
It does get more complicated. The ultimate fear dictating all US foreign policy since the early 20th century is the possibility of Germany clinching a new version of Bismarck’s 1887 Reinsurance Treaty with Russia.
Add China to the combination and these three actors are able to control just about the entire Eurasian landmass. Updating Mackinder, the US would then be turned into a geopolitically irrelevant island.
Putin-Xi may have examined not only how the imperial hybrid war tactics against them are floundering against them, as well as how the tactics are dragging Europe further into the abyss of irrelevance.
“The EU has virtually ruptured its relations with both Russia and China – at the same time. Washington’s hawks wanted it. A ‘European Brzezinski’ certainly would have advised the EU differently: never lose both in tandem – you are never that powerful.”
No wonder the leadership in Moscow-Beijing can’t take anyone in Brussels seriously – be it assorted NATO chihuahuas or the spectacularly incompetent Ursula von der Leyen at the European Commission.
A faint ray of light is that Paris and Berlin, unlike the Russophobic Poland and the Baltic fringe, at least prefer having some sort of negotiation with Moscow over Ukraine as opposed to slapping on extra sanctions.
Now imagine Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov explaining the ABCs of foreign policy to a clueless Annalena “Grune” Baerbock, now posing as German foreign minister while displaying a fresh mix of incompetence and aggressiveness. She actually placed the phone call.
Lavrov had to meticulously explain the consequences of NATO expansion; the Minsk agreement; and how Berlin should exercise its right to pressure Kiev to respect Minsk.
No leaks about it should be expected from Ushakov. But it’s fair to imagine that with “partners” like the US, NATO and the EU, Xi and Putin should conclude that China and Russia don’t even need enemies.
Big Big News
Next up is a second (!) excellent piece by Pepe Escobar giving details on the close collaboration between the Russian SPFSand the Chinese CIPS. It spells the doom for SWIFT.
SPFS = System for Transfert of Financial Messaging
CIPS = Cross-border Interbank Payment System
Not to mention the global geopolitical and geo-economical consequences examined in Escobar’s article.
Just to remind some relevant key moments :
1996
The Shanghai 5 created to solve some border problems & working together against terrorism. President Jiang Zemin & President Boris Yeltsine decided for cooperation in the post-Soviet space. Sergey Primakov played a key role.
The five are : China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan.
2000
President Vladimir Vladimirovitch Putin began to rule Russia.
2001
Uzbekistan joined and the group got a new name : Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) I also called “Sovereigns’ Coalition Organization.” Then, September 11, 2001 : 9-11 (NYC) occurred.
December 11, 2001
China is accepted into the World Trade Organization (WTO).
2007
Putin’s historic speech in Munich on American and NATO’s meddlings.
2010-2015
The CIA network in China decapitated. The endeavor started during the last 2 years of President Hu Jintao (2002-2012) and completed under President Xi Jinping.
2012
Iran excluded from using SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications).
November 2012
President Xi Jinping began to rule China
2013
Xi & Putin began their friendship and fruitful collaboration. Between 2013 and the last virtual Summit on December 15, 2021, they met 37 times (an average of ~ 4 times a year). They will meet again in February 2022 at the beginning of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
End of 2013
The Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) announced by President Xi Jinping first in Astana (for the Eurasian Landbridge) and in Jakarta (for the Maritime Silk Roads)
Feb 2014
The Maidan color revolution in Ukraine. Return of Crimea to Russia just after the Sochi Olympic Games.
2014
Leviathanesque gas deal between China & Russia.
February 2015
Minsk Accords between Kiev & the autonomous Republics of Donetz & Luhansk
Russia signed too as a witness.
July 2015
JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) signed by Iran, the US, Russia, China, the UK, France. and Germany. Iran can then use again the SWIFT system.
June 2017
India & Pakistan welcomed together at the historic Astana Summit into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization aka the Sovereigns’ Coalition Organization (SCO).
2018
Iran excluded a second time from the SWIFT system.
March 1st, 2018
Vladimir Putin announced to the world the new Russian weapons, including hypersonic missiles. (Avangard, Kinzhal, Poseidon, Burevestnik, Sarmat, etc.). Nuclear parity is restored.
Putin:"They did not listen to us then. Listen up now !"
March 26, 2018
The Petro-yuan was created at the Shanghai Stock Exchange. It was a Monday.
October 1st, 2019
Celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.
January 7, 2020
Iranian General Qasem Soleimani murdered on January 7 by the US government.
2020
The Common Prosperity Initiative started in China. It is a concept created by His Excellency State Councillor Mr. Wang Huning, advisor to Presidents Jiang Zemin (1989-2002), Hu Jintao & Xi Jinping.
November 2020
The Chinese government announced the end of extreme poverty in China.
July 2021
Celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
August 2021
China tested a hypersonic gliding vehicle.
August 15, 2021
Fall of Kabul. The invasion & occupation of Afghanistan by the US lasted practically 20 years. Named “Operation Enduring Freedom” started on October 7, 2001.
September 2021
Safe return to Earth of the 3 taikonauts after 3 months living in the Chinese Space Station Tian Gong (Heavenly Palace)
September 2021
Iran accepted as full member of the SCO at the historic Dushanbe Summit (Tajikistan).
October 2021
A second crew of 3 taikonauts reached the Chinese Space Station including the first Chinese female taikonauts Miss Wang. They should be back to Earth in April 2022.
December 2021 (second week)
Immensely fruitful Putin’s visit to India, concluding many deals with Modi,
contributing to Eurasian Integration.
December 15, 2021
During a virtual Summit (lasting one hour & fourteen minutes),, President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping agreed to establish a financial platform independent of SWIFT. They confirmed closer collaboration within the framework of the already solid Sino-Russian Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination for a New Era.
THE SCO (WITH AT ITS CORE RUSSIA & CHINA) IS THE ONLY GROUP ON EARTH HAVING THE UNWAVERING INTENTION, THE DETERMINATION, THE RESOURCES, THE BRAINS, THE STAMINA, THE ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS, THE PATIENCE, THE DIPLOMATIC NETWORK, THE WEAPONS AND THE QUALITY LEADERSHIP ENABLING THEM TO DEAL WITH THE EVIL & MADLY HUBRISTIC KFC-AZAEL (Kakistocratic Feudal Conglomerate of the Anglo-Zio-American EstabLishment) aka the PBGC (Psychopathic Barbarian Genocidal Crusaders) OR SIMPLY THE CRUSADERS.
In French, the KFC-AZAEL is called le CaCA. ("Kakistocratique" in French can also be written "Cacocratique"), hence le CaCA is for "le Caco-Conglomérat Anglo-Siono-Américain")
Putin and Xi plot their SWIFT escape
Russia and China’s announcement of an independent financial trading platform will free nations under US sanctions from western intrusion into their commercial activities.
Vladimir Putin got straight to the point. At the opening of his one hour and fourteen minute video conversation with Xi Jinping on 15 December, he described Russia-China relations as “an example of genuine inter-state cooperation in the 21st century.”
Their myriad levels of cooperation have been known for years now – from trade, oil and gas, finance, aerospace and the fight against Covid-19, to the progressive interconnection of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU).
But now the stage was set for the announcement of a serious counter-move in their carefully coordinated ballet opposing the relentless Hybrid War/Cold War 2.0 combo deployed by Empire.
As Assistant to the President for Foreign Policy Yuri Ushakov succinctly explained, Putin and Xi agreed to create an “independent financial structure for trade operations that could not be influenced by other countries.”
Diplomatic sources, off the record, confirmed the structure may be announced by a joint summit before the end of 2022.
This is a stunning game-changer in more ways than one. It had been extensively discussed in previous bilaterals and in preparations for BRICS summits – mostly centered on increasing the share of yuan and rubles in Russia-China settlements, bypassing the US dollar, and opening new stock market options for Russian and Chinese investors.
Now we’ve come to the crunch. And the catalyzing event was none other than US hawks floating the – financially nuclear – idea of expelling Russia from SWIFT, the messaging network used by 11,000+ banks in over 200 countries, as well as financial institutions, for rapid money transfers worldwide.
Cutting off Russia from SWIFT would be part of a harsh new sanctions package developed in response to an ‘invasion’ of Ukraine that will never happen – mainly because the only ones praying for it are professional NATO warmongers.
Profiting from a strategic blunder
Once again, an American strategic blunder offers the Russia-China self-described “comprehensive strategic partnership” the chance to advance their coordination.
Ushakov put it very diplomatically: it’s time to bypass a SWIFT mechanism “influenced by third countries” to form “an independent financial structure.”
That amounts to a serious game-changer for the entire Global South – as scores of nations yearn to be released from a de facto US dollar dictatorship, complete with recurring Fed quantitative easing circus packages.
Russia and China have been experimenting with their alternative payment systems for quite a while now: the Russian SPFS (System for Transfer of Financial Messages) and the Chinese CIPS (Cross Border Interbank Payment System).
It won’t be easy, as the most powerful Chinese banks are deep into SWIFT and have expressed their reservations about SPFS. Yet, they will have to inevitably integrate prior to the launch of the new mechanism, possibly in late 2022.
Once the most important Russian and Chinese banks – from Sberbank to the Bank of China – adopt the system, the path opens for other banks across Eurasia and the Global South to join in.
In the long run, SWIFT, prone to non-stop American political interference, will be increasingly marginalized, or restricted to Atlanticist latitudes.
Bypassing the US dollar, on trade and all sorts of financial settlements, is an absolutely central plank of the ever-evolving Russia-China notion of a multipolar world.
The road will be long, of course, especially when it comes to offering a solid counterpoint to the US-controlled global financial system, a maze that includes the humongous investment houses of the BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street variety, with their interlocking shareholding of virtually every major multinational company.
Yet a SWIFT escape will rapidly gain momentum, because it is inextricably linked to a series of developments that Putin-Xi touched upon in their conversation, the most important of which are:
1. The progressive interconnection of BRI and EAEU, offering expanding roles to the BRICS-run New Development Bank (NDB) as well as the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
2. The increasing geopolitical and geo-economic reach of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), especially after the admission of Iran in October.
3. And crucially, the upcoming Chinese presidency of the BRICS in 2022.
China in 2022 will invest deeply in BRICS+. This expanded BRICS club will be linked to a development process that includes:
1. The consolidation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – a massive East Asia trade deal uniting China, the ASEAN 10 and Japan, and South Korea, as well as Australia and New Zealand.
2. The African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA).
3. And the memoranda of understanding signed between the EAEU and MERCOSUR and between the EAEU and ASEAN.
Anchoring West Asia
Yaroslav Lissovolik, one of the world’s leading experts on BRICS+, argues that it’s now time for BRICS+ 2.0, operating in a system that opens “the possibility for bilateral and plurilateral agreements to complement the core network of regional alliances formed by BRICS countries and their respective regional neighbors.”
So if we’re talking about a major qualitative jump in terms of economic development across the Global South, the question is inevitable. What about West Asia?
All these interconnections, plus an escape from SWIFT, will certainly profit the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), arguably the flagship BRI project, to which Beijing plans to annex Afghanistan.
CPEC will be progressively connected to the future Iran-China corridor via Afghanistan, part of the 20 year Iran-China strategic deal in which BRI projects will be prominently featured. Iran and China already trade in yuan and rials, so settlements between Iran and China in a non-SWIFT mechanism will be a given.
What happened to Iran is a classic example of SWIFT becoming hostage of imperial political manipulation. Iranian banks were expelled from SWIFT in 2012, because of pressure from the usual suspects. In 2016, access was restored as part of the JCPOA, clinched in 2015. Yet in 2018, under the Trump administration, Iran was once again cut off from SWIFT.
None of that will ever happen with Iran joining the new Russia-China mechanism.
And that leads us to the interconnection of China’s BRI expansion in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. The reconstruction of Syria may be largely financed via the non-SWIFT mechanism. Same for China buying Iraqi energy. Same for the reconstruction of a Yemen possibly hosting a Chinese-owned port, part of the “string of pearls.”
Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Israel may remain in the US financial sphere of influence, or lack thereof. And even if there is no BRICS nation anchoring West Asia, and no regional integration economic agreement on the horizon, the role of the economic integrator is bound to be eventually played by China.
China will play a similar role to Brazil anchoring MERCOSUR, Russia anchoring the EAEU and South Africa anchoring the SADC/SACU.
Both BRI and the EAEU will get a tremendous boost by bypassing SWIFT. You simply can’t go multipolar if you trade using (devalued) imperial legal tender.
BRI, EAEU and those interlocking economic development agreements, combined with digital technology, will be integrating billions of people in the Global South.
Think of a possible, auspicious future spelling out cheap telecom delivering financial services and world market access, in a non-dollar environment, to all those who have been so far cut off from a truly globalized economy.
…
With that in mind, consider that the rest of the world is already moving away from the USD.
Iran to pay Chinese, Turkish builders in crude, minerals
Iran will pay builders from China and Turkey in crude or minerals rather than cash if they become involved in housing projects in the country, says a member of the country’s Supreme Housing Council.
Ahmad Donyamali said on Saturday that Iran is in talks with Chinese and Turkish construction companies to get them involved in a tiny segment of its massive project to build four million affordable houses in the country in the next four years.
However, Donyamali said that a main condition for working with those companies will be to avoid paying them in cash because of restrictions facing Iran in banking and crude export issues.
“In talks with foreign companies we are seriously discussing the oil barter mechanism and we have declared that the condition for partnership … is that we will not pay any cash,” the official was quoted as saying by semi-official ILNA news agency.
The comments are the latest to come from Iranian government officials about the need to use crude shipments to fund key projects or to pay for imports of basic goods into the country.
The oil barter mechanism has been highlighted as a major instrument to offset the impacts of American sanctions on Iran’s economy, especially since an administration came into office in August on promises that it will seek to neutralize the sanctions.
Donyamali said that Chinese or Turkish builders will have a small share of Iran’s affordable housing project, saying government’s policy will be to award around 90% of the contracts to Iranian companies despite their more expensive bids.
He said paying foreign builders in crude or minerals shipments was not yet final, saying main government departments have to reach a decision on the issue.
Conclusion
2022.
China and Russia will start performing monetary transactions using their SEO based systems. As more and more transactions use the Asian systems, the use of the USD dollar will decrease. That will radically change the transactional value of the US Dollar.
It will start to deflate towards it’s true and actual value.
Within a year or two, 2023 to 2024, the actual and real value of the US dollar will be exposed. The entire world will witness this. This will result in inflation domestically (perhaps hyper-inflation, depending on the financial adroitness of those in Washington DC), and financial consternation in all nations that are fundamentally tied to the US Dollar. There WILL be shock waves in any nation that is not being serious about taking care of their domestic needs.
It will be a “bumpy” time, but not a catastrophic one. Well, at least the measure of discomfort should be well controlled by skilled and talented leadership in the various nations so affected.
How the USA leadership will react to this is anyone’s guess.
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.
This is something that most people never consider. But it’s pretty darn obvious. A group of tornadoes or hurricanes will flood, and destroy hundreds if not thousands of homes in the USA. We would watch the sad pictures, and hear the sad stories and they play over and over, and over on the American news media. Yet, where much larger, much more violent storms and typhoons hit China, the damage is minimal. Why?
In this article we explore the prime culprit. Which is the cheap, cheap, cheap flimsy building materials used throughout American homes today, compared to the stone, cement and steel buildings that are common throughout China.
You see, most of the world does not build “American style” homes. You will not find “McMansions” in Finland, or Russia, or in Australia. You won’t find them in the heart of Africa either. They are a uniquely “American” thing, based on material design, local building codes, and big profit margins.
Tornado strike Late 2021
Tornadoes are fearsome things. I’ve lived through them in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Mississippi and Texas – Louisiana.
A deadly late-season tornado outbreak, the largest and deadliest on record in December, produced catastrophic damage and numerous fatalities across portions of the Southern United States and Ohio Valley from the evening of December 10 to the early morning of December 11, 2021. The event developed as a trough progressed eastward across the United States, interacting with an unseasonably moist and unstable environment across the Mississippi Valley. Tornado activity began in northeastern Arkansas, before progressing into Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
Early estimates suggested that the tornado family—identified by some media outlets as the “Quad-State tornado,” due to the storm’s similar characteristics to the Tri-State tornado that occurred 96 years prior—may have cut a path of up to 250 miles (400 km) across the affected areas. If it had been a single tornado, it would have surpassed the March 18, 1925, tornado event (which carved a 219-mile [352 km] path across Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana) in terms of path length.
Destroyed McMansion.
However, storm surveys found that the path was composed of two distinct EF4 tornadoes, with a break in the damage path over northwestern Obion County, Tennessee. Other tornadic thunderstorms affected portions of eastern Missouri, southern Illinois, West and Middle Tennessee, and Western and Central Kentucky during the late evening into the overnight hours of December 11, including four intense tornadoes that hit Bowling Green, Kentucky; Dresden, Tennessee; Edwardsville, Illinois; and Defiance, Missouri. This included a second supercell and tornado family, which produced an EF3 tornado tracking nearly 123 miles (198 km) in Tennessee and southern Kentucky, as well as numerous tornadoes, including three more rated EF3, throughout southern and central Kentucky.
Another destroyed McMansion
At least 91 people are confirmed to have been killed by the tornadoes, surpassing the Vicksburg, Mississippi tornado of December 5, 1953, which caused 38 fatalities, as the deadliest December tornado event ever recorded in the United States. Unconfirmed estimates suggest that the tornado outbreak may have caused over 100 deaths across five states, which would make it the deadliest tornado event in the United States since May 2011.
Destroyed home in Hattiesburg. MS.
In Kentucky alone, at least 77 people have been confirmed dead so far, making the outbreak the deadliest tornado event in Kentucky history, surpassing the Louisville-area tornado of March 27, 1890, which killed 76 people; in addition, one person remains missing and at least 138 injuries have been reported in the state.
Tornado destruction.
Super-Typhoon strike Zhuhai 2019
China has problems as well. There are typhoons, mud slides, massive rains, dust storms, and winter blizzards. The closest thing to a tornado strike like what hit the USA in December 2021 is a typhoon. Let’s look at the real nasty, big bad super typhoons that hit Zhuhai China and compare the damage.
The strongest typhoon to hit southern China in more than 40 years made its second landfall on Friday, authorities said, after leaving a trail of destruction and at least 64 dead in the neighboring Philippines.
Substantial damage to China’s many homes and buildings.
Super Typhoon Rammasun hit the city of Zhanjiang in south China’s Guangdong province on Friday night, local meteorological authorities said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
Great deal of water damage.
It first made landfall Friday afternoon on Hainan island, packing winds of up to 216km/h, China’s National Meteorological Centre (NMC) said.
The typhoon was expected to bring torrential rains and was the strongest storm to strike the country’s southern regions since 1973, the NMC said.
The damage is substantial, but unlike the damage in the USA, the buildings are still standing.
It claimed its first victim in China soon after coming ashore in Wenchang, Xinhua reported, when a man was killed by debris as his house collapsed.
State-run China Central Television in news bulletins showed images of wind-whipped trees in Hainan and high waves churned up by the typhoon.
“Strong Typhoon Rammasun is too frightening,” wrote one poster on Chinese social media, adding it “came ashore with fierce winds”.
“It’s raining so hard, the wipers won’t help and it’s hard to see the road ahead,” wrote another user riding in a taxi. “The road is full of water and tree branches, and the heavy wind has blown some branches onto the power cables.”
Why does it appear that American homes are so easily torn apart, while China homes still remain standing?
I argue that the reason lies in the basic construction features of American homes compared to the construction features of Chinese homes.
To use the old childhood story of “the three little pigs”; China builds houses out of bricks and stone, while America builds homes out of straw, sticks and paper.
The Three Little Pigs
Once upon a time there was an old mother pig who had three little pigs and not enough food to feed them. So when they were old enough, she sent them out into the world to seek their fortunes.
The first little pig was very lazy. He didn’t want to work at all and he built his house out of straw.
The second little pig worked a little bit harder but he was somewhat lazy too and he built his house out of sticks. Then, they sang and danced and played together the rest of the day.
The third little pig worked hard all day and built his house with bricks. It was a sturdy house complete with a fine fireplace and chimney. It looked like it could withstand the strongest winds.
The next day, a wolf happened to pass by the lane where the three little pigs lived; and he saw the straw house, and he smelled the pig inside. He thought the pig would make a mighty fine meal and his mouth began to water.
So he knocked on the door and said:
Little pig! Little pig!
Let me in! Let me in!
But the little pig saw the wolf’s big paws through the keyhole, so he answered back:
No! No! No!
Not by the hairs on my chinny chin chin!
Then the wolf showed his teeth and said:
Then I'll huff
and I'll puff
and I'll blow your house down.
So he huffed and he puffed and he blew the house down! The wolf opened his jaws very wide and bit down as hard as he could, but the first little pig escaped and ran away to hide with the second little pig.
The wolf continued down the lane and he passed by the second house made of sticks; and he saw the house, and he smelled the pigs inside, and his mouth began to water as he thought about the fine dinner they would make.
So he knocked on the door and said:
Little pigs! Little pigs!
Let me in! Let me in!
But the little pigs saw the wolf’s pointy ears through the keyhole, so they answered back:
No! No! No!
Not by the hairs on our chinny chin chin!
So the wolf showed his teeth and said:
Then I'll huff
and I'll puff
and I'll blow your house down!
So he huffed and he puffed and he blew the house down! The wolf was greedy and he tried to catch both pigs at once, but he was too greedy and got neither! His big jaws clamped down on nothing but air and the two little pigs scrambled away as fast as their little hooves would carry them.
The wolf chased them down the lane and he almost caught them. But they made it to the brick house and slammed the door closed before the wolf could catch them. The three little pigs they were very frightened, they knew the wolf wanted to eat them. And that was very, very true. The wolf hadn’t eaten all day and he had worked up a large appetite chasing the pigs around and now he could smell all three of them inside and he knew that the three little pigs would make a lovely feast.
So the wolf knocked on the door and said:
Little pigs! Little pigs!
Let me in! Let me in!
But the little pigs saw the wolf’s narrow eyes through the keyhole, so they answered back:
No! No! No!
Not by the hairs on our chinny chin chin!
So the wolf showed his teeth and said:
Then I'll huff
and I'll puff
and I'll blow your house down.
Well! he huffed and he puffed. He puffed and he huffed. And he huffed, huffed, and he puffed, puffed; but he could not blow the house down. At last, he was so out of breath that he couldn’t huff and he couldn’t puff anymore. So he stopped to rest and thought a bit.
But this was too much. The wolf danced about with rage and swore he would come down the chimney and eat up the little pig for his supper. But while he was climbing on to the roof the little pig made up a blazing fire and put on a big pot full of water to boil. Then, just as the wolf was coming down the chimney, the little piggy pulled off the lid, and plop! in fell the wolf into the scalding water.
So the little piggy put on the cover again, boiled the wolf up, and the three little pigs ate him for supper.
Yum!
Let’s compare the construction methodology
This point came home to me rather abruptly as I work with many, many factories supplying building and construction parts and assemblies for export all over the world. Yet, not for the United States. You see, I work with domestic Chinese-owned factories. While the exports going to the United States are actually American factories inside of China using Chinese labor. It’s all about the money, you see.
Anyways, I have tried to supply windows to the United States market, but sheech! their price targets are too low, and the materials used (as specified by the architects and the builders) are so ridiculously flimsy and cheap.
Let’s show some examples so you all can get and understand what I am talking about. Ok?
Comparisons – Windows
Most American windows are ultra-cheap vinyl. Usually they are single-pane tempered glass of around 6mm thick. There are sometimes dual pane glass, with a specification for an inert gas between the layers, but that is very rare these days. Most everything is on the cheap, cheap, cheap.
Here’s a high-end dual pane American vinyl plastic window.
Most Chinese windows are thick dual pane glass with inner layers to prevent shattering. 20mm thickness is not unheard of. And the frames are not cheap plastic but are solid cast and machined aluminum, anodized and set on bearing hinges.
Here’s the Chinese equivalent of the above window…
Chinese dual pane, thin glass window.
Chinese windows are robust, well made, sturdy and using aluminum, quality fittings, and components. American windows are made out of the cheapest materials possible, arranged in the most cost effective method possible, and priced as high as possible.
Would you believe that the high quality Chinese windows are actually CHEAPER than the flimsy plastic vinyl windows used in America? Yeah. It’s important to keep American dumb and stupid so that they can be forever sheared as for-profit cattle.
Comparisons – Doors
No comparison. Most export interior doors to the United States are truly pathetic.
Cross section of an American hollow core door. Terrible in that it is flimsy and has zero sound proofing ability.
While inside China, all doors are either 100% solid wood, or wood over a closed cell sound insulation foam.
Typical interior door cross section as used in a Chinese home.
Comparisons – Counter tops
The big “thing” has been to use cheap stone countertops. These are made out of quartz and reinforced underneath. The importation of this cheap stone has been so enormous, that the US government has placed “dumping” restrictions on it. Never the less, local American quarries still produce the cheap countertops, but now charge large amounts of money for it.
Quartz countertop.
The Chinese use higher quality stone. Mostly basalt, marble, and granite.
Chinese basalt countertop.
Comparisons – Walls
Most American homes these days are made out of 2×4 frames, and sheathed in drywall. This has changed, as there is now an even cheaper alternative to drywall (if you can believe that!) It’s compressed fiberboard. This video shows how pathetic it is… Video 9MB
While in China all homes are reinforced cement and stone, with marble, or granite, soapstone stone overlays over it. Yes, living in a typical Chinese house is like living in a museum.
A typical Chinese house interior.
Comparisons – Flooring
In America, the typical residential flooring is a foundational plywood deck, covered by carpet, or a hardwood laminate. Rarely are actual wood floors used in modern American homes any more.
Typical residential floor construction.
An China, the typical residential flooring is cement supported stone slabs or either marble, granite, or basalt.
If all of the “new” homes throughout America are made for little piggies who like twigs, straw and paper. While all the homes in China and Russia are made for little piggies who like bricks, concrete and stone (with reinforcement with steel rebar). Then what would happen if big bad wolves try to start a war?
Which homes would be easier to knock down? The flimsy cardboard and paper homes, or the stone and steel homes?
Obviously this part of the calculus has never entered the minds of the master leadership inside of Washington DC. If a mere CAT 1 tornado can take down a house anywhere in the USA, image what a 500 MT thermonuclear device would do.
It’s about risk. Like this…
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.
"Get off our front porch. Get out of our front yard. And stay out of our backyard."
-Summary by Pat Buchanan
And it is not at all being reported in the Western “news”. I wonder why?
Guess.
There is a risk in giving an ultimatum. If the other side rejects this ultimatum (and the possibility is real) then Russia will have to react and will have to switch from diplomacy to military arguments.
If the ultimatum will be rejected it will inevitably lead to much worse bilateral relations and tensions never seen since 1962.
Time is on Russia’s side (each year Russia becomes more powerful militarily) so why taking the risk to dramatically escalate everything now?
The only reason I see is that with the current path Russia considers a clash as inevitable and they see their ultimatum as the only real possibility to avoid a conflict in the near future.
The positive side of the ultimatum is that if it’s a success then the risk of war will be substantially reduced.
The negative side is that if the ultimatum will be rejected then war will become even more likely and may start even sooner.
I'm sure the Russians realize their technical advantage can only be temporary, and are utilizing their advantages while they can.
Searching for the "Russian ultimatum" on the western corporate mouthpieces, it doesn't even register. I'm sure 99% of Americans are absolutely clueless. The propaganda masters are most probably formulating a line of bs that will make Russia look like they aggressor. There really is no access to the masses by non-corporate media.
The questions to me is, "can the East make the West uncomfortable enough without starting a nuclear holocaust to come to reason, or will the West spin the situation to increase its aggression?"
What truly frightens me is when the Empire develops its own hypersonic weapons and first strike tactics become very attractive to the idiots and sociopaths running the Western show.
A Throne of Chinese Skulls! Oh Yeah?
By Chris Faure for the Saker Blog
The hot question among a number of hot questions is: What will China do?
Is there clarity? I would argue yes there is .. some.
The paradox is that West pushes for terms of a new partitioning of the world (democracy summit, unending belligerence, cynical, and hypocritical paranoia), while Russia and China expect terms of surrender.
According to China, there has to be payback for past empire atrocities.
After all, it is well established that the United States has been unyielding attack of China with everything from Bio-Weapons (livestock and human), to color revolutions, to non-stop "hybrid-wars".
In such an environment a kinetic hot war makes little sense because there is no overt military threat against western leadership.
I would argue that Russia’s ultimatum is military containment by agreement, as a first step.
I would also argue that because we do not have insight into step 2 (military/technical counter-threats), we cannot reason that step 2 is not highly coordinated with China, to the nth degree.
Double negatives in the passive voice are confusing. To rewrite the statement:
"There is no reason to believe that China and Russia are not coordinating step 2."
It is so that the USA is no longer the world’s only ‘indispensable nation’.
They are now both dispensable and replaceable in their current form and the only hope is that they will reform themselves.
As there is much that we do not know in terms of further steps, there is also much that we do not know about how China is going to interrelate.
What we do know is that they will be a part of the final dethroning of Western powers’ force for empire. We know this, because they said so and China is dead serious.
Russia made their proposals known.
China did too.
Just today…
20 December 2021
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on the United States to work with China to find out the way of peaceful coexistence between the two major countries.
He noted some people in the United States are [1] unwilling to admit that other countries also have the right to development, [2] unwilling to accept the fact that China is growing stronger and making progress, [3] unwilling to agree that China and the United States can achieve mutual benefit and win-win results, and [4] are trying to form a camp to contain and suppress China.
“The wrong words and deeds of the U.S. side not only seriously damage the interests of the two peoples, but also seriously impact world peace and stability” Wang said.
Here are the Chinese statements over the past few days:
Shortly after the Putin/Xi Jingping virtual meeting, this question was posed to Foreign Minister Spokesperson Wang Wenbin. Mr Wenbin is a highly competent diplomat.
Chinese Spokesperson Wang Wenbin
Question from TASS: In his virtual meeting with Russian President Putin, President Xi Jinping said China will continue to carry out flexible and diverse cooperation with Russia and other member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization to safeguard security and stability in the region. What challenges are China and Russia facing in this aspect? What can China and Russia do to safeguard regional security?
Wang Wenbin: On December 15, President Xi Jinping had a virtual meeting with Russian President Putin. The two heads of state had an in-depth exchange of views on core and major issues of common concerns including safeguarding regional security, and achieved new, important consensus.
Translation
The world is witnessing the combined forces of changes and a pandemic both unseen in a century against the backdrop of complex and profound changes in international and regional landscape.
We believe that China and Russia, two permanent members of the UN Security Council, take on an important mission in defending regional peace and stability and promoting development and revitalization of all countries.
For some time, certain countries have been drawing ideological lines, building new military blocs and stoking regional tensions, which have all brought grave threats and challenges to regional peace and stability and global strategic stability.
China and Russia firmly reject this.
We will continue to follow the two leaders’ consensus, take up responsibility, unite all forces that love peace and support peace, and make active contribution to realizing sustained, universal and common security in the region and the wider world.
Certain sentences and words need to be lifted out of ‘diplo-speak’.
Note, the question from the TASS reporter is about regional security. Mr Wenbin, in his response, brought it back to the strategic stability of the wider world.
This sentence: Russia/China take on important mission in defending regional peace and stability and promoting development and revitalization of all countries.
Again, he then speaks about Global Strategic Stability and not only regional.
For some time, certain countries have been drawing ideological lines, building new military blocs and stoking regional tensions, which have all brought grave threats and challenges to regional peace and stability and global strategic stability.
And here is the shocker:
We will continue to follow the two leaders’ consensus, take up responsibility, unite all forces that love peace and support peace, and make active contribution to realizing sustained, universal and common security in the region and the wider world.
The phrase the two leader’s consensus indicates that all plans have been made, everyone stands at the ready, and Putin and Xi Jinping will take the next step probably on a phone call.
The fate of the world is now in the hands of Putin and Xi Jinping.
It is astonishing that China is subjecting itself to The Consensus of the Two Leaders and shows without a shadow of a doubt that they are acting in full concert, strategically, politically, economically coordinated, and we know militarily as well, we just don’t know to what extent.
Another statement from Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin: This statement is interesting in that it shows the emotion (which I’ve never seen him display) of the Chinese people. They are at the end of their strategic patience as well and this is how they feel.
“The era in which the USA acted arbitrarily in the world under the pretext of democracy and human rights is now over.”
CHINA: “The era in which the USA acted arbitrarily in the world under the pretext of democracy and human rights is now over.”
pic.twitter.com/TxIuQHn1GE
— ASB News / MILITARY〽️ (@ASBMilitary) December 15, 2021
Currently, the destruction that the Western powers waged on the world, is transparent. Take a look: Pentagon documents reveal ‘deeply flawed’ US air war: report
Russia and China are stepping into alternative world relations…
…still based on the UN Charter and Law…
…and based on respect between countries.
And more than that, they are proving that it is possible since the first discussions of multi-polarity in the world in 2015 and the first public discussions of Belt and Road in 2013.
The Time Has Come
For years now Russia and China tried to help the Western powers out of their sorry state; but the time has come.
‘Gung-ho’ and ‘wolf warrior diplomacy’ seem to be over and at least from China side, this is a tipping point.
The Western powers need to face their downright self-inflicted humiliation.
This will happen economically by moving the world to a new economic system with new economic tools and will go right through to military intervention should the Western powers continue their arbitrary actions.
But nobody will be fighting the ‘West’s War’ and I submit we may see something quite unanticipated by our usual analysis and calculus.
It is already unprecedented that Mr. Lavrov published his diplomatic correspondence with France and Germany regarding the Ukraine.
It is also unprecedented for draft proposals from Russia to be open to the public at this stage.
We are in an unprecedented time.
Want peace, but…
The fact that both Russia, China, and Iran do not start the shooting, is incontrovertible proof that they are genuine in their statements that they want to bring peace.
China is in, boots ‘n all.
If a regional conflagration should break out and it is in Russia’s ballpark (the Ukraine), and Russia can deal with it on her own, China will make sure that the Russian soldiers are the best outfitted and supported of any modern military force that we have ever seen.
You will see a voentorg to beat all voentorgs. Russian forces will drink champagne and eat oysters (OK, this is shameless hyperbole, but it makes the point).
Taiwan has simmered down.
The latest words there from China in the person of Foreign Minister Wang Yi, is Taiwan’s reunification with China is a question of time. “China must and will be reunified,” he stressed.
He noted that there has been growing support for the ‘One-China’ principle around the world, referring to the recent decision by the government of Nicaragua to break ties with Taipei.
“Ten days ago, we resumed diplomatic relations with Nicaragua. The total number of countries with [whom China has] diplomatic ties has increased to 181, and the one-China consensus has been consolidated internationally,”
He said.
If there is a fight, no matter the size, or the manner of the fight, the Chinese are in and I would argue that they are in right now!
Nobody can beat them at producing what is necessary for a fight.
Their own aircraft carrier battle groups are out in the ocean through the near Pacific, South China Seas and other seas.
One has to get used to how China presents things.
Even the media reporting these maneuvers, puts scare quotes around the words “routine drills”. Battle groups are out for scare quoted “routine drills”. They do not say that China is readying herself for a defense of her own basin, in which case Russia will support in the same way that China will support Russia.
Will anyone be able to penetrate beyond and inside the first island chain?
So, it is clear that the Russia/China double helix is operating fine currently.
Mr Wang is not playing a good cop to Russia’s bad cop.
He is making it clear that what is happening is not only a Russian problem, but a problem of the strategic stability in the world, It affects not only Russia, but China as well, and no longer can one entity be allowed to attack others like fish in a barrel.
We cannot think of a multi-front war: the West cannot possibly be that deranged.
Yet, the ludicrous rhetoric in the Western spheres continues apace and distracts from reality.
It is hardly worthwhile rebutting every accusation.
China is not using much rhetoric currently but we can be sure that they note this rhetoric. Knowing the strategic situation in the world, they are not rebutting.
There is no need.
A Throne of Chinese Skulls
We need men ” … who want to sit on a throne of Chinese skulls …”
Tucker Carlson’s guest:“We don’t need a military that’s woman-friendly, that’s gay friendly” we need men “who want to sit on a throne of Chinese skulls, but we don’t have that now. We can’t get women off of naval vessels, that should be step one but most are pregnant anyway.”-pic.twitter.com/9uNzdbx0ON
— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) December 18, 2021
Andrei Martyanov is causing high hilarity about USA representatives that want to ‘kill themselves some Ruskis’ and even offers up a few:
This boy, obviously, despite his tour in Iraq never saw a real war and a real enemy who can actually kill you back even when one is in the bunker inside your own army base.
We can conclude then that the slew of accusations made to Russia, are similar in tone and also in substance, as those made to China.
The minds of these accusers cannot contemplate a peaceful world.
It seems to be impossible for them.
Although Russia is not threatening the Ukraine, and China is not threatening her own Taiwanese province, they believe their belligerent rhetoric can make it so.
Western states are slowly approaching the state of being disconcerted and soon now they will enter a stage of being stunned, as they are now being dictated to on the red lines of the other forces in the world.
We can never forget Iran, which showed everyone how to say NO!
There will be NO conformity to Western red lines.
I venture to say that the USA and cronies will NOT even be allowed to keep operating their Monroe Doctrine.
They will NOT be allowed a sphere of influence.
They will ONLY be allowed their space as a pole in multi-polarity.
The leftist candidate won the elections in Chile yesterday (although there are questions as to how ‘empire-proof’ he is). The one slogan that was visible is:
“If neocolonialism started in Chile, we will end it in Chile”.
Within China, China is looking after China.
They are developing their space program, their Belt and Road which is ‘a force for good’ in the world, and building their economy and continuing to create an increasingly varied and better life for their people. The Olympic Games will continue, and in time Taiwan will reunify.
They are also, with Russia and others, building out a new financial system for the world.
What can stop a war at this stage?
The West will lose. The West has a very strong and simple reason to avoid a new war: They will lose. Their actions are now futile.
The USA is dying. Xi and Putin can still decide to let it die and continue to stay out of the fray. But they have made the decision to enter a confrontational era. We could speculate as to why as the situation reveals itself.
Ready to strike the death blow. China, Asia or the AsiaPacific is ready to end the empirical era. Both Russia and China are ready to end the empirical era in such a way that retaliatory strikes are almost impossible. It is a most complex ballet of threat and counterthreat, coherently managed by the two countries. Russia is not arriving, China is not arriving and Iran is not arriving for the war that the hegemon is inviting them to. How frustrating for them.
What can stop a war?
China and Russia, the consensus of the two leaders probably can. I repeat:
“The era in which the USA acted arbitrarily in the world under the pretext of democracy and human rights is now over.”
Yankee Go Home!
Russia’s ultimatum to the West (IMPORTANT UPDATE)
To understand what just happened, we need to look at two things: how Russia chose to communicate her demands and then the contents of the demands themselves.
However, before I do that, I want to recommend two other points of view, both of which are, in my opinion, very helpful:
I recommend you read them before we continue. This being said, let’s look in more detail at just what happened.
First, this was clearly an ultimatum. Second, it was a public ultimatum.
This is absolutely crucial, as it marks, at the very least, a total break with normal Russian (and Soviet) diplomatic practice.
It is also pretty obvious that both the form and the substance of that ultimatum would be unacceptable to the USA and the US colonies in Europe.
Which begs the question: what are the Russians trying to achieve here?
Some will say that the Russians (or Putin personally) are simply stupid and that they are too arrogant to realize that their ultimatum would never be accepted.
Well, if the USA (the only part of the “West” which matters because it has actual agency) ignores that ultimatum and then merrily continues on the path it has been on since at least Bill Clinton, and if the Russians (or Putin personally) do nothing, then those who believe that the Russians are stupid will be proven right.
Now let’s look at what else might happen.
The first thing we need to understand is that Russia holds all the military cards (read Martyanov for details I won’t bother repeating it all here).
So let’s quickly worst case: “Biden” ignores Russia and Russia replies by deploying weapon systems, including hypersonic weapons, which will threaten the US not only in Russia, but in Belarus, the Arctic, and the mid-Atlantic. Then the US will feel the same way Moscow does: 5 minutes away from annihilation. Will that be good for “Biden”?
Let’s imagine that “Biden” decides to play tough and creates some kind of incident that will force the Russians to either sink a USN ship or shoot down a USAF aircraft. That would mean war.
Here “Biden” would have two options: keep the war below the nuclear threshold and lose that war (the NATO military infrastructure would be gone) or go nuclear and risk a nuclear holocaust. Will either one of these be good for “Biden”?
Now let’s say that “Biden” agrees to negotiate with Russia (while, of course, keeping up with all the pretenses about “consulting with partners and allies”) and the two sides come to some kind of deal. How would that deal manifest itself? Well, that is quite obvious – NATO would have to give up its expansion while Russia would have to provide verifiable guarantees that she will not attack any NATO country. I know, I am skipping over a gazillion of details in which, as the expression goes, the devil lies, but for our purposes this is sufficient. Then, again, I would ask the same question as above: would that be a good outcome for “Biden”?
We need to look at this possibility even further:
First, some of the US EU vassals would be incensed and they would do two things: verbally protest as loudly as possible and engage in whatever action they could come up with to force the situation and create a crisis.
And no, that would not be good for “Biden” at all.
But, consider this: first, “Biden” can tell the EU vassals to shut up and behave. But even more importantly, that “bad option” will look “less bad” to “Biden” than either one of the two options mentioned above (place the entire USA 5min away from destruction or face a full-scale war).
Remember how I said that Russia holds all the military cards?
Russia also holds much stronger political and economic cards than the USA which has close to nothing.
Politically, Russia is now “more than an ally” to China, she is a close partner to India (to the fury of the White House) and politically, she is much less isolated than the USA!
Even the map above does not give the full measure of the situation. Why?
Because most of the “international community” which “supports” (well, obeys) the USA is the EU, which itself is in a terminal crisis on too many levels to count here!
Compare the red and the grey zones on the map, and ask yourself these questions: which zone has the most powerful military? Which zone has the most natural and human resources? which zone has the most promising trading routes? which zone has a real GDP, as opposed to a purely FIRE one? Which one is literally dying spiritually under the trans-national “Woke” ideology and which one has retained the willingness and ability to fight for its spiritual, cultural, and civilizational values? Finally, which zone has a viable vision of the future?
I could go on and on with many more such questions, but I think that you see my point: the USA is not only losing militarily, but it is also losing on all fronts!
Next question: what does the USA need most?
Well, there are plenty of things the USA need, but I would single out one: time. Why? Because the truth is that the USA has only two options left: a “Kabul style” retreat from Europe or an orderly, negotiated “rearrangement” of the European collective security system (which, let’s not forget, the USA screwed up all by itself, a true disaster for which the USA is now totally responsible for).
[Sidebar: there is not such thing as unilateral security. All real security is always collective. That truism is now a dangerous political heresy in the West for which folks get (figuratively) burned at the stake for. Unilateralism is just a trigger for insecurity and, eventually, war.]
If there is no war, then NATO will survive, at least politically. If there is no war, “Biden” will be able to say that the West’s “firm and united” stance forced Russia to make concessions: remember how the Cuban missile crisis was presented by the USA as a US victory when, in fact, it forced the USA to withdraw missiles from Turkey?
It has been many decades since the Cuban missile crisis, yet something like 99% of the people in the US and EU sincerely believes that the US “won”!
The AngloZionist propaganda machine can easily repeat that once more.
Except for a “small” problem: this time around, Russia presented her ultimatum first and made so very publicly.
Why did the Russians choose this method?
Well, I don’t know, I cannot read the Kremlin’s mind, but my guess is that Russia wants way more than just a “draw” (which is what the Cuban missile crisis was). Russia wants a full victory which she would define as “defanging NATO“, at least in Europe. Why?
Now let’s look at Russia’s options:
Do nothing aka “more of the same”: that means full surrender to the West, followed by a partition of Russia and a US attack on China. To say that this is unacceptable to Russia would be an understatement.
Or
Gradually step down from the demands of the ultimatum: that is a more interesting one and it is again a case of “the devil is in the details”. For example, the existence of NATO by itself means nothing to Russia. Ditto for the EU, by the way. All these are in reality are irrelevant Kaffeeklatsch pretexts for politicians with no future, and countries with no agency. The biggest mistake made by both the EU and NATO was its “glorious” expansion to the East only to find out that all this achieved was irreparably weaken both the EU NATO as the newcomers were, how shall I put it politely, quite terminally stupid, corrupt and infantile. When I listen to EU and NATO politicians, I think of a Kindergarten on crack cocaine or something equally insane (see here for a perfect example).
So one option for Russia would be to “creatively revisit” the terms of her ultimatum and then keep the substance while jettisoning the hostile tone and giving the West some symbolic “concessions”. Would that be a good option for Putin? Well, it all will depend on the mentioned “devil in details”. If at the end of the process NATO is defanged, then yes. If NATO remains as aggressively hostile as it is today, then no.
Which begs the question: what will Russia do in such a case?
Here we need to at least consider one option: a Russian recognition of the LDNR justified by Kiev’s total rejection (de facto and de jure) of the Minsk Agreements and the constant Ukronazi provocations and attacks on the LDNR: remember two things Putin said recently. He spoke of “not yet recognized republics” and he spoke of “genocide“.
Of course, the Ukronazis would have to attack (even at least symbolically), which would allow Russia to make a military move against the Ukraine, free the LDNR and deploy Russian forces inside these republics, fully backed by Belarus, of course, and, possibly, even China (politically). Notice I did not say “invasion”.
Let’s imagine that Russia will use her standoff weapon systems to defang the Ukies, liberate the LDNR, and then will turn to the rest of Europe with a “smile” strongly suggesting the following “which of you guys wants to be next?” This would result in a total panic in Europe, especially in Mons, Brussels, and Warsaw.
And here is the beauty of that option: Russia can easily strike Mons and Brussels (or Warsaw) with conventional weapons and leave most of these cities in mint shape. And if the EU/NATO decides to strike back, then Russia will wage a full-scale war against the EU/NATO and she will win it.
What about the “Biden” administration in such a scenario? The Pentagon knows what Russian missiles can do to it and any other military objective in the continental USA. I very much doubt that the US deep state will be willing to commit mass suicide just to try (and fail!) to protect the EU. Besides, the Russians have no intentions or capabilities, to invade the EU anyway, so why destroy the USA for a threat which does not even exist?!
Does “Biden” want to go down in history as “the President who lost Europe”?
Would “the President who triggered a nuclear holocaust” sound any better?
So by making her demands public, Russia has (for the first time and finally!!) also sent a message to the people of the West. This message can be summarized like this: we don’t want war, but if you insist, we will oblige.
And, for the first time since 1991, Russia does have the objective means to achieve these goals.
So there, we have it, I think.
Now we also need to address the elephant in the room: the US War Party and, even more so, the EU infantiles on crack cocaine. For them, defanging NATO would be utterly unacceptable…
… or would it?
The US War Party is just that, US-based. And while some of the talking heads on the idiot tube do sound like real “hawks”, the military professionals in the US armed forces know the real score.
Not only that, but the “smart wing” of the War Party understands that the USA desperately needs time and an orderly draw-down, even if just a temporary one!
Their game is, as I said many times, a game of what I call “nuclear chicken” but, crucially, a game short of actual nuclear war which they don’t need at all (if only because they would likely die themselves).
Which leaves the EU infantiles on crack cocaine.
Here I am going to say something terrible, and I feel really bad for writing this, but I only see one method to get the Europeans back from la-la-land to the real world: Russia has to defeat them militarily, yet again, as she did over and over in her history.
Somehow, the narcissistic megalomaniacs who currently administer the European continent on behalf of the USA won’t read history and won’t rein in their deep sense of racial superiority over the subhuman Russian Asiatic hordes.
These modern wannabe Kulturtraegers and assorted Herrenvolk still hate Russia for defeating Hitler, Napoleon, and the rest of them, and for them, their phobia (in the sense of both hate and fear) of everything Russian is now part of their identity, something quite sacred to them and to hell with those who think otherwise!
The only effective way to bring the European Master Races back to reality is well-known (see picture).
I would argue that such an outcome goes directly against the interests of BOTH the USA and Russia. And, most obviously, it goes totally against the interests of the people of Europe.
But if the latter does nothing to prevent such an outcome, then it is for the USA and Russia to prevent it.
And if the USA won’t prevent it, then Russia will deliver.
As for the notion that boycotts, sanctions (even from hell!), or the cancellation of NS2 will stop the Russians -it is truly beyond ridiculous. Last time around, Russia lost 27 million people and then rebuilt her economy within a decade.
In fact, it is so real that it was made public for two reasons I believe: first, of course, to try to appeal to the people of the West and, second, to morally “untie the hands” of Russia should it come to full-scale war.
Analysts in the West always assume that public gestures are somehow exclusively aimed at them. They are wrong.
This ultimatum is also addressed to the Russian people and Russian armed forces and says this to them:
“people of Russia, we tried all we could to avoid this, we pleaded and begged for decades, and we retreated on many fronts, yet in spite of that, the West keeps pressing on. We will never allow a June 22nd to happen again. Prepare for war“.
I will end with three quotes by Putin himself:
“As a citizen of Russia and the head of the Russian state I must ask myself: Why would we want a world without Russia?”
“Fifty years ago, the streets of Leningrad taught me one thing: If a fight’s inevitable, you must strike first”
“Any aggressor should know that retribution will be inevitable and he will be destroyed. And since we will be the victims of his aggression, we will be going to heaven as martyrs. They will simply drop dead, won’t even have time to repent,”
UPDATE: according to the Russian media citing “diplomatic sources”, China has given her full support to the Russian demands. What that actually means or implies is unclear, but this is the first indication that the Russian ultimatum was coordinated with the Chinese and that China will have some kind of role to play in the next move of the Russians if the US rejects the Russian demands.
Why? Well, we definitely don’t know the answer to that because it’s a secret. But we can guess. And my guess is that Russia knows something: that, essentially, the US is much weaker than anyone in the US thinks and waiting any longer will leave the world in an untenable situation. Thus, Russia is eager to get these deals signed ASAP, while there is still someone in Washington who can hold a pen. And the last useful thing that Washington can do is, essentially, disband NATO (which is what signing Russia’s ultimatum would essentially accomplish).
I’ve written about all of this before, and it goes like this:
• A situation where offering a million dollars for a book of matches gets you a punch to the face
• No access to imports of any sort within the (former) US because there is no longer a credit mechanism for funding trade; no functioning utilities or transportation networks; a new economy based on looting and barter.
• My “Five Stages of Collapse” in chorus with 4-part harmony while Russia and China do their best to keep US nuclear and bioterror installations and facilities under control while repatriating their nationals and providing a bit of humanitarian aid to those who cooperate with them.
Look at the title of this article: it contains the word “ultimatum” for a really excellent reason. Russia is not negotiating; Russia is spelling out how it will all go down, either voluntarily or involuntarily, and that last bit is all that’s left to decide. But while the ultimatum is as public as possible, its implementation will be as secretive as possible. Essentially, we don’t know how it will happen because we are not allowed to know.
Comments – Whozhere
You are correct Dmitry…..
“that Russia knows something: that, essentially, the US is much weaker than anyone in the US thinks”
In a nutshell, the Biden operation has no access to the nuclear arsenal of the US.
Comments – Mike from Jersey
I live in the United States.
There is a dynamic playing out.
A very substantial amount of the population no longer supports the government or major institutions. They look on their own government/institutional structure as the enemy. They no longer consider this to be a flawed, but nonetheless, functioning system.
They consider themselves living under the heel of an occupying army which is suppressing them and their freedom. The numbers who take this position are large. Probably as much as thirty per cent or more.
On the other hand the people pulling the levers of power have no understanding of this erosion of faith. They act with a total lack of awareness that they are surrounded by large numbers of very angry citizens.
It may be that Russian intelligence understands what the American “intelligencia” does not.
Comment – Dmitry
The numbers the Russians have voiced are that 40% of Democrats and 50% of Republicans are in favor of disbanding the USA. This is quite far beyond what’s needed to make it happen with even a minimal external stress.
Comment – Eagle Eye
Looks like schadenfruede is going to get a workout shortly.
And if disbanding the USA happens, where does that leave Klaus Swabbe and his WEF Great Reset agenda? What happens to Wall Street and Operation Mockingbird media control in the collapse scenario and how does that play out globally?
“On the other hand the people pulling the levers of power have no understanding of this erosion of faith. They act with a total lack of awareness that they are surrounded by large numbers of very angry citizens.”
I see that same dynamic here in Australia at a state and federal level. Others are seeing it elsewhere. It is no longer an academic debate, but an existential problem. The media no longer accurately portray the public mood with the exception of grief following tragedy, like the local one where kids got killed in a freak playground accident. Beyond that the public reaction is endlessly spun to deliver the story “media” wants told, the truth be damned.
The danger for “the West” is that nominally democratic nations will fall to totalitarianism. There is a very interesting but disturbing interview with clinical psychologist, Professor Matthias Desmet at panedemic podcasts which should be on the must listen list of the readership. It details the steps to take to create a mass formation and what that psychological phenomenon is capable of delivering. In his well qualified view the management of the Covid Pandemic in the West can bring about such a response from the public. If it does the damage will compound with that from the USA collapse Dmitry forsees and the result will be truly biblical carnage.
Comment – Blackring
@Dmitry Orlov
“…while the ultimatum is as public as possible, its implementation will be as secretive as possible”
Ok, that explained lack of “else” in ultimatum. But because of showing too much patience to spoiled brats, now it is necessary to bitch-slap them to senses. As many times as it takes.
I do not see how this can be done secretly enough. Thanks to informational technology and MSM dominance, West have advantage in clandestine game.
In addition, since UKUS always preferred to use proxies, it is wise to embolden vassals to defect.
Russian advantage is in having hyper-sonic weapons, which allows tactics used by West against weak opponents without air defense. Maybe something like Israelis did in Gaza can be done to, say, Aegis Ashore in Romania. “Knock on roof”, followed with Big Kaboom after personnel runs away. Big hole in the ground – no casualties. After that, friendly talk can begin.
Seriously, it is long overdue that Empire get a taste of its own medicine.
Comment – Scuppers
Why now? Because it’s the right moment. I keep coming back to the game of chess, in my mind. White (the west in this analogy) starts the game with the initiative, and black (Russia in this analog) has the task of arresting that initiative, and stealing it. Black did that in 2015-2018, and locked the board. But white keeps trying to regain the initiative, and at this point, black blocks, but also ensures that every counter move makes white’s next move more catastrophic. And 3 years later, we are at the point that if white decides to start trading pieces, it will lose catastrophically. So you offer your opponent a way out. Tip your king and bow out, and come back another day to play again or get blown out and humiliated. There is a third option; throw the board in the air and everyone loses. Let us hope the west doesn’t choose option 3.
Comment – RZW
Why I agree with Orlov, my guess is that Russia has intelligence about false flag or attack on Donbass. Just for the record keep in mind 6th of January (Orthodox Christmas eve) and 4th of February (Opening of Olympic games, Putin in China).
Comment – Ted Richard
Andrei, ultimatums are generally if not always time dependent…. time specific, which is to say a Russian ultimatum declared today has a shelf life before agreement or action must be taken………that time is in your opinion……..years, months, weeks?
Comment – The Saker
To begin negotiations, the Russians said “tomorrow in Geneva”, but that was metaphorical.
A month, maybe 2 max.
But the key decisions might have already been taken.
I don’t think these people understand what is at stake here.
That is exactly my biggest fear too.
Comments – Razor
it seems logical to me that Russia has already decided what action it will take if, as likely, the West brushes off its ultimatum. I would assume that whatever action it takes, will be measured. A trip wire if you like, to show it means business, and to awaken the sleeping masses in EU US, while allowing the West to step back from Armageddon. And if that doesn’t create the desired result, they will also no doubt have planned for this eventuality, which could of course mean full pedal to the metal, God save us.
Comments – Peterd
I recently came across the wicked suggestion by somebody to counteract NATOs eastward expansion of Russia by offering Kaliningrad (formerly Königsberg until 1946) as a naval/military base for China, sharing it with the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Navy. That would certainly put the cat among the euro-pigeons sandwiched as it is between Lithuania and Poland.
Comments – War is coming
These people need a ‘lesson’ teached by Russia to be sure they never come back again with their idiocy, wargames, sanctions, ‘kill some Russians” etc…they must have ‘the fear of their life’ at least once, otherwise they will double down forever.
Comments – GRI
I read on another site the following news: from February 1, 2022, for the first time in Russia, the national standard “Urgent burial of corpses in peacetime and wartime” is being introduced. It describes that the authorities must be prepared to bury thousands of people in mass graves. The standards for graves, labor costs, the amount of equipment and the way of storing corpses have been established. The question is whether the ultimatum and the introduction of the above-mentioned measures are correlated.
Comment – Vaughan
The reason for Russia’s hardened stance imo may be the absolute and quickened spiritual and moral decline of the West.
They’ve become like the bully in a bar room brawl who, will pounce with the killer blow once the peace deal and handshake have been made and the innocent victim looks away.
Russia has endured so much ridicule, lies and mockery via Western leaders now for the past 12-15 years now. There are too many statements to quote.
Russia and Putin in general, have become the ‘hit piece’ of mocking ridicule of the Western Leaders and US Generals and simply, their time is up.
I feel that Russia has finally taken as much as she can and the Russian Leaders KNOW that they can no longer trust a country like the USA who’s own people have lost faith in their once robust institutions.
The American people have lost faith in their democratic system, the media, the judiciary, and their stumbling bumbling President’s’.
Indeed, the people have become the enemy of their own government.
On the world stage, the US has become a joke unto herself. A mockery of the great country she once was and, the decline of that country and all that made her great have been systematically dismantled and white anted away.
Her leaders words mean nothing. Their deals mean nothing and their words mean nothing.
Sadly, truth to them, holds no value and is treated accordingly.
Words are used by them but their words mean nothing and have no weight. No long lasting reach. No true value. Therefore, their words have become like the wind, carrying with it a scent from where it was but not strong enough to have any value
Russia knows that unless they can draw the line now, a declaration of peace is impossible.
Russian leaders know that long lasting peace for Russia may not disappear with a bang but wither over time by a thousand cuts. A dissolving. A watering down of conditions, a watering down of borders and a watering down of understanding until soon enough, peace will no longer exist.
This kind of peace is no peace at all.
“Peace peace where there is no peace”.
War is an abomination but the dissolving of peace slowly before your very eyes is a burden no true Leader can entertain.
This is what has been happening since the Wall came down. A slow dissolving of peace.
The Russians have always seemed to attempt to turn the other cheek. They’ve used logic and were met with mockery. They’ve valued truth with a people who excelled in connivance.
They valued respect and were met with ridicule.
Finally, they’ve run out of humour. They’ve run out of hope that hope still exists in the West. They’ve been met with no truth, no logic and no respect
And now, we will see if these western ‘leaders’ have steel in their backbones or jelly in their pants.
I know what I believe we’ll see.
Comment – Band Itkoitko
“I only see one method to get the Europeans back from la-la-land to the real world: Russia has to defeat them militarily.”
Alternatively, and almost equivalently in term of a shock effect, is Russia completely defeating them economically. Let’s have Western people go and clean toilets in Asia or US Americans work in the fields of Mexico. Let the world reverse, they will be more than humbled and more than defeated. Their “greatness” illusion will be destroyed. Their ridiculous “superiority” will be vanquished.
Notably, the West is doing everything necessary to enact their own economic defeat. So no much effort on the Russian side is needed.
Comment – CDvision
Very smart move by Russia. They are likely convinced a conflict is unavoidable, but want to lay these documents down so that history will be unequivocally on their side.
At this point. I too am convinced that a conflict is inevitable. The collective West is finished economically, politically and culturally. Its their last gambit – to upset the board.
Should the peace terms be rejected (likely) then I expect Russia to have a Mike Tyson, punch in the face, at the ready. Paradoxically, 404 attacking the Donbass plays into Russia’s hands, and provides the cause for a Gotterdammerung. Then there will be a much shorter ultimatum sent to the West.
Comment – Tedrichard
the other half of the ultimatum neither written or spoken is the elegance of china moving against taiwan simultaneous to something happening in ukraine.
this places the pentagon and usa in an utterly untenable place where neither victory can be achieved and a massive loss of face.
if you are russia and china and you coordinate so many things now and for future it makes no sense NOT coordinate this geopolitical move resolving both problems at the same time with a minimum of fuss and which will overwhelm the western msm narrative manipulation.
Comment – MIJJ
My feeling is Russia/China have already won. What US is doing is what any ill-disciplined child would do to instinctively create a primitive sense of dominance – throw the chess board across the room, trample the pieces scream hate and yell threats to instinctively create a primitive sense of dominance.
If you hate a person , then you are defeated by them
– Confucius.
MM Comments
Russia and China are SERIOUS.
I fully expect the USA to take zero action. Just like when China announced at the UN in 2020 that the United States had to answer for the 11 bio-weapon attacks against China.
Nothing apparently happened.
Well, nothing publicly visible happened.
And I fully expect the same thing; a repeat of the sloth, and arrogance of the United States government. Only this time, it will be visibly kinetic.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Lately I have been musing about the mandatory mRNA vaccinations that are now required all over the West. What was considered radical just a few months ago has been normalized by a massive propaganda campaign and mandated by executive order an law.
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While I don’t want to join the fray and armies of the anti-Vaxx people, I do want to throw some of my opinions into this mix.
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As you all know, I live in China and everyone is getting their vaccination injections. It’s free, and no one is raising any concern. The reason is, of course, that [1] everyone trusts the Chinese government, and [2] the vaccine is based on a “dead host” which is the well known, well documented, “tried and true” method of inoculating people from virus strains. And, of course, [3] the Coronavirus is a rapidly mutating bio-weapon thrown at China in 2019 CNY by Trump / Bolton. Being in China, you see how serious all of this is.
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Now, I do not know why America and the rest of the West are so adamant in everyone getting an “experimental” mRNA vaccination instead of a traditional “dead host” vaccine. It seems all to “hush hush”. And I have long learned never to trust the United States government. So it is worrisome.
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When the USA government makes a law, drums up a media narrative for it, and then suppresses alternative viewpoints, every alarm bell should be going off in your head.
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I have speculated that all of this is because they want to “piggy back” some other system with the vaccine. Maybe [1] an inoculation about a bio-weapon that the USA has yet to launch. Or perhaps [2], a way of countering radiation from a nuclear war. Or, [3] even such things as mind control and tracking nano-chips are in the list of “anything is possible”. But the truth is I, and no-one else knows.
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But that is not what this article is about. This is about something else.
The need for mRNA booster injections
By most accounts, this mRNA vaccine is part of a system of never-ending yearly or quarterly injections. These injections will suppress whatever mutation of Coronavirus might arise, as well as perhaps other systems that emerge over time. And on paper it might look ok.
[1] The stockholders in big-pharma would be happy to have a captive audience that needs to pay for yearly or quarterly booster injections or suffer government mandated obsolesce.
[2] With everything taking these yearly (or quarterly) boosters, it will become normal and expected. Just like the American Federal Income Tax forms are every April. And once the cattle people become accustomed to it, changes can be made to the ingredients, and alterations can be made for other purposes.
But let me suggest a downside.
The Big Assumptions
There are assumptions made, and these assumption assume a very steady-state non-changing reality. And that simply is not true. History tells us otherwise.
The big assumptions are…
That the (various) government will enforce mandatory booster injections.
That the factories can easily adapt to a changing viral environment and create boosters based on the mRNA models faster and better than the “dead host” model.
That people will comply with getting the boosters.
So far, all of these assumptions are given in every discussion about the benefits of the mRNA vaccination.
That the mRNA boosters, working with mass inoculations will create a herd immunity against any virus strains that the government deems threatening.
That the government can pay for the boosters, the R&D, and all the support systems necessary.
These two points are always assumed, and taken as “givens”. But they shouldn’t really be.
That over time, people will elect to pay for the boosters out of their own pockets.
This assumption is based on the Federal Income Tax model; also known as the “boiling frog technique” to manage sheeple compliance.
That the companies will always have factories to produce these boosters without interruption….
The last point is what I find frightening
No one is talking about this.
And they SHOULD.
Stocks plummeted this week.
Investors are terrified.
And Morgan Stanley just announced that a “20% drop in the S&P 500” could happen any moment.
If you're a student of history, you likely recognize the signs.
And it's time to prepare for a market moment that could define your wealth for the next decade.
A small group of U.S. investors are in line to receive advance notice of the exact day of the next market crash.
Regards,
Keith Kaplan
CEO, TradeSmith
I get these doom and gloom email notices all the time. After a while you shut them off. I mean you can only take the bullshit so long.
But you know…
The USA national debt is fucking enormous. That’s what happens when you make and earn money from nothing. It has become a big mountain of nothing. Yah. It’s hollow inside, but everyone is living off this mountain, and it will pop. It really will. Nothing lasts forever.
But there are other things going on as well.
Suppose that America has finally done “it”. Whether they “false flag” an event, launch a provocation, or just implement a full on nuclear WMD on China,, the results will be the same. They will royally piss off both Russia and China, and a full-scale WMD holocaust will be unleashed in the United States.
It will not be pretty.
A destroyed America.
We will have cites destroyed. Electrical systems destroyed. EMP bursts that render all computers, and internet, not to mentions all vehicles into slag. And in the middle of this, when starvation begins to beset the land, and crime is rampant and it’s every man for himself…
… how in God’s name are the booster injections going to be made, distributed and paid for?
How?
And when those people in a SHTF situation, hiding in their houses, and trying to figure out how get some food…
Food will be difficult to get.
…suddenly find themselves with a really bad chest cold. Not a flu. Not a Coronavirus, but a Covid Zelda variant.
What then?
People!
War is not something that you watch on television or check your news feed over. It’s not going to be fought in a “far away” land like the South China Sea, or Australia. Or Japan, or Korea.
Everyone inside the United States will experience it.
Just like they are experiencing the blow-back from the John Bolton / Donald Trump launch of three bio-weapons WMD on the busiest holiday in China. Who’s fucking laughing now, dipshits?
If the USA instigates a war, whether it is with China or Russia, the battlefield will be on American soil.
Not in Taiwan.
Not in the South China Sea.
Not on Australian soil
It will be in America…
Dog eat dog world.
Oh. Some battles will be on, near and on the territories of the USA proxies, but both Russia and China are not, NOT stupid. They are not going to waste their times and effort on the pawns. They will go after the Kings and Queens and will attempt a very quick checkmate.
How many destroyed cities will it takes before the USA surrenders?
One? Five? ten?
Twenty?
Forty?
Fifty?
I’m betting that it will be around 35.
And with America a blaze in a nuclear winter… So tell me, what’s going to happen to those who need mRNA boosters? Are they going to run off to the local hospitals for a booster?
A crushed America.
And just where are the boosters going to be made with the vast majority of the pharmacy supply sources inside the biggest cities? And even if a city was spared, how are the medicines going to be made without power, electricity and every single computer system fired into slag?
Of course, it’s important (for the oligarchy) that you do not see the entire picture…
Back in 2012, living in China, I was also such a (western) “News” addict.
I then did an experiment:
During > 2 months, I deliberately didn’t watch western TV, didn’t went to any western news website, didn’t listened to western radio stations.
I only watched Chinese TV (various TV stations) only read Chinese newspapers and Chinese online news sources
What a revelation ! What a relief that was ! What a peaceful, healthy life !
-[Redacted]
Right? So there is a major media push to keep the “rabble” (that’s me and you, bub) in line. Don’t question anything. If you do, you will be censored. You know… for “a matter of national security”. And so on and so forth.
Let me tell you a few things about the media…
See below. All credit to the author who shall remain anonymous. You know who you are, don't you? It's a great piece.
Here is a thought- provoking dialogue between the gorgeous Li JingJing & the awesome Vijay Prashad. I would like also to name Michel Collon, a French-speaking Belgian reporter & geopolitical analyst having written on the 5 principles of war propaganda.
Coined by others, not by me, an acronym to remember them easily : M.E.D.I.A.
MONOPOLIZE
“M” as in MONOPOLIZE THE DEBATE.
This can be done by saturating the media landscape (written, cable TV, online) with presstitutes.
Also by restricting the allowed topics and last but not least, by restricting the range of permissible or legit answers (You all know the Overton window) Here some structural factors of the human nature help tremendously the manipulators.
Stages 1 & 2 of the Maslow Pyramid are basic needs (survival) and physical safety.
The third stage being psychological safety or to state things clearly, the need to belong to a group but not only that, to a group perceived as shining, desirable & prestigious…
To free oneself relatively from this emotional need, at least to the extent to be capable to have a space between that need and the awareness of other’ people own gratifying images of themselves, if I still want to use Maslow’s concept, it would be the work on one’s one mind called self-realization, a quite unpopular task.
Most people believe what they want (consciously/subconsciously/unconsciously) to believe to preserve their belonging to a prestigious group (or so they think…)
So in the West, it’s always much much easier for the governments to promote a narrative with at its core the key message being ” it’s China/Russia/Iran/the Other’s fault ”
The bigger (China/Russia/Iran) the boogeyman is, the better…
ENSNARE
“E” as in ENSNARE.
ENSNARE the people’s minds with irrelevant fantasies, thus avoiding to tackle seriously what is at stake economically, diplomatically, militarily or geopolitically in a given event or situation, at home or abroad.
The dumbing down process going on during the last 50 years and keeping on is facilitating this diversion tactic (red herrings galore).
You are most probably familiar with Charlotte Yserbit’s work.
For me, the uber Structural Red Herring in the West the last 50 years has been the displacement of the focus from socio-economic struggles to so-called woke issues (what in French is called the opposition between the two concepts of “social”,understand real socio-economic struggles and “sociétal”, understand woke)
One amusing survey that can be done is to ask 100 French citizens what they think of ” Mai 68″ first and then ask what is their understanding of a color revolution and last what about “Mai 68” as a color revolution ?
I bet most of them would be flabbergasted to learn that “Mai 68” was a color revolution set to get rid of Charles de Gaulle and to strengthen the Anglo-American Establishment’s grip on France. “Mai 68” & “June 89″ (2 decades later in Beijing) were essentially of the same nature if the ” color revolution ” concept is used, Ho! Ho! Ho !…
Let”s remind that the US ambassador to France was in the streets with the students in 1968 as James Lilley, US ambassador to China & CIA agent, was in the streets with the students in 1989…
The vital difference is that “Mai 68” succeeded beyond expectations & “June 89″ failed miserably on the essential goal of regime change but is successful as a smearing operation against China, as we are reminded on June 4 each year with the China-bashing in relation to the so-called ” Tian An Men Massacre ”
Concerning the process of dumbing down, another name to remember is Eugene Michael Jones, alive & in his seventies.
His 1992 book is a masterpiece of philosophy, psychology and politics : Modern degenerates, modernity as rationalization for sexual misbehavior.
His 2000 book is the natural completion of the 1992’s one : Libido Dominandi, sexual liberation & political control.
His intellectual adventure began when he lost his teaching position in the 70s because he stated at work that he is against abortion, he was utterly flummoxed since he taught in a Catholic school for girls…
This personal mishap has awaken his curiosity, investigative endeavor & meditation since then.
DEHUMANIZE/DEMONIZE.
“D” as in DEHUMANIZE/DEMONIZE.
DEHUMANIZE/DEMONIZE the Other in all dimensions : ugly physical appearance, defective psychological construct, spiritual emptiness is the norm obviously, rigid or primitive social organization, twisted historical development, warped anthropological foundations, evil religious practices…
The Other cannot be motivated by good intentions, all words uttered must be scrutinized because ignorance or perfidy must be expected.
All actions are driven by greed and fear, needless to say since Truth, Goodness and Beauty are not granted to the Other.
Some people definitely need a mirror, not only for the Body but also for the Mind & the Soul.
INVERSION
“I” as in INVERSION.
INVERSION of identity between the aggressor & the victim of the. aggression. Examples are numerous but I simply mention the category of false flag operations, an egregious chapter by itself.
ABSENCE
“A” as in ABSENCE.
ABSENCE of a quality historical understanding offered to the public in order to truly contextualize the event or the situation, at home or abroad.
A sound chronology of the events is either absent or the chronology presented is biased, oriented by a specific agenda.
Conclusion
The trouble is, in Australia, i listen to news while driving, listen to radio news while custom made frames, and I have no alternative news sources beyond Australian fake news.
whenever I internet search China development news, even in Chinese language, the news that appear at the first page are usually BBC Chinese, CNN Chinese, DW Chinese, Epoch Times Chinese....
Dam!
(All the Western propaganda outlets printed in the Chinese language.)
Yes, CCTV news focus on China developments and policies, full of positive energy. They make me happy.
The Chinese Gov don't talk about poor people as lazy, they talk about how to give them a vision, incentive, conditions, and motivate them to work hard to help themselves out of poverty.
The Hong Kong TVB recently visited 10 poorest region across China, and was touched by how much the government quietly doing so much for those remote region residents.
The title of the documentary series is 无穷之路，the road to no poverty. Below is chapter 1:
https://youtu.be/dcF_WB--P0U
You no need to know the language, just see how remote these villages located, and what the government did to improve their lives and you will understand they are wealthier than the working poor in America who can afford to pay rent and become homeless.
-[Redacted]
Sometimes I hate being right.
If you have something that works (the traditional “dead host” vaccination methodology) but instead [1] elect to move forward with untested, unproved, unestablished technology.
Then [2] you mandate forced compliance.
Coupled with [3] forbidding anyone from using the traditional methods for vaccination, that should set off every alert in you head.
And knowing what I do about China and Russia, they already probably know the TRUE and REAL reason why the mRNA vaccination is being so aggressively promoted inside the USA today. And if I were them, and I knew that the United States is building up towards a massive world war against us, I would figure out a way to use this mRNA system against the aggressors.
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It’s called logic.
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.
I have written about this many times before, and I tire of rehashing the basics to people who have been kept in the dark living like mushrooms for most of their lives. But this article, and in this article, I want to discuss the differences between the political nincompoops that are driving America towards war, and the generals that will have to fight it for them. Followed by the sitrep realities of fucking around with China.
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It’s a battle between the “pinky in the air” political neocon moron-coops…
Bloomberg OWNS most Americans and has a zillion little mechanisms to extract your wealth.
… and the tanned-leather, chew on nails, or die, military.
Shortly afterwards, he turned to his other generals and asked them point blank if they would obey his orders if he asked them to provoke China, or Russia. And there’s all sort of articles about that. Just look up the controversy regarding General Miley.
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Firstly, Let’s talk about what the differences are between a political neocon and a career general.
A political neocon
Neoconservatism is a political movement born in the United States during the 1960s among “war-hawks” who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party.
They were also upset with the “New Left” and counterculture of the 1960s, particularly the Vietnam protests.
Some also began to question their liberal beliefs regarding domestic policies such as the Great Society.
Neoconservatives advocate the promotion of American-style democracy and forced American interventionism in international affairs.
This includes such buzz words as “peace through strength”. They are known for their rabid hatred of anything regarding Socialism, Marxism or Communism, and many believe that the creation of wars are necessary to maintain American global leadership.
In short, they believe that they are the best, and that their systems are the best, and that they have the right to destroy anyone else who challenges their systems, no matter what or who they are.
The Military
The military is a merit driven hierarchical organization. This is true in every nation, and in every country. In America they are subservient and report to the President of the United States. Who is, I should remind you all, a political figurehead.
But the military, are not political tools. No matter what the politicians believe. They are a merit driven organization, and they are the ones putting their lives on the line.
And every day things are closer and closer, nose to nose, neocon to the actual generals. Such as this…
“US has already lost #AI fight to China, says ex-Pentagon software chief”
An astounding headline as cracks appear in the façade of America’s AI supremacy. Nicolas Chaillan, the Pentagon’s first chief software officer says things may not be as rosy as reported.
Mr. Chaillan recently resigned from his job at the Pentagon in protest to the slow pace of technological change in the Pentagon and his statement is a shocker:
“We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years. Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion,” he said, adding there was “good reason to be angry”.
Just to ensure that you don’t consider Mr. Chaillan a malcontent, here’s what the US National Security Commission on AI headed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in March:
“China is already an AI peer, and it is more technically advanced in some applications. Within the next decade, China could surpass the US as the world’s AI superpower.”
The sky is not falling and AI will not be the sole determining factor in the fate of nations. So there’s no need to be upset.
What you must take away from this is that those who tell you that “everything is fine and that there is nothing to worry about” are perhaps less forthcoming than you may think.
This pertains not just to AI, but to automated ports, smart cities, chip development, #5G and a host of other technologies. And as I have warned repeatedly, #CBDCs. Each of these technologies represents a slow imperceptible dripping away of the US's technological lead.
For each of these technologies, we have all read articles by pundits who simply shrug their shoulders and say that it doesn’t matter and that the US’s technological supremacy is secure. Smug in a belief that the US’s open society has a natural advantage and that it is inconceivable that China might overtake the US.
A mere three days ago I used this astounding quote from an article by David P. Goldman who had this to say to these pundits:
"These are self-consoling illusions of a lazy elite that has allowed America’s manufacturing, technological and education advantages to erode over the past 20 years – an elite that has nothing to say about reversing the decline."
To which my comments from a mere three days ago seems prophetic and worthy of repeat:
And the problem is that he’s right. The elites that are telling you not to worry because the US is miles ahead in Chips and AI, or that China is going to fail are flat out wrong.
They are falling back on prejudices about China from another era, or are so caught up in loathing of China’s political system that they fail to see what’s happening.
When it comes to tech the US is bringing a knife to a gunfight.
-Richard Turrin
1 October 1990 – Air Force General and VP candidate Curtis E. LeMay died at March Air Force Base, California, at age 83. General Curtis Emerson Lemay was the “Father of the Strategic Air Command.” When he took over as its commander in 1948, it consisted of little more than a few understaffed and untrained B-29 groups left over from World War II.
Less than half its aircraft were operational and the crews were next to worthless. He ordered a mock bombing raid on Dayton, Ohio, and most of the bombers missed their targets by one to two miles.
That was unacceptable.
He subjected his men to vigorous training and long hours of hard work, but fought for additional pay and better housing to make their demanding lives more tolerable. He obtained vast fleets of new bombers, established a vast aerial refueling system, started many new units and bases, began missile development, and established a strict command and control system. When he left the command in 1957 to assume his new job as Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, SAC was the most powerful military force the world had ever seen.
But that was only one of his many accomplishments. He was the outstanding air combat leader of World War II. He developed the bombardment tactics and strategies that left Nazi Germany in rubble. He was transferred to the Pacific theater, where he took over command of the B-29’s and led the air war against Japan.
He incinerated every major Japanese city and oversaw the dropping of the atomic bombs. He believed that, “if you are going to use military force, then you ought to use overwhelming military force.
Use too much and deliberately use too much.. you’ll save lives, not only your own, but the enemy’s too". But he could be a humanitarian, and after the war he organized he famous Berlin Air Lift.
He often demonstrated his courage by personally leading his bombers on the dangerous missions, including what many regard as the most dangerous mission ever flown – the attack on Regensberg, Germany. The Army Air Forces lost half of the 1,000 planes launched that day, which has gone down in Air Force history as “Black Thursday.”
If his crews weren’t flying missions, then they were subjected to his relentless training.They called him “Iron Ass” because he demanded so much, but they respected him immensely. A popular story that was widely circulated in SAC is that he approached a fully-fueled bomber with his ever-present cigar stuck firmly between his lips. A guard asked him to put it out, as it might blow up the aircraft. Lemay replied, “It wouldn’t dare.”
He is buried in the United States Air Force Academy Cemetery at Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Air Force General and VP candidate Curtis E. LeMay
Generals who are up front and who will have THEIR ASS on the front lines take a far different world view than the coddled wealthy political appointees who think that they are better than everyone else.’
General – I’d die for my Country, but this leader is a moron. My job is to protect the country. War is an avenue of last resort. But this is not a last resort situation.
Political Neocon – I have a plan, and since I am smarter, wealthier, and better than everyone else, and I have God, history, and “greatness” on my side, I just cannot possibly be wrong. It’s inconceivable!
Never the less, the political elite in America are sleepwalking towards Armageddon.
The following is brilliant, and the author is so in tune with my feelings and beliefs on this issue that I must reprint these entire two articles. Just brilliant! The author is Chris Faure. He is exceptional.
China will not be conquered again, even if every last Chinese has to join the fight.
In the past four days, China has sent first 28, then 29 fighters and bombers near Taiwan. (Taiwan itself reports different numbers). Then, the US announced on Sunday that this is provocative. So, China called the statement irresponsible and sent a massive number of 59 fighters and bombers near Taiwan in a ‘take that!’ move.
But first, why would China militarily get involved in Taiwan, as it is their own territory under the 1992 Consensus for “one-China”? Taiwan is clearly China’s internal affair. What are their red lines?
Taiwan declaring a flash independence (they cannot really because they are umbilically connected to the mainland)
Internal turmoil inside Taiwan as we saw in Hong Kong
Taiwan may make a non-legal military alliance with another country
And any violation of the 1992 consensus.
None of these conditions are currently present, but we will need expert advice on the 1992 consensus. I do not know de jure how close Taiwan is to that red line. De facto the Taiwan announcement that they are preparing for war is completely provocative.
Currently China is not threatening.
She is using her air force to deliver very strong warnings that the conditions are approaching red lines.
Lets look at Global Times. Bear in mind that the Global Times is not a bullhorn for Chinese people. It is for the dissemination of information to western people. That is its function. ‘
– Time to warn Taiwan secessionists and their fomenters: war is real:
“The secessionist forces on the island will never be allowed to secede Taiwan from China under whatever names or by whatever means...... and, the island will not be allowed to act as an outpost of the US’ strategic containment against China. “
“The strategic collusion between the US and Japan and the DPP authorities is becoming more audacious...... and the situation across the Taiwan Straits has almost lost any room for maneuver teetering on the edge of a face-off, creating a sense of urgency that the war maybe triggered at any time.”
Sunday, further Global times writing appeared, by a GT voice, warning the EU (GT voice should indicate to us that this is unified among the Chinese people).
EU warned not to play with fire on Taiwan question.
– China will reconsider the European trade agreement.
“If the EU simply wants to develop normal economic and trade relations with the Taiwan island, its unusual emphasis on the latter’s role in its Indo-Pacific strategy should be viewed with suspicion.
Some European politicians may think that playing the “Taiwan card” will draw more attention and could help pressure the mainland to make more concessions.
But confusing the right and the wrong on China’s bottom line is a dead end.The Chinese mainland’s position on the Taiwan question remains clear and resolute.
All exchanges with the island must be handled in strict accordance with the one-China principle. They cannot exceed the scope of normal nonofficial cooperation and exchange.”
So, this is where we stand in this face-off and more analysis will follow.
Escalation? Continuation of “Sitrep : China. Is. Dead. Serious.”
Continuation of “Sitrep : China. Is. Dead. Serious.”
Let’s take a look at what China overcame in our near history.
The NED and similar organizations’ sponsored “Color Revolutions” in Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang all collapsed. We can also be sure that this escalation that we see now is not really about Taiwan. Taiwan is playing its role, like the dissidents in Hong Kong did.
The Trump Trade War collapsed and his focus on tariffs is now taking a tremendous toll on the US West Coast Ports.
The western propaganda war on China is collapsing because of the efforts of blogs like The Saker Blog and many others that took up writing about this.
The economic war is collapsing. For this, we have to follow Michael Hudson who details the butt-hurt Soros types who cannot make China dance to their tune. China has done massive work so that they do not have monopolies and internal destabilization by ‘too big to fail types’.
The return of Meng Wanzhou as a figure of national pride, which was a very delicate operation if one follows all of the plane routes during the sensitive exchange. Meng was exchanged for two worthless Canadian spies. There is another theory and this is that Canada tumbled to pay back the US for not including them in AUKUS.
The idea that the Chinese are not soldiers. They are that now because they have to be. * More about this following.
Let’s see what China gained in our near history
The pride, persistence, and trust of the citizens.
Major developments in space, like their own space station (slated to be a launching platform for? For what really? I do not know but the west has declared space a warfighting domain.) Most nations are welcome to come and hook up their own module, but the western world is not. This is a little payback for not allowing Chinese astronauts on the international space station.
A top US general, Milley, is so fearful of China that he called his counterpart in the late days of the Trump administration and told them that the US will not attack. (General Miley called to deliver a madman message–we have a madman at the helm and he may send nukes your way, so don’t do anything to give him an excuse. The poor general also had to deliver a contradicting message–at the same time, America is not falling apart; everything is hunky-dory and the well-oiled machine is running smoothly. ) (I know this has been taken out of perspective by almost everyone, but I am thankful, no matter that he may be a sniveling idiot. He did the rest of the world a favor).
China is in the process of destroying the dollar hegemony slowly but surely with Russia already having done its part and divesting from the dollar in their sovereign wealth fund. This deserves an analysis all by itself. Needless to say, China is launching its digital Renminbi, or Digital Currency Electronic Payment, commonly referred to as E-CNY, a central bank digital currency issued by China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China. It is the first digital currency to be issued by a major economy. The digital RMB is legal tender and has equivalent value with other forms of CNY, such as bills and coins.
The fight against a virus called Covid.
China is now exceeding the US in almost all economic metrics, although they still refer to themselves as the 2nd major economy.
And at this stage, China makes major military flights near Taiwan.
A few statements:
China has no interest in military action against Taiwan
Taiwan has no real desire for military action against China (it would be somewhat like swatting a fly for China and will be over in an hour whichever method China chooses).
Here is Taiwanese Foreign Minister warning that his country is preparing for war with China. He asks Australia for help and Australia’s 60 minutes distributes the war propaganda.
Is the US interested in a war against China over Taiwan? We simply do not know.
What do we know?
Taiwan is a smaller copy of the economic miracle of China and there is no question of its economic success and high tech ability. But China mainland purchases over 40% of Taiwan’s production in both high-tech and agricultural products.
By studying Taiwan’s financial reports, MintPress has ascertained that the semi-autonomous island of 23 million people has, in recent years, given out millions of dollars to many of the largest and most influential think tanks in the United States.
It is then easy to conclude that with this revolving door, the US decided that Taiwan is an easy ingress to their hope for regime change in China itself (stated publicly by Mike Pompeo) and the AUKUS deal started the new range of increased provocations: It looks like any of the old color revolution tactics or initiatives, just now with an added threat.
This one, could end up in a hot war with both Russia and China.
Taiwan will not have a referendum for independence, because independence is not a done deal for the Taiwanese people. The ruling class fears that such a referendum will not be successful.
We all know the ‘call to democracy’ and we all know that this is invoked over and over by hegemonic powers to justify their own excesses. Well today, Taiwan’s Tsai is invoking ‘a call to democracy’ via an article in Foreign Affairs Magazine.
China is not impressed as she knows as well as you and I, what that really means.
China’s interest is peace and security in the region, which is now being called Indo-Pacific. Martyanov says this terminology is hegemon speak, and I’m inclined to agree with him.
It used to be Asia Pacific.
I so hope someone can draw me the borders (even a dash line) where the Indo pacific and the Asia Pacific exists. Wikipedia, instead of being obscurantist as usual, this time gives the plot away.
The term first appeared in academic use in oceanography and geopolitics. Scholarship has shown that the “Indo-Pacific” concept circulated in Weimar Germany, and spread to interwar Japan. German political oceanographers envisioned an “Indo-Pacific” comprising anticolonial India and republican China, as German allies, against “Euro-America”.
[2] Since 2010s, the term “Indo-Pacific” has been increasingly used in geopolitical discourse. It also has “symbiotic link” with the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or “Quad”, an informal grouping of in the region, comprising Australia, Japan, India, and the United States. It has been argued that the concept may lead to a change in popular “mental maps” of how the world is understood in strategic terms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pacific
Martyanov says that the US has clear dominance in submarine capability and he also says that escalation is something that is very hard to predict. Here we see escalation toward war, with the US using probably the only card that they have to play, trying to kick off an ocean-wide domination conflict on the shipping lanes of communications, with probably the only weapon that they have left, submarines to try and consolidate at least something of US economy and influence across the world.
Right here the issue of escalation becomes complex.
Russia will not stand out of this and what happens when the Zircons start flying? How soon until Japan, Australia and Taiwan are demolished? We will leave this here for professional analysts to opine.
With that as a backdrop, let’s return to China, specifically the general belief that the Chinese are not born soldiers.
That is true, yet the difference is that they prefer to solve problems non-kinetically. (Which is 100% fine with me!) But, they have other abilities, one of which is that they do not give up. The Saker has often said that morale is the greatest weapon of a military force. In this case, I would add to that: preparedness. Again Martyanov said that this thinking on the dominance of sea-lanes is not new. Well, China knows that as well, and they have prepared.
Every school child and university student in China now goes through military training. For the school kids, it is part of the initiative by the Chinese leaders to relieve the school kids from absurd requirements for STEM learning and to get them outside to take part in healthy play and strengthen them physically.
Every city has a local militia and they are armed to the teeth and drill and practice continually. This alone is estimated at 1 million feet on the ground (from Chinese sources).
If kinetic action breaks out in their own backyard, they have the numbers and home team advantage.
Following are some comments from our China correspondents. I don’t have the necessary 2 sources plus another for these, but I put them here to give you an idea of the chat.
China is known to be able to set together production lines very quickly. In these comments, this one is comical and says that…
China is mass producing nuclear warheads like they crank out paper lanterns. The only thing on earth that is faster is the US money machine.
It may be a comical comment, but the underlying issue here is that the average Chinese person has no doubt that China will, and is able to build whatever is necessary, any war materiel of any kind, to withstand kinetic action.
Is this meaningful in discussing this escalation? I would say yes.
More comments:
If you think a war against China (and Russia – we have to call in Russia at this stage) will be a perpetual war, kindly think again. This is not a win or a lose – it is total destruction of the one that fires the first shot or shoots the first missile or positions the first submarine to destabilize sea-lanes.
Here's a hint; Destabilization of the sea shipping lanes will, by it's self create a near (if not total) collapse of the economies of the Western nations. Which, is, by the way, why the United States cannot fight a war with China.
This represents the average Chinese and their chat and it is not the type of barroom soldier chat. These are ordinary people.
China is a merit nation and very serious.
One can expect precision and ruthlessness.
You may want to believe that the Chinese are not born warriors or you may want to believe that they cannot innovate. You can believe what you want, but take a look at these comments:
They do not believe in surgical strikes should anyone attack them. They believe in pounding the source of the attack and whatever is around it, into oblivion. They have their own history as a template.
This is a point that I have been trying to pound into the brain-dead West for years now. So many article praising American precision munitions and "surgical strikes" are meaningless.
China does not play.
They will see an guy running in a field and cluster nuke that field into radioactive glass. They just don't give a fuck. Caprice?
Btw, does this remind you of the Russians, who said that any strike on Russia will not only take out the strike, but also the platform where the strike comes from? The interaction between Russia and China militarily has grown tremendously as well, but again, this is another analysis.
I expect full-on military readiness as the Chinese military has been on a readiness footing for about a year now.
An outstanding question is how unified Asia is around China. Again we come up against Martyanov’s principle of escalation and this is really difficult to predict.
There is the old saying that goes like this:
Do not march on Moscow!.
We need to add one.
Do not militarily threaten Baba Beijing!.
It does not matter how for how long, they do not count their own possible dead, but they will stay the course.
Can we hope for level heads in Washington DC? Realism tells us that we have to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
China is doing that.
Oh, but what about Russia; the bear?
You all think that Russia will sit this one out? Are you fucking delusional? Maybe you haven’t noticed by the Chinese and Russian military cross-trains together. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but both military’s have their leadership in both HQ command centers. Maybe you haven’t’ noticed but immediately after the Australian submarine nuclear basing deal, the Russians and the Chinese held very long and serious “emergency” meetings of their top military leaders.
You haven’t noticed.
I’ll bet that you watch FOX “news”. CNN “news” or The Drudge Report “news”.
China and Russia are the pissed off nerds that are building “death rays” in their basements. China and Russia are the shunned, betrayed, and kicked upon wimps that stood tall while they were abused year after year. China and Russia are not going to play “ball”. No sure-ee. They are going to fucking devastate the playing field and what ever remains will be turned into mulch and used to fertilize their septic tanks.
Do you fucking think that Japan doesn’t know this? You should study some God damn history. Japan tries anything, anything, and it’ll be a radioactive series of ocean filled craters. Craters, mind you, that will have navigation warnings (in Chinese) for future shipping hazards.
Taiwan (and Japan) are islands.
Islands.
Islands, with densely populated zones and densely concentrated industrial zones.
Which means that if China or Russia are ever attacked by, or from, these islands all they need to do is lob just a few well aimed missiles at a few critical nodes to create not only total chaos, but also cripple the WORLD high tech industry (this is also true for the ROK, by the way, were one specific facility can be easily destroyed and create total chaos worldwide.
Which means that those who in the Anglosphere think of their Japanese or Taiwanese “allies” as canon fodder are kidding themselves. Just 24 hours after any attack on the DPRK, the PRC or Russia the world economy will violently crash just from the sheer panic induced by such missile strikes.
As for the people living on Taiwan, the ROK or Japan, they will deal with such industrial pollution and chaos that warfighting will be the last thing on their minds.
And, if they don’t fully surrender at that point, both Russia and China can turn their small islands into wastelands.
By the way, the US force planners all know that.
This was first taught to me by a *very* experienced US force planner in a class he called “why Japan cannot fight any war”. I am just adding the ROK and Taiwan to the list.
Finally, I think that most people in the region, at least in the ROK and Taiwan are aware of that.
-Anonymous
Do you have any idea how quickly South Korea will exit any alliance with the United States? Or haven’t you looked at a God damn map lately?
Korea is an a very, VERY bad location if it wants to support anti-China and anti-Russia activities.
America, Britain, and Australia has never experienced the receiving end of conquest. And it will be fucking nasty. Nasty.
China and Russia are going to go ‘Bronze age on your asses.”.
How about being forbidden to speak English. Being forbidden to have children. How about being forbidden to drive a car, ride a bicycle or suffer the penalty of death? How about being forbidden to wear shoes. How about slave markets, and not being able to use currency or have access to a bank?
Yeah. Conquest is like that.
What? You think that it can’t happen?
YOU ALL HAVE IDIOTS IN CHARGE OF YOUR WESTERN NATIONS. Get God-damn serious (for a change) and face the reality.
American “leaders”.
You, yes you, need to start changing things before all Hell breaks out.
China forgives, but never forgets. You all better stop kicking Asia, or it is going to unleash bloody fucking fury on your asses. Just remember you DO NOT WANT TO BE ON PAYBACK side…
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.
I have often commented that American (today) is a land of a million tiny hands in your wallet. Being an American you don’t realize just how bad it is until you step outside of America and see what other nations are like. And there you see that there is something seriously wrong when the basic necessities of life, many which are basically pretty cheap, are taxed, regulated, and siphoned from by others who use it as a model to extract money.
Indeed, today, everything in America is a money-generating mechanism.
From removing public water fountains, and replacing it with water / soda vending machines, to requiring a person register with the county (or city) to be able to cut someone’s hair. To updating your driver license, to updating your vehicle license, to getting a pet license, to paying a fee to use an ATM. It’s all, every bit of it, a money-generating mechanism for the top 0.001% in society.
Why do you need to pay for a fishing license? Why do you need to renew your license plate? Why do you need to pay for a study on the lifestyles of migrant sparrows in your county?
Why? Why? Why?
Why? Because it is a way to generate money.
Not for you. Not for your family. Not even for your community. It’s for others, in far away towns, cities, and communities to get wealthy from.
Bloomberg OWNS most Americans and has a zillion little mechanisms to extract your wealth.
Which is why I, and many others, refer to Americans as “debit serfs”.
Well, actually the serfs from the Middle ages had it much, much better than American do today. At a top tax of 10%. No fees. Nor regulations. No laws except those regarding a victim. And a full 100 days off a year in holidays, and a four day work week. A six hour long work day. Yeah. They had it much better than Americans do today.
Anyways, today we have two worlds;
A uni-polar worldwhere the United States 0.001% oligarchy rules.
A multi-polar world where individual nations manage either societies as they see fit.
The United States is having a complete fit, and is literally fit to be tied, and is willing to destroy the rest of the world if that is what it takes to be the massive God-over-all. Have your read the George Soros tantrum articles? The Bloomberg articles? Jeeze!
Meanwhile, the rest of the world is moving on regardless.
Here is a most fantastic article that describes my vision of “America being the land of a million tiny hands in your wallet”. It’s brilliant. I only with that I was as good of a word-smith as these folk. I do hope that you enjoy it.
The article is below. All credit, yada, yada, yada.
Ross Welcome to Renegade Inc. With China’s increasing wealth, Western investors want some of the action. One of those investors is a bullish gentleman called George Soros. However, the Chinese are acutely aware that with Western investment comes inequality. So as Beijing begins to rethink how to do proper economic growth, we ask, will China learn from Western mistakes?
Ross Michael Hudson, always great to have you back on Renegade Inc.
Michael Hudson It’s good to be back here. Thanks for having me.
Ross Michael, we join you at a time where a lot of people think the unipolar world could have maintained its supremacy. Turns out it hasn’t. Multipolar world is here to stay. You of late have been quite vocal about George Soros, no less. Mr. Soros has been casting aspersions about various things, but one of them is talking about the Chinese economy and why Black Rock, amongst others, should be allowed to invest there, because ultimately it’s going to undo American interests. Can you unpack that for us because it seems very complicated?
Michael Hudson Well, George Soros’ dream is that China would do what Yeltsin did to Russia – that it would privatise the economy, really carve it up and let US investors buy control of the most profitable heights. In that way, the foreign investors would be able to sort of get the profits of Chinese industry, Chinese labour, and it would become the darling stock market of the world, just like Russia’s stock market was the leading booming stock market of 1994-96. China would be run to benefit US investment bankers. Soros is furious that China is not following the neoliberal policy that the United States is following. It’s following a socialist policy wanting to keep its economic surplus at home to benefit its own citizens, not American financial investors. For Soros, this is a clash of civilisations. His proposed strategy is to stifle the Chinese economy by putting sanctions against it, to stop investing in it so as to force it to do to itself what Yeltsin did to Russia.
Ross Let’s hear it in his words. He says: ‘The BlackRock initiative imperils the national security interests of the US and other democracies because the money invested in China will help prop up President Xi’s regime, which is repressive at home and aggressive abroad. Congress should pass legislation empowering the Securities and Exchange Commission to limit the flow of funds to China. The effort ought to enjoy bipartisan support’. He’s not mincing his words, is he?
Michael Hudson He thinks that China actually needs American dollars to build its factories and invest. He thinks that somehow China’s balance of payments is going to fall apart without the US market, without US investors telling President Xi what to do. The Chinese government won’t have a clue as to what to invest in and how to let the ‘free market’, meaning George Soros and BlackRock and other companies, operate. So he’s living in a dream world where other people need us. It’s like a guy who doesn’t realise his girlfriend doesn’t need him anymore.
Ross There seems to me to be a distinction here that the Chinese are acutely aware of, and it’s between the classical economists and the neoclassical economists. The classical economists have understood the idea of unearned wealth, unearned income. The neoclassical economists actively chase unearned wealth, unearned income, because that is central to their playbook. Can you just expand on those two ideas? And is it the case that that’s why you talk about a clash of civilisations?
Michael Hudson Well, you put your finger on it, Ross. People think that China’s advantage is its abundant, low priced labour force, or the government building infrastructure. But what’s guiding this is an understanding of the kind of economics that goes back even beyond Marx, to Adam Smith, and John Stuart Mill and the other classical economists. They realise that there’s a difference between earning income and creating wealth by employing labour to produce goods, to sell at a profit and then reinvest these profits and more capital formation, in contrast to simply buying a rent-yielding property, buying land and letting it rise in price without the landlord doing anything, buying a monopoly and just raising the price – charging monopoly prices like the US pharmaceutical companies are doing. China understands the difference between earned income and unearned income, between productive investment and unproductive investment.
In the United States, if they do recognise this difference, they realise that via unearned income you can make wealth by parasitically much quicker than you can actually create real wealth. It’s cheaper to be a parasite than a host. And so most of the financial strategy of Wall Street involves how to get something for nothing. How can we get a free lunch? Well, to do that as a major policy, we have to begin by telling people what Milton Friedman said: There is no such thing as a free lunch. But the whole of Wall Street is looking for a free lunch. They’re looking to grab Chinese assets on the cheap, like Soros has grabbed post-Soviet assets. They’re looking for monopoly rights. They’re looking for lending money and letting China do the work, to pay the interest to the Americans that are going to be providing it with money that the Federal Reserve ends up creating on its computers, or that George Soros already has saved largely by how he got the free lunch from the Bank of England betting against that and driving Sterling down.
Ross Some people call it the free world. Others call it a democracy. Others, for America, call it an advanced oligarchy. Do you think that the Chinese have looked at America and the wider West, understood that privatising all that rent has ultimately led to societal decline?
Michael Hudson They’re beginning to look at it that way. Most Chinese Marxists focused on Volume 1 of Capital, which is about employers hiring workers and putting them to work and making a profit off the mark-up. Only in the last couple of years have Volumes 2 and Volume 3 of Capital moved into central discussion in China. And it’s Volumes 2 and 3 that talk about economic rent. And so China has come to realise tha the United States is not an industrial economy. We’re not going to understand what’s happening in the United States, in England or Europe by looking only at what Marx wrote in Volume 1 of Capital, because they’re not making money industrially anymore. They’re making money by being a rentier economy, by landlordism, by monopolies and by bank credit, which Marx discussed in Volume 2 and 3.
So they’re now broadening the discussion. For the first time, you’re having, especially in the last month, China asking, “Do we want to let Chinese investors make money, financially, by buying housing, becoming absentee landlords and hoping that there is going to be a housing price inflation like you have in the United States? Or, do we want to keep housing low priced and not to bid it up by credit creation and finance?” They’re now realising that to keep China’s cost of living low, you have to keep the price of housing low. That means that you don’t want housing to become a commodity, an investment vehicle for absentee owners and landlords to make money. You want housing to be for Chinese people to live in. That means low-priced housing, not debt-leveraged housing as they’re seeing in the United States.
Ross I know somebody who works on the life boat on the Thames and they get a view each night that no one else would ever get. And they go up and down the Thames and they see all these high rises, which are oversupply of property, real estate. And there isn’t one light on in any of them. The reason, foreign investors, predominately the Chinese, have come bought them, clingfilmed the whole place, locked the door and then they chip off back to China – sit and wait, basically allow that land value to go up and cash out 10 years later. You can see what that does to local communities, schools, shops, infrastructure, services and all the rest of it – this absenteeism. Do you think that those foreign investors, the leadership in Beijing, has seen this model around the world and thought, yep, fine, we can do it over there, and yet we need to repatriate some money because of some of the liquidity issues that we’ve got over here. But we’re not having that as a central business model or a central economic model to our economies? Do you think that that light has gone on?
Michael Hudson Well, they’ve been discussing this regarding Hong Kong for the last 10 years. Hong Kong is the typical example of multi, multi-billionaires in real estate. They think that a socialist economy is not one that gets rich by creating absentee landlords. There’s been a large outflow of Chinese investment to the West. You have it in New York City on the west side, all very dark apartments with no lights on at night because they’re absentee-owned. Thorstein Veblen in 1923 wrote a book, Absentee Ownership, saying that housing should really be for living, not a speculative vehicle. But in America, real estate is all about civic development. It’s about how to increase real estate prices and create a bubble for speculators to find someone to flip the property to. I’m not sure it’s going to happen much longer and in London now that Brexit has occurred. But I think that what China is trying to do is asking how to create a domestic economy where Chinese people make money productively. They can not only afford a house of their own, but if they invest, they can invest in making China richer, not in buying income-yielding, rent-yielding, assets in America, England or Europe.
Ross Do you think that the pictures that we’ve recently seen on social media of the huge tower blocks that haven’t been finished, residential, that haven’t been finished for eight years and now they’ve just put semtex under them and raised the whole thing to the ground? Do you think that’s a real world example of the scar tissue, if you like, that private debt creates and in another sense, a Minsky moment? Blowing all these things up means that you get rid of all of that oversupply, which means that that inventory isn’t in the market and isn’t their to be flipped and speculated on.
Michael Hudson These are buildings where they wanted to pre-plan for what they thought was going to be a rural exodus, but the rural exodus didn’t occur into these cities. Right now, China is focusing, I think for the first time in quite a few years, much more on rural development. China is primarily a still a rural economy, a village economy. Most people don’t realise that. When you think of China, you think of Shanghai and Shenzhen and Beijing and even Wuhan. But the fact is that much of China’s rural and there can’t really be a rural exodus to the cities because you have a kind of passport plan in China. In order to live in Beijing, you have to have a permit to live in Beijing so the city won’t become even more overcrowded than it is now. They’re having to re-focus development much more on the rural areas that have not kept pace with the heavy industrial factory areas that have occurred. So they wanted to do a lot of building, not only to employ labour and to do construction, but to think just in case they needed this housing for the rural exodus, they needed it in place. Now they realise, OK, we’re not following that particular central planning idea.
Central planning really is very hard. It’s very hard to build whole small cities in advance with nobody there. It’s much easier to wait until they’re actually economic forces leading you to develop. So in that sense, China’s becoming more market oriented in its planning. But at the same time, it shapes the market, increasingly, to create domestic prosperity and earning opportunities, not unearned rent-extracting opportunities, but productive earning opportunities. This is an ongoing process of re-evaluating, restructuring, fixing up and improving the economy.
Ross Michael Hudson, welcome back. Great to have you for the second half.
Michael Hudson Thanks.
Ross Michael, we said right at the top of this programme that there is, let’s say, a tug of war between the unipolar and the multipolar. China have looked at the West and they must conclude now, the Russians also, must conclude, that the Western economic model is fatally flawed. In many ways, what you’ve got in America is an advanced oligarchy. Across Europe, you’ve got a zombie banking system. And basically the model for the last certainly 30, 40 years has been to extract as much rent as possible and pass it off as an economic miracle. To avoid all that, this fork in the road has crystallised. What do you think will be the decisions coming out of Beijing when they look at the economy in a more holistic way and they realise that they want to better the lot of the average Chinese citizen?
Michael Hudson Well, as I pointed out, their concept of the economy realises the distinction between earned income and unearned income, between rent and profits. It wants to make profits, not economic rents. And it also sees that the United States is trying to prevent it from going along this socialist road, and that’s really the new Cold War. You mentioned unipolar versus multipolar. It’s actually not so much that China, Russia and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, along with Kazakhstan and Iran and now the other groups are pulling away. It’s the United States that’s trying to force them to follow the US neoliberal model by imposing sanctions and special penalties and military threats, not to mention ISIS terrorism. The United States is driving Europe, Asia and now Africa as well, into a unified, consolidated unit outside of itself. It’s very self-destructive. It thinks like George Soros, that if we stop investing in Asia and other countries, that will force them to knuckle under to the US. But what it’s doing is it’s driving them altogether into the Belt and Road Initiative.
What China’s doing is creating a precondition for a profitable industrial economy over a large area to benefit from. It’s participants are going to need transportation. You’re going to need ports. You’re going to need roads. You’re going to need pipelines and is focusing on the interconnections, on the infrastructure.
America doesn’t build infrastructure these days unless it’s monopolised. This is the political fight going on in the United States now. President Biden has a infrastructure plan that he’s scaled down from six and a half trillion to three and a half trillion. And essentially the bulk of the Democratic and Republican Party said if we can’t privatise infrastructure and make it a rent-extracting monopoly, we’re not going to do it, and we’re going to block the government from doing it.
So in the United States, they’re going to have high priced infrastructure, high-priced health care and high-priced education while China is going to have low-priced transportation, low-cost infrastructure, free education, public health care.
And you’re going to have a very high-cost United States unable to compete with the rest of the world.
All it can do is make military threats or financial threats. If it tries to impose sanctions as it’s imposed on Russia, China and other countries, these are going to serve as protective tariffs for foreign countries.
When President Trump put sanctions on agricultural exports to Russia, it was a windfall for Russia. They developed their own agriculture and Russia is now the largest grain exporter in the world. Senator McCain characterised Russia as a gas station of atom bombs, but it’s a gas station with the largest farm sector in the world, and is developing an industrial integration with China and the rest of Asia. It’s a Eurasian world island as Mackinder called it a century ago, and it is becoming the economic focus of the world, leaving the United States as the high cost economy with no visible means of support, because we’re not doing our own industry anymore. We’re not competing with China. We’re letting China do all of the industry, and all of a sudden we’re dependent on it. This does not bode good for prosperity in the United States or Europe and other areas that are satellites of the US economy.
Ross What is the probability of the West going, hang on, we have taken a detour here, we need to do something differently?
Michael Hudson I’d say maybe between one and two percent. In order to understand that you’re taking a wrong detour, you have to understand what the right path is, and why China’s doing it right. They can’t acknowledge that, because that’s called socialism. And when everyone points out that instead of having health care absorbing 18 percent of the American GDP, you could provide public health care and lower the cost of living in the United States. That’s a precondition for making labour more competitive.
Well, the employers are going to argue that if you make health care public, then you’re going to lose the ability to lock-in labour to its employers. Right now in the United States, especially during the pandemic, if you work for an employer for a living, you’re afraid of being fired because you lose your health insurance and that is a threat of bankruptcy.
If you complain about your job, you might be fired. That’s a danger. So having private health care paid for by the employers locks labour into dependency. They’re afraid to ask for higher wages. They’re afraid to ask for pensions. Privatized employer-based health care has become part of the class war here, and it is succeeding in impoverishing labour. Same thing with privatized education costs financed on credit at fairly high interest rates, without any bankruptcy recourse to wipe them out..
President Biden promised that he was going to wipe out student debt. If you have students paying 40 to 50 thousand dollars a year to have a college education and a college diploma is a precondition for getting a job like a union card used to be, then you’re going to have that added to the cost of living. When you have all of these privatised – education, health care, not to mention housing and other factors – when you have all these rent-extracting exploitative sectors you cannot be a competitive economy. You can only get money by conquering and exploiting other countries, by owning their own rent-extracting sectors and monopoly-profit sectors.
But there’s no one to conquer anymore. America couldn’t even conquer Afghanistan. Every economy for the last 5,000 years has two parts. There’s the real economy of producing and consuming and paying taxes and government services. And then there’s the debt and financial overhead.
All economies operate on credit. The problem is that credit cost money, and creditor claims accumulate at compound interest. if you look at the compound interest for anybody’s savings – take the wealth of the One Percent and all the trillions of dollars they have – if you leave your money to accumulate compound interest, it grows exponentially. But economies don’t grow exponentially.
They grow in an S-curve, and sometimes there’s an interruption. Sometimes there’s a disease like Covid. Sometimes there’s bad weather and a environmental disaster or there’s a war. And once there’s an interruption, what do you do with the fact that the finance sector grows faster?
Well, this goes way back to Babylonia. It occurred in Greece and Rome. Ultimately the tendency is for the financial sector to take over and to use the financial returns to take over real estate. And so there’s a symbiosis between real estate and finance. That’s occurred in every economy for the last 2,000 years since Greece and Rome.
It certainly characterises where most money and most wealth is made today.
In the universities, you take a course and they say, well, you accumulate wealth by saving up the wages and saving up the profits you made. But that’s not how the wealthy classes got money. That’s not how the One Percent have made money. They have made money either by taking property from the public domain by privatisation, or it’s made today by the central banks, lowering interest rates, flooding the market with credit, enough credit to push up real estate prices 20 percent in the United States in the last year. Housing prices have gone way up to unaffordable levels, pushing up education prices – and education is priced at whatever a bank or the government will lend you to pay with a student loan. It’s all financialization.
It turns out that what people thought was industrial capitalism has turned out to be finance capitalism instead.
So what China is doing is saying that it’s not going to let our industrial capitalism evolve into finance capitalism. It’s going to evolve into socialism, because they’re a socialist government.
Ross Just say the Chinese, the penny’s dropped and they’ve understood how badly wrong the West got it. What does the Chinese economy, and as importantly, society look like 10, 20 years from today?
Michael Hudson It’ll be a more balanced, less polarised economy. It will still let people make fortunes, but not gigantic fortunes large enough for an independent oligarchy to develop, to become a rival to government and try to replace government. In the West, you’ve had a financial oligarchy evolve and take over planning from elected government. So we don’t have democracy now.
It means a free market where you leave everything to Wall Street as your central planner.
So China is going to leave its planning spontaneously to individuals to innovate, to develop, where America is becoming, and England, are centrally planned economies planned by Wall Street, not to create prosperity, but to create rent-extracting opportunities for Wall Street stocks and bonds and absentee real estate.
So you’re going to have a rentier economy – let’s call it neofeudalism – while the rest of the world goes forward into what industrial capitalism was meant to be a century ago before it was sidetracked in the West.
Much of Eurasia and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will evolve into socialism, as most expected would happen in the West a century ago.
Ross You talk about Super Decadence. Is the irony lost on you that one of your politicians recently attended a 35,000 dollar gala event dressed in an expensive dress with the words ‘tax the rich’ embroidered all over the back of it?
Michael Hudson That perception of inequality has become so popular that you can almost make fun of it. There’s something called neurolinguistic programming, that says that if you have a problem, a headache or something, if you can imagine your headache or your problem being very far away and then expanding and expanding and finally, poof, it all dissolves and goes away.
They think that they can say “Tax the rich” and just make it into a phrase that’s so popular, it doesn’t really mean tax the rich any more.
It means that you accept inequality, but realize that it’s just become part of the system – and wouldn’t it be nice if there were a parallel universe in which we could indeed tax the rich. But of course, that’s just a nice fantasy.
Ross Michael, always entertaining. Always a pleasure. Thank you so much for your time.
Michael Hudson It’s wonderful to be here, Ross. Thanks for having me on your show.
POSTSCRIPT:
Right after this interview, China did on its own just what George Soros was asking U.S. money managers to do: Stop lending money to China. So China itself made an about-face and turned down the BlackRock’s plans to buy a large Chinese real estate company, and it did not pay foreign holders of its Evergrande bonds on September 23.
Diplomatically, China had expected Wall Street firms to lobby to stop America’s anti-China policy. And indeed, many Wall Street executives did point out to the U.S. government that China offered many opportunities for America to make money, and urged not to treat it as an enemy. But the military-industrial complex (MIC) has its own agenda, along with the neocon and neoliberal advocates of unique U.S. unilateralism.
I think that ever since China’s officials met in Alaska with Mr. Blinken earlier this year, they see the handwriting on the wall, as have Russia and other SCO members. The’ve accepted that the world economy is fracturing between the U.S.-centered “free world” (central planning by Wall Street and unilateral diplomacy from Washington) and the multilateralizing rest of the world.
MH
Conclusions
Cut out the different terms, and you discover that these fellows are talking about something that I have noticed for a long, long time. And this is one of the primary reasons why you feel so free once you step outside of the American gulag-state.
Granted, the way that I speak and talk will just be considered too “colonial” for these kinds of people, but the fact still remains, no matter what you call it.
America is a nation that does not make anything.
Instead, it is a nation of the oligarchy that act as leeches, feeding of the most basic needs of the American people.
And as the people get sick and tired of this situation, and they start to revolt and fight back, the oligarchy has but one remaining trick… distraction. And the distraction is a major war with a major power.
They chose China.
Way back in 2004 – 2005 as they believed that it was the weaker of the two (China and Russia) And they are still playing that game, still following though the plans, even though things have changed substantially in China since then.
The one to tame this monster of a beast, my gut feeling is, will not be China. It will be Russia. And that is for another discussion at another time.
…
For all that talk about how great America is, just pales in comparison to China. And that is simply because NOW (at this time… subject to change, of course) that the Chinese government serves the people. And the United States does not.
And, rather than go one and on about it, and angering my American friends, here’s a comparison…
If you go down the list you can easy see how true it is.
Regulations. Well, in America you had best comply with a EPA study to see if your local spangled wombat spider isn’t going to be affected when you add a pool to your back yard. That will cost money. Who will get the money? Well, it’s “the regulators”. How do you become a state regulator? Come on, boys and girls, you know that you can apply all you want but only the select few get state jobs.They are the friends of those already in power. Don’t believe me? Apply for a state job that pays a decent wage.
Laws. Oh, yeah. Tell me about it. There’s two sets in America. One for us, and one for the wealthy. That’s it. Argument over.
Domestic Policy. In America nothing is done domestically unless some oligarch can profit from it. That’s the way it is Jack, and the 7 trillion dollars that President Biden is proposing isn’t going anywhere except into the wallets of the wealthy.
This is the difference between a people’s government and a billionaires democracy.
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.
I have been thinking a lot of the Deagel Forecast for 2025 lately. More so, much more so than before. The reason being the new Australia-USA nuclear “submarine” agreement forged earlier this month. And you know, of course I am thinking about this. This singular deal does many, many dangerous things. But perhaps the most dangerous is makes it far easier for a major nuclear conflict with China. And since I live in China, that pisses the Hell out of me.
It’s a major assertive military aggression on the part of the United States.
As well as pointing out the obvious; that Australia is not a “democracy”. After all, a democracy would have the legislature making those decisions, not the Head of State. So in truth, Australia is but a “tin horn” dictatorship, bought sold, and owned by the United States. It’s pretty brazen, but then again, these fucking jokers don’t really give a damn any longer about what people think.
And to confirm how brain-dead the Australian citizenry is, they are not even noticing that the decisions on tariffs, embargoes, trade with China, military alignments with the United States are not going through the proper channels. It’s all being done in “smoky” back-rooms with “shadowy figures”, and the only time that any citizen finds out about it is after the fact.
Yup.
Third-world, banana republic, dictatorship. That’s Australia today.
For those of you who are unaware, Australia has agreed to build bases, staffed by American military, to service American (and British) nuclear submarines until (or well past) 2040 when the Australian versions of those submarines will be manufactured.
The reason is the same old, same old, “secure international maritime law”, “uphold human rights”, and secure “global democratic values”, maintain the American “rules based order”. (As opposed to the UN maritime law.)
Bla. Bla. Bla.
Yada. Yada. Yada.
The thing is ALL American nuclear submarines carry nuclear missiles. Both the SLBM’s for targeted destruction of cities, and nuclear torpedoes for the destruction of submarines and entire fleets.
Though, any thinking person might stop and wonder what does placing nuclear ICBM’s off the Chinese coast have to do with “upholding human rights”, “free navigational passage” or “democratic values”.
And the reason is, that it doesn’t.
Bla. Bla. Bla.
Yada. Yada. Yada.
It’s placing very serious offensive weapons off the coast of China.
And the real reason is…?
…
…
So that the fishing rights of Vietnamese fishermen next to Indonesian waters will be policed, and secured? Is that what we are supposed to believe?
…
…
Bla. Bla. Bla.
Yada. Yada. Yada.
This move has shocked the world. Though not so much the dumbed-down Americans who say…
"Oh, well. It's way off somewhere at the other end of the world. Who cares. We have more important things to worry about like Trans injecting booster Vaxx. And being forced to wear masks! 'Merica! 'Merica! 'Merica!"
But don’t worry. The Chinese Leadership got the telegraphed message loud and clear.
The global appeal for peace comes as a top Chinese diplomat warned his country to re-examine their promise to only use nukes in retaliation, in response to the new alliances forming in the region.
Beijing’s former ambassador to the UN, Sha Zukang said China must make the first nuclear strike against the US if Joe Biden continues to defend Taiwan.
He said:
"The unconditional no first use is not suitable . . .
...unless China-US negotiations agree that neither side would use [nuclear weapons] first...
..., or the US will no longer take any passive measures to undermine the effectiveness of China’s strategic forces.
The strategic pressure on China is intensifying as (the US) has built new military alliances and as it increases its military presence in our neighborhood."
The threat came ahead of a meeting between the US, India, Japan and Australia – dubbed the Quad, in Washington, host by Joe Biden.
During a meeting of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association in Beijing last week he said:
"The policy not to be the first to use nuclear weapons unconditionally has given China the moral high ground internationally.
But for some time in the future, the US will see China as its main competitor and even its enemy.
Can this policy be re- examined and fine-tuned?"
It has already happened.
Right after the announcement, all the SEO generals met in Russia for “discussions”.
First off, SEO stands for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. And it is the de facto unified Asia. And yes. Right after the announcement about the new ICBM submarine deal, all the SEO military chiefs called a meeting to discuss things.
And right now, this is what it looks like…
(The big news, not well reported in “the West”, is how Iran just joined the SCO (this month). This is big news. This is a unified Asia.)
SCO chiefs of general staff meeting held in Russia
General Li Zuocheng (2nd L, front), member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the Joint Staff Department under the CMC, attends the meeting of chiefs of general staff of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states in Orenburg Oblast, Russia on September 23, 2021. (Photo by Li Xiaowei)
ORENBURG, Russia, Sept. 24 — The Chiefs of General Staff of the armed forces of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states held a meeting at the Donguz training range in Orenburg Oblast, Russia on September 23. General Li Zuocheng, member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the Joint Staff Department under the CMC, attended the meeting.
The Peace Mission-2021 joint anti-terrorist military exercise held by the armed forces of the SCO member states is also going on at the Donguz training range.
Chiefs of General Staff of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states including General Li Zuocheng (3rd L, front), member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the Joint Staff Department under the CMC, observe the Peace Mission-2021 joint anti-terrorist military exercise in Orenburg Oblast, Russia on September 23, 2021. (Photo by Li Xiaowei)
Since its establishment in 2001, by upholding the banner of “Shanghai spirit” of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity and pursuit of common development, the SCO has played an important role in promoting regional development, security and stability in the past two decades.
Participants of the meeting exchanged views on the current international and regional situations, security challenges and further cooperation of military security.
General Valery Gerasimov, chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, awards the medal of “Friendship and Cooperation” to representatives of the Chinese participating troops with outstanding performance in the SCO Peace Mission-2021 joint anti-terrorist military exercise at the Donguz training range in Orenburg Oblast, Russia on September 23, 2021. (Photo by Li Xiaowei)
They also expressed concern about the new risks in the situation of Afghanistan posed by the hasty withdrawal of foreign troops from the country, and signed jointly the minutes of the meeting of chiefs of general staff of the SCO member states.
In addition, participants of the meeting observed the Peace Mission-2021 joint anti-terrorist military exercise and all agreed that this exercise has improved the coordination capacity of the militaries of the SCO members in fighting against the international terrorist forces.
On the same day, Chinese General Li Zuocheng met with Russia’s Chief of General Staff General Valery Gerasimov in a separate closed door meeting. Photo below…
General Li Zuocheng (3rd L), member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the Joint Staff Department under the CMC, meets with General Valery Gerasimov (3rd R), chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Orenburg Oblast, Russia on September 23, 2021. General Li is in Orenburg to attend the meeting of chiefs of general staff of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states. (Photo by Li Xiaowei)
You all think that this is nothing and that it is going to “blow over”?
Hardly. But there’s not a peep in the Western press about any of this.
Drudge Report 28SEP21.
But like I’ve been saying all along, the cattle don’t need to know what the farmer is planning on having for dinner.
Let’s get into some details why the Russians and Chinese are mobilizing their military forces.
American Nuclear Submarines to be serviced in Australia
The United States submarine force consists of four operational classes – Ohio, Los Angeles, Seawolf, and Virginia – all of which are nuclear-powered.
[1] The 14 Ohio-class SSBNs serve as the sea-based leg of the U.S. strategic triad. [2] An additional four Ohio-class submarines are configured as SSGNs that possess both strike and Special Forces insertion capabilities. The three classes of U.S. attack submarines — Virginia, Seawolf and Los Angeles – are tasked with engaging and destroying enemy vessels; supporting on-shore operations and carrier groups; and carrying out surveillance.
Capabilities at a Glance
Total Submarines in Fleet: 70
Ballistic Missile Submarines (SSBNs): 14
Special forces / Black Ops Submarines (SSGNs): 4
Nuclear-Powered attack submarines (SSNs): 52
British Submarines to be serviced in Australia
The UK have four nuclear powered submarines that will be cruising off the Chinese coast. They will be the four Vanguard-class submarines: Vanguard (commissioned in 1993), Victorious (1995), Vigilant (1996) and Vengeance (1999).
All carry American nuclear SLBMs.
The United Kingdom has deployed Vanguard-class submarines with American manufactured Trident II nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) leased from the United States under arrangements negotiated with the Reagan administration in 1982.
So what?
Imagine if Russia started parking it’s nuclear submarines in Cuba, and if China started parking it’s nuclear submarines in Vancouver, BC. What if China started placing nuclear armed ICBM’s in Indonesia and Tasmania targeting “freedom of maritime passage” in Australia?
It’s a BIG FUCKING DEAL.
Which makes me want to take another look at the Deagel Report.
Boiler-plate Introduction
Who is the Deagel Report, what is it?
The Deagel corporation is a minor branch of US military intelligence, one of the many secretive organizations which collects data for high-level decision-making purposes and prepares confidential briefing documents for agencies like the National Security Agency, the United Nations, and the World Bank.
Deagel Report.
It is known, for example, to have contributed to a Stratfor report on North Korea. With this kind of pedigree, Deagel should be seen as a legitimate player in the intelligence community and not merely a disinformation asset.
If so, then it must be assumed that its population predictions for 2025, as well as its industrial output predictions on a nation-by-nation basis, are based on strategic assumptions which are shared and well understood by other players in the intelligence community.
Until the start of the Covid ‘pandemic’ many commentators were perplexed by the Deagel spreadsheets.
Perhaps they were part of a psychological operation?
However, in light of recent events, we are obliged to consider a possible connection between the projected massive reduction in the population of certain countries, forecast by Deagel, and other trends going on right now.
Trends?
What trends?
Devaluation of the Dollar with an out of control American Congress.
A fake American GDP.
Strange insistence in using a mRNA vaccine instead of a traditional “dead host” vaccine.
A global pandemic that America is just fucking up royally.
Desire for a war with China.
Desire for a war with Russia.
Desire for a war with Iran.
China, Russia and Iran forming a unified Asian block.
Race war in the United States.
Progressive onslaught and control of all electronic media.
Looming bubbles in just about every facet of American life.
But mostly the latest decisions by the Untied States to create a QUAD alliance, armed with nuclear weapons, and threaten China, or if that fails, to launch a “first strike” nuclear salvo against China to destroy it once and for all.
For “democracy” and “freedom“.
Don’t you know.
The Deagel scenario
The Deagel corporation was asked to explain the thinking behind its strange set of population and output figures. While we cannot take its response at face value, it nonetheless paints a picture that is very similar to the world we now see. And this is not an exaggeration at all.
World-wide bio-weapon pandemic
Massive domestic discord
Financial collapse preceded by inflation
Broken American government systems on all levels.
The United States trying to distract domestic discord through war
They updated their report last year (exactly last year 25SEP20) to compensate for the changes in the Geo-political environment since President Obama in 2012. This is what they said…
Deagel 2020 revision to the original 2012 Deagel Forecast
BlueNarwhal:
Forecast disclaimer revision in 2020:
In 2014 we published a disclaimer about the forecast. In six years the scenario has changed dramatically. This new disclaimer is meant to single out the situation from 2020 on-wards.
Talking about the United States and the European Union as separated entities no longer makes sense. Both are the Western block, keep printing money and will share the same fate.
After COVID we can draw two major conclusions:
The Western world (success model) has been built over societies with no resilience. They can barely withstand any hardship, even a low intensity one. It was assumed but now we’ve got the full hard confirmation beyond any doubt. They are weak to the point of a decapitated cripple.
The COVID crisis will be used to extend the life of this dying economic system through the so called “Great Reset.”
The Great Reset; like the climate change, extinction rebellion, planetary crisis, green revolution, shale oil (…) hoaxes promoted by the system; is another attempt to slow down dramatically the consumption of natural resources and therefore extend the lifetime of the current system.
It can be effective for awhile but finally won’t address the bottom-line problem and will only delay the inevitable. The core ruling elites hope to stay in power which is in effect the only thing that really worries them.
Collapse of the USD Financial Banking System
The collapse of the Western financial system – and ultimately the Western civilization – has been the major driver in the 2012 forecast along with a confluence of crisis with a devastating outcome.
Progressive Multiculturalism failures
As COVID has proven Western societies embracing multiculturalism and extreme liberalism are unable to deal with any real hardship.
Coronavirus Pandemic
The Spanish flu one century ago represented the death of 40-50 million people. Today the world’s population is four times greater with air travel in full swing which is by definition a super spreader. The death casualties in today’s World would represent 160 to 200 million in relative terms but more likely 300-400 million taking into consideration the air travel factor that did not exist one century ago. So far, COVID death toll is roughly 1 million people.
Economic crisis due to forced lock-downs
It is quite likely that the economic crisis due to the lock-downs will cause more deaths than the virus worldwide. The Soviet system was less able to deliver goodies to the people than the Western one. Nevertheless Soviet society was more compact and resilient under an authoritarian regime. That in mind, the collapse of the Soviet system wiped out 10 percent of the population.
The stark reality of diverse and multicultural Western societies is that a collapse will have a toll of 50 to 80 percent depending on several factors. But in general terms the most diverse, multicultural, indebted and wealthy (highest standard of living) will suffer the highest toll.
Life-Support Systems
The only glue that keeps united such aberrant collage from falling apart is over-consumption with heavy doses of bottomless degeneracy disguised as virtue. Nevertheless the widespread censorship, hate laws and contradictory signals mean that even that glue is not working any more.
The Predictions
Not everybody has to die. Migration (out from America, the West, etc.) can also play a positive role in this.
Second and Third World Nations
The formerly (known as) second and third world nations are an unknown at this point. Their fate will depend upon the decisions they take in the future.
Western powers are not going to take over them as they did in the past because these (Western) countries won’t be able to control their very own cities let alone those countries that are far away.
If they remain tied to the former World Order they will go down along with the Western powers. However, they won’t experience the same kind of brutal decline that the Western powers will experience so brazenly. This is partially because they are poorer and (obviously) not diverse enough. Instead they are stronger than the Western powers because they are actually quite homogeneous. This is their advantage. And that they are used to deal with some sort of hardship. Though, not precisely the one that is coming.
If they switch to China they can get a chance to stabilize but will need to depend upon the management of their own resources. We expected this situation to unfold and actually is unfolding right now.
American Election Consequences
With the November election triggering a major bomb if Trump is re-elected. (Did not happen.) If Biden is elected there will very bad consequences as well.
There is a lot of bad blood in the Western societies and the protests, demonstrations, rioting and looting are only the first symptoms of what is coming.
Geo-Political Changes
However a new trend is taking place overshadowing this one. The situation between the three great powers has changed dramatically.
The only relevant achievement of the Western powers during the past decade has been the formation of a strategic alliance, both military and economic, between Russia and China.
Russia and China are a united Asia.
Right now the potential partnership between Russia and the European Union (EU) is dead with Russia turning definitively towards China. That was from the beginning the most likely outcome.
The European Union is on it’s own.
Airbus never tried to establish a real partnership but rather a strategy to fade away the Russian aerospace industry. Actually Russia and China have formed a new alliance to build a long haul airliner.
Western Europe (not to mention the United States) was never interested in the development of Russia or forming anything other than a master slave relationship with Russia providing raw materials and toeing the line of the West.
It was clear then and today is a fact.
Preparations for war
Russia has been preparing for a major war since 2008 and China has been increasing her military capabilities for the last 20 years. Today China is not a second tier power compared with the United States. Both in military and economic terms China is at the same level and in some specific areas are far ahead.
Chinese Technology is state of the art.
In the domain of high-tech 5G has been a success in the commercial realm but the Type 055 destroyer is also another breakthrough with the US gaining a similar capability (DDG 51 Flight IIII) by mid of this decade (more likely by 2030).
Nanchang, the lead ship of the Type 055 class, was commissioned amid the pandemic and lock down in China.
Potential for open war hostilities
Six years ago the likelihood of a major war was tiny.
Since then it has grown steadily and dramatically and today is by far the most likely major event in the 2020s.
The ultimate conflict can come from two ways.
[1] A conventional conflict involving at least two major powers that escalates into an open nuclear war. Most likely initiated by the United States, with a nuclear retaliatory salvo of impressive destructive magnitude.
[2] A second scenario is possible in the 2025-2030 time-frame. A Russian (with possibly China) sneak first strike against the United States and its allies with the new S-500, strategic missile defenses, Yasen-M submarines, INF Zircon and Kalibr missiles and some new space asset playing the key role.
The sneaky first strike would involve all Russian missile strategic forces branches (bombers and ground-based missiles) at the different stages of such attack that would be strategic translation of what was seen in Syria in November 2015.
Massive failures in Western Intelligence Agencies
There was no report that the Russian had such a capability of launching a high precision, multiple, combined arms attack at targets 2,000+ kilometers away.
Western intelligence had no clue.
Brainwashed Moral Superiority
The irony is that since the end of the Cold War the United States has been maneuvering through NATO to achieve a position to be able to execute a first strike (nuclear) over Russia and now it seems that the first strike may still occur but the country finished would be the United States.
Another particularity of the Western system is that its individuals have been brainwashed to the point that the majority accept their moral high ground and technological edge as a given. This has given the rise of the supremacy of the emotional arguments over the rational ones which are ignored or deprecated.
That mindset can play a key role in the upcoming catastrophic events.
At least in the Soviet system the silent majority of the people were aware of the fallacies they were fed up.
We can see the United States claims about 5G being stolen from them by China or hypersonic technology being stolen by Russia as the evidence that the Western elites are also infected by that hubris. Over the next decade it will become obvious that the West is falling behind the Russia-China block and the malaise might grow into desperation.
Why go to war?
Going to war might seem a quick and easy solution to restore the lost hegemony to finally find them into a France 1940 moment. Back then France did not have nuclear weapons to turn a defeat into a victory. The West might try that swap because the unpleasant prospect of not being Mars and Venus but rather a bully and his dirty bitch running away in fear while the rest of the world is laughing at them.
If there is not a dramatic change of course the world is going to witness the first nuclear war.
The Western block collapse may come before, during or after the war. It does not matter. The West will completely collapse. It is fragile. It will be unable to recover from even the slightest societal disruption.
A nuclear war is a game with billions of casualties and the collapse plays in the hundreds of millions.
He Concludes…
This website is non-profit, built on spare time and we provide our information and services AS IS without further explanations and/or guarantees. We are not linked to any government. Take into account that the forecast is nothing more than a game of numbers whether flawed or correct based upon some speculative assumptions. - Friday, September 25th, 2020
So much for the introductory portion. Now the meat of this article…
Realize the following truths, before we proceed.
China possesses skilled leadership.
Russia and China are aligned militarily.
The United States government is a cluster fuck.
America is balkanized, isolated, and it’s every man for himself.
Handguns, and weapons are all over America.
COVID is raging inside of America.
If you think it is bad now, imagine what happens when a roll of toilet paper costs $20, A hamburger cost $100, no one is getting cost-of-living increases, there’s hardly any gasoline. And a new round of COVID is forcing everyone into lock-downs again. And the police start to selectively deploy.
The shootings will not be televised.
And in the midst of all this unreported turmoil will be the grand American military strategy. That is to “suppress China”, that far-away nation. To “project” a American rules “based order” on the Chinese coast. So that the miserable ‘Mericans can blame their frustration on those evil vile Communists. Instead of on their government.
The Good News
The good news is that the war will be short lived. Over very quickly. In fact, it might as well happen, million of people die, and then be over before anything is actually reported. Countries might break up after a few short meetings and that will be that.
With banks gone, communication down, any balkanized nations will go tribal in hours. And people, the USA is very balkanized. Or haven’t you been watching the videos out of America today? Crime is open and brazen. Shootings are the norm.
The bad news…
…well.
People are going to die. Entire societies will be disrupted. nation-states will collapse, restructure and reform. There will be internal discord, and SHTF on a local level will emerge in the worst hit areas.
Most Western nations will become a Hellish fiasco of “zombie movie” proportions.
The countries that will suffer the greatest reduction in population, according to Deagel (as per 2014), are:
Worst hit nations.
That’s pretty darn specific. Don’t you know. And the top nations are the most “Western” nations in society, governance, and banking.
So what is driving this entire event sequence?
The AUKUS
Thenew security alliance of Australia, Great Britain and the USA, namedAUKUS, is now about which arms companies can expand their business. Britain’snuclear submarines are being built under the direction of Europe’s largestarmscompany, BAE Systems, with Rolls-Royce providing the propulsion.
-Archyde
The sole purpose of the AUKUS is to…
Unite the military systems of the USA, the UK and Australia.
Provide bases, fuel depots and maintenance facilities for nuclear submarines.
Provide nuclear basing and deployment options for second-strike nuclear SLBM systems.
The members of the AUKUS and their Deagel casualty figures.
Here’s the 2025 Deagel casualty figures for the three “mighty” members of AUKUS.
Keep in mind that the American Civil War which devastated the Southern States had a 6-8% of the population killed.
Since the casualty figures include Australia, which has been (up until four years ago) neutral, we can assume that China would be involved.
And, since Great Britain (UK) would be so seriously destroyed, we must assume that Russia would be involved.
These two facts point to the realization that both Russia and China would fight in a World War III scenario, and that given the current Geo-political alignments at this time that they would fight on the same side for the same interests.
Changes in South America
Population will increase in many nations in South America. Which is very strange. Deagel predicts that this might be due to migration way from the heavily populated Northern American nations Southward. With Brazil being one of the target destinations…
Brazil 2025.
But then…
We have Argentina that also has a decrease in population. The decrease is around 7%.
Argentina 2025.
The Members of the unified ShanghaiCooperationOrganization and their Deagel Casualty figures…
From what I can gather, most of the SEO nations fare pretty well, all things considered.
All have projected population decreases under 2%, with both India and Pakistan having growth in population.
My guess is that Asia doesn’t play.
A complete breakdown
The data was taken down from Deagel when the website hit the blogosphere, and that is the kind of publicity that no one wants. Like MM, they do not host advertisements or anything like that. The site is a grey-web site like MM. It is not a for-profit venue.
Never the less, here is the complete tabulated data in a nice convenient PDF for you to download. You all can thank me later.
A look on the bright side?
How can there be a “bright side” to any of this? Well, you see, perhaps we are all looking at this wrong. We are making the assumption that the nations themselves will not geographically change.
What if, in 2025, the United States says (after the elections of 2024) to Hell with the Federal government and the nation crumbles apart. It could very well resemble something like this…
In this scenario, the United States breaks up into four separate nation-states. An only one of them remains “The United States”. That simple Geo-political change produces the exact same results as described above.
The four new nation states…
Map
Here’s a map showing the predictions made in the forecast. You see that Asia is unscathed, while America and the West suffer horribly.
Japan will lose 1/5th of it’s population!
Australia will lose a full 1/3rd of it’s population!
Canada will lose 1/4th of it’s population!
The United States will lose almost 3/4ths of it’s population!
An American centered fiasco
Keep in mind that the largest drop in population are in “Western nations”, and those that have adopted American governance suffered the worst causality figures.
Based on historical precedents, and the Deagel predictions, these kinds of numbers and figures can only be associated with an American centered disaster. Not really a global one. Because if it was a global disaster, then the causality figures would be more uniform.
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For instance, here is Israel…
The closer the nation is aligned with the United States, the more damage or death toll that is has.
What’s the gig?
There are all sorts of people slicing and dicing these figures. Here’s one that claims that 2025 will be a war on Christians. That it’s the Vaxx that’s going to kill all the Christians off, and that it is a master plan by those devious Chinese to steal our precious freedoms and liberties all for Communism!
(sigh)
That it must be due to religion, as that is what the Book of Revelation says, and therefore the “Four horsemen” are going to spring out from deep inside of China and unleash their terrors to the world.
I exaggerate. Sure. But it’s not that far off.
Well, if that is so, then if you read the book of revelation, then you know that the real believers will be spared, and the condemned will be the ones who will end up suffering. There will be this thing called the rapture and the unworthy will perish in what will become Hell on Earth. Where will that Hell be?
The United States.
Let’s look at the unified Asia…
The charts truly show that it is the Chinese and the Russians that will be spared. Not those in the West. So please give me a break.
What ever your personal beliefs, I do not think that any of this has anything to do with religion, philosophy or social behavior. It has to do with the collapse of the United States Empire, and the desire of the ruling oligarchy to hold on while it goes down the tubes.
(Sigh)
Never the less…
They do point out something interesting. That there is a direct correlation between the nations that are giving mRNA vaccinations, and those that do not.
The ones that insist on mRNA vaccinations…
The ones that give “dead host” traditional vaccinations…
And this is their conclusion…
That the Deagel projections have a strategic military purpose and should be taken seriously;
That the sharp division between Table A+B and Table C has a strategic military purpose;
That the worldwide Covid vaccine program is a cover to deliver a fatal or harmful vaccine to the population of a selected list of countries (those in Table A+B);
That the countries in Table C will become the new axis of the world economy, centered on the Belt & Road Initiative, which has been under development for at least 20 years;
That the vaccines produced by the Big Four are especially dangerous and should be avoided. (We are not suggesting that the other 17 are safe.)
So maybe they are making a good POINT.
Comment from Memory Loss
This came in this morning just before I published this article…
MM, looks like there is starting to be speculation about the mRNA vaccines. And you got the military aspect correct.
20% of the pfizer vaccine contains material which is redacted on the list of ingredients. The redactions fall under b(4) which appears to be code for state of the art military stuff.
So it looks like the ungodly haste is to complete the installation of a state of the art military system into the general population. The US is getting ready for use of nuclear weapons in a strike against China it would seem. Your theory of genetic modifications for subjects to survive a nuclear war is looks really plausible.
The US is getting ready for use of nuclear weapons in a strike against China it would seem. Now why would they do that?
(P.S: I am speculating that the thoughts you have been having recently may actually be glimpses into possible future time lines. If you understand my references to Swedenborg previously, you might get my drift. So it looks like we may have to enlist as irregulars ASAP lol, )
As leaders from Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States unveiled their new trilateral security partnership for advanced defense-tech sharing on Wednesday, it was also revealed that the first initiative of the endeavor would be the delivery of Australia’s first nuclear-powered submarine fleet.
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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison returned to his Canberra podium Thursday afternoon to divulge that the country should expect more than just a costly nuclear submarine fleet within the next several years.
"[W]e will be enhancing our long-range strike capability including hawk and tomahawk cruise missiles and extended missile range for our capabilities," Morrison said, highlighting the goal of a "stable and secure region."
The acquisition of Australia’s new capabilities will come as part of the country’s 2024 structure plan, and the missiles will be fitted on Australia’s Collins-class submarine fleet.
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As for the nuclear submarine fleet, Morrison projected that the country should have a portion of the submarines “in the water” before 2030.
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“When it comes to the delivery of this program, I indicated that we anticipate being able to commence build this year and the first of those submarines would be in the water, we believe, before the end of next decade and all partners will be working to ensure that that is achieved at a date as soon as is possible to achieve,” he said.
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Morrison rejected claims that Australia “wasted” some $2.4 billion that was already funneled to France’s Naval Group as part of a $90 billion submarine contract — a deal that was rendered defunct following Wednesday’s announcement.
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"We’ve invested $2.4 billion in the attack class program and I say all of that investment, I believe, has further built our capability," he proclaimed, "and that is consistent with the decision that was taken back in 2016 for all the right reasons to protect Australia’s national security interests and has served that purpose."
The Australian prime minister went on to issue a public apology to Naval Group, the French government and French President Emmanuel Macron.
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President Biden delivers remark on National Security at the White House
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"There is few if any other country around the world that understands the importance of the Pacific and has been as committed to the Pacific as France," he said.
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"We share a deep passion for our Pacific family and a deep commitment to them, and I look forward and I hope to see us continue once we move past what is obviously a very difficult and disappointing decision for France."
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China also took issue with the AUKUS announcement, which was viewed as another example of the participating nations’ “Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice,” according to a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington.
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"There’s an open invitation for President Xi to discuss other matters," Morrison said to a reporter asking about potential economic trade sanctions from China. "That has always been there. Australia is open to discuss issues important to the Indo-Pacific."
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Morrison also stressed to the global community that Australia is not looking to become a nuclear power, or superpower, through AUKUS.
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“This is about propulsion. This is not about acquiring nuclear weapons,” he said, pledging continued adherence to obligations under the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
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US President Joe Biden previously clarified that Australia’s submarine fleet would be powered by nuclear reactors, but “conventionally-armed” when it comes to weaponry.
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Comments from the article…
It’s not just that…
The United States is on a buying ordering spree of large conventional weapons and munitions designed to borrow deep into the earth and destroy things, huge systems to take out entire cities, and a massive construction program for missiles.
But the USA only wants peace…
US Air Force Orders GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators Through 2026
The Boeing Corp., St. Louis, Missouri, has been awarded a $70,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators. This contract provides for the procurement via delivery order of GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator carriage and release equipment. The location of performance is Saint Charles, Missouri, and work is expected to be completed by April 30, 2026. This award is the result of a sole source acquisition. Fiscal 2019 3011 (production) funds in the amount of $18,025,770 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (FA8681-19-D-0008).
US Air Force to Repair Minuteman III nuclear ICBM Missiles Guidance System Through 2039
The Boeing Co., Newark, Ohio, has been awarded a $1,620,707,490 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for missile guidance repair. This contract will repair the Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) missile guidance set. Work will be performed in Newark, Ohio, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 27, 2039. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $32,486,160 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (FA821421D0003).
Etc. Etc. Etc.
The Deagel Forecast is removed from the website.
On 4/20/21, Deagel.com, a military intelligence agency, has deleted their mysterious 2025 forecast spreadsheet that predicted a major collapse of the western countries.
The forecast used to exist at [link to deagel.com (secure)] and now that page just redirects to the home page. This forecast was on their website since 2014.
The spreadsheet predicted a major drop in the US population from 332 million in 2019 to only 99 million in 2025 (-70%).
I find it an interesting coincidence that this deletion was made within 24 hours of every American over the age of 16 qualifying for their mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
You all do know what I think about coincidences...
-MM
Do not get caught up.
The world seems to be going into a tail spin. But it is just an illusion. It’s not. It’s just that the potential futures are frightening. Do not get caught up. VIDEO.
Video
Some final thoughts
I really hope that this does not come to pass. I really want all this nonsense to go away and not happen. Seriously I really do.
Those that predict the future are often wrong. Sometimes frighteningly so.
However, if the Deagel forecast is based on remote viewed data with an extrapolation of current events, it really does look like it’s going to happen.
Keep in mind that the Deagel remote viewed the future correctly. They printed their results in 2012.
They PREDICTED a bio-warfare induced pandemic.
They PREDICTED an Australian alliance with the United States.
They PREDICTED that America would start entering a period of "popping" of the various economic bubbles.
All of which came true by 2020.
Deagel did NOT change their forecast for 2025. It still stands. They just changed their thinking on how it would come about.
They remote viewed 2025 in great detail.
There will be [1] a massive die off of people in America, and Australia. The rest of the world will fare much better. And, most importantly, a [2] bio-weapon or pandemic figured predominantly in their calculus.
In 2012, they believed that there would be some kind of bio-weapon or pandemic that would kill off so many Americans. But they couldn’t (for the life of them) answer why Australia of all places would also have a large die off. At that time they never could of imagined the QUAD set up by Mike Pompeo, and that the Morrison government would wholeheartedly want to declare war on China. Instead, they figured that it must be a very serious pandemic with some other mystery event that complicated things in a negative manner.
In 2020, in the midst of the (three agent) bio-weapon attacks on China, and the absolute failure of America in securing it’s homeland, as well as the strong alignment of the Australian Morrison government to the war-loving neocons in Washington DC, the revised reasoning became one of nuclear war. Thus they reasoned that since the 2020 pandemic wasn’t that bad, and the drums of war were beating so loudly, that it must be nuclear war and bio-weapons used simultaneously.
Whether there is a nuclear event, or a bio-weapon event, no matter who caused it, or who instigated it, America will be absolutely and totally devastated. A 70% kill off implies that America would indeed be thrown back to the bronze age.
My advice?
Take your loved ones out for a nice meal. Right now. Enjoy the time that you have with them. Whether or not this will happen, the fact is that it’s not happening right now.
You are.
And what ever your situation, rich, poor, work tomorrow, day off, tired, or bored, do something special now. Live life, and don’t live in fear of an uncertain future.
Just call up your grandparent.
Or call your mom. Say hi.
Too much work, eh?
I dare you. I double-dog dare you. Call them right now.
Just say “Hi. I was thinking of you and just wanted to call. I hope that it is not a bad time.”
You will make their day.
And…
…if you are old (like me) and your parents and grandparents are gone, then call up a brother, sister or cousin. Talk about a television show you used to watch, a movie, a music band, a shared memory and say that you were thinking about them.
It will be a trip down “memory lane”.
But…
…if you have no family, and you don’t want to call up a friend or two to go out and grab a beer…just because. Then take your loved one to a movie. It doesn’t matter what the movie is. Just go.
Go. Let them choose the movie. It doesn’t matter what it is. Don’t quibble. Their choice. Their night out. You just make it happen.
You will be a better person for it.
So enjoy the moment now.
If you watched the movie Idiocracity, you’d get the joke.
Spend time with your loved ones.
Time will pass you by… do something TODAY.
Make a difference.
Be the best you that YOU can be.
And always, be the Rufus.
Be the Rufus.
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.
This article considers and ponders the motivations of our benefactors to change our Master Template. We also touch on what it implies as well. This is a deep and heady article and not for the faint of heart. For we will discuss what our owners think about us.
"Theoretically, if the amnesia mechanisms being used against Earth could be broken entirely, IS-BEs would regain all of their memory!"
Introduction
In this POST, I discussed that I had sensed a change in the Master Template. And then I went on to describe was it was, how it works, and so on and so forth. At that time, I hadn’t a clue as to why it was changed, except to say that it is a very, very rare event.
But then I read one of the comments. All credit to Ohio Guy, that said this…
I posit that there are now two master templates that appear identical. Your representation shows a difference in color. One being blue, the other, a bronze color. These are now superimposed, one over the other.
The service to self sentience’s are being assigned one, the service to others, in turn, assigned the other copy.
This, I believe, is to streamline the sorting process such that one does not have to fight the urge to “go into the light” or wait for assistance from the mantids to direct us to be free in the non physical realm at the end of our individual world line. It is automatic. In other words, A base line for us, and a base line for them, (sts sentience).
All with the subtle appearance of being laminated, one over the other, yet, to separate outcomes. (hence the streamlining of sorting) I wonder though, if delamination will occur at some point, whether individually or collectively.
Brilliant. Really.
And this from Memory Loss
Very interesting theory. Like a Harry Potter world sorting hat?
It’s kinda weird because as I was pondering the implications of your theory, I stumbled upon a video:
https://youtu.be/Xz9IJMMWP4M
What if the service to others sentiences just overwhelms the service to self guys so much so their power structures just crumbles. We don’t fight with them, we absorb them. A change to the master template would likely have been necessary in such a scenario.
Why would the Type-1 greys do this?
I can tell you that they want to resolve this “Prison Planet” from the “dung heap” that it is now into a sorting, and reeducation location as efficiently as possible. And it’s not just our solar system but other ones under the same realm of control as well.
But wresting control of the source code, they can really make some changes happen. Just like on the movie the matrix.
Decoding the matrix.
So, it got me to start thinking.
What would happen? What could happen? At what benefit would it provide to anyone?
Benefits of changing the Master Template
Why the heck would anyone want to change the Master Template? Well, to answer that question you have to understand who made the Master Template to begin with and why.
Fundamentally, the “Old Empire” created the “Prison Planet” in this section of the galaxy. They created this reality, along with the associated Heaven (for humans) to go through as “punishment”. And thus all and everything associated with this local reality is a fabrication of the “Old Empire”.
And you must recognize that part of this fabrication is the idea of “pulsing consciousnesses” that cycle between wave and particle forms and moving about world-lines. Oh, perhaps, there are analogs in other areas of the universe, but in our “neck of the woods” what we go though is all a manufactured fabricated reality that is a remnant from the “Old Empire”.
We know that the type-1 greys (of “The Domain”) want to dismantle this entire set-up, but it is very difficult. However, we also know that MAJestic was set up after “Alien Interview” and it seems obvious that they want to have a metered disassembly of the entire arrangement so that the very evil are contained, while the innocent are rehabilitated.
The members of the lost Battalion and many other IS-BEs on Earth, could be valuable citizens of The Domain, not including those who are vicious criminals or perverts.
Unfortunately, there has been no workable method conceived to emancipate the IS-BEs from Earth. Therefore, as a matter of common logic, as well as the official policy of The Domain, it is safer and more sensible to avoid contact with the IS-BE population of Earth.
Until such time as the proper resources can be allocated to [1] locate and destroy the "Old Empire" force screen...
... and [2] amnesia machinery ...
... and [3] develop a therapy to restore the memory of an IS-BE."
It seems to me that by changing the Master Template, it would enable the necessary therapies to restore IS-BE memories.
Keep in mind that the Master Templatewas designed specifically to entrap consciousnesses in this trap / snare of earth-bound reality.
If “The Domain” were interested in actually freeing souls and releasing consciousnesses from this reality, then the most direct and obvious method would be to alter the Master Template that this entire Prison Planet Environment is based around.
I gather from the events that I have sensed, good or bad, that they have been able to achieve this goal.
And then what?
Benefits of Making multiple templates
Consider this statement from Alien Interview…
The conflicting cultural and ethical moral codes of the IS-BEs on Earth is unusual in the extreme.
If you are able to sort consciousnesses by sentience, then the sorting effort could result in different Master Templates for different sentience’s.
"...the IS-BEs of Earth continue to behave very badly toward each other. This behavior, however, is heavily influenced by the "hypnotic commands" given to each IS-BE between lifetimes."
You could have a Master Template for each of the following major sentience types in this reality at this time…
Service for self.
Service for another.
Service for others.
Disjointed.
And those templates would then adjust the consciousness interaction within this reality. It would…
Keep those that should remain in the “Prison Environment” a little longer. This would be accomplished by making them focus on the worldly pleasures and pain. So that they would not be able to focus on egress from this environment.
Provide a “rehabilitation plan” for those that need to undo the damage that this environment has done to them, and help sort them so that they can eventually egress from this environment. Their life would be a little bit easier, and not so contentious. So that they would be able to ponder their existence and see order and purpose.
Provide a much easier path of egress from this prison region for those who indicate a functional desire to do great things for others without personal profit. The affirmation prayers should become easier to manifest, and their general life path should be far less contentious and troublesome. Making it easier to think of higher purposes and roles after egress.
Provide a substantive restructuring plan for those that need it. The details of which could become very harsh, but necessary.
So, depending on the sentience, the Master Template would provide a simpler way to track, control, and eventually release all the inmates from this environment.
For service to others sentience it would look like this…
How they would differ from each on from a user point of view.
From the point of view of an end user, a consciousness, the pre-birth world-line template(which is derived from the Master Template) would look the same. While you were in Heaven, you would work with the local elders and your Mantid to configure your next reincarnation.
The evil and self-centered individuals would select a life-line to place upon a pre-birth world-line template to achieve their desires. Lust, greed, power, sex, gluttony, etc. The system in making the selection and the research and options available will not change.
And it will also remain the same. Individuals would be given “missions” and “objectives” are centered about “bettering themselves”, “obtaining experiences” and “perfecting themselves”.
Unless you were specifically keyed to notice the subtle changes of a rewritten source code, you won’t realize that anything would be different.
The user wouldn’t be able to see a difference during the planning stage in Heaven
You simply couldn’t see a difference. Difficult tasks will still be difficult. Easy tasks and goals will still be easy. Highs and lows, “mountains” and “valleys” will still exist.
The changes will not be what is obvious in the physical reality.
Instead it will be the non-physical aspects of the consciousness. Thoughts that one would have. Or the ability to dream, having lucid dreams. The ability to have PSI or ESP and the ability to sense the non-physical reality will be changed.
Most notably would be the ability to control and direct thoughts and desires. Evil and selfish people would have that ability suppressed, while those who are generous would find that they would have that ability enhanced. Thus prayer affirmations campaigns would have results much faster in materialization than prior to the change in the Master Template.
This would be right across all levels and even the most trivial thoughts and wishes from one’s early years would manifest without problem.
The code for the Master Template
We do not know what the “code” is for the Master Template. Obviously it transcends the physical realm and is involved in so many levels.And obviously it is a very detailed and involved system involving many layers.
“Mystery reinforces the walls of the prison. The “Old Empire” feared that the IS-BEs on Earth might regain their memory. Therefore, one of the primary functions of The “Old Empire” priesthood is to prevent IS-BEs on Earth from remembering who they really are, how they came to Earth, where they came from.
The “Old Empire” operators of the prison system, and their superiors, do not want IS-BEs to remember who murdered them, captured them, stole all of their possessions, sent them to Earth, gave them amnesia and condemned them to eternal imprisonment!
Imagine what might happen if all of the inmates in the prison suddenly remembered that they have the right to be free! What if they suddenly realized that they have been falsely imprisoned and rise up as one against the guards?
They are afraid to reveal anything that looks like the civilization of the inmates home planets. A body, a piece of clothing, a symbol, a space ship, an advanced electronics device, or any other remnant of civilization from a home planet could “remind” a being and rekindle his memory.
Sophisticated technologies of entrapment and enslavement, which were developed over millions of years in the “Old Empire”, have been applied to the IS-BEs on Earth with the intention to create a false facade for the prison. These facades were installed on Earth in totality, all at once. Every piece is a fully integrated part of the prison system.
This includes a religion of mumbo-jumbo double-speak. Every pyramid civilization uses this as part of a control mechanism to keep the population enslaved by force, by fear and by ignorance. The indecipherable muddle of irrelevant information, geometric designs, mathematical calculation, astronomical alignments, are part of a false spirituality based on solid objects, rather than immortal spirits, in order to confuse and disorient the IS-BEs on Earth.
When the body of a person died they were buried with their Earthly possessions, including their former body wrapped in linen, to sustain their “soul” or “Ka” after death. An IS-BE does not “have” as soul. An IS-BE is a soul.”
— Excerpted from the Top Secret transcripts published in the book, Alien Interview
But we can make some assumptions based on what we know of history.
When Nazi Germany fell, all of their advanced technology was up for grabs, and the United States went forward with Operation Paperclip to recover as much knowledge and technology as possible….
What Was Operation Paperclip?
This controversial top-secret U.S. intelligence program brought Nazi German scientists to America to harness their brain power for Cold War initiatives. From HERE.
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As World War II was entering its final stages, American and British organizations teamed up to scour occupied Germany for as much military, scientific and technological development research as they could uncover.
Trailing behind Allied combat troops, groups such as the Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee (CIOS) began confiscating war-related documents and materials and interrogating scientists as German research facilities were seized by Allied forces. One enlightening discovery—recovered from a toilet at Bonn University—was the Osenberg List: a catalogue of scientists and engineers that had been put to work for the Third Reich.
n a covert affair originally dubbed Operation Overcast but later renamed Operation Paperclip, roughly 1,600 of these German scientists (along with their families) were brought to the United States to work on America’s behalf during the Cold War. The program was run by the newly-formed Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA), whose goal was to harness German intellectual resources to help develop America’s arsenal of rockets and other biological and chemical weapons, and to ensure such coveted information did not fall into the hands of the Soviet Union.
Although he officially sanctioned the operation, President Harry Truman forbade the agency from recruiting any Nazi members or active Nazi supporters. Nevertheless, officials within the JIOA and Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—the forerunner to the CIA—bypassed this directive by eliminating or whitewashing incriminating evidence of possible war crimes from the scientists’ records, believing their intelligence to be crucial to the country’s postwar efforts.
One of the most well-known recruits was Wernher von Braun, the technical director at the Peenemunde Army Research Center in Germany who was instrumental in developing the lethal V-2 rocket that devastated England during the war. Von Braun and other rocket scientists were brought to Fort Bliss, Texas, and White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico, as “War Department Special Employees” to assist the U.S. Army with rocket experimentation. Von Braun later became director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle, which eventually propelled two dozen American astronauts to the Moon.
Although defenders of the clandestine operation argue that the balance of power could have easily shifted to the Soviet Union during the Cold War if these Nazi scientists were not brought to the United States, opponents point to the ethical cost of ignoring their abhorrent war crimes without punishment or accountability.
Enter The Domain
So The Domain vanquished The “Old Empire” and took control of this section of the galaxy. Still, it has taken years to understand and recover the long lost technologies that the Old Empire utilized.
As from the “Alien Interview”, it seems that once systems were designed and utilized, they were left to fallow or forgotten. Thus making the blueprints for the “Prison Planet” quite difficult to obtain.
Most certainly the type-1 greys had to have spent some tremendous amounts of time and effort to recover what ever they could concerning the Prison Complexes and systems. I am sure that it was a low priority, but necessary.
Only a demonic, self-serving government would employ a “logic” or “science” to conceive that an “ultimate solution” to any problem is to murder and permanently erase the memory of every artist, genius, skilled manager, and inventor, and cast them into a planetary prison together with political opponents, killers, thieves, perverts, and disabled beings of an entire galaxy!Once the IS-BEs expelled from the “Old Empire” arrived on Earth, they were given amnesia, and hypnotically tricked into thinking that something else had happened to them. The next step was to implant the IS-BEs into biological bodies on Earth. The bodies became the human populations of “false civilizations” which were designed and installed in the minds of IS-BEs to look completely unlike the “Old Empire”.
— Except from the Top Secret manuscripts from 1947 Roswell, published in the book ALIEN INTERVIEW
I like and want to believe that a future lies ahead for all of us. And that the type-1 greys are making this happen. The entire environment around our planet is but the walls of a gigantic and enormous prison.
“Mystery reinforces the walls of the prison. The “Old Empire” feared that the IS-BEs on Earth might regain their memory. Therefore, one of the primary functions of The “Old Empire” priesthood is to prevent IS-BEs on Earth from remembering who they really are, how they came to Earth, where they came from.
The “Old Empire” operators of the prison system, and their superiors, do not want IS-BEs to remember who murdered them, captured them, stole all of their possessions, sent them to Earth, gave them amnesia and condemned them to eternal imprisonment!
Imagine what might happen if all of the inmates in the prison suddenly remembered that they have the right to be free! What if they suddenly realized that they have been falsely imprisoned and rise up as one against the guards?
They are afraid to reveal anything that looks like the civilization of the inmates home planets. A body, a piece of clothing, a symbol, a space ship, an advanced electronics device, or any other remnant of civilization from a home planet could “remind” a being and rekindle his memory.
Sophisticated technologies of entrapment and enslavement, which were developed over millions of years in the “Old Empire”, have been applied to the IS-BEs on Earth with the intention to create a false facade for the prison. These facades were installed on Earth in totality, all at once. Every piece is a fully integrated part of the prison system.
This includes a religion of mumbo-jumbo double-speak. Every pyramid civilization uses this as part of a control mechanism to keep the population enslaved by force, by fear and by ignorance. The indecipherable muddle of irrelevant information, geometric designs, mathematical calculation, astronomical alignments, are part of a false spirituality based on solid objects, rather than immortal spirits, in order to confuse and disorient the IS-BEs on Earth.
When the body of a person died they were buried with their Earthly possessions, including their former body wrapped in linen, to sustain their “soul” or “Ka” after death. An IS-BE does not “have” as soul. An IS-BE is a soul.”
— Excerpted from the Top Secret transcripts published in the book, Alien Interview
Most certainly they had to study the construction and the systems associated with the entire “Prison Planet”.
And then they most certainly had to come up with a phased plan to provide release egress or parole to the many innocents in this entire “black hole” environment.
And it’s only a matter of time until a point will be reached where the inmates can start getting their much needed “walking papers”. Perhaps, just perhaps, we are all part of the first batch of those who have this opportunity.
I don’t know. But I do have hope.
This must absolutely include a system for prison release… a very careful release system and integration into society.
Where is the “Old Empire”?
Where the records regarding the construction of this entire prison complex must be stored somewhere.
Right?
"Although the military base of the "Old Empire" was destroyed, unfortunately, much of the vast machinery of the IS-BE force screens, the electroshock / amnesia / hypnosis machinery continues to function in other undiscovered locations right up to the present moment. The main base or control center for this "mind control prison" operation has never been found. So, the influences of this base, or bases, are still in effect."
The “blue prints” and the program / project management, and all the rest has to be found somewhere.
Blue prints and plans must be somewhere. They can be in any form, but all fabrications and constructions needs plants, layouts, and calculations.
If you were from The Domain where would you look?
"She told me that The Domain Expeditionary Force first entered into the Milky Way galaxy very recently -- only about 10,000 years ago. Their first action was to conquer the home planets of the "Old Empire" (this is not the official name, but a nick-name given to the conquered civilization by The Domain Forces) that served as the seat of central government for this galaxy, and other adjoining regions of space.
These planets are located in the star systems in the tail of the Big Dipper constellation. She did not mention which stars, exactly."
Well, we know that the stars in the “tail” of “The Big Dipper” constellation are…
Big dipper with star names.
So you can figure that the “home planets” for the “Old Empire” is in the geographic space around Mizar and Alkaid. Not these large hot and short-lived stars, but rather the cooler and fainter stars that lie around them.
As far as the general geographical location goes, however…
Alkaid, Eta Ursae Majoris (η UMa) is a blue main sequence star with an apparent magnitude of 1.86, located at a distance of 103.9 light years from Earth. It is the easternmost star of the Big Dipper. It forms the Dipper’s handle with its bright neighbours, Mizar (ζ UMa) and Alioth (ε UMa), while Megrez (δ UMa), Phecda (γ UMa), Dubhe (α UMa) and Merak (β UMa) form the Dipper’s bowl.
Alkaid is the third brightest star in the constellation Ursa Major, after Alioth and Dubhe, and the 38th brightest star in the sky. It shares the 38th place with the bright giant Sargas (Theta Scorpii) in the constellation Scorpius. The stars are only slightly fainter than the blue giant Kaus Australis (Epsilon Sagittarii), the brightest star in Sagittarius, and slightly fainter than the orange giant Avior (Epsilon Carinae), the third brightest star in the constellation Carina.
And the other star…
Mizar, Zeta Ursae Majoris (ζ UMa), is a quadruple star system in Ursa Major. It has a combined apparent magnitude of 2.04 and lies at a distance of 82.9 light years from Earth. It is the fourth brightest star in Ursa Major.
Mizar is the middle star of the Big Dipper‘s handle and it forms a visual double with Alcor, a fainter binary star located at a separation of about 12 arcminutes.
And without getting involved in the history behind these stars, their sizes, and all those interesting facts. Let’s focus on location.
Alkaid = 103.9 Light Years away
Mizar = 82.9 Light Years away
And this tells us a lot.
Our milkyway galaxy is 100,000 light-years across, and these two stars lie around 100 light years away. Or roughly 1/1000 of the size of the galaxy. So roughly the “Old Empire” is not a far away center of civilization, but rather (relatively) nearby.
Sort of like one of the suburbs in a city.
With the core solar systems of that “Old Empire” as close as 35 to 50 light years away. (The 100 light year apex center is just a reference point for an empire that might have core planets around 75 to 100 light years in diameter.)
We might imagine that their relative proximity to us would be on the order of…
The core stars of the old empire relative to the geographical location of our solar system.
The “Old Empire” is relatively close to our stellar neighborhood.
So we can expect that over the last few decades of MAJestic involvement that The Domain has dedicated a small contingent of researchers to investigate the “Old Empire” records to discover the operation and plans for our regional “Prison Planet”.
Our solar system is not in a major populated area of the galaxy
We are off to the side, in and among devastated previously populated worlds still recovering from ancient space wars and fiascos.
Earth is very distant from the center of the galaxy and from any other significant galactic civilization. This isolation makes it unsuitable for use, except as a "pit stop" or jumping off point along the way between galaxies. The moon and asteroids are far more suitable for this purpose because they do not have any significant gravity.
Where is the local machinery of control?
No one knows, but perhaps this statement might provide us with some clues…
"In the earliest times the IS-BEs sent to prison Earth lived in India."
Some more thoughts
"Furthermore, there has been no operation undertaken to seek out, discover and destroy the vast and ancient network of electronics machinery that create the IS-BE force screens at this end of the galaxy.
Until this has been done, we are not able to prevent or interrupt the electric shock operation, hypnosis and remote thought control of the "Old Empire" prison planet."
I really do not have any idea how the Master Template could be changed, or how The Domain would go about changing them. Nor do I have any idea on the kinds of systems that would be involved in this system. But you know, we all don’t really need to know the specifics. Just what is going on.
The system that is in place seems to be very robust and expansive and thus can be applied to a great diversity of “peoples” , societies, species and cultures…
And, the very unusual combination of "inmates" on Earth - criminals, perverts, artists, revolutionaries and geniuses - is the cause of a very restive and tumultuous environment.
The purpose of the prison planet is to keep IS-BEs on Earth, forever. Promoting ignorance, superstition, and war between IS-BEs helps to keep the prison population crippled and trapped behind "the wall" of electronic force screens.
IS-BEs have been dumped on Earth from all over the galaxy, adjoining galaxies, and from planetary systems all over the "Old Empire", like Sirius, Aldebaron, the Pleiades, Orion, Draconis, and countless others. There are IS- BEs on Earth from unnamed races, civilizations, cultural backgrounds, and planetary environments.
Each of the various IS-BE populations have their own languages, belief systems, moral values, religious beliefs, training and unknown and untold histories.
These IS-BEs are mixed together with earlier inhabitants of Earth who came from another star system more than 400,000 years ago to establish the civilizations of Atlanta and Lemuria.
Those civilizations vanished beneath the tidal waves caused by a planetary "polar shift", many thousands of years before the current "prison" population started to arrive.
Apparently, the IS-BEs from those star systems were the source of the original, oriental races of Earth, beginning in Australia.
On the other hand, the civilizations set up on Earth by the "Old Empire" prison system were very different from the civilization of the "Old Empire" itself, which is an electronic space opera, atomic powered conglomeration of earlier civilizations that were conquered with nuclear weapons and colonized by IS-BEs from another galaxy.
What is the most important template?
Well, they are all important. It’s just that each template has it’s own very unique roles that it plays in the shaping of our experiences within this reality.
You could argue that the roles of each template would be as follows…
Master Template. The source code for consciousness movement in our reality universe.
Pre-Birth World-Line Template.A fated life that we will live in the physical reality to obtain experiences with.
A World-Line Template. A new template that consciousness intentionally creates by directed thoughts. It replaces the Pre-Birth World_line Template.
A World-Line. A frozen snapshot in “time” that our consciousness visits momentarily while it is in particle form.
How important is the Master Template?
It’s very important. The entire way the “Prison Planet” works is to keep us living this never ending reincarnation loop over and over again on the promise of something…
The net result is that an IS-BE is unable to escape because they can't remember who they are, where they came from, where they are. They have been hypnotized to think they are someone, something, sometime, and somewhere other than where they really are.
…for some people it is an eternal life in Heaven. For other’s it might be improvements to eventually become a saint. For still others, maybe an advancement to become another species. It’s all promises…
…just go back one more time and experience X, Y, Z and then you will be better.
But it is the control of our thoughts that imprison us.
Eventually The Domain discovered that a wide area of space is monitored by an "electronic force field" which controls all of the IS-BEs in this end of the galaxy, including Earth. The electronic force screen is designed to detect IS-BEs and prevent them from leaving the area.
If any IS-BE attempts to penetrate the force screen, it "captures" them in a kind of "electronic net".
The result is that the captured IS-BE is subjected to a very severe "brainwashing" treatment which erases the memory of the IS-BE. This process uses a tremendous electrical shock, just like Earth psychiatrists use "electric shock therapy" to erase the memory and personality of a "patient" and to make them more "cooperative".
On Earth this "therapy" uses only a few hundred volts of electricity. However, the electrical voltage used by the "Old Empire" operation against IS-BEs is on the order of magnitude of billions of volts! This tremendous shock completely wipes out all the memory of the IS- BE. The memory erasure is not just for one life or one body.
It wipes out all of the accumulated experiences of a nearly infinite past, as well as the identity of the IS-BE!
The shock is intended to make it impossible for the IS-BE to remember who they are, where they came from, their knowledge or skills, their memory of the past, and ability to function as a spiritual entity. They are overwhelmed into becoming a mindless, robotic non-entity.
After the shock a series of post hypnotic suggestions are used to install false memories, and a false time orientation in each IS-BE.
This includes the command to "return" to the base after the body dies, so that the same kind of shock and hypnosis can be done again, and again, again -- forever.
The hypnotic command also tells the "patient" to forget to remember. What The Domain learned from the experience of this officer is that the "Old Empire" has been using Earth as a "prison planet" for a very long time -- exactly how long is unknown -- perhaps millions of years.
So, when the body of the IS-BE dies they depart from the body. They are detected by the "force screen", they are captured and "ordered" by hypnotic command to "return to the light".
The idea of "heaven" and the "afterlife" are part of the hypnotic suggestion -- a part of the treachery that makes the whole mechanism work. After the IS-BE has been shocked and hypnotized to erase the memory of the life just lived, the IS-BE is immediately "commanded", hypnotically, to "report" back to Earth, as though they were on a secret mission, to inhabit a new body.
Each IS-BE is told that they have a special purpose for being on Earth. But, of course there is no purpose for being in a prison -- at least not for the prisoner.
The Master Template changes how the thoughts interact with our reality. And by changing it, and offering specialized templates to special sentience’s it becomes far easier to manage the egress or imprisonment of wayward consciousnesses.
And so…
If you have a service to others sentience, and recognize that you are a powerful ultimate being yourself, then you can be released from this Prison Planet though use of directed thought.
"It is easy to teach this altered notion to beings who do not want to be responsible for their own lives.
Slaves are such beings.
As long as one chooses to assign responsibility for creation, existence and personal accountability for one's own thoughts and actions to others, one is a slave."
A final word
Go out and take in some good fresh air. Splurge and buy yourself a premium lunch or drink. Put down the cell phone for a few minutes and just absorb the world around you. Everything here is positive and upbeat, and if you are a MM follower and believer then your futures all look really, really bright.
Have a great day! Here’s a video that I took about15 minutes ago.
Enjoy the day you all.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my Affirmation prayer Campaign Index here…
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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.
This is a very advanced article on world-line travel. In it we discuss something new. It is something that has never happened before, or at least while I was in MAJestic, it never happened. And I was unaware of it, or the consequences of it. And we are going to talk about it here. Maybe shine a light or two on what is going on.
It consists of changes to the Master template.
Because this is such an advanced subject, we will put this in the advanced section of world-line travel studies.
What triggered this
An unusual and peculiar shift in the world-line template was detected.
Templates tend to be “rock hard” and stable. They are the foundations from with all the personal templates are derived from. Tend to be, and thus are always assumed to be so.
However, the fundamental Master template changed.
Now, I have NEVER experienced this before. And it is a very rare, rare event. In fact, while I know that they can be altered by anchoring, I had no idea that they could dramatically altered in such a fundamental manner.
I have previously described anchoring of mass consciousnesses. I would “pull down”, or “twist” reality, and then the elastic nature of the template would return back to it’s previous state with whatever bad events that were to happen avoided.
What has occurred is something similar. Only instead of the elastic nature of reality “snapping back” to it’s previous state, it has snapped into a newstate.
How MM detected it
Oh, Lordy!
Just because my ELF probes are retired and my involvement with MAJestic has officially been terminated, my EBP’s are all still active. And they are continually working with my physical and non-physical bodies on numerous levels.
So this is how I can tell.
You see, it’s really difficult to describe. However, imagine that every day you wake up to a overcast day, with some apartment buildings in the distance, and some traffic on the road. Then one day, you notice that the sky is blue and sunny, and that instead of apartments you see green hills with grazing sheep and no cars.
You NOTICE the difference.
It’s like that.
The way I “feel” or “sense” the template structure has changed. It feels substantially different.
Like how one day your are feeling the trunk of a tree and the bark is rough, and another day the bark is smooth and glossy. It is like one day you are used to drinking hot coca beverages, and the next day you are drinking ice cold mint tea.
It is, however, a subtle difference.
It’s like drinking red or black tea for decades, and then one day you are drinking Oolong Tea, or Green Tea. It’s like always drinking Folgers coffee and then suddenly drinking Maxwell House brand coffee. It’s like always smoking Marlboro cigarettes and then suddenly smoking Camel. It’s like always drinking Budweiser beer and then suddenly drinking Genesis Stout.
It’s very subtle.
There are no words for me to describe this, simply because the experience is so unique and it involves a combination of senses to form a whole. And no, there are no alpha-numeric characters or symbols involved. It’s like the entire interface is just, well… different.
Anyways, you just have to trust me on this. The Master template has changed. Not any of the subsequent “child” templates. Simply the Master Template.
An Example
Consider the elasticity of plastic. Templates (pretty much) follow similar rules as plastic does. If you try to change a template, it will “bounce back” after a spell. But you can make permanent changes to it with more effort.
For plastic…
Plastic can be bent and twisted and eventually it will snap back into shape. (This is shown in the flat line from point 1 to point 2 in the diagram below.) It is the “Elastic Region”.
A plastic straw can be bent and twisted and then snap back into shape.
But if you deform the plastic past a certain point, it will not snap back exactly. No. Instead it will go to a new location and a new shape. (This is shown in the diagram below. Point 2 to point 3.) It is the “Plastic Region”.
You can deform plastic to a point where it will not snap back into shape.
And if you apply extreme pressure on it, it will actually break and snap into two parts. (Point 5 in the diagram below.)
Plastic can permanently change it’s shape.
The diagram for plastic deformation
Here is the diagram that I have referred to above.
Note point 1 – 2. This is the “Elastic Region”.
Note point 2 – 3. This is the “Plastic Region”.
Note point 5. This is the “Point of fracture.”
The plastic modulus of elasticity.
For templates…
When I was active in MAJestic operations, all of my efforts for anchoring was in the point 1 to point 2 region, the “Elastic Region”. I would “anchor” clusters of world-lines, and in so doing, prevent certain events or changes. Then things would mostly return to the previous shape.
I say "mostly" because often there would be slides that would place my consciousness elsewhere than where I started off from.
Specifically, and so not to be confused, "slides" were an event that my consciousness experienced as I was "anchoring" world-lines. They were wholly associated with me, and my observation of the reality around me.
What is going on now (This peculiar change to the Master Template.) is that something has moved the fundamental baseline template to the “Plastic Region”. It changed permanently, and can no longer return to it’s previous shape or form.
Quick review of key points
I don’t want to regurgitate the entire MM teachings here. Just point out some basics.
Our consciousness travels moment to moment into world-lines.
Each world-line has it’s own past and future.
But our consciousness only spends a fraction of time in it.
If you map the path of travel, you get your life-line. And life-lines can be placed on a three dimensional map known as a “template”. This map is the highest probability of travel granted to your consciousness. With geography controlled by difficulty.
Templates are established at birth. As such they are known as Pre-Birth World-Line Templates.
You can “slide off” the previously established template on to a new one. You do this by directed thought.
From the point of view of your consciousness, the only things that matter are your [1] template map, [2] your directed slides, [3] the world-lines that you visit, and [4] the geography of the map.
However, the thoughts of all consciousnesses define the terrain of the template maps. Not just one person. They are not hard and fixed. Like concrete. They are like soft foam mats that can be moved and pushed and bent.
This is why MM was so involved in “anchoring”.
What do I mean templates…
Consider a word processor.
If you use Microsoft Word (MS Word) it will come with a default document template. This is the blank document that always comes up in the software program when you turn it on and start a new file. 99% of all users start out with this template. This is the default template.
Default MS Word Template.
Now, if you work at company, they might have a “default” company template. Many, but not all companies do this you know. It depends on the company. But the truth be told that most large companies have very distinct rules on the formats of the documents that you send out. For instance, they would specify the font you use, and the colors that you use. They would specify the logo that you use as well, as well as the layout.
This is a modified “MS default template”.
It will include such things as the company stationary, address, phone numbers and font and size selection. All users in a certain company will use this template. This is the company template. Here’s some examples…
Company template examples.
Now, that being said, when you start in the company you will then take this company template, and customize it as your own.In the space that says, “Project Name”, you will enter the name of the project. And the same goes for the date and all the other particulars.
You will add YOUR name, and YOUR title. You will add YOUR extension, and e-mail data to it. This will be your template.
Your personal template using in the email system.
And each letter, note, or message you will write will be a new document using this template. It will have it’s own document number, date, author and name.
Well…
This is similar in how your world-line travel occurs. If you consider each world-line that you visit to be a “new document“, then your world-line template map is the equivalent to “Your template“.
And whether you stay on that template or slide onto a new template. It is still your template.
Your template, in turn, is derived from your Pre-birth world-line template. And this is equivalent to the “Company template“.
And when you and everyone else is in “Heaven” and deciding on what your next reincarnation will be on the earth, you will use the “default template” that came with the software package. We call this the Master Template.
Template hierarchy
To recap, this is the general hierarchy for MS Word templates…
General Microsoft Default Template
Company Official Template
Your Personal Occupation / Position Template
Your individual documents
And for world-line travel, it looks like this…
Master Template
Pre-birth World-Line Template
World-line Template Map
Individual World-lines
So what is going on?
Every MM reader can do something that 99% of the population cannot do. They have the skill set to “slide” off their pre-birth world-line template. And that is how you can change your life. They travel life on their own world-line template map.
But just about everyone else is stuck on their pre-birth world-line template. they are just living life like a fated robot.
But all templates are derived from the most fundamental template; the Master Template. And it has changed.
How can I describe the changes?
It is such a subtle change that most people will not catch it, nor understand it. To most people it will not look like anything changed. But you know, the template rules have completely changed.
Consider what happens to you Microsoft Word (MS Word) documents when you change the default temple…
Changing the default MS Word templates.
The content will remain the same, but how the content interacts with each other in a unified visual style will be different.
Your past will not change. Your slides, your world-lines none of those things will change. All the things that you have learned about and use on MM will not change.
What will change is how your consciousness interacts with reality.
…
For instance, any of these things can (might) change.
How easy or hard it is to start Lucid Dreaming.
The ability to slide to new templates.
How directly involved your thoughts are with the fabric of your reality.
The aspects of time relative to where you are going in your direction vector.
The life-span of a typical human can increase or decrease.
The ability to perform non-physical reality travel.
The ability to sense or not, the non-physical reality.
The interactions that we have, or don’t have with the Mantids
And so on and so forth.
But since it is far to early to know what we are working with, what the changes will be is anyone’s guess.
It’s literally a “new ballgame”.
A whole new ballgame, a A completely altered situation, as in It will take a yeartoreassign the staff, and by then some will have quit and we'll have a whole newballgame. This expression comes from baseball, where it signifies a complete turn of events, as when the team that was ahead falls behind. [ Colloquial; 1960s]
- A New Ballgame Idiom
Why did the Master Template change?
I do not know.
Obviously the previous Master Template was established by the “Old Empire”.
“The bureaucracy that controlled the former “Old Empire” was from an ancient space opera society, run by a totalitarian confederation of planetary governments, regulated by a brutal social, economic, and political hierarchy, with a royal monarch as its figurehead. This type of government emerges with regularity on planets where the citizens abandon personal responsibility for autonomous, self-regulation.”
Since the “Old Empire” no longer exists, we have to assume that the Type-1 Greys have (somehow) managed to change, reset or alter the Master Template to achieve their goals and objectives. After all, “The Domain”, or the Empire of the Type-1 Greys vanquished the “Old Empire” and took over completely.
Their goals are (pertaining to this “Prison Planet”, as I have discussed before, to free consciousnesses from living a reincarnation existence over and over, and over, and over without end.
Once the IS-BEs expelled from the “Old Empire” arrived on Earth, they were given amnesia, and hypnotically tricked into thinking that something else had happened to them. The next step was to implant the IS-BEs into biological bodies on Earth.
The bodies became the human populations of “false civilizations” which were designed and installed in the minds of IS-BEs to look completely unlike the “Old Empire”.
— Except from the Top Secret manuscripts from 1947 Roswell, published in the book ALIEN INTERVIEW
So, while it could be to prevent damage to the physical environment on the earth for one reason or the other, it can also be associated with non-physical changes and realities that we have no knowledge or understanding of.
Our Reality
The “reality” that earth-bound humans inhabit is an artificial construct. It is much like the movie “The Matrix”, except that it is an entire universe with it’s own separate “Heaven Universe”.
This artificial reality is a construct.
And the base line code for it is called the Master Template.
It is the fundamental reality that keeps IS-BE consciousnesses locked within this physical geographical space. And while there are many extremely intelligent and capable consciousnesses that inhabit this reality, the cunningness of the system keeps the consciousnesses focused on other things instead of their abilities and how to escape the prison.
“An “untouchable” classification of IS-BEs also includes a wide variety of “political prisoners”. This includes IS-BEs who are considered to be non-compliant “free thinkers” or “revolutionaries” who make trouble for the governments of the various planets of the “Old Empire”. Of course, anyone with a previous military record against the “Old Empire” is also shipped off to Earth.A list of “untouchables” include artists, painters, singers, musicians, writers, actors, and performers of every kind. For this reason Earth has more artists per capita than any other planet in the “Old Empire”.“Untouchables” also include intellectuals, inventors and geniuses in almost every field. Since everything the “Old Empire” considers valuable has long since been invented or created over the last few trillion years, they have no further use for such beings. This includes skilled managers also, which are not needed in a society of obedient, robotic citizens.Anyone who is not willing or able to submit to mindless economic, political and religious servitude as a tax-paying worker in the class system of the “Old Empire” are “untouchable”.
... and sentenced to receive memory wipe-out and permanent imprisonment on Earth.The net result is that an IS-BE is unable to escape because they can’t remember who they are, where they came from, where they are. They have been hypnotized to think they are someone, something, sometime, and somewhere other than where they really are.”
~ Alien Interview
__________________
“…the very unusual combination of “inmates” on Earth – criminals, perverts, artists, revolutionaries and geniuses – is the cause of a very restive and tumultuous environment. The purpose of the prison planet is to keep IS-BEs on Earth, forever. Promoting ignorance, superstition, and war between IS-BEs helps to keep the prison population crippled and trapped behind “the wall” of electronic force screens.”
~ Alien Interview
What the change is…
Anyways, you just have to trust me on this. The Master template has changed. Not any of the subsequent “child” templates. Simply the Master Template.
Is this change good or bad?
It’s certainly not “neutral”.
And I have this strong belief that it is a “good” thing that is in favor of the majority of the people on this planet. Maybe 80% of humans.
My GUESS is that some aspects of the Master Template were altered to delete various aspects of “Prison Planet” snares, entanglements, monitoring, suppression, manipulation, memory suppression, and reincarnation. But what they are specifically is unknown.
In my mind, this is probably a very, very good thing.
It also implies that the timetable for recovery of this “Prison Planet” environs has been advanced substantially.
Does this mean that World War III will occur or other planetary changes?
No.
It has no bearing at all on the general terrain of the templates. The terrain of the templates; the mountains, the valleys, the flat lands, they will all continue to exist as they always have.
It will not change any Geo-political situations, or up-coming physical changes.
The only impacts will be on the relationship of your consciousness to the physical and the non-physical realities. Not on the realities themselves.
Should I be worried?
No.
There is no need to worry or be upset. Things are changing in a good way, and (my guess) is that the changes will benefit those that are able to control their thoughts and actions within this reality.
This includes all MM readers, and most especially those that perform Prayer Affirmation Campaigns.
Why do I refer to the changes as peculiar…
The word “peculiar” means “strange, odd, or unusual”.
In my entire life, and that includes a long, long time in MAJestic active, and retired, I have never had or experienced this event. It is indeed strange, and to me, very, very odd. It is certainly unusual.
Most people, however, will not notice anything different.
Do I need to do anything different?
No.
Continue living life, and running your affirmation prayer campaigns as you normally do.
As time progresses and we see what we are working with here, I will establish some guidelines and suggestions to better help everyone deal with the changes to their new advantages.
I expect and anticipate that MM followers will have a far easier time in the Prayer Affirmations Campaigns, and they will start to see results quicker and with more “stickiness” than what you all would experience previously.
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Here, I continue on my “bender” on taking a look at other nations in our world. In each case, so far, I have shown the reality to be something different from what you would ever read about in the Western (especially the American) press. I have looked at China, Russia, Thailand, Cambodia, the middle East, and now, Vietnam.
Vietnam is a very interesting place full of great beauty, beautiful women, delicious food, and an easy going happy-go-lucky lifestyle.
Enter Donald Trump and his neocon war-mongers
Vietnam continued their easy and laid back lifestyle since the tumultuous 1960’s when America decided to churn up and rape the countryside for freedom™ and democracy™. And it continued that way through the decades, up until Donald Trump took office and started his “War on China”.
He demanded that American companies leave China or face all sorts of consequences. In American “language” this means that “border-line legal” actions might (and probably would) be directed at the company. Such as suspicious hard-line tax audits, and review of OSHA and EPA policies and factory operation shut-downs during the “investigations” as well as mysterious fires in the warehouses, random union uprisings and personal tax audits and random arrests of key corporate executives.
Many, but not all, American companies started to relocate a number of their operations out of China. The vast bulk did not return to America, however. Instead, they went to Mexico and Vietnam.
About Factories
When America switched from manufacturing inside of America to outsourcing to China, they did NOT teach the Chinese how to make factories or build products. Instead, they went to existing factories, handed over the blueprints, and quality specifications, moved their tooling and equipment, and said “make this for us”. And that is pretty much (as harsh as it sounds) what actually happened.
Now, in the thirty to forty years that America has been devoid of solid manufacturing skill, the American companies that manufactured inside of China were in a bind. Just how do you move your factory, when you don’t own it?
Do you start from scratch? Hire new engineers? Try to reverse engineer your systems to fit a Mexican or Vietnamese work force? What do you do?
Well, I can’t say that this is what happened to all of the factories, but I can tell you that a sizable number took this action…
…the Chinese factories that supplied the American companies, set up divisions inside of Vietnam.
Thus, the Donald Trump trade war, as far as bringing manufacturing capability back to the United States failed. Instead, all that happened is the existing Chinese factories continued to supply the American companies. The only difference is that they did so out of Vietnam.
Vietnam Changed.
Of course, all of this movement of Chinese factories into Vietnam, and with it, the Chinese support structures, have made great changes to Vietnam. While it is still a sluggish and rather backward nation, it is growing and expanding. And this has created a rather unique mix of older traditional Vietnam, with modern Chinese industry and support structures. Very few American influences are present. As America is rather a nation of bankers, accountants, lawyers, and diversity experts. Very few have an kind of impact on Vietnamese society.
Here we are going to look at some videos out of Vietnam taken these last two months. It’s a quite interesting mix of color and tradition.
The Videos
Let’s go through these videos.
I suggest you watch them in order to get the full diverse effect. And I hope hope that you enjoy them and get “something out of them”. This group has around 85 (give or take) videos. So to prevent you from getting carpal tunnel syndrome (yikes!) clicking on each individual video, I have clustered the videos into small zip files that you click on, download and then browse through at your leisure.
Group A
Cooking some kind of purple Vietnamese food.
Foreigner in Vietnam trying to pick up a local butterfly girl.
Young love having some fun.
Lunch in a Chinese factory located in Vietnam.
Dressing up to go out on a date.
You ride scooters to get anywhere.
Making supper.
Loved ones going off to do their mandatory military service.
Some girls getting down at a local gathering.
Another foreigner trying to pick up some butterfly girls.
Night life in one of the bigger cities.
Two girls on the way to work (my guess is a massage or restaurant).
Bar Life.
Home made turbo-generators for local village power needs.
As the Biden administration consolidates its foreign policy, it has predictably turned its attention towards Southeast Asia in a bid to “counter China”.
Just last week, Mid-August 2021, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Vietnam, the Philippines, and Singapore in a bid to increase military ties between Washington and the region.
Means… allow American military bases there, American war ships to sail there, and the placement of American offensive missile systems there.
You know like swallowing bile that rise up in your throat.
The vice president’s aim with this trip is to “call out” China over its maritime claims in the South China Sea.They can’t do it personally face-to-face with China. They will no longer play “that game”. So like cowards, they are trying to undermine all the relationships of all the nations that border on China.
They come with suitcases (no cross that out) pallets, (no cross that out) Shipping containers full of freshly minted US dollars.
Freshly minted.
Hot off the (over worked) printing presses.
For, you know, the leadership to do what ever they want with the nice crisp “green backs”.
This comes amid America’s attempts to militarize the region.
They’ve been really busy, don’t you know.
The anti-China QUAD; those vassal states of the UK and Japan who will be compelled to “die on their swords” at the push of a button from the American Pentagon. To Australia who has only become a vassal state for reasons not so obvious. In my mind, a treasonous Morrison government with many, many skeletons in his closet is willing to sacrifice his people for Washington DC.
As well as continuously sailing aircraft carriers through the sensitive waters in a bid to project American power.
No prizes here for guessing who he was talking about…
The US says that it’s “back” to Southeast Asian countries.
It’s just bullshit.
The reality is this: apart from all the militaristic “sabre rattling” and pushing a non-stop hate China narrative while convincing everyone (with a pulse) to oppose China, the United States actually doesn’t have a strategy for the region.
But Beijing does.
In many ways, the legacy of recent US policies in this area of the world has been self-defeating.
The “political space” (the room to maneuver and work around is) that Biden has to turn it around is really quite limited.
In other words, it’s essentially still Trump’s ‘America First’ sentiment.
And that is quite telling as the biggest gaping hole in America’s strategy towards Southeast Asian countries is failing to offer them anything in return.
There are no, absolutely zero, economic incentives to oppose China. All they have to offer is personal riches for the rulers. As well as promises to offer them “green cards” and citizenship if the whole plan goes “tits up”.
China, need I remind you, which is right next door to these nations.
On this front, America has isolated itself.
In so many ways too.
Most notably by withdrawing from the mega trade deal which Obama fashioned as an anti-China initiative known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Now rebranded CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) amongst local partners.
On the level of US domestic politics, this is toxic because the consensus is that free trade is bad, especially if it detracts from jobs at home.
Therefore, Biden faces protectionist pressure not to re-join it, thus it has not come back on the Biden agenda.
China, on the other hand, has comprehensively doubled down on its economic ties with the surrounding region and entrenched its presence. Most notably through joining the ASEAN-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which it quickly ratified.
This creates an obvious problem for America.
China is increasingly integrating itself with the region on an economic level.
In which local parties (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, etc.) welcome with open arms gleefully.
But, you know, the United States is not happy with in the least.
No longer is trade being conducted in the “almighty” US Dollar. It’s local currency to the e-yuan. And as time moves forward, more and more nations are following this lead.
The US doesn’t have an answer to any of this.
Recently, it was reported that Washington wanted to try and propose a ‘digital trade deal’ among the economies of the Asia-Pacific. This “digital trade deal” is intended to lock China out of trade with any nations that sign that agreement. This is by regulation.
A favorite technique, mind you, well established and mature to crush nations that do not “toe the line” with American Geo-political policy.
This is intended to be done by setting strict rules and regulations on the ‘digital economy’ of the region.
Because it’s absolutely untenable for these countries to lock China out, and it’s not hard to see why.
Yesterday (Mid-August 2021) Huawei announced it would be investing $100 million into over 1,000 software start-ups throughout Southeast Asia. And that’s just one of the many initiatives in bringing manufacturing, development, growth and prosperity to all the nations that surround China.
With a high degree of integration and economic benefits, it is impossible for the US to now shape the region’s initiative while keeping China excluded.
There’s nothing left.
This leaves the military.
And this is where China is increasingly powerful, but the US remains competitive and relevant.
Many countries in the region accept the presence of the United States and its allies militarily, because it gives them strategic space to prevent them from being completely dominated by China.
For a small city state like Singapore, this inclination makes obvious sense, but this is not so much ‘siding’ with America as it is a geopolitical balancing act between both powers.
Walking the “tight rope”; the “fine line” of neutrality.
Here lies the problem: America wants countries to align with it against China in a binary way, but the nations themselves want neutrality.
And ASEAN (The association of South East Asian nations) as an institution officially seeks such.
Some of these states of course are formally allied with America, such as the Philippines. Yet, you know, for all intents and purposes they utilize a strategy of ‘hedging’ between both sides.
And for certain, they do not seek confrontation with Beijing.
If Washington pushes too hard on anti-China initiatives, these countries become uncomfortable, and this may have the ‘opposite’ result.
This aims to ease tensions, and brands the US a ‘troublemaker’.
Duh!
Again, Washington doesn’t have the ability to conduct close diplomacy with these countries as a neighbor, only as a ‘visitor’.
America is an outsider.
China is local.
China is right there.
All in all, geography works against America. China is the neighbor of Southeast Asia, not the US.
Beijing is the largest economy in the region and is irreversibly integrated in terms of trade, technology, and finance.
America is not.
Yet, the US foreign policy strategy seems to pursue the bizarre premise that they can somehow dominate this region…
… push back China…
…and match its growing power…
… despite the fact they physically cannot, simply because they are not based there.
This means that whilst these countries are not necessarily rejecting an American presence, they are never going to adopt any serious anti-China policies or the militarization of the region that Biden hopes for.
Would you start a fight with your much bigger next-door neighbor?
Biden has no economic incentives to offer either.
China is, in many ways, continuing to lead and shape the regional agenda through its own initiatives, and as its own military presence in this area also grows, it has plenty of options to counter US posturing.
And the United States is impotent in the region, no matter what the American media says to the contrary.
Conclusion
Most of the world is still being influenced by the American media in one form or the other. And on subjects that everyone seems to have adjusted to what ever narrative that the American government made, the belief is that what ever Washington DC says is the truth. Nope. It is not.
Vietnam is many things, but an American proxy nation, whether military, commercial or economic, is simply not true.
This article broaches the true and actual state of affairs, and I do hope that it was interesting and meaningful at the same time. I have tried to present a diverse collection of videos showing the great breadth and width of the colorful Vietnamese society, and I hope that I put it in a positive light.
I have many friends how go to Vietnam, as it’s not too far from where I live, and they pretty much confirm what I have listed here. I hope that you all can see that it has a bright future ahead, and some deep and wonderful culture and traditions. I sincerely hope that they hold on to them and not allow them to disappear.
And when the pandemic ends, perhaps a nice visit to Vietnam would be a wonderful trip, and I am sure that you would make some wonderful, maybe even lifelong friends. And isn’t that what we all want out of life?
For the last 75 years, the United States Military Empire has been on a rampage attacking and waging wars, either overt, or covert all over the globe. It would utterly destroy it’s “enemies” and ignore it’s “friends”. And now today, we see the end result of this activity. Of the many, many trillions of dollars over the last 75 years dedicated to destruction and death, the American people live in squalor, destitution and poverty. A full 61% are so poor that they don’t pay any taxes, and in America that’s pretty darn poor!
America taxes everything.
Meanwhile, those nations who have been unscathed by the sheer might of the massive bloated gargantuan military wrecking ball, are unscathed. We can see China prospering. We can see Russia prospering. We can see prosperity all over the globe. And in this article we will look at the portions of the Arab world that the United States spared from destruction.
The following are some clips from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and a few other nearby nations. They are not only doing well, but they are oozing with wealth and success. Watch the videos. Really look at them.
This SHOULD be what America is, but isn’t.
Instead, the “leaders” decided to squander the wealth, knowledge, skills and resources of America towards the destruction of others. And listen to me, it’s all gonna come back in full force. The USA is not stopping. They are not turning off the “war machine”. Instead, they are gearing up to fight China and Russia.
Idiotic fools.
Don’t Forget Land Wars in Asia. “You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is to never get involved in a land war in Asia.”. This humorous quote from the film The Princess Bride has become received wisdom, echoed by no less than my former boss, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in 2011.
Anyways, look at these videos.
This is what America could have been, but isn’t because not only have the leadership failed Americans, but the entire system of government has been corrupted beyond repair. America will NEVER ever look like these videos. Simply because the current structure will never permit it to occur.
America is a nation for the rulers. Only for the rulers.
So suck in the videos and look at what you should be living. But which the government and your “leaders” discarded when they said “no soup for you!”.
In the November 2nd, 1995 Seinfeld episode “The Soup Nazi”, the main characters check out a local soup shop with an incredibly strict chef (played by Larry Thomas) who is nicknamed “Soup Nazi” for his rules about ordering. After Elaine Benes (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) attempts to subvert his ordering procedure, the chef utters the statement, banning her from the shop for an entire year.
The common narrative in the United States is that the Middle East is rich and wealthy simply because they have a lot of oil.
This is all a big enormous lie.
If it were true, then everyone in Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Texas would be millionaires. Nope. Something else is going on.
But what is it?
It’s a complicated issue with no clear answers, but the question still exists.
Why are the people who live in oil-rich Pennsylvania so poor, while those that live in oil-rich Middle East so wealthy?
I argue that it is like comparing apples to bananas. There’s all sorts of other issues complicating the matter. But I will posit that the society and the government that serves that society is the primary culprit.
Society
Government
Laws, rules, regulations = Graft and Corruption
Pennsylvania is a “democracy” in name, but functionally an oligarchy of the wealthy out of Philadelphia.
As such, they have created a stratified society where any wealth and benefits flow upwards, and those that exist and toil on the land are treated as serf / slaves. For the vast bulk of Pennsylvania citizenry, they live in cheap housing (mostly trailer parks), farm or work the oil and coal fields, and live off supporting government handouts.
Many rural Pennsylvanians live on oil and coal rich lands, but own no mineral rights. Instead they labor by mining them, are taxed for the labor, and the profits flow to the Pennsylvania oligarchy in Philadelphia.
Meanwhile you have places like Dubai which is in the United Arab Emirates. It has a government structure similar to that of Chinese “Communism with Chinese Characteristics”.
The President of the Federation is elected by a body known as the Supreme Council of Rulers. The Supreme Council is the top policy-making body in the UAE, and the President and Vice President are both elected from its membership for renewable five-year terms. Which is nearly identical to that of China.
They manage the nation based upon the well being of the vast and diverse citizenry. They do not manage it in favor of a select few, like it is done in the United States.
As such, but China, and the UAE are wealthy, prosperous, and thriving. When wealthy people start to get out of line, like we saw in China, or Saudi Arabia, the “corruption police” step in and stops their influence.
But that is one part of the equation.
Of the United States “War on Terror”, the indiscriminate bombing and destruction of those nations were all for the benefit for the American oligarchy. Not for the citizenry. After all, the local gas station owner, or the grocer or butcher, that school bus driver or the pastor at the local church really did not benefit one penny from the destruction of Syria.
Did they now?
No.
But, that’s where all the funds went.
Funds that could have improved the roads, funds that could have improved the schools. Funds that could have reduced taxes. Funds that should have been used to expand businesses. No.
It went to destroying things.
Here’s Syria after America saved it for democracy™ and freedom™.
America destroyed Syria.
Now the “news” media (and they are a de facto branch of the government today) is trying to spin the rapid American military escape from Afghanistan as a mistake…
…and the poor Afghanistan citizens will now look forward to a life of horror and squalor. “Oh, what about the children?” they wail on the “news” 24/7.
Nonsense!
Afghanistan and it’s neighbors.
Right now, those in Afghanistan see that they too can have prosperity and a solid and stable society. They see the prosperity of the Uighur Muslims in China (no, you won’t ever read about this in the Western press, but it exists never the less) and the stability of Iran and Pakistan.
They want that.
They can see it.
The Uighur Muslims are thriving in China. While the Afghanistan people suffered under the boot of America.
I think that empire will continue to pull tricks out of their ass to try and regain control of the global narrative, if not in Afghanistan, then elsewhere. We have a global cult who have been in control of society in the West for hundreds of years and I haven't seen any white flags being raised from their corner.
So, Afghanistan is going to join the multi-polar world and slough off the jackboot of empire. Lets hope the Taliban understand the example they are setting for the rest of the jackbooted world. I expect their living through 40+ years of conflict has sharpened their focus on reality quite well. I expect the reality they build will shatter some of the delusions of the West and its about time, IMO
Where is our civilization war going to rear its ugly head next?
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 21 2021 16:37 utc | 7
Crunch!
Here’s what the Afghanistan people see right over their border inside of China. This is what they see…
Yes.
They see growth. They see prosperity. They see happiness.
They see their traditions not only upheld, but codified into law. They see a world that they want to be part of.
They see a world that they can be part of.
They see a world that they want to be a part of…
China wants Afghanistan to prosper.
And so does everyone else in the region.
Central Asian countries. The SCO.
Military bases and relations with the USAKyrgyzstan
Since 2014, the USA used the Manas Air Base (unofficially Ganci Air Base) near Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. The American troops vacated the base in 2020. It was handed over back to the Kyrgyzstan military.
The Russian military base, a stone's throw from the former US military base, is still there.
Kazakhstan
On 02.06.2020 President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has declared that construction of a US military base in Kazakhstan is out of question.
"The contract with the US biolab facility in Almaty expired and the Americans left the reference laboratory, only Kazakhstani specialists work there at the expense of our budget. Given the relevance of research in this area, we are ready for the most transparent cooperation with Russian specialists," Tokayev said.
Uzbekistan
10.05.2021 As per the administration of US President Joe Biden, it would be best to deploy troops in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which border Afghanistan, which allows the US to quickly get into Afghanistan if necessary. However, the constitution of Uzbekistan does not provide for the deployment of foreign military bases and facilities in the country, the press service of the Uzbek Defence Ministry told RIA Novosti.
Turkmenistan
The United States has a small Air Force team, normally around seven airmen, who assist US aircraft to refuel at Ashgabat Airport, as part of this rebuilding and stabilizing effort for Afghanistan. Turkmenistan allows the US overflights of humanitarian cargo in support of stabilizing and rebuilding efforts in Afghanistan.
Tajikistan
There ain't no US military bases in Tajikistan. Tajikistan is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and hosts a Russian military base. From all the countries in Central Asia, Tajikistan has the frostiest relations with the United States. It's never gonna happen.
Pakistan
As Washington looks for options post-Afghanistan withdrawal, Islamabad isn’t going to roll out the red carpet. "Don’t Expect Pakistan to Host US Military Bases" Imran Khan, PM of Pakistan said on 09.06.2021
Afghanistan
After the chaotic US military retreat from Afghanistan on 15.08.2021, Afghanistan is lost forever.
SCO
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an intergovernmental international organization founded in Shanghai on 15.06.2001 by six countries: China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.The SCO is an Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance. Currently, the main focus is on exchange of military and intelligence information. Observer countries are: Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, Mongolia. Partner countries are: Turkmenistan, Armenia, Azerbaijian, Cambodja, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Turkey.Iran announced that all political obstacles are resolved for getting a full member of the SCO. The SCO countries represent half of the global population. (Compare that to NATO countries: 950 million people, 1/8 of the world population)
And with oil lines flowing through Afghanistan into China, the entire region is poised for great “Dubai style” wealth and prosperity.
Oil induced prosperity for Afghanistan.
The only way for the world to prosper is to recognize that the systems, used for centuries, that permits the wealthy to come and say into power is not healthy and must be discarded.
What is needed are new systems of governance and new ways of doing things so that the evil, the corrupt, and the mentally ill never ever, EVER get an opportunity to come near any kinds of power ever again.
The future of the health of the world is at stake.
Postscript
And forget about the West trying to keep war alive in Afghanistan. The UK efforts fell completely apart.
That a connection to a neighboring country would help the insurgents is, in my opinion, a misperception. Russia and China would come down hard on, for example Uzbekistan, if it would allow its border to be used to support the insurgency. Every neighbor country of Afghanistan now has an interest in a united Afghanistan at peace. That is why any insurgency against the Taliban will have no chance.
The Russian ambassador to Afghanistan agrees.
And this telling comment…
As long as the Taliban NEVER reopen the US embassy and also ban all the same western NGOs Russia and China have, any color revolutions are doomed to fail.
Posted by: Mar man | Aug 21 2021 16:41 utc | 8
What China is currently doing in Africa is very, very possible in Afghanistan. And the entire world knows this (with the exception of American and their “allies”). Just like China is building houses, roads, infrastructure all over Africa, it will do so in a stable INDEPENDENT Afghanistan.
This is in Africa TODAY…
And China has changed the entire world.
They are smart, talents, organized, and have the backing of the biggest most powerful military (Russia plus China) on the planet.
They are not stopping for shit!
And they are making the world a better place for EVERYONE.
And those wealthy few do not like this one bit, and they would rather destroy the entire world rather than relinquish one tiny iota of control. But they have never seen such an organized, powerful force before.
Afghanistan has. They see. They see how their Uighur brothers and sisters are doing, and they want that in THEIR lives.
And they will be working with China in the years and decades forward…
How’s that for a “mouth full” headline. Nah. Not the kind of stuff that you were expecting from ol’ MM was it. But (I am so sorry) I am being “pestered” to draft this up. And it truly is “pestering”, and I don’t like it ok? And don’t bother asking why I am publishing this article now, of all times. I haven’t a clue.
And that’s the way it works, don’t you know. So just enjoy the read, and if this article resonates with you, then great for you! Otherwise, just get some wine, a fine companion, and eat some delicious tasty food… stuff that you can savor and smell.
Oh, and one more thing.
In this analysis we are going to entertain a professional Remote Viewer for his comments on the Deagel Forecast. And given that I am being so insanely driven to push this article out (for God know what reason), I am including the entire conversation with him.
And it goes everywhere.
So buckle up. Some of it might be important to some people, and some of it might not be to others. So just relax and take from this article what is important to you, and ignore the rest.
OK?
Introduction
The Deagel corporation is a minor branch of US military intelligence, one of the many secretive organizations which collects data for high-level decision-making purposes and prepares confidential briefing documents for agencies like the National Security Agency, the United Nations, and the World Bank.
It’s a work of “love” from some retired intelligence assets, and like most of us ex-spooks, it’s hosted outside of the United States. Just like MM here. We have VERY good reasons to do so. Reasons that are far too complex to get involved in right this moment. But we DO KNOW what we are doing. Never doubt that.
Deagel is known, for example, to have contributed to a Stratfor report on North Korea. With this kind of pedigree, Deagel should be seen as a legitimate player in the intelligence community and not merely a disinformation asset.
If so, then it must be assumed that its population predictions for 2025, as well as its industrial output predictions on a nation-by-nation basis, are based on strategic assumptions which are shared and well understood by other players in the intelligence community.
Deagel predictions.
Until the start of the Covid ‘pandemic’ many commentators were perplexed by the Deagel spreadsheets.
Perhaps they were part of a psychological operation?
However, in light of recent events, we are obliged to consider a possible connection between the projected massive reduction in the population of certain countries, forecast by Deagel, and other trends going on right now.
Trends?
What trends?
Devaluation of the Dollar with an out of control American Congress.
Strange insistence in using a mRNA vaccine instead of a traditional “dead host” vaccine.
A global pandemic that America is just fucking up royally.
Desire for a war with China.
Desire for a war with Russia.
Desire for a war with Iran.
China, Russia and Iran forming a unified Asian block.
Race war in the United States.
Progressive onslaught and control of all electronic media.
Looming bubbles in just about every facet of American life.
And so on and so forth…
The Deagel scenario
The Deagel corporation was asked to explain the thinking behind its strange set of population and output figures. While we cannot take its response at face value, it nonetheless paints a picture that is very similar to the world we now see. And this is not an exaggeration at all.
Consider…
[1] A fake American GDP
In short, they argued that the US government has greatly over-stated the real level of US GDP. This means the country will be fatally exposed when the next economic crisis strikes.
They also take into account a “pandemic scenario” – their term – caused by Ebola or a similar pathogen. This, they say, would cause an exceptionally high death rate, placing extreme pressure on healthcare providers across America and greatly reducing economic output.
[3] A financial crisis with the US Dollar
This pandemic could quickly spiral out of control and create an international financial crisis:
“The collapse of the Western financial system will wipe out the standard of living of its population while ending Ponzi schemes such as the Stock Exchange and the pension funds.”
Trying to figure it out…
They try to explain the predicted dramatic fall in the population of the US by reference to a massive outward migration of millions of Americans seeking economic relief in other countries, but this is unconvincing.
They seem to concede this themselves when they add a further explanatory factor – widespread suicide in response to economic distress. But this too is unsatisfactory.
Their primary reason for predicting a colossal drop in the population of the US by 2025 – a fall of up to 70 percent – is the scale and severity of the alleged pandemic.
As they put it,
“the death toll will be horrible.”
Map
Here’s a map showing the predictions made in the forecast. You see that Asia is unscathed, while America and the West suffer horribly.
Japan will lose 1/5th of it’s population!
Australia will lose a full 1/3rd of it’s population!
Canada will lose 1/4th of it’s population!
The United States will lose almost 3/4ths of it’s population!
Timing
By all accounts, historically, the massive drop in population at this time is validated by the “Fourth Turning” predictions. The date and timing all agree with the Strauss and Howe model for America.
This model is United States centrist, and acknowledges that different societies and different cultures have different “turnings” and generational changes.
Casualty Figures
The casualty figures are gargantuan. They are over and above what one would associate with such things as…
Civil War = 2% to 10%.
Genocide = from 25% to 99% of the population.
For example; 77.0% of the Tutsi population of Rwanda. 85 percent of the population in the Hutu ethnic group. In Cambodia, 70% of the total Cham population, were exterminated.
World War = 6% to 9% of the population (World War II).
Global Military Empire = 11%
GenghisKhan’slegacyisoneofaruthless warrior who dominated unimaginable amounts of territory. He slaughtered about 40 million people and reduced the populationofEarthby 11 percent.
Pandemic = 15% to 60%
The Bubonic plague was a deadly pandemic that wiped out a massive chunk of population in the World during the mid-1300s. In Europe alone the plague wiped out nearly 50% of Europe’s population.
Nuclear War = 30% to 85%
Economic Collapse = 1% to 30%
An American centered fiasco
Based on historical precedents, and the Deagel predictions, these kinds of numbers and figures can only be associated with an American centered disaster. Not really a global one. Because if it was a global disaster, then the causality figures would be more uniform.
.
The most likely candidate is a combination of two (or possibly more) contributors listed above. Which are…
Candidate disaster combinations
Here are some of my suggested candidate combinations that allow us to better understand how those enormous population causality figures could be reached…
Global pandemic, AND genocide.
Global pandemic, AND civil war WITH genocide.
Global pandemic, AND collapsing Military Empire, WITH war.
Global Military Empire AND Nuclear War WITH Global pandemic.
So, in my mind, as I understand things, the ONLY way that the kinds of predictions (as determined by the forecast) can manifest is through a combination of some very horrific events that happens in one centered geographic area.
So how did they come up with these numbers?
Indeed, these are truly shocking numbers and values. So shocking, that it’s simply not an extrapolation of trends. As an extrapolation of trends show things either moving towards “infinity” or falling into a “black hole”. But there is no way to be able to quantify that data into numbers.
So, how the heck did they come up with these values that they are using? And they have come up with specific values and specific data. And it is all very, highly specific. Such as this…
Specific Data and values
Here’s some of the very specific data that they have come up with…
The countries that will suffer the greatest reduction in population, according to Deagel (as per 2014), are:
That’s pretty darn specific. Don’t you know.
Remote Viewing
Remote viewing is defined as the ability to acquire accurate information about a distant or non-local place, person or event without using your physical senses or any other obvious means.
It’s associated with the idea of clairvoyance, seemingly being able to spontaneously know something without actually knowing how you got the information.
It is also sometimes called “anomalous cognition” or “second sight.”
Many of us experience this from time to time as an intuitive flash of insight that turns out to be correct.
Many well-known entrepreneurs and business people, like George Soros, Conrad Hilton, Thomas Alva Edison and Akio Morita, the co-founder of Sony, have attributed their business success to this ability.
Remote Viewing Sketch.
And (of course) we’ve all seen natural psychics perform seemingly amazing feats of mental skill on TV.
The difference between natural psychic receptivity and remote viewing is that the latter is a trained skill, a controlled process, that the average person can learn to do, to some degree or another.
History of the Remote Viewing Program
Remote viewing in modern times originates from the U.S. Government’s interests in psychic espionage during the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
Back during World War II, the Soviets had heard rumors that the U.S. Military were using psychic communications at sea.
While it’s not clear now whether this was really true, the Soviets believed it. And that is, after all, all that matters.
They started their own psychic training within their military and intelligence agencies many decades ago.
The U.S. Government learned of this program and, in the early 1970’s, decided to create their own remote viewing CIA training program.
Stanford Research Institute Remote Viewing Tests
Money and resources (from the Federal government, and buried in the R&D section of the government) were given by the Central Intelligence Agency to Stanford Research Institute (SRI).
That that time, they were located on the campus of Stanford University. And their charter was to test the possibility of remote viewing.
The goal was to disprove that psychic functioning was real.
No one wanted it to exist.
It was the last thing that the military establishment wanted to worry about, especially if it was a new Soviet threat.
Physicists Russell Targ and Hal Putoff working at SRI were tasked with determining whether Extrasensory Perception (ESP) and related phenomena were real or not.
Physicists Russell Targ and Hal Putoff.
So they set about to locate some natural psychics and test them.
Their first subject was artist, psychic and scientist Ingo Swann of New York City. He had demonstrated an ability to accurately “remote view” weather in various American cities.
Ingo Swann.
He had published some articles about ESP and psychokinesis (the ability to mentally affect distant objects) when he worked with researcher Gertrude Schmeidler of City College, New York (and the American Society for Psychical Research.)
Working with Schmeidler, Swann had demonstrated that he could affect the temperature of thermistors sealed in insulated thermos canisters twenty-five feet away from him. Which (of course) was an amazing feat.
At a friend’s request, Swann sent his published findings to Putoff.
Upon reviewing them, Putoff asked Swann to come to SRI and demonstrate his abilities.
The first thing they had Swann do was to see if he could affect a super sensitive, (electromagnetically shielded) quark-detector buried five feet underground in a cement floor.
Every time Putoff asked Swann to think about the detector (used to detect subatomic particles), the readings from the device would noticeably deviate from the baseline readings.
Putoff was convinced that Swann had special abilities and so the program to test and develop remote viewing began.
Expanded Scope
At first they had Swann view objects in a box: this was a practice he was good at but quickly became bored with.
Swann said to them:
“I can view anything in the universe, this is a trivialization of my abilities.”
A few days later he came up with a new way to do remote viewing: viewing map coordinates.
Targ and Putoff went out and bought the biggest atlas they could find at the local book store.And so they started taking coordinates from the map, putting the coordinates in individual blank envelopes, and had Swann image the places at those coordinates at random.
Global Atlas.
Swann’s coordinate map viewing turned out to be a big success.
But, of course, critics were everywhere. No one in the military, or the government wanted to believe the findings. Indeed, a critic at the Central Intelligence Agency suggested that maybe he had memorized the entire global map.
Swann went on to use randomly chosen numerical coordinates to view randomly selected events, people and structures around the planet. He performed equally well using this coordinate-based viewing system.
Overview
Some quick notes on Remote Viewing.
Remote Viewing occurs in a sterile workspace. Most reports of paranormal events come from outside the science lab, and when research is done on these cousins of RV, it is somewhat like examining the natural history of some specimen brought in from the wild. When clairvoyance (RV’s closest relative) was done under controlled conditions for research purposes, it was generally targeted at such things as cards or colors, since these sorts of targets allowed easy scoring of experimental results. Remote viewing, on the other hand, was actually developed and first explored in a research setting . And the sorts of targets used for RV research differed from those typically used in other psi research. Targets chosen for “viewing” include geographic locations, hidden objects, and even such things as archaeological sites and space objects about which it was expected that ground truth would eventually become known, so that the viewer’s accuracy could be checked.
Remote Viewing is a combination of observed sensings. Unlike most other psi disciplines, remote viewing is not precisely one thing, but rather an integrated “cocktail” of various phenomena. Despite the “viewing” part of the term, remote viewing is only partly about experiences associated with what might be visible about a target. It also involves mental impressions pertaining to the other senses, such as sounds, tastes, smells, and textures, as well as limited telepathy-like effects, and in some cases just plain intuitive “knowing.” RV owes some of these qualities to the fact that lessons learned from research in clairvoyance, telepathy, and even out-of-body experiences — traditionally considered separate disciplines — played a role in its development. In remote viewing, the viewer not only verbalizes what he or she is perceiving, but usually also records in writing, in sketches, and sometimes even in three-dimensional modeling the results of the remote viewing episode, or “session.”
Remote Viewing is Structured. Remote viewing tends to be more structured than other psi disciplines. In some important varieties of remote viewing, viewers follow specific scripted formats. These formats are designed to enhance the viewer’s performance in various ways, such as to better deal with mental “noise” (stray thoughts, imaginings, analysis, etc. that degrades the “psychic signal”) or to allow incoming data to be better managed. Some of these structural methodologies are widely used. Other methods are more personal. An individual remote viewer, for example, might through trial and error develop his or her own customized approach.
Strict science-based protocol. Proper remote viewing is done within a strict science-based protocol. As mentioned, the remote viewer is kept unwitting of either the nature or identity of the target until after the session is completed. Except in training situations, the monitor (a sort of remote viewing “guide” or facilitator that may assist the viewer during the session) is also unwitting, and external clues or data about the target are carefully excluded. Sessions are conducted in a setting that prevents knowledge of the target “leaking” to the viewer. These measures are important to insure that the viewer does not receive hints or clues about the target in any way other than what would be considered “psychic.”
What is Remote Viewing?
Swann coined to term “remote viewing” to describe the process though you can question whether the information is actually remote to the viewer or whether the process is entirely visual.
Some people are more sensitive to auditory, kinesthetic or other types of sensory information and few viewers actually “see” the target very clearly.
Nonetheless, the name stuck and was sufficient to convince the intelligence agencies to fund the project.
Other viewers were also tasked to help Targ and Putoff understand remote viewing.
Pat Price, a former police commissioner from Burbank, CA also proved to be an excellent viewer. Price used his own system to view where he actually imagined that he was at the distant target site.
Pat Price.
His results were so good that the Central Intelligence Agency hired him to work for them directly.
Back East, another natural viewer Joe McMoneagle, also known as “Remote Viewer No. 1,” worked directly with the U.S. Army and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Joe McMoneagle.
He was also tested and found to have amazing abilities to describe and sketch distant locations. Upon retirement, McMoneagle was awarded a Legion of Merit award, in part, for his five years of remote viewing missions for the military and various government agencies.
Coordinate Remote Viewing
However, Swann was able to describe, with great precision, what he was doing with his mind and attention as he was viewing, an ability other viewers did not have.
This allowed him to come up with a 6-stage system that could be taught to anyone, including you or me. It became known as CRV: Coordinate (or Controlled) Remote Viewing.
Swann’s CRV system is based on separating out signal from noise in your mind as you are viewing.
All the information is recorded during a session, but the viewer puts the noise in a different place on the paper than the signal.
At the end of the session, you can separate them from one another.
The method became the basis of the remote viewing protocols that the U.S. army taught to several groups of viewers.
The program lasted until 1995 when it was declassified; about $20 million was spent over the two decades. It is now part of "deep black" SAP programs and commercial programs for profit.
Princeton’s Random Number Generator Research
During this time, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab (PEAR) at Princeton University, run by Bob Jahn and Brenda Dunn, also conducted twenty years of research into remote viewing.
They referred to this as the so-called “micro-psychokinesis”.
They conducted experiments on the effect of human intention on Random Number Generators (RNGs).
They found that, looking at the cumulative results of hundreds of thousands of trials, that their subjects could influence about 2 or 3 events per 10,000 random coin flip.
Thus being able to move the device away from true randomness by thought alone.
The odds of these results being by chance were an astonishing 375 trillion to one.
Open the Aperture of Your Perception
When someone asks you to describe something, you normally proceed to name what you’re perceiving using nouns and symbols.
"I see a man holding a dog". He is on a bench. He is in a park. The dog is hungry and barking at the food in the stall nearby.
Remote viewing is just the opposite.
You begin by describing your perceptions without trying to identify anything about what they mean or what the larger picture is.
Natural.
Noise.
Hungry feeling.
Green.
Resting.
You begin with basic gestalts: fundamental, general components of the target site like whether it’s manmade or living or natural. You then proceed to basic colors, smells, temperatures, shapes and sizes.
Only after you’ve been describing the target for a while can you proceed to more specific ideas and possibly names, nouns and more analytical types of information.
Follow the Ambiguity
Our minds are always attempting to draw conclusions from what we’ve perceiving at any given moment.
But this isn’t really desirable in a Remote Viewing exercise.
If you try to do this, you will always likely to be wrong. Which brings us to one of the great paradoxes of RV: the fainter the perception, the more likely it is to be accurate and the less likely you are to feel confident in that perception.
In other words, the more confident you are about your psychic perceptions during the session, the less likely those perceptions are to be correct!
And the less confident you feel, the more likely it is that your perceptions are right on. How’s that for a paradox?
Someone familiar with the military viewing program once told me that if a viewer finished a session and said with confidence “I nailed it!,” that viewer’s session would be thrown in the garbage. A good session is one in which the viewer has no idea what they’ve been doing or whether it’s accurate or not.
This is very different from the way our educational system, which stresses linear and rational thinking, trains us to deal with acquiring and processing information.
Eventually, you see the benefits: you learn to trust your intuition more and don’t necessarily need to rationalize everything before you take action. You become more spontaneous which can often be a good thing if you’re used to over-thinking things in your life.
Scientific Analysis of the Remote Viewing Program
When the RV program was declassified, one of the two people asked to evaluate the program was statistician Jessica Utts, the head of the American Statistical Association.
She concluded:
“Using the standards applied to any other area of science, it is concluded that psychic functioning has been well established. Arguments that these results could be due to methodological flaws in the experiments are soundly refuted.Effects of similar magnitude to those found in government-sponsored research at SRI and SAIC (another government sponsored think tank) have been replicated at a number of laboratories across the world. Such consistency cannot be readily explained by claims of flaws or fraud.”
And researcher Dean Radin, doing very complex meta-analyses using the results of many studies about psychic perception over many decades, came to the same conclusion.
Looking at the entire population, not just trained viewers, RV is a weak effect, about four to eight percent higher than expected if we were only using our physical senses to gather information: yet, it’s consistently there in everyone.
How Does Remote Viewing Work?
So RV is scientifically proven to work.
But how?
What’s going inside the viewer’s body and mind? How do they access far away information with such great accuracy?
You can pick your favorite explanation but the truth is, no one knows for sure. But my feeling is that it has something to do with resonance, vibration and frequency on the quantum level. And to this end I have generated explanatory template maps for the MWI.
Right brain thinking tends to be free flowing, intuitive and descriptive while left brain thinking is more analytical, linear and symbolic.
Good remote viewers learn to distinguish their own left and right-brain thinking.
They’re good at discerning the difference between the two and can separate signal from noise. Remote viewing tends to be more more accessible to the right-brain type.
Picking Up Signals Through Vibrational Resonance
Where does the information come from?
Well, if you look around the space wherever you are at the moment, the air will seem empty: you can’t see the air with your eyes. But you also know that it’s filled with electromagnetic information from cell phone signals, radio waves, TV signals, etc. So empty space can be filled with information coming to you from distance. Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
That information is coming to you through a type of vibrational resonance that fills space-time.
When you have a receiver that is tuned to the frequency of those signals, you’ll pick them up.
All you need to do after that is to amplify the signal.
Remote viewing doesn’t necessarily amplify the signal of what you’re viewing, but it does teach you how to reduce your own mental noise, your monkey mind.
Yeah, but what about Deagel? And the future?
I argue that there must have been some technique, other than “extrapolation of data applied to historical models“, to come up with the data that Deagel presented. And the only publicly known method is via Remote Viewing.
Of course, there is the time-travel, and 5th and 7th dimensional travel mechanisms.
I have discussed this elsewhere.
And those are indeed valid methods of "time travel;", but I do not believe that they are actually being used at this time, in this case.
Remote Viewing The Future
Remote viewing the future is possible because time does not exist and therefore it is possible to reach out and link with events that are happening in a future “now” upon the world-line MWI template map.
This can only be done for a relatively short period into the future because the further one looks into the future, the more variables can change what happens.
What happens is that, based on what has occurred or what is going on at the moment, a sort of inevitability occurs.
An Apple Tree Example
For instance, if an apple falls from a tree, there is a strong possibility that it will fall to the ground.
Now, if at a certain time a person walks towards the tree, is it possible to predict if the apple will hit the person on the head or not? Many variables will come into play that permit the apple to hit the person on the head – or not – so it is not usually possible to predict with absolute certainty such an event.
Under an apple tree.
A remote viewer looks out along timelines and picks up the most dramatic events that are likely to occur. Then the person tries to see what is likely to happen. But, as nothing is totally certain, they can only predict with greater or lesser accuracy.
The events along any timeline are quite simply projections of “now” events. The “now” moment is constantly altering but each succeeding “now” moment is dependent on the preceding one to a certain extent.
But given the over all MWI template that most people seem to be using, it can become relatively easy to Remote View upon this template and describe a future that will exist for a wide selection of people.
So, to describe it simply, if one looks at a series of single moments in time, for instance concerning the apple growing on a tree, we can see that the apple ripens and, eventually, falls from the tree. The exact moment when the apple will depart from the tree cannot be predicted but we know that it will eventually fall.
Once it starts to fall it is simple to imagine that it will hit the ground.
So, imagination is brought into play to predict the future from the last “now” moment. That is why remote viewing is so difficult. Once we start to use imagination, we are in murky waters.
World Line Template
While every consciousness has their own pre-birth template maps that they follow, most of the maps are derived from a “universal template”.
Most people all share the same "universal template" from which to develop their initial "pre-birth world-line maps" from.
And thus the “terrain” is similar to each others maps (more or less to some degree).
Even though every one is different, and everyone has their own world-line map that they are following, they are all very similar to each other for the vast bulk of humanity (well, at least geographical clusters of people, anyways.)
And people, on these MWI maps, follow them, interacting with other consciousnesses along the way, generating “clusters” or world-lines that are all tied together.
Most people find living on their world-line maps to be easy if they "just go with the flow". They just follow them and "don't climb those peaks" and just go along with what the relative "winds blow" in their lives. And this all creates a situation where world-lines (on different maps) cluster together.
Never the less, the vast bulk of humanity will act as herded animals and cluster together towards similar goals and objectives.
And thus, the Deagel forecast is one that is based upon this clustering of lines. They are apparently doing so for various corporate reasons, being profit forecasts and other such concerns. And to them the map would look similar to an individual map, only that the vector would be for a group of consciousnesses, not just for one singular consciousness.
Such as this…
The remote viewed future for America.
Of course, and I have stated this over and over again, you have the ability to change your world-line template map, and if you don’t like it you can “slide off it” and get on one that you do like.
Running affirmation prayer campaigns for safety.
Of course, the inertia of millions of people following “the herd” and the clustering of their world-lines is going to be rather difficult to stop. But what you can do is slide off their template and move on your own path. And while there might be all sorts of very bad things going on, and the “news” will amplify this, a person who is conducting their Affirmation Prayer Campaigns diligently will be able to avoid a great deal of hardship and turmoil.
Anyways, back to the matter at hand…
So Deagel came up with this forecast back in 2012 that pretty much stated that a lot of bad things were going to happen to America. And by 2025, the nations would not look anything like it looked like in 2012. They predicted a die off of a very significant proportion of the American population and a collapse of the economy, military might and governance.
Then come 2020, we have the Coronavirus.
And many of the things that they predicted, as outlandish as they sounded back then, now seems frighteningly plausible.
Because their predictions were so detailed, and outlandish, it gives one pause to think. Especially now, as Hard-Right, Religious Zealots are blaming China for trying to kill off Christianity. HERE. Jeeze!
I strongly suspect that this forecast was derived though Remote Viewing activity in association with other calculus. And to this end, I consulted with an MM influencer and contributor, our resident Remote Viewing Expert; Blue NarWhal.
Thinking.
Blue NarWhal Comments
Blue NarWhal is a professional in the Remote Viewing Industry, and has done work for both the United States government and private industry. I asked him for his thoughts and opinions. Edited for clarity and for this venue.
BlueNarwhal:
Knowing most of the top remote viewers on a first name basis I do have some input for you here.
As you know the typical result of civilian allied military development projects, where real operational capability is developed, go through a bifurcation.
It is a bifurcation where one strand goes SAP deep black, and the other goes public debunk.
(You know) there's nothing to see here Fred, these are not the droids you are looking for, move along.
This has been repeatedly confirmed by the best viewers, that there is a whole range of deep black remote viewing corps that...
BlueNarwhal:
...That has multiple purposes.
One purpose is human to alien communication.
Another is strategic advantage and nonlinear intelligence, called “quantum viewing” now.
Predictive viewing, is as Courtney says, subject the multiple worlds branching.
The targets are often collecting data from multiple MWI strands to see variations and research options.
BlueNarwhal:
Subject to the MWI factors.. (corrected).
Here below are my top ten candidate causality strands that could lead to major USA population die off in 4 years. I have gleaned these from my RV associates, and other sources, such as really good verified psychics I personally know, and meta analysis ...
Since each candidate has a lot of detail to go with it, I will start with the titles.
I think the push to write about this is we are at a global inflection point for breakdown and revolution 4th turning style (Howe and Strauss).
Following parsimony, certain candidates are just more likely and bakes in the cake.
But the essential question of where Edwin got his forecast from I think may well have been his contacts in shadow military and recently retired.
The benefactors and the malevolence on the non-human sources have been predicting this die off as well, and some even (have been) blaming the coming die on entirely ET allied to human elites.
The reason being to enact a scorched Earth policy in response to their getting defanged by the benefactor balance aliens.
But we don’t need ET in the mix to accomplish this. So likely other factors are more probable.
BlueNarwhal:
Now I know you are more likely to want to see how we can understand the dynamics from an entirely human causality POV, because that can hold more receptive water...
BlueNarwhal:
Source data candidate of the Deagel USA population reduction forecast and no it wasn’t a typo.
Forecasted for 2025 "top candidate causation" of drastic reduction in USA population ...
[1] Long time plans by globalist elite. Goal for population reduction to stave off CC ruining so much of their asset base in preparation, and thus predicting massive depopulation since the early 2000s.
[2] Long time plans for denationalizing the globe. With the de facto lead player winner likely China, having certain depopulation effects on the most resistant nationalists. (or in other words the "gun toting" USA population.)
[3] China retakes Taiwan. And (foolishly) Japan jumps in to defend them, USA jumps in to defend Japan. Chinese proxy North Korea nukes Hawaii and San Francisco. Followed by a myriad of tactical nuclear events (and chem warfare covertly) from western elite to make their own survival deal with new China global leadership
[4] Virtuous genocide of the vaxxed by the series binary weapon scheme.
[5] Virtuous genocide of the unvaxxed by the vaxxxed totalitarian biomedical martial law state proxy mobs. Since they cannot get the military to do the bidding, UN internment camps spring-up across the USA
[6] Societal Shift. A 4th turning Piscean top down group-schoolers to Aquarian bottom up individualist SOCs - societal shift
[7] Bubbles all break. Global currency crash, petrodollar crash, dollar hyperinflation.
[8] Natural calamities aggravated with the above. Combined with 5 year super drought, massive famine, urban die offs with no resources, more pandemic, more CC extremes, followed by mini ice age super freeze.
[9] Civil war population reduction outcome. With breakdown of US between red and blue, which are unvaxxed and vaxxxed as psychological warfare dehumanization victims in both directions
[10] Vaxxed mRNA die off from runaway variant evolution in the vaxxed bodies, though blamed on unvaccinated, within 4 years 65% of those vaxxed die.
- on this last one, my theory I developed through my own remote viewing is specifically sorcerers apprentice runaway that creates Monsanto like terminator seed immune systems.
I have a short detail on that, let me grab it...
BlueNarwhal:
But before detailing that, here is another ingredient...
CyberPolygon
OK. We are going to get off the subject for a spell. Don’t worry too much about it. Just go with the flow. If it interests you, then great. If not, then chill out.
BlueNarwhal:
On the Cyberpolygon, of which I have been aware for a long time.
After all, since I am a cybersecurity professional, I am well aware of this.
This will the incidence of a behemoth cyber attack.
This will occur soon after all the PR about Cyberpolygon cybersecurity (hits the "news"). As such, it will give the government authorities great “cover” so no one can claim they were asleep at the switch when a national scale false flag cyber attack occurs.
It will be an attack of such severity that it is create adequate national security threat pretext for an “internet martial law” to ensue.
A situation will occur that can more effectively suppress the so-called "Vaxx misinformation".
This will begin by opening the door to authorities literally shutting down the DNS of any and all websites.
As well as interdicting all text messaging traffic that is deemed misinformation by their algorithms.
No of course, nothing to see here, more along. Get help. Get back on your meds. Get jabbed immediately. To save us all!
A false flag cybersecurity attack is intended to accomplish the following objectives:
[1] Stop unsanctioned crypto-currency transactions,
[2] Stop any online resistance to vaxxing,
[3] Stop the ability for the vaccine resistant to organize, and
[4] Stop any dissent to the great reset that will occur when the stock market crashes (due in part to high rates of deaths among the vaccinated, and the seemingly endless new lockdowns.)
The great reset will be touted as virtuous and compassionate.
The creeping installation of UN run internment camps all over the US for the unvaccinated will be hailed as life saving.
This will be especially true as the unvaccinated are now defined as high risk and potential terrorists.
Dependence of the populace on the towing lines of the government narrative will reach an all time high and consolidation of totalitarian power will be complete!
https://threatpost.com/cyber-polygon-2021-towards-secure-development-of-digital-ecosystems/167661/omplete.
Welcome to George Orwell’s worst nightmare.
Monsanto-like “terminator seed” immune systems
And just like that, my sources become absorbed into the blob that has become the “great Vaxx vs. unVaxx debate”.
Sigh. It only happens with Americans inside of America. If you talk with people outside of America, you just won’t hear this kind of stuff.
I have no problem with use of an injection to control the population is feasible. I have no problem with evil people using it to control others. I have no problem with reading about the various ideas that people have on this.
But…
Keep in mind, that all of this is a side distraction from the “big event” what ever it might be. And I personally find it hard to believe that vaccinations are a major part of a big “shake down reset event”.
A part of it YES.
But the main part? NO.
Here, Blue NarWhal goes on…
The dirtiest secret is they installed Monsanto-like “terminator seed” immune systems on a large chunk of the planetary population.
How?
If you don’t get the next booster your immune system will no longer work and you will likely die next variant season. Taking the jab once makes it necessary to take jabs for life.
I told this to xXx and just a couple friends 6 months ago but felt it would be so incendiary to post it anywhere back then.
I still haven’t.
When I first thought of it this way it was too horrible a thought to even imagine and I thought I must be getting too paranoid. And I am not a paranoid person, just a good data collector.. like yourself MM:)
But now….
All the immune systems of the vaxxed incubate or evolve the next deadly variants that precisely escape the last booster just like poor use of antibiotics incubated and evolved antibiotic resistant bacteria. In the case of covid evolution of variants it is the exact same thing.
The only thing they desperately need to pull this multi trillion dollar caper off is to avoid blame for designing the entire thing to operate this way.
If they can mentally and emotionally program the vaxxed to believe only the unvaccinated are variant factories then they can get away with many trillions in profit.
Dehumanization of the unvaxxed gives them cover and profit to the moon.
The truth is the unvaxxed do not evolve the variants.
All variants have started soon after introductions of the vaxx in different countries or during the large trials in those countries.
The evidence is incontrovertible if one reads the real science that is not being faked.
The CDC even recently recommended creating nationwide internment camps for the unvaccinated to keep the vaxxed safe! See how insidious the plot really is?
Of course you do.
But now they will brazenly lie about variants only coming from the unvaxxed even when the evidence is becoming overwhelming to the contrary.
The mob will be programmed to literally want to exterminate the vermin unvaxxed.
They will - to the last - direct all the anger of the vaxxed dying from covid variants on the unvaxxed.
They will gin up a sense of being virtuous to want to send unvaxxed vermin to death camps.
You know this to be true.
History repeating itself now with the 4th Reich Blue Nazis. You feel me? It won’t be a yellow star but a red covid patch that the unvaxxed will be forced to wear. Don’t believe it will come to this?
Not long to wait and find out at this point.
The game is afoot
I totally am nauseous about being right about such terrible things! It’s really just too depressing and insane to believe. But I thought I was insane for thinking the shot was a terminator seed immune system ploy. Now it is becoming entirely true and will continue to be born out.
And sorry, no, you cannot reason with loved ones to not get boosters. The messenger will definitely be shot and reviled.
The lines have been drawn.
Please pretty please tell me I’m wrong about this - I’ve never ever wanted to be more wrong about something in my entire life!
But this I believe will become obvious when millions of vaccinated begin to die from the next variant their own bloodstreams evolved. I am so already grieving the future loss of my family relatives.
Seriously.
Because it’s a lose lose game - get the booster to live another 6 months but at the same time getting foreshortens ones overall life span by another 15 to 20% each shot (that is of course if side effects don’t kill one within 3 weeks of the jab each time).
They actually believe they have pulled off the perfect crime to make trillions and trillions of dollars. That’s more than Carl Sagan’s billions and billlions of stars!
In this case only the paranoid may survive and the innocent follower sheep will perish or at the least become so dumb that the idiocracy movie will seem like a probability.
Brawndo, it’s got electrolytes! =
Pfizer, it’s got electro-spikes!
That’s why Zelenko said it’s a billion x better to have natural immunity.
Weaponizing CORRELATION VS CAUSATION
I know that all of this is a meandering maze off “the beaten path” of what the question was all about. But follow the train of thought. Believe it if you want, or don’t if you want. What ever you do, do not get swept up too far in it.
Don’t get lost in the maze.
Remember that this source is an “insider” in these matters regarding the United States government, and you owe it to hear what he has to say, because SOMETHING has set his mind down these paths. Right or wrong. Factual or fantasy.
Good or bad.
Right or wrong.
Like a little more of my esteemed lunacy?
Weaponizing CORRELATION VS CAUSATION
The CDC policy guidance to doctors is any death after 3 hours of injection to as much as 1 week after is only correlation and not causation.
The only side effect admitted to is a little “very rare” anaphylaxis.
Assignment of causation just so happens to destroy many life insurance payouts - I have collected many reports of that.
The emerging science does not support correlation but causation.
I have links to videos by more than a dozen esteemed doctors and researchers that support causation. But these are not the droids you are looking for, move along says the mainstream biomedical cartel.
There is a 4 part unholy alliance between the government, the media, big tech, and biopharma industry to suppress speech.
Predominantly speech about promising therapeutics.
They will deny causational evidence and malign and de-platform anyone of influence that departs from the “100% safe and effective” narrative.
The normalcy bias is reinforced constantly.
If you follow the money and power it becomes obvious that the unholy alliance is both making a fuck-ton of money and getting untold control and power which will never want to be relinquished.
People in government + big tech + media ownership are heavily invested in biopharma stocks.
Is that correlation or causation?
Correlation only of course. The rising tide floats all boats they say. Sure! Move along nothing to see here. Get the jab.
Are the 450,000 VAERS reports about side effects of which many thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of life long infirmities happening soon after vaxxing just correlation and not causation?
Is the now repeatedly verified presence of EMF responsive graphene oxide found in large quantity in the vaxxes, which right after injected respond to both magnets and EMF detectors only in the injected site, is that correlation or causality?
Is the well established (but totally denied by the CDC “experts”) safety and efficacy of vitamin D and Ivermection and zinc, which when generally adopted shows dramatic drops in death rates (over 85%) in dozens of studies in many countries, is that correlation or causation?
In every case the mainstream government sanctioned experts refuse to even consider the research into these therapeutics (that are all expired patents so there is no money in it for them) and which if were admitted as being effective would quixkly end the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization - is that just correlation or is it causation?
When any esteemed doctor or pathologist or epidemiologist or Nobel Prize winner or vaccine researcher that worked at the head with Gates foundation (Moderna) or for Pfizer - when they risk their jobs and reputation to report any science that impeaches the authoritarian narrative - are immediately cat-called, maligned, suppressed and deplatformed as misinformation terrorists for reporting their scientific conclusions - is their research data only correlation and not causation?
When every single time I am around vaccinated people I really want to hang out outdoors to visit (without masks on) results in my having lung pain, headache, sore throat for several hours afterward (which then abates right after I dose Vitamin D, Quercetin, and Zinc).. is that correlation or causation? (I am not responsive to placebo and never expected or was afraid of hanging with my friends and relatives. But that is the consequence every time).
Are all the bad science and respected scientific journals who are then later forced to retract their highly celebrated therapeutic-denial studies that support the idea that effective therapeutics are nonexistent and dangerous (even though they are safer than aspirin) - is that situation correlation or causation to prevent losing Emergency Use Authorization and to suppress the idea there are real alternatives to jabbing because it fuels the antivaxxers?
Is the fact of even discussing the virus being bio-engineered was totally suppressed for over a year but now finally being admitted only very quietly in the halls of power, is that denial good science or bad science?
Is the fact that Fauci and DARPA and other cohorts jointly and covertly funded the Wuhan gain of function research through Peter Daszak, and then patented the spike protein injection using mRNA technology in early 2019 merely correlation or is it causation?
You see, the entire presumption of correlation over causation truly serves the interests of making money and creating more control over the populace.
When any and all scientific evidence about the dangers of the vaxx or availability of effective and safe therapeutics is quickly dismissed by the vacination stakeholder extreme bias, is that mere correlation or causation?
If the vaxxed have ever never actually read a single source scientific study but only trust the mouthpiece experts which support their normalcy bias that the vax is perfectly safe and effective, and that there are no effective therapeutics - is that denial and dehumanization of anyone suggesting otherwise only correlation or causation?
Well if you are a nice, caring, good and decent person who simply cannot believe the government would lie to you, or that the unholy alliance is evil and greedy, and that there is nothing to see here.
Move along and get the jab and shut up or be dehumanized.
If you disagree - and believe it’s all just random unfounded conspiracy theory that at best is only remote unfounded correlation and never ever possibly causation, then there is no reasoning with you.
No science that will convince you.
No evidence you will ever admit to.
No room for any doubt.
And everyone who says otherwise are likely to be filthy vermin white supremacist domestic terrorists who should be placed in internment camps to protect the vaxxed, then guess what?
We will all just have to wait and see how it all turns out and agree to disagree!
Correlation vs Causation is the defensive talking point for all those in the unholy alliance.
But now that all people resisting or refusing or promoting anything other than the party line about the the vaxx are literally being defined as domestic terrorists.
Any evidence they report is labeled misinformation, well then, good luck with labeling 50% of the populace of the US as terrorists who should be dehumanized and interned to keep the vaxxed population safe.
Are these policies going to be correlation to and not causation of a potential civil war between the red check folks and the blue check folks?
What a pleasant thought. How unifying. How desperate. How immature. How greedy. How all so sweetly patriotic! Yeah sure, I got a couple bridges to sell you. In fact, I got a dozen bridges to sell you, Get in line! Big discounts available. 🪂
Jesus! Man. All I care about is the Deagel Forecast. And here we find that one of my top “to go” people on the Remote Viewing sciences has started connecting the vaccinations of Coronavirus in it’s mRNA form to a profit-scheme that will result in the deaths of millions.
It seems so far out.
But…
According to the 2012 Deagel Forecast, only those nations (that we see today) who are pushing the mRNA vaccine protocol (and who perhaps match up with the rant above) MATCH together.
BlueNarwhal:
H Christ! Are we having fun yet?
BlueNarwhal:
Just a few side notes I wrote over the last weeks... lol
BlueNarwhal:
And you my dear friend predicted all of it earlier this year and last year with the help of your benfactoring inputs as well!
Well, it is true that I predicted much of this kind of stuff. I will not deny that. But it doesn’t need to be so “in your face” and blunt. Does it?
My point is that I am being driven, and going crazy being pushed to push this article (about remote viewing and the Deagel Forecast) out the door as soon as possible, and as a side note, Blue NarWhal is dragging along this vaccination stuff alongside. So there MUST be a reason.
But is the reason important?
Let’s continue…
BlueNarwhal:
It’s war, not between China and US, but between elites and populace, between benefactors and malevolent overseers, between piscean and Aquarian change over, between satanic and holy, between horizontal and vertical evolution, and between last past patriarchy and future matriarchy, and between globalists and nationalists
BlueNarwhal:
We are arriving quite rapidly at the super size MEI inflection point where large scale global bifurcation occurs, and hence there is a tremendous urgency to communicate the big picture so the order and chaos agencies are seen for the agenda motivations they breathe MWI.
So human consciousness has more choices in the matter, so natural leaders that are needed will arise.
BlueNarwhal:
You of course have the Deagel 2020 change of heart write up right....? Worth pasting in here, since it is not nearly as wacky as my stack.
Amen to that!
Deagel 2020 revision to the original 2012 Deagel Forecast
BlueNarwhal:
Forecast disclaimer revision in 2020:
In 2014 we published a disclaimer about the forecast. In six years the scenario has changed dramatically.
This new disclaimer is meant to single out the situation from 2020 on-wards.
Talking about the United States and the European Union as separated entities no longer makes sense. Both are the Western block, keep printing money and will share the same fate.
After COVID we can draw two major conclusions:
[1] The Western world success model has been built over societies with no resilience that can barely withstand any hardship, even a low intensity one. It was assumed but now we’ve got the full hard confirmation beyond any doubt.
[2] The COVID crisis will be used to extend the life of this dying economic system through the so called “Great Reset.”
The Great Reset; like the climate change, extinction rebellion, planetary crisis, green revolution, shale oil (…) hoaxes promoted by the system; is another attempt to slow down dramatically the consumption of natural resources and therefore extend the lifetime of the current system.
It can be effective for awhile but finally won’t address the bottom-line problem and will only delay the inevitable.
The core ruling elites hope to stay in power which is in effect the only thing that really worries them.
The collapse of the Western financial system – and ultimately the Western civilization – has been the major driver in the 2012 forecast along with a confluence of crisis with a devastating outcome.
As COVID has proven Western societies embracing multiculturalism and extreme liberalism are unable to deal with any real hardship.
The Spanish flu one century ago represented the death of 40-50 million people.
Today the world’s population is four times greater with air travel in full swing which is by definition a super spreader.
The death casualties in today’s World would represent 160 to 200 million in relative terms but more likely 300-400 million taking into consideration the air travel factor that did not exist one century ago.
So far, COVID death toll is roughly 1 million people.
It is quite likely that the economic crisis due to the lock-downs will cause more deaths than the virus worldwide.
The Soviet system was less able to deliver goodies to the people than the Western one. Nevertheless Soviet society was more compact and resilient under an authoritarian regime. That in mind, the collapse of the Soviet system wiped out 10 percent of the population.
The stark reality of diverse and multicultural Western societies is that a collapse will have a toll of 50 to 80 percent depending on several factors.
But in general terms the most diverse, multicultural, indebted and wealthy (highest standard of living) will suffer the highest toll.
The only glue that keeps united such aberrant collage from falling apart is over-consumption with heavy doses of bottomless degeneracy disguised as virtue.
Nevertheless the widespread censorship, hate laws and contradictory signals mean that even that glue is not working any more.
Not everybody has to die.
Migration can also play a positive role in this.
The formerly (known as) second and third world nations are an unknown at this point. Their fate will depend upon the decisions they take in the future.
Western powers are not going to take over them as they did in the past because these (Western) countries won’t be able to control their very own cities let alone those countries that are far away.
If they remain tied to the former World Order they will go down along with the Western powers. However, they won’t experience the same kind of brutal decline that the Western powers will experience so brazenly. This is partially because they are poorer and (obviously) not diverse enough. Instead they are stronger than the Western powers because they are actually quite homogeneous. This is their advantage. And that they are used to deal with some sort of hardship. Though, not precisely the one that is coming.
If they switch to China they can get a chance to stabilize but will need to depend upon the management of their own resources.
We expected this situation to unfold and actually is unfolding right now.
With the November election triggering a major bomb if Trump is re-elected. (Did not happen.)
If Biden is elected there will very bad consequences as well.
There is a lot of bad blood in the Western societies and the protests, demonstrations, rioting and looting are only the first symptoms of what is coming.
However a new trend is taking place overshadowing this one.
The situation between the three great powers has changed dramatically.
The only relevant achievement of the Western powers during the past decade has been the formation of a strategic alliance, both military and economic, between Russia and China.
Right now the potential partnership between Russia and the European Union (EU) is dead with Russia turning definitively towards China. That was from the beginning the most likely outcome.
Airbus never tried to establish a real partnership but rather a strategy to fade away the Russian aerospace industry.
Actually Russia and China have formed a new alliance to build a long haul airliner.
Western Europe (not to mention the United States) was never interested in the development of Russia or forming anything other than a master slave relationship with Russia providing raw materials and toeing the line of the West.
It was clear then and today is a fact.
Russia has been preparing for a major war since 2008 and China has been increasing her military capabilities for the last 20 years. Today China is not a second tier power compared with the United States. Both in military and economic terms China is at the same level and in some specific areas are far ahead.
In the domain of high-tech 5G has been a success in the commercial realm but the Type 055 destroyer is also another breakthrough with the US gaining a similar capability (DDG 51 Flight IIII) by mid of this decade (more likely by 2030).
Nanchang, the lead ship of the Type 055 class, was commissioned amid the pandemic and lockdown in China.
Six years ago the likelihood of a major war was tiny.
Since then it has grown steadily and dramatically and today is by far the most likely major event in the 2020s.
The ultimate conflict can come from two ways.
[1] A conventional conflict involving at least two major powers that escalates into an open nuclear war.
[2] A second scenario is possible in the 2025-2030 time-frame. A Russian sneak first strike against the United States and its allies with the new S-500, strategic missile defenses, Yasen-M submarines, INF Zircon and Kalibr missiles and some new space asset playing the key role.
The sneaky first strike would involve all Russian missile strategic forces branches (bombers and ground-based missiles) at the different stages of such attack that would be strategic translation of what was seen in Syria in November 2015.
There was no report that the Russian had such a capability of launching a high precision, multiple, combined arms attack at targets 2,000+ kilometers away.
Western intelligence had no clue.
The irony is that since the end of the Cold War the United States has been maneuvering through NATO to achieve a position to be able to execute a first strike (nuclear) over Russia and now it seems that the first strike may still occur but the country finished would be the United States.
Another particularity of the Western system is that its individuals have been brainwashed to the point that the majority accept their moral high ground and technological edge as a given.
This has given the rise of the supremacy of the emotional arguments over the rational ones which are ignored or deprecated.
That mindset can play a key role in the upcoming catastrophic events.
At least in the Soviet system the silent majority of the people were aware of the fallacies they were fed up.
We can see the United States claims about 5G being stolen from them by China or hypersonic technology being stolen by Russia as the evidence that the Western elites are also infected by that hubris.
Over the next decade it will become obvious that the West is falling behind the Russia-China block and the malaise might grow into desperation.
Going to war might seem a quick and easy solution to restore the lost hegemony to finally find them into a France 1940 moment. Back then France did not have nuclear weapons to turn a defeat into a victory. The West might try that swap because the unpleasant prospect of not being Mars and Venus but rather a bully and his dirty bitch running away in fear while the rest of the world is laughing at them.
If there is not a dramatic change of course the world is going to witness the first nuclear war.
The Western block collapse may come before, during or after the war.
It does not matter.
A nuclear war is a game with billions of casualties and the collapse plays in the hundreds of millions.
He Concludes…
This website is non-profit, built on spare time and we provide our information and services AS IS without further explanations and/or guarantees. We are not linked to any government. Take into account that the forecast is nothing more than a game of numbers whether flawed or correct based upon some speculative assumptions. - Friday, September 25th, 2020
Interesting take and a refreshing relook at the Deagel Forecast
This 2020 is news to me.
BlueNarwhal:
Well then good food for thought to have the whole range of inputs for your writing️
BlueNarwhal:
The 2020 disclosure is plausible. I don’t know the Deagel folks but do know the Stratford
BlueNarwhal:
Stratfor folks and they are similar so I judge this statement from D to be a good picture on why their forecast changed, but it is just the cover story for the kind of crazy stuff I was thinking...
He continues discussing consciousness movement in the MWI.
Consciousness movement in the MWI by Blue NarWhal
BlueNarwhal:
Consciousness MWI
What if MWI travel physically nearly does not happen. Only Consciousness travel can change MWI multiverse bulk-phase lanes. (I think this is possible for many people. -MM)
Types of change:
Outer- The world changes and you don’t, mostly.
Inner- You change and the world stays the same, mostly.
Differences in both yourself and the world are apparent.
Sometimes multiverse A can fuse with an existing other you multiverse B and you find yourself situated in a life steam as you with additional foggy life memory if it’s a new you incoming to you.
So the physical idea of MWI consciousness sliding or jumping or transitioning between universes is all fine and good, if the universe fuses them while still remembering a bit of both for the transiting consciousness.
So what is happening in the balancing of consciousness?
The benefactors, [a]. prior to every substantial jump, and [b]. depending on the target MWI universe group the agency consciousness transited is going to, [c]. install locally entangled paraphysical sync kits in the target universe bodies.
If the small moves predict the large moves…
BlueNarwhal:
Or did I send this to you already and forgot who wrote it - I have too many unfinished and unsent drafts of stuff to you lol
BlueNarwhal:
I think I sent you this as I was assimilating your knowledge into my own framework of understanding... or does this contain specific paragraphs you wrote as I was working through my own take on it...?
BlueNarwhal continues in this interesting line of thought.
Please, everyone, realize that when I “get on a bender or am being pushed” to write or do something, it is SIGNIFICANT. This is most especially true if it is URGENT. It has been my experience that everything attached and associated with my actions may or may not be important, but that I need to include it in my calculus for some reason.
Remember, I only know what I know. The rest is up to youse guys.
Qubit qudit infinity cascade
Qubit qudit infinity cascade
The universal wave equation as the prime qubit/qudit operator
The superposition of hyperlight entangled with both all and one
The existence of alternate multiverse laminar access through qubit fields and spaces that preserve equal probability of all
The qic start of the universe
The bipolar symmetry as a collapsed expression of polar superposition archetype preservation inside local space.
And so on through all quantum wave guided evolutionary complexity manifest permutation
Where out of the seam of infinity and zero reflects dualistic possibility virtual states of plus one and minus one
The singular all encompassing quantum wave equation of the entire scope of the universe is a hyper qubit/qudit singularity function that entangles across all embedded sub wave time functions.
With that I’m alone inside my own quantum qubit infinity manifold, swaddled in my own bubble creation.
However, yet also paradoxically voluntarily and with love entirely embedded within a collective soul group alignment with and for whom I might sacrifice everything.
The distribution of probable and possible trajectories that deviate out our current world line all depend on soul relevance.
In the surface appearance of the other is a co-seeded by self created habitation for different groups of soul who are mutually co-anchoring commonality.
The Bipolar Multiverse
If I can change world lines…
The prime assumptions:
We each exist in our own fully independent universe, (or more properly stated we all live in our own multiverse probability of occurrence trajectories.)
Our consciousness interfaces own quantum creative agency with our present manifest reality.
Our consciousness is a step down of our soul energy into our physical existence.
The Soul could be synonymous with Higher consciousness, the physical reality synonymous with the unconscious and subconscious mind, and the personal self synonymous with the conscious mind relating to their own beliefs, choices, agreements which are in play, singularity issued from our soul.
On one pole you have each soul creating completely independent bubble universes for the habitation of consciousness in physicality.
On the other pole you have a vast population of people (and beings) in their independent universes all fervently believing they live together in a singular shared universe.
Searching for the better explanatory nomenclature.
One idea is there are many different possible collective worlds.
Each have independent persistence and existence separate from our local self awareness.
The dance of illusion of living in a shared universe doesn’t make it unreal, it just comports with how human consciousness creates its own Local Bubble universe.
There exists a spectrum of different novel Global Bubble universes within the multiverse – Earth for example. Their solidity and continuity is not dependent on just one soul’s creation.
That does not mean one’s soul cannot have its own Local Bubble universe make phantom copies of the mutual universes. No, not at all.
We each make illusory copies of whatever large scale mutual universe we believe we are in and do in our usual quarter second wave-particle personal universe lock-in tick rate.
We agree to adopt a set of influences associated to being there. We agree to allow our adoption include our own.
And out of resonant lock with those world lines.
This is really deep and takes the world-line narrative that I have been promoting to that of a mini-universe that we "copy" from the MWI template to live within. An interesting concept and something that I do need to think about. -MM
The multiverse offers all possibilities for soul and consciousness growth, but there is a landscape of alternate probability ‘movement options’ that can naturally occur.
In that landscape of options there are lesser and greater deviating alternate world line moves available to the consciousnesses.
A consciousness can naturally transit into greater degree world line deviance moves if their sum quantum resonance can both entrain and allow it to occur relative to its intrinsic greater/lower likelihood for the consciousness habitation should no active entrainment be engaged.
There are relative world line consciousnesses movement options – or quantum manifestation probabilities – within our personal universal quantum Everett wave function.
Wave function embedded harmonics that intersect with, and offer entrainment access pathways to different outcomes and sequences are a largely passive to activation by consciousness, despite all appearances to the contrary!
These world line trajectories exist out of all the possible alternate infinity qubits
I’m am able to couple with within the singular super wave function.
There are very far world-line variances or trajectories that could cause insanity to engage, except more safely in lucid dreams, but those are not readily accessible to manifest without extraordinary effort with relative shocking, disorienting as new subsumed manifest self-image and world-image radically shift into a new center of gravity of manifest conscious.
I entrain myself to, or am entrained by, various world line shifting options as I may choose, think and feel or choose to allow.
If I let it happen to me I am giving control over to my unconsciousness. If I make it happen I am controlling my own outcomes.
But my options are limited within the superpositional prepositional manifold of my consciousness encompassed by my soul.
It’s got a soul growth agenda.
I have a slight clue, and that’s it.
It about growing the capacity to selflessly nurture collective evolution, and to evolve the capacity to love, to intend, and to romance the soul of greater feminine archetype for inclusion and unity … or of the greater phi masculine archetype that expresses diversity and differentiation …across the many souls in the meta-verse of the multiverse.
Valiant match grids of entangled qubit superposition articulating ‘n’ spatial reduction (quantum collapse) possibilities accessing the multiverse diversity eternity continuum.
Embedded referential meaning and information
Single geometric symbols as containers of all that is sub-referentially defined and associated within its signularity symbols as culimated or concentrated.
Or, alternatively,
It’s subsumption symbols as instantiated singularity event horizon representations or gestalts of specific self-associated component elements held within their symbol mount.
Meaning, as you mount symbols over a subsumed domain of interrelated and contained data reference points…
You might get the accretion of information as explicit subsumption quantum linguistics…
…if that is such a thing…
Remote Viewing and the MWI
You all got a headache yet?
BlueNarwhal:
And this one on RV and MWI...
BlueNarwhal:A new working hypothesis:
Predictive remote viewer naturally quantum-couples or entangles their viewing range to be occur across multiple proximal world line probability trajectories in the multiverse.
Outlier world line target coupling by RVers occurs simply due to the collateral quantum attractive influence that higher relative disruptive novelty factors exert on selected souls and consciousnesses, e.g. a group of top viewers all view a disaster scenario that never happens in the world line from which the viewers viewed.
Yet it clearly happened in some nearby world line of greater variance to our own.
Some of these influences can be injected into remote viewing sessions.
This is due to the idea that individual remote viewers couple with targets via universal quantum field or “soul intelligence”.
This target coupling process can allow insertion of universal intent to bias the remote viewer to couple with a more novel world line but less likely or even unlikely the mutual world line viewers are viewing from.
This seems to a form of universal intent coupling with conscious individual.
The effect is to widen the multiple world line range of consideration aperture to provide high value insight about probabilities on other world lines about similar lurking but unmanifest novel high impact eventualities for the viewer world line. Could universal intent (being entangled for target coupling by remote viewers) be making individual intent see outcomes that might happen but likely won’t?
While working with universal intent sentient within the multiverse quantum super field encompassing all our souls and individual quantum clouds, there is no issue with requesting super sentience to limit target viewing hits to only the higher probability outcomes for the present world line in which the viewers reside. Universal intent is certainly willing to limit targeting to single world line or widen the reception aperture to proximal cluster of most probable but yet alternate world lines relative to an anchor referential consciousnesses.
Another different possibility is that remote viewing “picking up signals” of a proximal relative cluster of world lines is likely only possible because remote viewers are evolving souls and consciousness themselves. And despite their proclivity for rationally limiting future probabilities viewing to the world line in which they reside, multiple world lines will be viewed.
The viewers themselves, as do human beings in general, possess individually, in groups and even globally possess the natural ability to shift/move/migrate to different world lines. The quantum wave field of the soul focuses consciousness on inhabiting a physical embodiment existing in nearby variant world lines that furthers soul growth.
This is in turn depends on their in-body own associated outside influences, their own resonant thoughts, feelings, core beliefs and choices that normally bias target coupling to that which holds the greatest growth value for the viewer alone, unless they alter the target description to anchor its viewing parameters to exclude world line coupling that is less likely for the anchoring set of consciousnesses.
The result is remote viewing in any single timeline easily gets crosstalk from other multiverse proximal timelines. If proven, this may predict targeting protocols with means to bind multiverse RV target coupling range to viewing only the most probable eventuality for the timeline in which the remote viewer originates the session, thereby filtering the quantum coupling multiverse range to the most novel punctuated variations across a cluster of intersecting world lines.
For example, one may find some means to construct the RV target description to effectively limit multi-timeline target coupling to only the most large population probable common future for a selected anchor subjects in the timeline as of the session or as of an identified target date.
However, taskers for remote viewers can design target descriptions to block receptive coupling to less than large selected sample group collective likelihoods. This couples the target range to a more commonly desired and likely world line so that predictive RV sessions entangle only relative to and biased from the selected baseline group of anchor parties. It effects a proximal world line variance clamping function to block entanglement with less likely outcomes for this present world line.
World line entanglement blocking prevents viewer intermediaries drifting towards natural attraction of more novel world lines, regardless of present world line probability momentum and mass habitation factors. It simply works to exclude less likely world line outcomes relative to an anchor reference group of persons or beings to thereby yield more likely valid predictive data for the present world line.
And a few more curiosities written and vectored across our mutual fusion being derivatives., LOL!
Conclusions
Blue NarWhal is saying that using the MWI mapping, that it is obvious that in 2012 that more predominant surface topography features of the world-line template showed (at that time) that there was [1] a looming pandemic, and [2] economic crisis. Using available historical and economic data, Deagel extrapolated to a very disturbing forecast.
In truth, they were really close to the mark, and the clustering of the world-lines are STILL on a trajectory for a very unpleasant conclusion.
Now, we need to filter out the “noise” and consider the world-line template landscape topography.
In remote viewing out of America these days, the primary (peaks and topographical) landmarks viewed are related to [1] the strange imposition of mRNA vaccinations, and [2] a gathering storm of strange behaviors on the social / economic front out of Washington DC.
This “noise” of Vaxx, and economic “bubbles” make the current topographical landscape quite rugged and mountainous. Thus, Americans see the topographical mountains all around them, and they cannot see the larger looming mountains past those peaks. It’s a side effect of the incessant mind-controlling Main Stream and alternative media.
The mountains that surround Americans are predominantly ones of…
Greed.
Media manipulation.
Out of control government.
Economic bubbles
Social re-engineering.
Racial divides.
Hate. Hate. Hate.
While the mountains in the distance consist of other things, that most Americans are not focusing on. For instance; China. Or the “far away” South China Sea. Or what is going on in Russia. Or Africa. Or South America.
But they are real, and of great concern. For it is the real mountains that are the real issues and the real problems that lie ahead.
The real “mountains” are…
Nuclear war with a unified Asia.
End of the US Dollar as the global currency.
Iran allied with Russia and China, and the rest of the Mideast complies.
African middle class growing in favor of Asia.
Europe retreat from American influence.
Thus you can see the differences in all the analysis. Those inside the United States echo chamber are combining elements of the United States government narrative of “Hate China; Blame China; China is evil”, with forced mRNA vaccinations and complete incompetence of the Federal Government. Resulting in this bastardized fucked up narrative…
“China stole an American bio-weapon and it was accidentally released in Wuhan, and when caught, they decided to use it to destroy America and all Christians by forcing them to get mRNA vaccinations that will kill everyone!”
Jeeze!
Putting all this nonsense aside, let’s continue on our study.
Obviously the 2012 Deagel report used Remote Viewing activity and extrapolation of existing economic and social trends and transposed to the two together to arrive at their (horrific) conclusion. In 2012, they predicted a major event, that seems to indicate a pandemic or something similar coupled with an economic collapse.
I am sure that remote viewing of this pulled up those “Vaxx hills”, and “Coronavirus hills”, and when combined, the Deagel group flushed out their predictions as such. I am sure that they did not like it, but the data and the trends, supported by remote viewing substantiated this belief.
Then, last year, in 2020 they revised their forecast. Now, the hills and mountains further out are much closer and clearer.
Before I read the 2020 revised forecast, I believed the following outcomes to be predominant. As you can well read, I said…
Here are some of my suggested candidate combinations that allow us to better understand how those enormous population causality figures could be reached.
Global pandemic, AND genocide.
Global pandemic, AND civil war WITH genocide.
Global pandemic, AND collapsing Military Empire, WITH war.
Global Military Empire AND Nuclear War WITH Global pandemic.
And the 2020 revised forecast states…
Global pandemic, AND collapsing Military Empire, WITH war.
Global Military Empire AND Nuclear War WITH Global pandemic.
The only difference between the two (aside from the order of the wording) is HOW a nuclear exchange comes into being.
Either [1] America conducts a conventional attack against China or Russia (not realizing that it will be against both) and it evolving and escalating quickly into a nuclear war, or [2] A first strike against the out-of-control American government by Asia.
Looking at all the issues, we can make the following statements…
Statements of prediction
Including remote viewing into the calculus, and taking into account all the knowns…
The American leadership class does not contain diplomatic professionals. Instead there are unskilled political donors who are making life and death decisions.
The mRNA vaccination is a real mystery, and there HAS to be a reason behind using it instead of the traditional “Dead Host” vaccination.
The approved 2021 Federal budget includes an enormous military funding outlay that is obviously in preparation for a major war.
The American government, and their media are all talking about an upcoming major war with China.
American military is retreating from Afghanistan, and four bases in Korea, while making QUAD arrangements with Australia and Japan.
All of this is very disturbing, and considered alone would be cause enough to suggest that a major war is just on the horizon.
But…
America (The United States) is crumbling from rot from within…
Racial hate.
Proliferation of firearms, and the establishment of armed groups.
Balkanization.
Economic bubbles.
Social bubbles.
The wealth gap is enormous.
Infrastructure funding is too late.
Rules, regulations and laws are all off the charts.
Couple that with a failed bio-weapons attack on China, and the fiasco which was the Trump neocon administration, followed by the bumbling Biden administration… and hard-core Religious extremists, and industry interests desiring of conflict, war and strife (all for various reasons), and you have a poisonous stew.
The “Genie is out of the bottle”, and I do not think that the looming “mountains” on the horizon can be avoided. The inertia associated with the clustering of world-lines is way too strong. So my guess (and I hope that I am wrong) is that the United States will sleep-walk into a war with Asia, and then before it happens, Asia will strike preemptively.
No matter what the details are, the remote viewing forecast is quite clear.
The United States Military Empire is going to start another major war. It is intended to be a distraction from the domestic failures, and regardless as to how much money President Biden is plowing into the economy, it’s not going to make any difference.
America is toast.
Burnt to a crisp; blackened, burned toast.
America today.
And it’s only a matter of time…
And then when the moron, presses the button, flicks the switch, or twists the knob, all Hell will break loose.
All in all, the USA will suffer horribly, and the combination of everything else will only turn a fiasco into an Hellish nightmare.
But…
You can control YOUR reality. And maybe this mountain of turmoil is sitting off somewhere on your world-line template, you can still navigate around it. Remember, after all, for all the turmoil and strife during World War II, Canada, South America, and Africa was relatively left alone.
Maybe you don’t want to move to Greenland, Patagonia, or Zambia. But you don’t really need to. All you need to do is control your little bit of reality. And if you do that, then everything will work out just fine.
Some final thoughts
Keep in mind that the Deagel remote viewed the future correctly. They printed their results in 2012.
They PREDICTED a bio-warfare induced pandemic.
They PREDICTED an Australian alliance with the United States.
They PREDICTED that America would start entering a period of "popping" of the various economic bubbles.
All of which came true by 2020.
Deagel did NOT change their forecast for 2025. It still stands. They just changed their thinking on how it would come about.
They remote viewed 2025 in great detail.
There will be [1] a massive die off of people in America, and Australia. The rest of the world will fare much better. And, most importantly, a [2] bio-weapon or pandemic figured predominantly in their calculus.
In 2012, they believed that there would be some kind of bio-weapon or pandemic that would kill off so many Americans. But they couldn’t (for the life of them) answer why Australia of all places would also have a large die off. At that time they never could of imagined the QUAD set up by Mike Pompeo, and that the Morrison government would wholeheartedly want to declare war on China. Instead, they figured that it must be a very serious pandemic with some other mystery event that complicated things in a negative manner.
In 2020, in the midst of the (three agent) bio-weapon attacks on China, and the absolute failure of America in securing it’s homeland, as well as the strong alignment of the Australian Morrison government to the war-loving neocons in Washington DC, the revised reasoning became one of nuclear war. Thus they reasoned that since the 2020 pandemic wasn’t that bad, and the drums of war were beating so loudly, that it must be nuclear war and bio-weapons used simultaneously.
Whether there is a nuclear event, or a bio-weapon event, no matter who caused it, or who instigated it, America will be absolutely and totally devastated. A 70% kill off implies that America would indeed be thrown back to the bronze age.
My advice?
You cannot change what is going to happen. It is pretty much set in stone. The only thing that you can do is to save yourself.
Flee the United States as fast as you can.
Go to a nation with a safer rating on the Deagel scale.
Consider fleeing any nation that is allied with the United States as well. The UK, and those European nations that are part of NATO perform very poorly. Though you will probably have an easier time of it than being the United States, it will still be a very rough life in those places.
It will be a scene out of the movie “Threads“, and you all should get a copy of this movie and watch it right now. And when you watch it, keep in mind that what it portrays is EXACTLY what Deagal predicts will happen to America and it’s allies. Watch it and realize that you have two to three short years to save yourself and your family.
Bugging out.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
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?
Other American men, same age as myself.
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.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
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.
I want to move on and forget.
[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.
Not a good thing.
[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.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
This article is part of my enormous Prayer Affirmation Campaigns series. If you are unfamiliar with this series, I recommend that after you read this, you go to the start of the series and start reading. This idea of prayers as part of a campaign are quite different than anything else you will find anywhere else.
I have written a bunch of articles on the MWI, world-lines and how you can navigate them. I have placed all this within the context that if you can navigate your reality, then you can sculpt the life that you will live. And it’s a pretty great topic. Many people need to do this right now in their lives.
There are all sorts of side topics associated with this. Some dealing with history, some with the mechanisms behind it all. Some with the mysteries that we are confronted with, and some just tangentially. For instance, how government (especially in the West) are crating false narratives to “bend reality” to fit their idea of a utopia.
What I haven’t gotten into is some of the many other “skills” and “abilities” that one can use to help you in your world-line navigation. To many, these skills or abilities seem far-fetched, science fiction, or just new-age mumbo-jumbo.
But they are not.
In this article we will discuss “channels”. It is a technique of tapping into the endless streams of quanta, frequencies, actions (both physical and non-physical) to derive some information from it. Information that you can use in your life.
The untrained call this ability to tap into channels as… [1] Woman’s Intuition (if you are a woman), or [2] a Gut feeling (if you are a man).
Sometimes, a string of events or strong non-physical events can enact physical sensations on your body. Such as people talking behind your back generates a [3] pain in the neck (or shoulders), or a disorganized cluster of thoughts heading towards you generates [4] (I’ve got) a bad feeling (about this).
All of us, unless you are young, or are really unaware, has felt these events in our past. It’s part of our non-physical makeup and it’s really important.
About the Channels and MAJ
While it is true that I have the ELF implants, and the EBP implant(s), and they also operate using channels, you actually do not need them to do that. You just need to be “attuned” and aware. Because channel access is an acquired skill. You get better at accessing it over time.
I will admit that I am pretty good, myself. I’ve had over four and a half decades honing this ability. First out of necessity, and then through various exercises and practice. And as a result I am convinced that anyone can access these channels and derive information from them.
Yet, this being said, my channels are specific to my needs, and the needs of my immediate family and I have many limitations.
This article will “kick off” another series of articles on how to increase channel awareness and how you will be able to communicate, and receive information using these channels.
I believe that it is great information that all of us can benefit from.
We will start with a personal story.
Blue Thunder
Here’s a story illustrative of using a channel to obtain information.
Blue Thunder looked a little bit like this little guy.
I once had a cat named “Blue Thunder”. He was a beautiful black (with blue highlights) mainecoon cat that adopted us.
Now, at that time we lived in the poverty edge in the West Elisabeth area of South Eastern Pittsburgh. It was a devastated and ruined area, with miles and miles of rusty old abandoned steel mills, and the remaining survivors living hand-to-mouth-to-food stamp area.
West Elizabeth today, one of the remaining towns in the ruined Monongahela valley Pennsylvania “rust belt” region.
At that time we were living in a very sad and distressed mobile home park and it was “something else” let me tell you. From having neighbors stealing packages from my porch, to neighborhood kids riding up and down and all around my home at midnight on their dirt bikes, to neighborhood kids having rock concert parties next door, it really was a nightmare.
We lived in the center of American exceptionalism; a mobile-home park in the rust belt.
Anyways, on one particular weekend we took a trip (about a four hour drive) to visit my mother. And on the way, as we were just getting on the major highway, I had a “feeling”. My wife did too.
This “feeling” was…
Blue Thunder was in trouble.
He was hurt.
Something bad happened.
He needs us now.
And so we immediately got off the highway. We turned around. We headed back and about two hours later we made it home (after breaking every speed limit to get there). And when we arrived there, we found a bunch a kids trying to get under our mobile home.
One had a BB gun, or a .22 long rifle. They were trying to push a dog under our home, and there must have been about four active boys, and about three “hangers on”.
I chased the kids away.
Still no Blue Thunder.
The next morning, I found him on the porch. He was shot in the gut, but no obvious penetration. There was a mark but no open wound. No blood. And he kept on licking the area. I called in late to work, and took him in and tended to him.
It seems our “feelings” were accurate.
What happened?
My little guy was being chased by kids on my property, and he was my charge. I chased the kids away, but it was a life and death situation for him, and he was hurt in the process.
I felt the terror, the pain, and the plea for help.
No. This was not “just” we felt something. We actually got a message. Blue Thunder sent a clear message to us and we picked it up.
Messages and channels
Just like a radio, a “message” is a specific packet of thoughts / ideas /feelings that are transmitted to you via a “channel”. There are all sorts of channels. Just like there are AM radio bands, and FM radio bands, and UHF and VHF radio bands. (As well as ELF bands.)
Since most people never listen to these bands (in their head) they lie unused. Dormant, and apparently inactive. But they aren’t. You just are unable to “pick them up” because your “antenna” is down.
Most people are unable to “feel things” because their antenna is unused.
Later on, we will spend some time discussing ways and techniques to send and receive messages and how to open channels. This article is just an entry level post to describe what a channel is and how you can use it.
Broad frequency awareness
Most people start out with “broad frequency awareness”, which pretty much means that they are receptive to all channels. It’s a default situation that tells me that all people have the ability to send and receive messages. It’s just that we are terrible at doing it. Our abilities have atrophied.
I like to think that our antenna, or radar to do this is down, missing or damaged by neglect and disuse.
And thus, it is only when the most powerful, emotionally charged signals are sent out that we are able to receive them.
Narrow frequency awareness
Narrow frequency awareness is when someone has been able to “tune in” to certain channels far better than the rest.
Thus we get people who have the ability to have extrasensory perception in certain areas. Like [1] the woman who can make a photographic rendering a person just by the description or [2] a person who can pick up an ancient relic, an article of clothing and tell you what happened. Or [3] the people who can tell you where water is in the ground or where a lost buried item is.
It doesn’t mean that they cannot be open to other channels, it just means that they are able to “tap into” specific channels to provide specific information.
The non-physical channels
These channels differ from the AM, FM, UHF and other channels that you have on the radio. These “channels” are tuned into the movement of thought-related quanta.
These channels pick up on thoughts.
Being able to pick up and understand thoughts, whether from the “past” or the “future” (after all there is no such thing as time) and from others, or from things is a very powerful ability and a very powerful tool.
We do not need to have other mechanisms to help us, but for many, these “training wheels” can be necessary as a stage in learning and personal growth.
My examples
I have, from time to time, described examples of my experiences with channels. Where I would communicate with dead pets, or have a perception regarding mantids, or the type-1 greys. I have a substantial amount of traffic regarding <redacted> as it pertains to the <redacted>, but we will refrain from getting involved in that right now.
I like to believe, as I have said, that we are all capable of receiving these messages and these thought-packets on the various channels. We just do not know how to receive them, interpret them, or communicate them to others. As I have said our “antennas are broken”.
Some people have very specific channels. Like to be able to see faeries. While others have channels that give them insight.
Where we are going with this…
We are going to work on improving our ability to access and open up channels and receive messages through a training system that we will embed within our prayer affirmation campaigns.
Of course it will be optional.
If “outsiders” want to know what is going on, just describe it as a way for you to calm yourself and become more aware of your surroundings. Which it is. You don’t need to tell anyone that you are trying to recover “lost messages” that are sitting in the “post office dead letter bin”.
Nor do you need to tell them that you want to be anything other than the best you can possibly be. Your journey of learning and discovery is a personal one.
Keep it that way.
Finally, this is a first step that will lead up to a series of affirmation exercises designed to break the hold of “amnesia” as described by the extraterrestrial in “Alien Interview”. It is my sincere hope that we can make a positive difference in the world right here and right now.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my Affirmation prayer Campaign Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
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.
This article is part of my enormous Prayer Affirmation Campaigns series. If you are unfamiliar with this series, I recommend that after you read this, you go to the start of the series and start reading. This idea of prayers as part of a campaign are quite different than anything else you will find anywhere else.
I have a kit of “brute force tools” that I employ in my affirmation campaigns. Over the years they have been highly useful and very successful. Of course, I have chosen the names for them as they help me keep track of what I am doing and why.
They go by other names to describe how they are used. I have a “hammer”, a “crowbar”, a “grinder”, a “detangler”, and many others. And in this post we will cover some of them.
In general, these “tools” are specific affirmations that I add to my affirmation campaigns to help me tackle problems or issues that seem to either reoccur, are barriers that I fail to breach, “glass ceilings” that I fail to break through or numerous other problems that I encounter.
Divine Hammer
Using a hammer.
This is my term for the technique of HOW you vocalize your intention affirmations. When I vocalize my intentions, I do more than just read them. I read them in certain ways. And how I read them is detailed in how they are written.
Most Important Affirmations
These affirmations are absolute MUSTS. I mark these affirmation statements in "BOLD text" in my spreadsheet. When I read them, I read them louder than the rest and with more passion and emotion.
.I have a big bed with an impressive headboard.
Average Affirmations
These affirmations are your "normal" affirmations. You read them normally. And they are written on your affirmation list in "normal text".
.
I have a big bed with an impressive headboard.
Special Affirmations
During a given prayer affirmation campaign I might have a special program or plan that I am involved in, and I want to take extra care and caution to make sure that I think about them longer, and "spell them out exactly".
.
Truthfully, you know, these affirmations are rare, and what I do is put them in "Bold Brown Text with a period in the spacing". When I read them, I read each word carefully and slowly.
.I .have .a .big .bed .with .an .impressive .headboard.
Unused Affirmations
Unused or retired affirmations are in a "very light grey" color. I keep them there in the event that I wish to reactivate them, but they lie dormant on my list. I do not read them.
.
In general, my current (active) affirmation list is about 70% greyed out and retired affirmations, and about 30% active affirmations. Here is an example of an inactive affirmation.
.I have a big bed with an impressive headboard.
Affirmation Details
This is a special category of affirmations that I add after a key affirmation statement. They go on the subsequent lines. They are placed in "italic text". I read them with the same tone and pacing as the leader affirmation statement.
.
I have a big bed with an impressive headboard.
The bed is a dark brown hardwood. It is king size or larger. It has intricate carvings on it.
If you take a longer time to read a sentence, then you are passing through more world-lines while you are reading it. It helps establish the navigation direction. And if you couple that with the power behind emotion, you ties the bio-chemical system to the thoughts and that (I personally believe) helps “push” the affirmations forward.
Crowbar
Using a crowbar.
Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, there is some block, blockage, barrier, glass wall, or mountain that prevents you from getting anywhere near your goals. Sure, it could very easily just be that your goals are really down the world-line template path, but sometimes it’s something else. And you need a “crowbar” to remove that bolder or obstacle.
It has been my experience that most obstacles on your world-line template are not germane to your (pre-birth world-line template) map. They were placed there by others (maybe even you) and now sit there in your way. They are an obstacle.
They need to be removed.
To do this, I have added a few specialized affirmations that are helpful in “clearing the path” that is somehow blocked. You don’t know if there is actually a roadblock placed there by someone or something, and maybe your arch enemy in High School placed it 35 years ago when they were experimenting with black magic. You never know.
Here’s some affirmations that I find very effective…
I have broken apart any barriers to controlling my reality. These are barriers that are either self-created, or those created by others.
I define my reality, and undo any contrary spells, magick or alterations imposed upon me, or the reality around me by anyone or anything.
I block and shut out all negative, de-constructive, and dangerous thoughts from manifesting and altering my intentions listed herein.
These blocking protections extend to my family and include any malevolent efforts by anyone, or things against them.
All non-physical impediments, curses, or “road blocks” , are moved out of the way. No obstacles.
I prevent the manifestation of any reality that results from bad, negative or dangerous thoughts.
Those that try to hurt me, hack me, steal from me, trick me, betray me, or just cause me trouble are immediately exposed to severe backlash for their actions, and they stop that activity and make restitution to me.
Tricorder
Using a tricorder.
A tricorder is a science fiction prop designed for the Star Trek television series by Wah Chang. In the story universe the multifunction hand-held device performs sensor environment scans, data recording, and data analysis--hence the word "tricorder" to refer to the three functions of sensing, recording, and computing. In Star Trek stories the devices are issued by the fictional Starfleet organization.
-Wikipedia
There is much that we do not know. We are so fixated on the physical world, that we ignore what is going on in the non-physical world. This is not really desirable, as we need to know what is going on in order to compensate for problems, and adjust to circumstances.
So what I often like to do is put some affirmations that helps me gather Intel. I have used many different ones in the past, and here’s just a few examples…
I understand how this universe works, and how to alter, improve and change my reality.
..I use this knowledge to generate a perfect life for myself and for my family.
..As such, I am the Captain of my Consciousness.
I know when to slow down, stop specific intention phrases, and when to implement new ones.
I am aware of the trends going on in my life, behind the scenes, and on tractical, and strategic levels.
I move in and out of the world-line realities as necessary to achieve my thought-destination(s).
I do achieve my ultimate goals and I do so efficiently, and quickly while avoiding bad or undesirable world-lines.
I am alert on what to say and do in order to achieve my desires.
I know what affirmations to make to manifest the life that I wish to participate within.
I know, positively, when to stop, change, alter or revise my affirmations in accordance with my needs and desires.
I am aware of opportunities as they arise, and I know exactly what actions to take to maximize my desired intentions.
I am aware of the world-line routing as it occurs and do not panic or worry about how things will manifest.
I recognize that world-line realities that I inhabit might be calm and relaxed, but great things are occurring in my life.
These things are substantial positive and proactive events that are unfolding for my benefit and that might be hidden from me.
Grinder
Using a grinder.
What a grinder does is get rid of rough edges, burrs, and sharp edges. And when you run a prayer affirmation campaign you often have things materialize with exactly these kinds of “rough edges”.
For instance, I once had an affirmation for a nice Cadillac DeVille, and I loved that car. White interior. Silent and smooth ride. The engine purred and flew like a jet fighter going up hills. But then the transmission went out, as did the air conditioning.
And the repair for both of them was outrageously expensive.
How expensive? At that time, they represented two months salary just for the transmission.
You see, I did not anticipate that I required to have a certain level of income or savings to support the goal that I manifested. And when the goal actually did manifest, I was not ready to handle the costs associated with it.
What I needed to to was “grind down” the goal to something that was more manageable for my situation at that time.
From this;
I have a nice Cadillac DeVille.
To this;
I have a nice new car, that is well made, comfortable, and never breaks down. I feel very comfortable riding in it, and love the power and handling ability that it has.
Expert hint:
NEVER base your affirmation goals on something you saw on television, social media, the “news”, or in a movie. They are all fictions.
Detangler
Using a detangler.
A detangler is a chemical compound that separates the individual strands of hair and prevents matting. Without one, the hair (on most people) will mat up.
“Usingadetangler is absolutely an essential step in haircare. Detanglers help eliminate a huge amount of breakage and damage while also evening out the porosity of the hair, so your wet products go on more evenly. There’s one for every hair type, so don’t worry that adding this additional step will amount to too much product.”Why You Should Usea Detangler
You really don’t want your affirmation prayers to be all tangled up.
In a prayer affirmation campaign, there is the possibility that similar goals in the campaign, or other goals in previous campaigns might influence each other. For instance, let’s suppose that you had an affirmation in the 1980’s that said…
I wear popped collars all the time, with a large wardrobe of polo shirts.
Now, many people will not have any idea what this is all about. Well, it’s about this…
Yeah.
And now you live in Norway with an affirmation that goes something like this…
I go to saunas often, and enjoy the fine steam bath, and the branch lashings as well as the icy cold splash afterwards.
Sounds great. Except, that you are now burdened with a habit (that you are unaware of) that requires that you have multiple layers of “popped” clothes, and that take “forever” to remove, and “forever” to put back on.
You see, the problem is that since there is no such thing as time, all of our affirmation campaigns all interact together and work together.
To prevent that from occurring you can use “detangler” affirmation statements.
All these affirmations occur as quickly as is comfortably and as safely as possible. At no time is my family, health or safety at risk.
The normal rules of affirmation manifestation has now been advanced to this direct and immediate application without hesitation.
All these affirmations happen quickly, provided that dangers are avoided and I (and my family) are protected.
These intention prayers supersede any and all previous ones that would conflict with the ones listed here.
Slipstream
Riding in the slipstream.
Definition of slipstreamtechnical : an area of low air pressure that is immediately behind a vehicle thatismovingveryfastand that other vehicles can ride in to go faster with less effort
Essentially, the way this tool works is simple. You connect your affirmation prayer campaign with others, so that together you all ride forward, and the group inertia propels your further ahead than what you would otherwise go alone.
This is the slipstream tool that I use in my campaigns…
My affirmations tie together with affirmations of other MM followers so that they all combine with a positive “slipsteam” effect. For all of us to benefit from.
In slipstram affirmations that run counter to my personal affirmations listed herein, they are ignored, and does not influence this campaign.
This slipstream effect acts as an accelerator for all of us to benefit from.
Hasp and lock
Hasp and Lock.
A hasp and a lock is a very simple assembly to conceive. Essentially, once you have bought new tools, and supplies for your garden, you put them in a shed and you secure it with a hasp and lock. If you don’t, nearby neighbors and other mysteries of the night might come and take your farming implements away.
In an affirmation prayer campaign, a “hasp and lock” system is one where you already have an element in your life that you are happy with, and you don’t want it to disappear. You want to put those elements under “lock and key” so that no matter what other changes occur in your life (as a result of affirmation prayer campaigns) they will be protected and will not vanish or change as your other affirmations materialize.
For example, in the example above, you had an affirmation that said…
I have a big bed with an impressive headboard.
And it occurred.
You now have a nice big bed with an impressive headboard, and you are very happy with it.
Well, a “hasp & Lock” system would be a special “set aside” affirmations that guarantee that something that you obtain will not disappear during further advancing affirmation campaigns. And in this instance you might use any number of affirmations much like these…
No matter what happens, my bed follows me where ever I go.
When it comes time for me to die, I will do so in ease and comfort in my nice big bed with the impressive headboard.
etc etc.
Zipper
A zipper.
A zipper is a mechanism to fasten clothing together. I think a sizable proportion of my readership realizes this.
In an affirmation prayer campaign, a zipper is a technique that allows multiple affirmations to merge together.
One would think that if you had multiple affirmations, and they all came to be, that they would all live happily ever after together. Nope. It doesn’t work that way. Each affirmation is like an iceberg, and what you think will materialize is the top most visible portion of the iceberg, while the part that you cannot see will influence other elements of your life.
Let’s imagine that you had three affirmations that all came true. They were;
[1] I spend most of my life in a big, new, clean house with pristine white walls, great views, new furnishings, and lots and lots of windows.
[2] I get meals served to me directly. I eat three meals every day.
[3] I have a lot of friends that visit me often.
Now, there are many ways that all three of these affirmations can come together and materialize. The person (you) making the affirmations (of course) is envisioning a nice big house, with servants or eating out often, and a lot of friends visiting you. But other things are possible, don’t you know…
You could be in the hospital with a long-duration illness.
You could be in prison, working on a chain gang.
You could be in the military on a ship.
Those unseen elements of the affirmation statements will mix and match with the pathways on your world-line template.
In so doing, it will manifest the closest goal objectives with relative low entropy. Or, to put it differently, what you will end up with will be the quickest and easiest closest matches to your goals.
What a zipper is, is a statement that specifies that the affirmations do not conflict with each other or create harmful, dangerous or undesirable outcomes.
These affirmations do not conflict with each other or create harmful, dangerous or undesirable outcomes.
Spellchecker
A “spellchecker” is a software program that I use to check the spelling and grammar of the sentences that I place in my affirmations. While it is true, that if I think that I am saying everything correctly in terms of my desires, I want to be extra positive that the sentence and the spelling is absolutely correct.
True story; I once had a prayer affirmation related to getting a new automobile. My current vehicle was just a piece of junk; a “clunker” and was breaking down all the time. I just wanted a good and reasonable replacement vehicle. I was using Microsoft Excel, and you all know that it doesn’t have spell-checking ability. So I wrote that I wanted a nice new car.
So I wrote…
I have a nice new bar that runs well, and is attractive to the ladies.
And sure enough a new bar opened up down the street. About eight months later. It had a “ladies night” and a Thursday night “girls only” strip show. Ugh!
Once I found out (in a review of my affirmations), I corrected everything. And I changed it to…
I have a nice new car. It runs well. It is attractive to the ladies.
I now incorporate the spellchecking tool in all of my new affirmation campaigns. Have I made myself clear in the importance of this?
Conclusion
Well, that’s enough for now. The longer you perform your prayer affirmation campaigns, the more that you realize the importance in the careful vocalization of your desires. You realize that many times things can go astray as you are dealing with the non-physical reality, while your brain operates in the physical reality, and thus you are handicapped. These tools will help mitigate the handicaps somewhat. And I do hope that they help you as much as they have helped me.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my Affirmation prayer Campaign Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
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.
This is a very advanced article on world-line travel. In it we go into the details on how consciousness helps to target specific world-line groupings or clusters to navigate toward. And we are going to discuss the actual mechanism of how this occurs. As opposed to what I have described in the past “that it occurs”.
But first, before we get to that let’s discuss a few key points.
Where all this comes from
Long time MM readers will recognize that the information presented regarding the MWI and world-line travel is MAJ information. And while I am restricted from discussing MAJestic details in any way, shape or form, I am (however) permitted to discuss the technologies and sciences that I was exposed to by our benefactors.
That is, perhaps the reason why I am permitted to disclose all this stuff.
Just keep in mind that this, and all the related information, is not my invention. I did not come up with this information, these concepts, and these ideas as theories on my own. They were taught to me. And I had just as a difficult time embracing them as you all are dealing with now.
Nor are these writings descriptions of technologies as MAJestic understands it. What I present is not MAJestic information. It’s a side effect of my role. Not the role itself.
Nor is what is presented my theories, and ideas and concepts. I didn’t think these things out on my own. That is a fundamental truth. Long time MM readers will recognize this. Actually, I would rather eat some fine food, play with some girls, drink more than just a little, and enjoy the more physical aspects of life (the visceral aspects) rather than spend too much time on these esoteric subjects.
Instead it is what our benefactors believe how the universe works. It is what THEY believe, and by extension (knowing what I know), I believe it as well. I’m entangled with them. I will be until I die, and by all accounts, long after that as well. It’s the way things work.
And as such it is alien to everything taught inside American schools today. So you can either [1] believe what is conventionally accepted as truth, [2] adopt what I present as what our extraterrestrial benefactors believe, or [3] come up with your own ideas.
You might ask “well which species believes this?”
And (to that) my response is that all four species that I have had contact with believe it (to one degree or the other). Certainly the Type 1, <redacted>, <redacted> and the Mantids do.
A Quick Review
I have long described what time is.
Time is the movement of consciousness.
I have described world-lines as separate histories that a physical body can live. And there are nearly an infinite number of them.
I have described that consciousness cycles in and out between wave and particle forms to move in and out through world-lines.
And I have described how you can navigate through the MWI by controlling your thoughts.
And all of that is really all you really NEED to know. Right?
We focused on Consciousness as a singular entity
We have focused on consciousness as a singular homogeneous entity.
You start at world-line “A”
This world-line has it’s own history; it’s own past and it’s own future. And you are just residing inside the world-line for just a moment.
You can see that from the point of view of your consciousness, you see the world-line as a moment. In this case the moment is shown in yellow. And the world-line is shown in orange. It has it’s own past, and it has it’s own future, and your consciousness resides in it for a fraction of a second before moving on.
And by doing this over and over and over again, your consciousness is able to travel the MWI. You navigate through your thoughts in wave form, or your actions in physical form.
But that’s a rather simplistic explanation.
It’s a simple way of looking at MWI navigation
There’s this “blob” that we refer to as “our consciousness”.
When it is in particle form, it controls a physical body. As such it can perform physical actions with a reality.
When it is in wave form, it can think; generate thoughts, and thus select a world-line to occupy. This world line become the reality that the physical body will occupy.
And it is true. That’s how it works, but…
…it’s a really good approximation.
Yes. But it’s not the entire story.
And I covered this in another post / article. Your consciousness is not a singular “blob”.
Instead it is spread out thinly all over the MWI, with a tiny, tiny part of you in every single (active) world-line that has an active consciousness inside of it.
And the world-line that we consider to be the one that your consciousness travels to is the one where most of your consciousness resides for that frozen moment in time.
So…
The consciousness that actually occupies a world-line at any given moment is actually…
…the largest cluster of (your) consciousness components gathered together on a world-line.
So this is really difficult for us humans to visualize.
How can someone (a consciousness) be everywhere at once and experience everything at once?
But that’s actually not the way it is. Our consciousness has the potential to be everywhere at once and the potential to experience everything at once. But in all actuality, our consciousness does prefer to clump together. And thus FOR THE MOST PART, we can pretty much assume that the world-line that our consciousness is mostly part of is the one we are on at that given moment.
So, the tendency for our consciousness to “lump together” provides us this simplified understanding on how world-line travel works.
We just say, “well, 90% of my consciousness is hanging on on world-line Zelda, so I’ll just say that I am on world-line Zelda”.
But it gets interesting
As I described in another post, what actually tends to happen is that the consciousness likes to “straddle” nearby world-lines.
As in “Ugh, 90% of my consciousness is here on this boring world-line. It’s crowded. But if I put 30% here, 30% there, and 30% way over there, things will be more interesting, lighter and easier for me.”
And thus, the consciousness tends to separate and fraction out on the lines that it “straddles”.
Now, obviously these world-lines are all extremely similar to each other. You might have 560,000 grains of salt in your salt shaker in one world-line, and the nearby world-line that you are “straddling” has 559,000 grains of salt in the salt shaker.
Expert Tip
The more world-lines that your consciousness "straddles" the greater your awareness of your reality, and the possibilities that you have to change it.
The “straddling” of multiple adjacent world-lines is a very common action of consciousness. People who tend to be more “aware”, or who can “sense things or others”, or those that have various degrees of extrasensory perception, have consciousnesses that tend to “straddle” far and wide.
Key Take Aways
Consciousness straddles numerous world-lines at any given moment. The consciousness still operates as one singular unit, even though it occupies different world-lines. And thus it can use the sensory variations to help navigate the MWI and avoid problems.
You can never tell if you consciousness is “lumped together” or if it is straddling multiple world-lines at any given moment.
Nor is it important that you are aware of the actual distribution of the consciousness on the MWI.
But understanding that the consciousness can separate on different world-lines and still operate as one singular unified consciousness is important…
…and the entire purpose of this article.
Now this following point is VERY important…
From the point of view of our consciousness, there isn’t really anything like a world-line. Our consciousness does not see, nor recognize world-lines. Our brain does. Our mind does. But not our consciousness.
Instead it views world-lines on the MWI as “breezes” (I am trying to describe things using terms that I and you are familiar with.), Thicknesses. Heaviness, and lightness. As colors. As scents. As familiar and the unfamiliar. As comfortable, and as garish. So think of the MWI as a tumultuous current of colored oils and water, and stuff all moving about.
Like a fine flowing stream of water.
And the consciousness “swims” in that water…
And some parts of the consciousness are attracted to the “fast streams of water”. While other parts are attracted to the “cold streams of water”. While still other parts are attracted to the “thick streams of water”. While other parts of the consciousness are attracted to the “steamy parts of the water”.
So…
Parts of the consciousness move to the “nearest” sections of the MWI that appeals to it.
Key Point
The consciousness is made up of parts, and components just like the soul is. And these parts and components are attracted to those MWI elements that are closest in similarity to it.
Now our mind has a very difficult time visualizing this.
We think of the consequence in that it would cause a break up of the consciousness in to all sort of tiny pieces all going this way and that.
But this visualization is wrong.
But that is exactly how it works.
Consciousness stays connected together no matter what direction it’s elements / components are attracted to…
So that brings us up to the HOW.
Here we will get into the precise mechanism that enables our prayer affirmations and desires to navigate us to exactly what we affirm.
You see, there are all sorts of variations in individual world-lines. Each world-line path comes with it’s own complete future and it’s own complete path. As well as it’s own attributes and characteristics.
For instance all the following lines might be similar (from the point of view of your affirmation objectives);
America has been renamed to Am-Erica. It banned pizza, beer, wine, and pork chops. It recognizes 45 genders, and only 12 genders are considered able to run for government. But the house you wish for, the relationship you have, and the lifestyle you desire exists in perfection there.
America was invaded by Canada. It has two space stations, a moon base and is the leader in harmonica manufacture. But the house you wish for, the relationship you have, and the lifestyle you desire exists in perfection there.
America doesn’t change much at all. A new political party is formed. The Purple Party, and it lies in opposition to another new political party; the rainbow party. Democrat and Republicans go the way of the Dodo bird, and the government continues to exist playing the same old games, and the same media narratives. But the house you wish for, the relationship you have, and the lifestyle you desire exists in perfection there.
America has split in three nations. One of the nations still refers to itself as the United States, and it’s citizens call themselves “the real Americans”. The rest have gone their own ways. The central nation now includes most of the American plains and the cities of Chicago and Denver. The capital of this new nation is called “Rainbowland” and has a democratically elected sovereign. But the house you wish for, the relationship you have, and the lifestyle you desire exists in perfection there.
The obvious world line direction would be the scenarios that has the smallest number of world-lines to traverse. Which would be the third scenario.
But what, by chance, the topography of your pre-birth world line precludes this obvious choice? What if the topography offers ‘smooth sailing’ for the top scenario (number one)? What then? And why would that be the case?
The elements that comprise your consciousness determines your world-line destination
Now, obviously, your thoughts set the direction.
But the actual manifested reality; the actual world-line that appears, is determined by the construction of your consciousness. And that, in turn is shaped by your soul.
Thus, how the world-lines materialize in front of you is not by random luck.
They (the world-lines as defined on the world-line template map) are formed “on the fly” as determined by where you are now… AND… the various elements that comprise the consciousness.
Expert Tip
The world-line template map is constantly being revised and adapted to changes as your consciousness evolves, and your thoughts change. It's not really fixed. It just seems that way.
Now I do not know all that much about the intricacies of consciousness construction. All that I really know is [1] that complex construction of the consciousness exist. I also know [2] that consciousness is far more complex than what we (humans) think of as some kind of nebulous “blob”. [3] (Consciousness) has components, each with functions and features. And components [4] all work intimately with each other.
So…
For purposes of simplification, and to recognize that there is very little that I know regarding the components of consciousness, let’s just label them simply and describe how they work.
Component A
The first component we will call “A”. I suppose we could use a Latin name to sound impressive and scholarly. Like “Alpha”. But the truth is that we really do not know much about this component, or element of consciousness. At least not now. And at this stage “in the game”, we really don’t need to know. All we need to recognize is that “A” exists.
Further, we know that “A” is attracted to certain quanta arrangements.
So, as you are living your life and you keep on finding that you keep on experiencing the samekinds of things over and over again, might be an indicator that one aspect of the consciousness component “A” is attracted to those things.
For instance…
A certain kind of person, or personality.
A reoccurring problem, or event.
A situation, that seems to repeat.
And so forth.
And you know, all of the components that comprise consciousness, will behave similarly.
So if we consider that consciousness component “A” is attracted to attributes “a”, then we can say that consciousness component “B” is likewise attracted to attributes “b” and so forth right down through all the various components that comprise the consciousness.
An example
So what makes a given target objective more desirable than another?
Your consciousness is following a trajectory upon the pre-birth world-line template, and heading to objectives(s) as defined by your thoughts. But there is a near infinite number of world-lines what would all meet your criteria, and your desires. So what makes one world-line better than all the others (that also meet your criteria)?
As an extreme example, we can consider a strawberry coke float made out of kiwi ice-cream possible on (for example) the following three scenarios…
One is served in a ice-cream parlor that has flirtatious red head (the hair is red color) waitresses.
One is served in a truck stop while you are waiting to have your car repaired for a broken universal joint.
One is served in an Army mess hall, after you came from battle fighting the Russians in the Crimea.
So…
If your consciousness component “A” is fixated on red haired waitresses, the first scenario would incorporate the attribute “a” that meets that desire.
If your consciousness component “A” is attracted to mechanical disruptions of any types, then the second scenario would incorporate the attribute “a” that meets that desire.
And if the consciousness component “A” is attracted to the thoughts and feelings, emotions of those that surround you, and if everyone around you is fixated on a war with Russia, then the third scenario would incorporate the attribute “a” that meets that desire.
And that is how it works.
Of course, there are multiple consciousness components
There are multiple consciousness components. And the components, in arrangement, interaction, and utility, differ from other consciousnesses. There is no set “standard” consciousness.
Thus…
It is the consciousness components that define the pre-birth world-line template.
The pre-birth world-line template
The pre-birth world-line template is the topographical “surface” that your consciousness travels upon when traversing the MWI.
It is functionally defined by the interaction of your consciousness “components” make up, and interactions.
And each consciousness has a different one…
John
The template is a,b,c,d,e,and f.
While for Suzy…
Suzy
The template is 2a,c,d,e,f,h,and,3k
And for Peter, it’s even more extreme
Peter
The template is (a+c), d,e, H, (H+x), and u.
Thus, no matter how many “slides” you perform off the pre-birth world-line template, you consciousness will drive you back to it. So you must keep on working and performing the prayer / affirmation campaigns to keep on track towards your goals.
Functionally, while the consciousness does change and evolve through a given lifetime, for the vast majority of people, the changes are not significant enough to move you to a completely different pre-birth world-line template.
And for the world-lines themselves…
Obviously the most likely world-line (next) for your consciousness to visit is heavily influenced by the world-line map topography.
And this is determined by the individual components of the consciousness.
And this is why that you will, and are experiencing, the world-lines as you have. And why you find yourself in a world-line where everyone wears masks, people are worried about climate change, and where a hamburger meal costs $10.
How to use this knowledge – The “slipstream effect”
If you tie your affirmation campaigns to a group of other people, who also run and operate campaigns, you can benefit from the mass of shared thoughts. It’s a “slipstream effect”.
A slipstream created by turbulent flow has a slightly lower pressure than the ambient fluid around the object When the flow is laminar, the pressure behind the object is higher than the surrounding fluid The shape of an object determines how strong the effect is. This enables less force to be applied to move though a fluid.
If you add the following affirmations, they will contribute to manifest this slipstream effect…
My affirmations tie together with affirmations of other MM followers so that they all combine with a positive “slipsteam” effect.
This slipstream effect acts as an accelerator for all of us to benefit from.
In slipstram affirmations that run counter to my personal affirmations listed herein, they are ignored, and does not influence this campaign.
The “slipstream effect” combines consciousness component targets to a shared pool.
So instead of your consciousness…
Your active template
You
a,b,c,d,e
And Roger’s active template
Roger
a,b,c,x,y,z
Your new “active” world-line template (provided you permit the “slip steam effect”) will not look like this…
Shared
2a,2b,2c,d,e,x,y,z
Those elements of “a,b,and c” will manifest twice as fast (in this example.). Now, just imagine, say, twenty people. All with a much wider and diverse targets for the individual consciousness components. And then, add this to the complexities of the shared and combined quanta associations…
…in ways that we just don’t really understand…
…with rules as odd as…
15f = 3a and f + h
6y = x,d+t, and 21s
Can really create some amazing outcomes for prayer affirmation campaigns. Amazing, like you have NO IDEA!
Keep in mind…
At all times, you must keep in mind that the methodology (of using a visual guide for mapping world-lines) and the idea that consciousness is broken into clusters (that define components) is but a mental “crutch” that describes a very, very complex system.
Other techniques can be used. But this is the one that my mind established by direction by <redacted> as part of my MAJ operations.
By understanding this principle, you can best understand how all the other “rules” as specified all fit together and work together regarding prayer affirmation campaigns.
Key take aways
Consciousness is complex.
Consciousness is not a “blob” but consists of multi-dimensional components that work together in unison.
These components that define the make-up of consciousness also define the structure of the pre-birth world-line template.
These components, working alongside our thoughts, define the types of world-lines that we encounter and occupy.
Consciousness can and does evolve with experiences.
Consciousness components are difficult to change, and thus if left alone, all travel on the MWI falls upon the default pre-birth world-line template.
.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my Affirmation prayer Campaign Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
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.
This article discusses “mapping the MWI”. It looks at how it works and how to visualize the multiverse full of a near infinite number of world-lines.
There are many, many variables and world-lines involved that our consciousness experiences and uses to achieve it’s goals and desires. And truly it tends to become mind-boggling trying to sort things out to go from location “A” to location “B”. The easiest way to get around this is to use a map or a device that will enable us to visualize how best to get to our destination.
In my DIY Dimensional Portal Index, I suggest that you take experimental measurements as a function of geography, gravity, and time, and plot the coordinates out in such a way as to develop a mantle-bot set. Then use that as an indicator of where you are and what settings you can change to alter your reality.
When John Titor discussed his vehicular dimensional warping vehicle (found in my John Titor Index) he discussed using sensors to measure gravity displacement. And in that way his ability to travel was locked and limited by the technology that he used.
Well, here we are going to discuss using (or creating) a visualization topographical map for personal prayer affirmation campaigns. These maps are conceptional and do not require you to collect reams and sets of data to map out. Only to use them to help visualize what you are doing, where you are going and what is going on.
The Map
To best map the MWI it would “float” within a three dimensional framework.
As such, it might look something a little like this. With the positions of the world-lines geographically positioned relatively to the pathways as a function of the intrinsic value of the particular world-line.
.
The path that consciousness takes might be just as well placed on a map of sorts. This map might show nodes and paths where the consciousness might migrate depending on thought manifestation, generation and progression. .
However, it would not look so much like a cluster of grapes, or bubbles on a foamy sea of bath water. No.
Topographical 3D Map
It turns out that the highest probability pathway forms a kind of sheet or flat surface when plotted in the three dimensions.
If you end up plotting everything, you can't make out heads or tails of the map. It's just this one big mess. But, if you plot the pathways that have the greatest probability of travel, it simplifies immensely.
Instead of a cluster of grapes, it would look a little like a mesh or a grid. With the points being world-lines, and the lines connecting the points as the shortest distance to that world-line.
Now, if you take a step away from this “map” of “world-lines” and their lines of “high-probability” consciousness transfer it might start looking a little like this.
Where you would see a “surface” of “highest probability” pathways, with the relative ease of travel and the strength of character needed to traverse affecting the heights and valleys of the apparent surface.
.
How the world-lines with consciousness migration paths might look when a person takes a larger overview. You will see that the map is not a flat surface, but rather undulates. .
It forms hills, valleys and “mountains”. This surface is the “geography” of the world-line transition map. Each possible destination world-line would have a different value of “potential”. Which is a potential for the consciousness to move towards it and occupy it.
What the geometry of the map means
To really use map to a point of functionality, we need to actually study it’s attributes..
The “surface” that this map forms is the HIGHEST PROBABILITY of consciousness movement from one world-line node to another.
If the individual just goes along with life, and does a minimum of effort, the path on the world-line template map would look like this. He / she would follow the topographical surface of the map. There would be “easy periods” of life when he / she is going “downhill”, and rough or difficult times when they are going “up hill”.
Going above the surface indicates a strength of will over the combined strength of inertia of a given world-line. The individual can apply themselves, and exert thought, planning, determination and “grit” to achieve their objectives. When this happens, they are no longer following the “easy path”, but has instead “cut a path” for themselves to follow.
Going above the surface on a mapped world-line template shows the necessary strength of will needed to overcome hardship and discomfort to achieve objectives.
Going below the surface indicates a weak strength of will and a consciousness being overwhelmed by the inherent inertia of a given world-line. But sometimes the inertia of the situation that surrounds you is too strong and too powerful. It can “pull you under” and overwhelm you.
The geometry of the MWI template topography is the baseline default that most people follow. However, situations can occur, such as illness, or society that can “pull the person under” and overwhelm the person so that they are no longer following the topographical terrain.
Additionally…
I am using the “right hand convention” which is arbitrary. If you are “left handed” then you can reverse this convention. This is a visualization technique that relies on the relative comfort that a person, or consciousness feels when they generate thoughts and make decisions.
Moving to the left upon the mapped surface indicates more freedom of movement upon a given world-line reality. You can control your life on a day to day basis. And in general, the decisions that you will make will be a function of the needs and situations associated with your physical body.
Moving to the right upon the mapped surface indicates less freedom of movement upon a given world-line reality. Conversely, moving to the right will hamper your ability to move and will become progressively more difficult over time.
Moving to the right will tend to generate a more difficult path on the template for you to follow.
Conclusions
There is much that can be said about aspects to these conceptualization maps. Such as how does a slide manifest, and maybe even the idea that you can get off the topological surface. But these maps are visualization aids. No more and no less. Some people don’t need them. But I do.
And other things come into play as well. Such as the idea that the topographical surface isn’t solid like a piece of paper, but rather buoyant like the surface of water. (Which is a very important concept, by the way.) and other things such as why left and right navigation and all the rest.
You need to keep in mind that this is a visualization methodology that you can use within your templates to help navigate the MWI to meet your affirmation prayer campaign goals.
Some examples;
When traveling on my MWI world-line map, I am never overwhelmed and "pulled under" the topography. Instead I avoid those crisis situations well in advance.
Or,
I meter my life-line path over the "hills and valleys" of the topographical world-line template in such as way that I have a minimum of physical distress when I navigate to my objectives.
Phew! So wordy. But you all do understand what the affirmation is saying, and that understanding is a generated thought, and thus a navigation criteria on the MWI.
My Video of the day
I am trying to include a video with each post that I make. This is just a little video of what it is like for me here in China. For those of you who have never visited China you will be surprised as it doesn’t even remotely resemble anything that the “news” says it is.
The “news” is dangerous. Don’t believe any of it.
Overall, most people enjoy this little window into the MM life and lifestyle. And you can turn off the audio is you don’t want to hear my opinions. My latest video was taken last night. I hope you like it. HERE. 131MB. Nice beach bar with some tender music, and fine deep, dark shady shadows.
I also have another one HERE. 166MB. It shows a children’s “rope course”, which of course are banned in the Untied States as too dangerous.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my Affirmation prayer Campaign Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
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.
Here we will “walk through” a one second span of time and observe what happens as consciousness navigates the MWI.
Long time readers of MM will recognize many of what is being stated herein. But what is uniquely special about this post is the conceptualization of what happens when the “second hand” on your watch goes from one mark to the next. It is something that you can witness, and can conceptualize.
Many people have trouble trying to understand the ideas and mechanisms involved here simply because they are far too radical and goes against everything that they have learned at school.
The first moment
You start at world-line “A”
This world-line has it’s own history; it’s own past and it’s own future. And you are just residing inside the world-line for just a moment.
You can see that from the point of view of your consciousness, you see the world-line as a moment. In this case the moment is shown in yellow. And the world-line is shown in orange. It has it’s own past, and it has it’s own future, and your consciousness resides in it for a fraction of a second before moving on.
Your consciousness has anchored (momentarily) at the pineal gland in the brain.
Pineal gland
The pineal gland, conarium, or epiphysis cerebri, is a small endocrine gland in the brain of most vertebrates.
The pineal gland produces melatonin, a serotonin-derived hormone which modulates sleep patterns in both circadian and seasonal cycles. The shape of the gland resembles a pine cone, which gives it its name. The pineal gland is located in the epithalamus, near the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres, tucked in a groove where the two halves of the thalamus join. The pineal gland is one of the neuroendocrine secretory circumventricular organs in which capillaries are mostly permeable to solutes in the blood.
-Wikipedia
As long as consciousness is anchored it resides in “particle form” …
We have seen that the essential idea of quantum theory is that matter, fundamentally, exists in a state that is, roughly speaking, a combination of wave and particle-like properties.
To enter into the foundational problems of quantum theory, we will need to look more closely at the "roughly speaking."
It is needed since it is not so easy to see how matter can have both wave and particle properties at once.
One of the essential properties of waves is that they can be added: take two waves, add them together and we have a new wave. That is a commonplace for waves.
But it makes no sense for particles, classically conceived. Just how do we "add up" two particles?
Quantum theory demands that we get some of the properties of classical particles back into the waves.
Doing that is what is going to visit problems upon us. It will lead us to the problem of indeterminism and then to very serious worries about how ordinary matter in the large is to be accommodated into quantum theory.
For the picture of matter in the small presented by quantum theory is quite unlike our ordinary experience of matter in the large.
-The Quantum Theory of Waves and Particles
So think of your consciousness as an undulating, or pulsing, rotating beacon. One moment it is in “particle form”, and then the next moment, it is in “wave form”. And it goes through these forms continuously.
Wave, particle, wave, particle, wave, particle and so on.
And if you look at it, you will see that it follows a sinusoidal path.
So, now it turns quickly. It goes from particle form to wave form. And when it is in wave form, it is no longer anchored to the pineal gland, and thus it can exit the body…
…and exit the world-line too.
To the next wold-line
And so we see that in a fraction of a second’ 1/4 of a second to be exact, the consciousness moves from world-line A to world-line B.
Both world-lines are very similar to each other.
They might differ in the slightest of items. Aside from being a fraction of a second older, the world-line might have a minor change or two that differs from the world-line A.
We call a group of similar world-lines as "clustering", or that the world-lines "cluster together". They are all very similar to each other with only the smallest of variations.
Now, it was the thoughts generated by the consciousness when it is outside of the world-lines that navigates to the most likely nearby world-lines. No thoughts are ever generated when the consciousness is in particle form.
The selection of the "most likely" next world-line is the entropy profile of the thoughts generated by consciousness. Or, in other words, the world-line that is the "best fit" for the thoughts, or accumulated thought profile, of the consciousness.
When the consciousness is on a world-line all it can do is operate a body physically. And when the consciousness is outside of the body (and outside of the world-lines) is when it can think and generate thoughts.
Inside the body = particle form = move the body
Outside the body = wave form = think thoughts
And thoughts are how the consciousness navigates the MWI and selects the most likely world-line.
A bigger picture
If you look at the “bigger pictures” you can place the highest likelihood of nearby world-lines on a flat surface, and measure their relative comfort or discomfort by the size of the “hills and valleys” that undulate on the surface.
Such as here…
So, knowing this, let’s consider another fraction of a second. Now, the consciousness moves towards and occupies a world-line “C”…
Movement to a third world-line
And we can see that the process repeats. Every time the consciousness switches from particle form to wave form, it exits the world-line (and the body it inhabits) and goes to the closest world-line that matches the thoughts generated by consciousness.
Now, you might want to consider how YOU as consciousness has observed the events of the last three world-lines.
For starters, YOUR “past” is unique to the path that your consciousness took. In the picture above, you have a “life line” that is brown and shown in a dashed line.
You also have another “past”.
Each time you visit a world-line, you are exposed to completely different past. Many of which are similar, but some can be really different.
Movement to a fourth world-line
If you are an average, and typical human, exactly one second has passed from the moment you were in world-line “A” to now at world-line “D”.
For every second, most humans pass through four different world-lines. And for most of them they are all so very similar to each other.
And if you map them all out on a three dimensional grip where the topographic surface represents the most likely world-lines that you can visit (from your momentary point of reference) it would look something like this…
And at that, please realize that you control your momentary thoughts by verbal prayer affirmations. And since each affirmation takes more than one second to read (usually from four to twelve seconds), the mere action of reading your prayer / affirmation campaign is actual navigation and piloting of your consciousness through the MWI.
Consider this affirmation;
"I live a happy, healthy and comfortable life."
It took me 4.66 seconds to read. Which equates to 18.64 world-lines. During the time that I read it out loud, that was all that I was thinking of. You can be assured that my consciousness navigation would be the most likely world-lines to manifest those thoughts.
Conclusion
This is the “secret of the universe”. This is how our reality works, and the actual operation of the MWI, and all the aspects of quantum physics as it applies to day to day life.
As you can see, it differs considerably from what mainstream understanding is, as well as scientific belief. But it is the way it works.
Now, you can say that I am either [1] a crazy madman for coming up with this belief, or that [2] I am an absolute genus for coming up with this. Or, conversely, you can believe what I am telling you. That [3] I am part of MAJestic, and my role in the organization was (and is) to be a liaison to extraterrestrial benefactors that will help the human species grow and advance.
And whether you believe it or not, is not my concern.
This is how our reality works, and in a few centuries this understanding will be embraced and accepted as normal and “the way it is”.
And at that, you can thank me for giving you the “secrets of the universe”. And if you can understand it, then you are in the top 0.000001% of the human race right now.
Conversely, if you refuse to accept this, then you can believe in shape-changing reptilians that want to control the human race, huge American-led space fleets with “space marines”, and a Heaven and Hell that you can control through donations to the largest church in the neighborhood. It’s YOUR reality.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my Affirmation prayer Campaign Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
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.
I have long argued that the reason why everyone in America is so unhappy these days has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with the system of government and the culture that evolved from it.
When you have a culture of “every man for himself”, and divide and conquer so that the biggest and most powerful person can become the leader you end up with a dog-eat-dog world. It’s an uncomfortable world that is truly ugly and where “normal” and healthy people do not want to live.
dog eat dogRuthlessacquisition or competition, as in Withshrinkingmarkets,it'sdogeatdogforeverycompany in thisfield. Thiscontradicts a Latinproverbwhichmaintainsthatdogdoesnoteatdog,firstrecorded in English in 1543.Nevertheless, by 1732 it wasput as "Dogsareharddrovewhentheyeatdogs"(ThomasFuller,Gnomologia).
Within this world you see things that simply do not exist outside of America. And while the more Western nations have adopted some of these American aspects, not all do. And you would be surprised at how much better life can be without…
Fees to use a Bank ATM.
Being forced to buy bottled water instead of a water fountain.
Having to pay to have your car washed.
Reporting your entire year of financial transactions to the government.
Being told that you MUST buy health insurance or face fines.
every man for himselfEachindividualputshis or herowninterestsforemost.Forexample,In thiscompany no onehelpsanyone-it'severymanforhimself. In Chaucer'sdaythisdictumwasstatedapprovingly,meaning"ifyoudon'tlookoutforyourself, no oneelsewill,"buttodaysuchselfishness is usuallycensured.Despitethewording,thetermapplies to eithersex.
So anyways, what I am presenting here is just a small taste of how the “every man for himself” culture manifests within the Untied States. If you live within a Western nation like the UK, like Australia, and like Canada some of these images will seem strangely familiar.
Big Tricks
We start with one of the big tricks. In it the BIG words and numbers say one thing, but the fine print says something else…
So, eh? What is it? Why not simply say nothing?
It’s all very manipulative and insulting.
Disguised Packaging
Here’s another trick, to pretend that the consumer will get more product by disguising the size of the packaging.
Again, trying to provide less while giving the impression of more.
How can this be legal? Well, if the government does not take action against these kinds of predatory activities then indeed it is actually legal.
In the case of the meat above, the deception is that the buyer think that it is a slab of meat that is much larger than what the packaging shows or indicates. It’s fully deceptive. And while the fine print, the tiny letters might say so many ounces or Kg of meat, that is meaningless when the image is right there in front of your face.
Look at this below.
We can see that the number of cookies in the package was intentionally reduced to save on costs to make the product, but the end sale price was not changed.
Deceptive Wording
And then, there is the “deceptive wording” trick. Where the words say one thing, but legalese is used to twist the meaning of the words.
US Health Care
And of course nothing says fraud and corruption in America like the “health care system”.
Here’s an example about the care that people receive inside of America…
My Point
My point is not to list the many, many ways that companies swindle, cheat or trick consumers. That has been the norm for some time now. My point is that it is permitted to happen without consequence.
I wouldn’t even notice this, if it wasn’t for the fact that I am in China. If a Chinese company tries to pull such a shit-head move they risk some serious push-back from the Chinese government. Probably a notice, and then a time-table to incorporate the changes. Followed by fees and fines if the company “drags it’s feet”, and much harsher measures down-the-line if results still do not materialize.
China is a serious; serious nation that does not play.
For the world to become a better place, people and companies need to STOP this on-going policy of trickery, manipulation, bait-sand-switch, and money-grubbing profit at all costs orientation.
There is no way around it.
And it is a significant issue, but NO ONE inside America is talking about this. Absolutely no one.
It is considered a trivial matter.
What are they talking about instead? Well, it’s the same old, same old.
I guess that the point that I am trying to make here is that whatever you might want to call America; a “democracy”, a “Republic”, a “crime syndicate”, an “oligarchy”, a “military empire”, the fact remains that it is NOT servicing the needs of the American citizenry.
It is not.
This is evident on every single level, in every single measurement, and in every conceivable way.
This is more than problematic, it is horrifying.
You see, America is at that historical stage where the government no longer functions to the point where the needs of the people are not met.
Typically, a solution develops. Either [1] the people construct a new government, or [2] they overthrow the old violently, or [3] that the government takes preemptive measures and starts some kind of distraction to prevent the “torches and pitchforks” from arriving at their doorsteps.
The government has decided to go with door number three.
And they are poking both the bear and the panda (Russia and China) with a long pointed stick.
They refuse to consider the MUCH NEEDED option; an emergency Constitutional Convention to restructure the Federal government, or disband the federal government entirely.
They would rather start World War III than accept any other solution.
Dangerous times indeed.
Things must be FIXED. Wrongs must be righted, and serious structural changes to the government need to start happening right NOW.
If they do not happen…
…do not believe that nothing worse will happen…
…you do not need a crystal ball to forecast the future of America without serious structural changes to it.
…
This is NOT the time to pay the same old “play book”. This is the time for America, the American people, the world, and everyone to come together.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Undoubtedly the woman who had come to epitomize what we recognize today as "celebrity", Zsa Zsa Gabor, is better known for her many marriages, personal appearances, her "dahlink" catchphrase, her actions, life gossip, and quotations on men, rather than her film career.
Perhaps you know her better as “Lisa” on the 1960’s television sit-com “Green Acres”.
Ah. Lisa darlink…
“Lisa” on the 1960’s television sit-com “Green Acres”.
Anyways, for her, and just about everyone that you read about in the “news” today obey this law listed herein. It’s important, and it gave Donald Trump the Presidency of the United States.
LAW 6
COURT ATTENTION AT ALL COST
JUDGMENT
Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing. Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or buried in oblivion. Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all cost. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious than the bland and timid masses.
PART I: SURROUND YOUR NAME WITH THE SENSATIONAL AND SCANDALOUS
Draw attention to yourself by creating an unforgettable, even controversial image. Court scandal. Do anything to make yourself seem larger than life and shine more brightly than those around you. Make no distinction between kinds of attention—notoriety of any sort will bring you power. Better to be slandered and attacked than ignored.
OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW
P. T. Barnum, America’s premier nineteenth-century showman, started his career as an assistant to the owner of a circus, Aaron Turner.
In 1836 the circus stopped in Annapolis, Maryland, for a series of performances.
On the morning of opening day, Barnum took a stroll through town, wearing a new black suit.
People started to follow him.
Someone in the gathering crowd shouted out that he was the Reverend Ephraim K. Avery, infamous as a man acquitted of the charge of murder but still believed guilty by most Americans.
The angry mob tore off Barnum’s suit and was ready to lynch him.
After desperate appeals, Barnum finally convinced them to follow him to the circus, where he could verify his identity.
THE WASP AND THE PRINCE
A wasp named Pin Tail was long in quest of some deed that would make him forever famous.
So one day he entered the kirrg’s palace and stung the little prince, who was in bed.
The prince awoke with loud cries.
The king and his courtiers rushed in to see what had happened.
The prince was yelling as the wasp stung him again and again.
The courtiers tried to catchthe wasp, and each in turn was stung.
The whole royal household rushed in,the news soon spread, and people flocked to the palace.
The city was in an uproar, all business suspended.
Said the wasp to itself, before it expired from its efforts, “A name without fame is like fire without flame. There is nothing like attracting notice at any cost.”
INDIAN FABLE
Once there, old Turner confirmed that this was all a practical joke—he himself had spread the rumor that Barnum was Avery.
The crowd dispersed, but Barnum, who had nearly been killed, was not amused.
He wanted to know what could have induced his boss to play such a trick. “My dear Mr. Barnum,” Turner replied, “it was all for our good. Remember, all we need to ensure success is notoriety.”
And indeed everyone in town was talking about the joke, and the circus was packed that night and every night it stayed in Annapolis.
Barnum had learned a lesson he would never forget.
Barnum’s first big venture of his own was the American Museum—a collection of curiosities, located in New York.
One day a beggar approached Barnum in the street.
Instead of giving him money, Barnum decided to employ him.
Taking him back to the museum, he gave the man five bricks and told him to make a slow circuit of several blocks.
At certain points he was to lay down a brick on the sidewalk, always keeping one brick in hand.
On the return journey he was to replace each brick on the street with the one he held.
Meanwhile he was to remain serious of countenance and to answer no questions.
Once back at the museum, he was to enter, walk around inside, then leave through the back door and make the same bricklaying circuit again.
On the man’s first walk through the streets, several hundred people watched his mysterious movements.
By his fourth circuit, onlookers swarmed around him, debating what he was doing.
Every time he entered the museum he was followed by people who bought tickets to keep watching him.
Many of them were distracted by the museum’s collections, and stayed inside.
By the end of the first day, the brick man had drawn over a thousand people into the museum.
A few days later the police ordered him to cease and desist from his walks—the crowds were blocking traffic.
The bricklaying stopped but thousands of New Yorkers had entered the museum, and many of those had become P. T. Barnum converts.
Even when I’m railed at, I get my quota of renown.
PIETRO ARETINO, 1492-1556
Barnum would put a band of musicians on a balcony overlooking the street, beneath a huge banner proclaiming FREE MUSIC FOR THE MILLIONS.
What generosity, New Yorkers thought, and they flocked to hear the free concerts.
But Barnum took pains to hire the worst musicians he could find, and soon after the band struck up, people would hurry to buy tickets to the museum, where they would be out of earshot of the band’s noise, and of the booing of the crowd.
THE COURT ARTIST
A work that was voluntarily presented to a prince was bound to seem in some way special.
The artist himself might also try to attract the attention of the court through his behaviour.
In Vasari’s judgment Sodoma was “well known both for his personal eccentricities and for his reputation as a good painter.”
Because Pope Leo X “found pleasure in such strange, hare- brained individuals,” he made Sodoma a knight, causing the artist to go completely out of his mind.
Van Mander found it odd that the products of Cornelis Ketel’s experiments in mouth and foot painting were bought by notable persons “because of their oddity,” yet Ketel was only adding a variation to similar experiments by Titian, Ugo da Carpi and Palma Giovane, who, according to Boschini painted with their fingers “because they wished to imitate the method used by the Supreme Creator. ”
Van Mander reports that Gossaert attracted the attention of Emperor Charles V by wearing a fantastic paper costume.
In doing so he was adopting the tactics used by Dinocrates, who, in order to gain access to Alexander the Great, is said to have appeared disguised as the naked Hercules when the monarch was sitting in judgment.
THE COURT ARTIST, MARTIN WARNKE, 1993
One of the first oddities Barnum toured around the country was Joice Heth, a woman he claimed was 161 years old, and whom he advertised as a slave who had once been George Washington’s nurse.
After several months the crowds began to dwindle, so Barnum sent an anonymous letter to the papers, claiming that Heth was a clever fraud.
“Joice Heth,” he wrote, “is not a human being but an automaton, made up of whalebone, india-rubber, and numberless springs.”
Those who had not bothered to see her before were immediately curious, and those who had already seen her paid to see her again, to find out whether the rumor that she was a robot was true.
In 1842, Barnum purchased the carcass of what was purported to be a mermaid.
This creature resembled a monkey with the body of a fish, but the head and body were perfectly joined—it was truly a wonder.
After some research Barnum discovered that the creature had been expertly put together in Japan, where the hoax had caused quite a stir.
He nevertheless planted articles in newspapers around the country claiming the capture of a mermaid in the Fiji Islands.
He also sent the papers woodcut prints of paintings showing mermaids.
By the time he showed the specimen in his museum, a national debate had been sparked over the existence of these mythical creatures.
A few months before Barnum’s campaign, no one had cared or even known about mermaids; now everyone was talking about them as if they were real.
Crowds flocked in record numbers to see the Fiji Mermaid, and to hear debates on the subject.
A few years later, Barnum toured Europe with General Tom Thumb, a five-year-old dwarf from Connecticut whom Barnum claimed was an eleven-year-old English boy, and whom he had trained to do many remarkable acts.
During this tour Barnum’s name attracted such attention that Queen Victoria, that paragon of sobriety, requested a private audience with him and his talented dwarf at Buckingham Palace.
The English press may have ridiculed Barnum, but Victoria was royally entertained by him, and respected him ever after.
Interpretation
Barnum understood the fundamental truth about attracting attention: Once people’s eyes are on you, you have a special legitimacy.
For Barnum, creating interest meant creating a crowd; as he later wrote, “Every crowd has a silver lining.”
And crowds tend to act in conjunction.
If one person stops to see your beggarman laying bricks in the street, more will do the same.
They will gather like dust bunnies.
Then, given a gentle push, they will enter your museum or watch your show.
To create a crowd you have to do something different and odd.
Any kind of curiosity will serve the purpose, for crowds are magnetically attracted by the unusual and inexplicable.
And once you have their attention, never let it go.
If it veers toward other people, it does so at your expense.
Barnum would ruthlessly suck attention from his competitors, knowing what a valuable commodity it is.
At the beginning of your rise to the top, then, spend all your energy on attracting attention.
Most important: The quality of the attention is irrelevant.
No matter how badly his shows were reviewed, or how slanderously personal were the attacks on his hoaxes, Barnum would never complain.
If a newspaper critic reviled him particularly badly, in fact, he made sure to invite the man to an opening and to give him the best seat in the house.
He would even write anonymous attacks on his own work, just to keep his name in the papers.
From Barnum’s vantage, attention—whether negative or positive—was the main ingredient of his success.
The worst fate in the world for a man who yearns fame, glory, and, of course, power is to be ignored.
Donald Trump
If the courtier happens to engage in arms in some public spectacle such as jousting ... he will ensure that the horse he has is beautifully caparisoned, that he himself is suitably attired, with appropriate mottoes and ingenious devices to attract the eyes of the onlookers in his direction as surely as the lodestone attracts iron.
Baldassare Castighone, 1478-1529
KEYS TO POWER
Burning more brightly than those around you is a skill that no one is born with.
You have to learn to attract attention, “as surely as the lodestone attracts iron.”
At the start of your career, you must attach your name and reputation to a quality, an image, that sets you apart from other people.
This image can be something like a characteristic style of dress, or a personality quirk that amuses people and gets talked about.
Once the image is established, you have an appearance, a place in the sky for your star.
It is a common mistake to imagine that this peculiar appearance of yours should not be controversial, that to be attacked is somehow bad.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
To avoid being a flash in the pan, and having your notoriety eclipsed by another, you must not discriminate between different types of attention; in the end, every kind will work in your favor.
Barnum, we have seen, welcomed personal attacks and felt no need to defend himself. He deliberately courted the image of being a humbug.
The court of Louis XIV contained many talented writers, artists, great beauties, and men and women of impeccable virtue, but no one was more talked about than the singular Duc de Lauzun.
The duke was short, almost dwarfish, and he was prone to the most insolent kinds of behavior—he slept with the king’s mistress, and openly insulted not only other courtiers but the king himself.
Louis, however, was so beguiled by the duke’s eccentricities that he could not bear his absences from the court.
It was simple: The strangeness of the duke’s character attracted attention.
Once people were enthralled by him, they wanted him around at any cost.
Society craves larger-than-life figures, people who stand above the general mediocrity.
Never be afraid, then, of the qualities that set you apart and draw attention to you.
Court controversy, even scandal.
It is better to be attacked, even slandered, than ignored.
All professions are ruled by this law, and all professionals must have a bit of the showman about them.
The great scientist Thomas Edison knew that to raise money he had to remain in the public eye at any cost.
Almost as important as the inventions themselves was how he presented them to the public and courted attention.
Edison would design visually dazzling experiments to display his discoveries with electricity.
He would talk of future inventions that seemed fantastic at the time—robots, and machines that could photograph thought —and that he had no intention of wasting his energy on, but that made the public talk about him.
He did everything he could to make sure that he received more attention than his great rival Nikola Tesla, who may actually have been more brilliant than he was but whose name was far less known.
In 1915, it was rumored that Edison and Tesla would be joint recipients of that year’s Nobel Prize in physics.
The prize was eventually given to a pair of English physicists; only later was it discovered that the prize committee had actually approached Edison, but he had turned them down, refusing to share the prize with Tesla.
By that time his fame was more secure than Tesla’s, and he thought it better to refuse the honor than to allow his rival the attention that would have come even from sharing the prize.
If you find yourself in a lowly position that offers little opportunity for you to draw attention, an effective trick is to attack the most visible, most famous, most powerful person you can find.
When Pietro Aretino, a young Roman servant boy of the early sixteenth century, wanted to get attention as a writer of verses, he decided to publish a series of satirical poems ridiculing the pope and his affection for a pet elephant.
The attack put Aretino in the public eye immediately.
A slanderous attack on a person in a position of power would have a similar effect.
Remember, however, to use such tactics sparingly after you have the public’s attention, when the act can wear thin.
Once in the limelight you must constantly renew it by adapting and varying your method of courting attention.
If you don’t, the public will grow tired, will take you for granted, and will move on to a newer star.
The game requires constant vigilance and creativity.
Pablo Picasso never allowed himself to fade into the background; if his name became too attached to a particular style, he would deliberately upset the public with a new series of paintings that went against all expectations.
Better to create something ugly and disturbing, he believed, than to let viewers grow too familiar with his work.
Understand: People feel superior to the person whose actions they can predict. If you show them who is in control by playing against their expectations, you both gain their respect and tighten your hold on their fleeting attention.
Image:
The Limelight. The actor who steps into this brilliant light attains a heightened presence. All eyes are on him. There is room for only one actor at a time in the limelight’s narrow beam; do what ever it takes to make yourself its focus.
Make your gestures so large, amusing, and scandalous that the light stays on you while the other actors are left in the shadows.
Authority:
Be ostentatious and be seen.... What is not seen is as though it did not exist.... It was light that first caused all creation to shine forth. Display fills up many blanks, covers up deficiencies, and gives everything a second life, especially when it is backed by genuine merit.
(Baltasar Gracián, 1601-1658)
PART II: CREATE AN AIR OF MYSTERY
In a world growing increasingly banal and familiar, what seems enigmatic instantly draws attention.
Never make it too clear what you are doing or about to do. Do not show all your cards. An air of mystery heightens your presence; it also creates anticipation—everyone will be watching you to see what happens next. Use mystery to beguile, seduce, even frighten.
OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW
Beginning in 1905, rumors started to spread throughout Paris of a young Oriental girl who danced in a private home, wrapped in veils that she gradually discarded.
A local journalist who had seen her dancing reported that “a woman from the Far East had come to Europe laden with perfume and jewels, to introduce some of the richness of the Oriental colour and life into the satiated society of European cities.”
Soon everyone knew the dancer’s name: Mata Hari.
Early that year, in the winter, small and select audiences would gather in a salon filled with Indian statues and other relics while an orchestra played music inspired by Hindu and Javanese melodies.
After keeping the audience waiting and wondering, Mata Hari would suddenly appear, in a startling costume: a white cotton brassiere covered with Indian-type jewels; jeweled bands at the waist supporting a sarong that revealed as much as it concealed; bracelets up the arms.
Then Mata Hari would dance, in a style no one in France had seen before, her whole body swaying as if she were in a trance.
She told her excited and curious audience that her dances told stories from Indian mythology and Javanese folktales.
Soon the cream of Paris, and ambassadors from far-off lands, were competing for invitations to the salon, where it was rumored that Mata Hari was actually performing sacred dances in the nude.
The public wanted to know more about her.
She told journalists that she was actually Dutch in origin, but had grown up on the island of Java.
She would also talk about time spent in India, how she had learned sacred Hindu dances there, and how Indian women “can shoot straight, ride horseback, and are capable of doing logarithms and talk philosophy.”
By the summer of 1905, although few Parisians had actually seen Mata Hari dance, her name was on everyone’s lips.
As Mata Hari gave more interviews, the story of her origins kept changing: She had grown up in India, her grandmother was the daughter of a Javanese princess, she had lived on the island of Sumatra where she had spent her time “horseback riding, gun in hand, and risking her life.”
No one knew anything certain about her, but journalists did not mind these changes in her biography.
They compared her to an Indian goddess, a creature from the pages of Baudelaire—whatever their imagination wanted to see in this mysterious woman from the East.
In August of 1905, Mata Hari performed for the first time in public.
Crowds thronging to see her on opening night caused a riot.
She had now become a cult figure, spawning many imitations.
One reviewer wrote, “Mata Hari personifies all the poetry of India, its mysticism, its voluptuousness, its hypnotizing charm.”
Another noted, “If India possesses such unexpected treasures, then all Frenchmen will emigrate to the shores of the Ganges.”
Soon the fame of Mata Hari and her sacred Indian dances spread beyond Paris.
She was invited to Berlin, Vienna, Milan.
Over the next few years she performed throughout Europe, mixed with the highest social circles, and earned an income that gave her an independence rarely enjoyed by a woman of the period.
Then, near the end of World War I, she was arrested in France, tried, convicted, and finally executed as a German spy.
Only during the trial did the truth come out: Mata Hari was not from Java or India, had not grown up in the Orient, did not have a drop of Eastern blood in her body.
Her real name was Margaretha Zelle, and she came from the stolid northern province of Friesland, Holland.
Interpretation
When Margaretha Zelle arrived in Paris, in 1904, she had half a franc in her pocket.
She was one of the thousands of beautiful young girls who flocked to Paris every year, taking work as artists’ models, nightclub dancers, or vaudeville performers at the Folies Bergère.
After a few years they would inevitably be replaced by younger girls, and would often end up on the streets, turning to prostitution, or else returning to the town they came from, older and chastened.
Zelle had higher ambitions. She had no dance experience and had never performed in the theater, but as a young girl she had traveled with her family and had witnessed local dances in Java and Sumatra.
Zelle clearly understood that what was important in her act was not the dance itself, or even her face or figure, but her ability to create an air of mystery about herself.
The mystery she created lay not just in her dancing, or her costumes, or the stories she would tell, or her endless lies about her origins; it lay in an atmosphere enveloping everything she did.
There was nothing you could say for sure about her—she was always changing, always surprising her audience with new costumes, new dances, new stories.
This air of mystery left the public always wanting to know more, always wondering about her next move.
Mata Hari was no more beautiful than many of the other young girls who came to Paris, and she was not a particularly good dancer.
What separated her from the mass, what attracted and held the public’s attention and made her famous and wealthy, was her mystery.
People are enthralled by mystery; because it invites constant interpretation, they never tire of it.
The mysterious cannot be grasped. And what cannot be seized and consumed creates power.
KEYS TO POWER
In the past, the world was filled with the terrifying and unknowable— diseases, disasters, capricious despots, the mystery of death itself.
What we could not understand we reimagined as myths and spirits.
Over the centuries, though, we have managed, through science and reason, to illuminate the darkness; what was mysterious and forbidding has grown familiar and comfortable.
Yet this light has a price: in a world that is ever more banal, that has had its mystery and myth squeezed out of it, we secretly crave enigmas, people or things that cannot be instantly interpreted, seized, and consumed.
That is the power of the mysterious: It invites layers of interpretation, excites our imagination, seduces us into believing that it conceals something marvelous.
The world has become so familiar and its inhabitants so predictable that what wraps itself in mystery will almost always draw the limelight to it and make us watch it.
Do not imagine that to create an air of mystery you have to be grand and awe-inspiring.
Mystery that is woven into your day-to-day demeanor, and is subtle, has that much more power to fascinate and attract attention.
Remember: Most people are upfront, can be read like an open book, take little care to control their words or image, and are hopelessly predictable.
By simply holding back, keeping silent, occasionally uttering ambiguous phrases, deliberately appearing inconsistent, and acting odd in the subtlest of ways, you will emanate an aura of mystery.
The people around you will then magnify that aura by constantly trying to interpret you.
Both artists and con artists understand the vital link between being mysterious and attracting interest. Count Victor Lustig, the aristocrat of swindlers, played the game to perfection.
He was always doing things that were different, or seemed to make no sense.
He would show up at the best hotels in a limo driven by a Japanese chauffeur; no one had ever seen a Japanese chauffeur before, so this seemed exotic and strange.
Lustig would dress in the most expensive clothing, but always with something—a medal, a flower, an armband—out of place, at least in conventional terms. This was seen not as tasteless but as odd and intriguing.
In hotels he would be seen receiving telegrams at all hours, one after the other, brought to him by his Japanese chauffeur—telegrams he would tear up with utter nonchalance. (In fact they were fakes, completely blank.)
He would sit alone in the dining room, reading a large and impressive-looking book, smiling at people yet remaining aloof.
Within a few days, of course, the entire hotel would be abuzz with interest in this strange man.
All this attention allowed Lustig to lure suckers in with ease. They would beg for his confidence and his company. Everyone wanted to be seen with this mysterious aristocrat. And in the presence of this distracting enigma, they wouldn’t even notice that they were being robbed blind.
An air of mystery can make the mediocre appear intelligent and profound.
It made Mata Hari, a woman of average appearance and intelligence, seem like a goddess, and her dancing divinely inspired.
An air of mystery about an artist makes his or her artwork immediately more intriguing, a trick Marcel Duchamp played to great effect.
It is all very easy to do—say little about your work, tease and titillate with alluring, even contradictory comments, then stand back and let others try to make sense of it all.
Mysterious people put others in a kind of inferior position—that of trying to figure them out.
To degrees that they can control, they also elicit the fear surrounding anything uncertain or unknown.
All great leaders know that an aura of mystery draws attention to them and creates an intimidating presence.
Mao Tse-tung, for example, cleverly cultivated an enigmatic image; he had no worries about seeming inconsistent or contradicting himself—the very contradictoriness of his actions and words meant that he always had the upper hand.
No one, not even his own wife, ever felt they understood him, and he therefore seemed larger than life.
This also meant that the public paid constant attention to him, ever anxious to witness his next move.
If your social position prevents you from completely wrapping your actions in mystery, you must at least learn to make yourself less obvious.
Every now and then, act in a way that does not mesh with other people’s perception of you.
This way you keep those around you on the defensive, eliciting the kind of attention that makes you powerful.
Done right, the creation of enigma can also draw the kind of attention that strikes terror into your enemy.
During the Second Punic War (219-202 B.C.), the great Carthaginian general Hannibal was wreaking havoc in his march on Rome.
Hannibal was known for his cleverness and duplicity.
Under his leadership Carthage’s army, though smaller than those of the Romans, had constantly outmaneuvered them.
On one occasion, though, Hannibal’s scouts made a horrible blunder, leading his troops into a marshy terrain with the sea at their back.
The Roman army blocked the mountain passes that led inland, and its general, Fabius, was ecstatic—at last he had Hannibal trapped.
Posting his best sentries on the passes, he worked on a plan to destroy Hannibal’s forces.
But in the middle of the night, the sentries looked down to see a mysterious sight: A huge procession of lights was heading up the mountain.
Thousands and thousands of lights. If this was Hannibal’s army, it had suddenly grown a hundredfold.
The sentries argued heatedly about what this could mean: Reinforcements from the sea? Troops that had been hidden in the area? Ghosts? No explanation made sense.
As they watched, fires broke out all over the mountain, and a horrible noise drifted up to them from below, like the blowing of a million horns.
Demons, they thought.
The sentries, the bravest and most sensible in the Roman army, fled their posts in a panic.
By the next day, Hannibal had escaped from the marshland. What was his trick? Had he really conjured up demons?
Actually what he had done was order bundles of twigs to be fastened to the horns of the thousands of oxen that traveled with his troops as beasts of burden.
The twigs were then lit, giving the impression of the torches of a vast army heading up the mountain. When the flames burned down to the oxen’s skin, they stampeded in all directions, bellowing like mad and setting fires all over the mountainside.
The key to this device’s success was not the torches, the fires, or the noises in themselves, however, but the fact that Hannibal had created a puzzle that captivated the sentries’ attention and gradually terrified them.
From the mountaintop there was no way to explain this bizarre sight.
If the sentries could have explained it they would have stayed at their posts.
If you find yourself trapped, cornered, and on the defensive in some situation, try a simple experiment: Do something that cannot be easily explained or interpreted.
Choose a simple action, but carry it out in a way that unsettles your opponent, a way with many possible interpretations, making your intentions obscure.
Don’t just be unpredictable (although this tactic too can be successful—see Law 17); like Hannibal, create a scene that cannot be read.
There will seem to be no method to your madness, no rhyme or reason, no single explanation.
If you do this right, you will inspire fear and trembling and the sentries will abandon their posts.
Call it the “feigned madness of Hamlet” tactic, for Hamlet uses it to great effect in Shakespeare’s play, frightening his stepfather Claudius through the mystery of his behavior. The mysterious makes your forces seem larger, your power more terrifying.
Image: The Dance of the Veils—the veils envelop the dancer. What they reveal causes excitement. What they conceal heightens interest. The essence of mystery.
Authority:
If you do not declare yourself immediately, you arouse expectation.... Mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery stirs up veneration. And when you explain, be not too explicit.... In this manner you imitate the Divine way when you cause men to wonder and watch.
(Baltasar Gracián, 1601-1658)
REVERSAL
In the beginning of your rise to the top, you must attract attention at all cost, but as you rise higher you must constantly adapt.
Never wear the public out with the same tactic.
An air of mystery works wonders for those who need to develop an aura of power and get themselves noticed, but it must seem measured and under control.
Mata Hari went too far with her fabrications; although the accusation that she was a spy was false, at the time it was a reasonable presumption because all her lies made her seem suspicious and nefarious.
Do not let your air of mystery be slowly transformed into a reputation for deceit. The mystery you create must seem a game, playful and unthreatening.
Recognize when it goes too far, and pull back.
There are times when the need for attention must be deferred, and when scandal and notoriety are the last things you want to create.
The attention you attract must never offend or challenge the reputation of those above you—not, at any rate, if they are secure. You will seem not only paltry but desperate by comparison. There is an art to knowing when to draw notice and when to withdraw.
Lola Montez was one of the great practitioners of the art of attracting attention. She managed to rise from a middle-class Irish background to being the lover of Franz Liszt and then the mistress and political adviser of King Ludwig of Bavaria. In her later years, though, she lost her sense of proportion.
In London in 1850 there was to be a performance of Shakespeare’s Macbeth featuring the greatest actor of the time, Charles John Kean.
Everyone of consequence in English society was to be there; it was rumored that even Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were to make a public appearance.
The custom of the period demanded that everyone be seated before the queen arrived.
So the audience got there a little early, and when the queen entered her royal box, they observed the convention of standing up and applauding her.
The royal couple waited, then bowed.
Everyone sat down and the lights were dimmed.
Then, suddenly, all eyes turned to a box opposite Queen Victoria’s: A woman appeared from the shadows, taking her seat later than the queen.
It was Lola Montez.
She wore a diamond tiara on her dark hair and a long fur coat over her shoulders.
People whispered in amazement as the ermine cloak was dropped to reveal a low-necked gown of crimson velvet.
By turning their heads, the audience could see that the royal couple deliberately avoided looking at Lola’s box.
They followed Victoria’s example, and for the rest of the evening Lola Montez was ignored.
After that evening no one in fashionable society dared to be seen with her.
All her magnetic powers were reversed. People would flee her sight. Her future in England was finished.
Never appear overly greedy for attention, then, for it signals insecurity, and insecurity drives power away.
Understand that there are times when it is not in your interest to be the center of attention. When in the presence of a king or queen, for instance, or the equivalent thereof, bow and retreat to the shadows; never compete.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my “48 Laws of Power” Index here…
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Uh oh. Yup. As if the last four years of “the fire hose of disinformation” wasn’t bad enough, It appears that the neocons on K-street in Washington DC are gearing up for “round two”. Ugh!
This model for propaganda is known as “the firehose of falsehood” because of two of its distinctive features: high numbers of channels and messages and a shameless willingness to disseminate partial truths or outright fictions. In the words of one observer, “...propaganda entertains, confuses and overwhelms the audience.”
A Senate committee has overwhelmingly passed the draft Strategic Competition Act in April 2021, which takes aims at China on multiple fronts, including military, economy and technology.
Of course, China will “take it on the chin“.
To "take it on the chin"
Meaning; this is a boxing metaphor meaning don't shy away from difficulty stand up for yourself don't complain get on with it be a man; be strong accept the challenge admit your mistakes andacceptcriticism
-Totake it on the chinmeaning
The United States is now the world’s most important powerhouse in technology, military might, and innovation. For China, being taken as a competitor by the U.S. is like to be chosen as a competitor by Mike Tyson, says Liu Baocheng.
The act is calling for over $1 billion to increase Washington’s already extensive global influence.
This includes over $650 million to fund foreign militaries in the Indo-Pacific region. The money would go to QUAD members to increase their size, train them to use American military equipment, and expand the size of their military bases so that American troops can use them.
It also includes some $450 million (in a separate budget element) for the Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Initiative. Which sounds really good. But is really funding to support US Navy operations in the South China Sea off the coast of China. Bases and facilities are being expanded to allow for American troops and equipment to be put in place prior to military excursions. This is what happened with Saudi Arabia prior to the Invasion of Iraq by America.
And yet another $300 million to counter Chinese influence around the world. Which is on all fronts, from direct bribes to various national oligarchies, to anti-China “message campaigns” to terrorist efforts, and of course the NGO’s that conduct “color revolutions”. In other words, to give money to terrorists, and instigators so that they would directly fight with Chinese as proxies instead of American CIA, and military troops.
Funding also covers investments to expand American exports to developing markets. Which means that since the primary export of America is military technology, this money would be used to get nations all over the globe to buy American weapons systems and locate”advisors” to help train, use and maintain the systems.
There’s a huge program to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Which of course includes generous propaganda efforts about “Uighur Muslims”, and efforts to create strife and war in that entire region.
And finally there are techniques (not so much in funding) to convince American companies leave the Chinese market. Such as telling McDonalds that it is more profitable to stop selling burgers in China, but instead sell them in Angola. Or telling Starbucks that the Chinese market isn’t going to grow and that they should invest in Iceland instead.
Liu says this type of ideological confrontation is really on the escalation, both [1] domestically in the U.S. (get American to hate China more), and that the U.S. is also trying to [2] persuade its allies to be against China (have the rest of the world hate China as well).
He said this act would hit China for a time being.
China relies very heavily on imports and exports, although it has the most self-sufficient industrial chains, and also is on its rapid transformation to be more self-reliant. As China plays a very important role in the international supply chain, this act will also hurt the world; particularly the U.S.
Now all this comes on top of the massive anti-efforts by Trump and his neocon friends from 2016 to present. What propaganda you might ask?
The fact that Western public opinion on China is marching in lockstep with the State Department’s call for Cold War aggression reflects the convergence of state, military, and corporate media interests which monopolize our media ecosystem. Behind the State Department’s bluster and the military “Pivot to Asia” exists a quiet, well-oiled machine that is busy manufacturing consent for war on China. Too often, the hawkish policy stances it enshrines are taken as objective ‘truth’ rather than as pro-war propaganda working in the interests of weapons corporations and political elites.
We call it Sinophobia, Inc.—an information industrial complex where Western state funding, billion dollar weapons manufacturers, and right-wing think tanks coalesce and operate in sync to flood the media with messages that China is public enemy number one. Armed with state funding and weapons industry sponsors, this handful of influential think tanks are setting the terms of the New Cold War on China. The same media ecosystem that greased the wheels of perpetual war towards disastrous intervention in the Middle East is now busy manufacturing consent for conflict with China.
By saturating our news and newsfeeds with anti-China messages, this media machine is convincing average people that a New Cold War is in their interests. In reality, the hype of an imagined ‘China threat’ only serves the interests of the political elites and defense industry CEOs who stand to profit from this disastrous geopolitical escalation.
-Manufacturing consent for Sinophobia
The cynical hypocrisy of the world’s No1 propagandist: US pledges $300mn to fund massive global anti-China media machine
Here's an article by Tom Fowdy, who is a British writer and analyst of politics and international relations with a primary focus on East Asia. this was written on 26 Apr, 2021 15:2, and reprinted here with editing to fit this venue. Of course, all credit to the author.
Chinese- and Russian-funded journalism is ‘disinformation,’ but when Washington spends millions on ‘independent’ news outlets and buying journalists to get favorable coverage of its policies, it’s called ‘spreading information.’
.
The US Senate last week passed a bumper anti-China bill titled the “Strategic Competition Act”.
Backed by Chuck Schumer (Dem – New York) as one of his biggest priorities since becoming the Majority leader, the 270+ page document contains scores of recommendations and provisions on formalizing America’s “geopolitical competition” against Beijing.
This is a very comprehensive bill including in the fields of military, diplomacy, technology, trade and more.
There’s little question it will be passed into law, having already cleared the Senate and with the anti-Chinese sentiment in Washington being routinely bipartisan.
The bill also notably pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in various capacities for media focused initiatives against China.
This includes up to $300 million in an openly described effort to spread information on the “negative impact” of China’s $1 trillion-plus Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in participating countries.
A complete network of “anti-Chinese influence” programs.
A scheme to “train journalists” with the goal of countering Beijing.
And of course, millions more in funding for Radio Free Asia. So that it can expand its coverage in the specified languages of Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan and Uighur.
In short, it’s a mammoth propaganda push.
Watch out!
All the time, we hear so much about “Chinese/Russian propaganda,” “disinformation,” etc, and often its impact is depicted in highly threatening or sensational ways. Yet rarely, if ever, is it reported how the west actively and openly engages in psychological warfare with the goal of changing politics and governments in targeted countries. Of course, all the while playing the perpetual victim.
Here it is in the new US bill in black and white.
It is as clear as crystal.
Yet very few will balk or take notice at the explicitly ambitious effort to attempt to attack China…
…to destabilize various regions of China…
…to promote unrest and…
…ideally, to “balkanize” the country.
This, of course, is not new; it’s what America has always done.
Western political thought is built on the assumption that it owns a monopoly over what is conceived as ‘political truth,’
That it is the source of all enlightenment and, in wielding that ‘monopoly,’ has a divine mandate to evangelize that ‘truth’ to others.
This draws up a binary logical distinction that everything the west advocates is always motivated by good faith, as opposed to self-interest.
And of course, and that everyone who opposes this agenda is always motivated by bad faith and evil motivations.
My main question is this: will we be able to determine which journalists have received State Department training? If so, will there be disclaimers added to the articles that were written by such journalists? 🤔
— bob742omb (@bob742omb) April 26, 2021
This underlines the mentality of western journalism, that it is the only impartial and verifiable source of the ‘truth’.
And that everyone who questions it is advocating ‘propaganda’ – a term which usually only emotionally resonates with “enemy states.”
This mindset distorts the more nuanced reality that all states engage in such behavior.
…And that the staple assumption of ‘western truth’ is subsequently used to shape the global narrative against designated targets.
…And to justify aggressive, self-interest-driven policies under the guise of “moral concern”.
…And to make people unable to question them.
The US has a long history of such psychological warfare, both explicit and implicit.
One of the most famous instances is what was revealed as Operation Mockingbird.
This operation was where the CIA secretly infiltrated the mainstream media at home and abroad, collaborating with journalists to push US foreign-policy interests.
Many journalists – including Pulitzer Prize winners – joined the CIA’s payroll.
They ended up intentionally writing fake stories to disseminate the agency’s agitprop.
And many were given falsified or fabricated information in support of the CIA’s mission.
This was during the Cold War.
But the program has never been officially discontinued, and why would it stop today in the wake of a new Cold War with China?
A “global discourse”
The Strategic Competition bill clearly illustrates that Washington places primary importance on dominating the “global discourse” in accordance with its interests, and it is arguably very good at doing this through a multitude of methods.
In addition to its efforts with journalists, America also has an army of think tanks funded by various interests.
Usually defense industries, who are designated to create studies in order to legitimize and market Washington’s foreign-policy goals.
Then they coordinate with the press which gives them favorable coverage.
They are capable of feeding terms, ideas and concepts to shape coverage in their favor.
Such as creating “talking points” such as “wolf warrior diplomacy,” “economic coercion,” “Indo-Pacific” and so on.
All of which don’t make arguments as much as they create “assumptions” to shape public thinking accordingly.
Then, of course, there’s the actual state media.
Instruments like “Radio Free Asia” (RFA) are never earmarked by social media as “state affiliated media”.
When it should be.
In the way the likes of CGTN and RT are described.
All this, despite the fact that RFA is a US government-funded tool directly spreading propaganda on behalf of Washington.
The bill’s text makes its purpose explicit: RFA will be utilized to promote unrest and resistance in Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong and even within China itself, something which would be deemed a malign form of foreign interference if done towards the west.
Yet the shocking part about it is, this is not all for China itself.
The US wants to interfere and manipulate the politics (and minds) of the citizens of hundreds of countries against Beijing.
It is planning to do so by spreading deliberate “negative” information concerning the BRI, with, of course, no consideration of its upsides whatsoever.
This means the American propaganda effort will span Latin America, South-East and Central Asia, as well as Africa.
Yet many in the west are happy to pass this behavior off as normal or acceptable, because the west is deemed the source of “truth” and “enlightenment” with the responsibility to “save” the backwards non-west.
In this case, we definitely need to talk more about organized, American-led disinformation and pure, geopolitically motivated propaganda.
Notwithstanding the onslaught of daily negative coverage as it is, Beijing needs to be ready to combat this effort and desperately improve the efficiency and credibility of its own media, especially in pointing out this kind of agenda and helping people think more about what they are consuming.
The ten rules of war propaganda were set forth by the historian Anne Morelli in her book The Principles of War Propaganda.
Well, let’s look at these rules.
In doing so, we will see that our mainstream media follow them exactly.
Anyone who follows the media reports in the West must realize that our Western media, free, objective, and critical, are engaged in war propaganda.
There are 10 well-known rules of war propaganda that are easy to check.
Rule 1: We don’t want war
The West supposedly never wants wars.
Even so, the West wages more wars than all other nation states put together.
Germany is fighting in Mali to supply the French nuclear power plants with uranium (officially against terrorists, of course).
Germany fought in Afghanistan for 20 years, so long that most have already forgotten what it was all about.
Germany has been militarily active in Kosovo for over 20 years to build democracy, but the Albanian mafia still rules there under the protection of the Bundeswehr. And so on.
All of these – and also the other – wars of the US-dominated West in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and on, all have one thing in common: Of course, the West did not want them at all, but was forced to war by the evil rulers.
This is the official reading every time, and none of the “rulers” has ever attacked a country in the West.
It was always the other way around, the West attacked.
But: “We don’t want the war”
Rule 2: The opposing camp is solely responsible for the war
See point one. Assad is allegedly responsible for the war in Syria, although the media in the West consistently keep silent about the CIA operation “Timber Sycamore” with which the CIA started the war.
If this is new to you, it’s no wonder.
Der Spiegel, for example, has never reported on how you can find the term “Timber Sycamore” when you search the Spiegel archive.
The relevant documents of the CIA were published in Washington years ago. If this is new to you, check it out.
It is always done that way. So it was with Iraq, Libya and all other wars in which the West is fighting.
The blame was placed on the other side, concealing that the West started the wars itself.
Rule 3: The leader of the opposing camp has the face of the devil
This is the classic.
The choice of words is crucial.
Putin, Assad and whoever are “potentates”, “autocrats”, “dictators” who commit all the deadly sins of the world.
When a war is imminent, the media bring – in order to make the population ready for war – the inevitable formulations of the “Second Hitler”, from whom the world must be saved.
Of course, the enemies do not have “governments”, they are “regimes”.
With all these formulations the “enemy” is dehumanized, the public should feel hatred and be ready to overthrow such an evil person, even at the cost of thousands of lives.
This is what is called “hatespeech” in modern German and what the same media, that use this hate propaganda against unloved heads of government, always find very bad.
Rule 4: We defend a good cause and not special interests
Of course, the US wanted to bring human rights, democracy and prosperity to Iraq.
Of course, it wasn’t about the oil wells that US corporations have secured for themselves.
Not even in Libya, where France (one of the driving forces in the war) has secured many oil wells.
And Mali is about the fight against terrorism, not the uranium on which the French nuclear industry depends.
And of course Syria is not about oil or the only Russian naval base in the Mediterranean, it is only about democracy, human rights and prosperity.
Wherever a government is critical of the West and where there are also natural resources (or where one of the main enemies China and Russia can be harmed), the West finds democracy and human rights very important.
But if a government is pro-Western and allows the West access to natural resources, such as the absolutist Saudi dictatorship, then democracy and human rights are not so important.
Incidentally, this is the key to understanding why Russia, which was a political friend under Yeltsin, has become enemy number one again under Putin:
Under Yeltsin, Western corporations had secured control of Russian oil and gas.
Putin ended that by 2003, and suddenly he was the number one villain.
It doesn’t say that in the “quality media”, but it was actually so banal.
Rule 5: The enemy commits atrocities deliberately; on the other hand, when we cross the line, it is unintentional
We experience this one all the time.
If the US is undoubtedly bombing a hospital in Afghanistan, then that is “collateral damage” and it was an accident.
Nobody is punished, the “quality media” quickly forget it and do not ask for clarification.
On the other hand, it is enough if someone claims without evidence that Russia or Syria bombed a hospital and the media in the West are reporting not only for days, but also afterwards, so that the public does not forget who it must hate.
Rule 6: The enemy uses illegal weapons
That is also a classic.
We have all heard many times that Assad uses “barrel bombs”.
Nobody really knows what that actually is, but it sounds pretty nasty.
The USA constantly uses barrel bombs, except they are called “cluster bombs” and the “quality media” are almost always shyly silent about them.
Why? Well, because these weapons are internationally banned.
Whether Assad uses this weapon has not been proven at all, but as a precaution the media have come up with a separate word for it so that the readers don’t even get the idea that the West could also use such weapons.
“…But he does that all the time.”
Rule 7: We suffer only slight losses; the enemy’s losses are enormous
This rule only applies when the war has entered its critical phase.
Before the war it was the other way around.
Before the war it was reported that the enemy was aggressive and, for example, had killed so many of “our” soldiers again when violating a ceasefire.
This is to prepare the public for a war.
We have been seeing this in Ukraine for years.
The “quality media” always report when it gets “hotter” there that the rebels have killed so many Ukrainian soldiers.
In doing so, they keep silent about the fact that the mostly Ukrainian shelling of residential areas preceded them, in which civilians were killed.
But you don’t find out about that from the “quality media”, you have to read the reports of the OSCE.
The “quality media” did not consider the fact that the OSCE presented a report in November 2020 in which it stated that almost 75 percent of civilian casualties in Donbass were due to the Ukrainian armed forces.
Rule 8: The artists and intellectuals support our cause
Notice how often celebrities have their say in the media who think the Western wars are good for moral reasons.
Celebs have spoken out against Assad, Gaddafi, and Saddam in recent years.
This is particularly evident in the American media.
In 2019 a prominent “benefit concert” for Venezuela took place in the Colombian border town of Cucuta.
Famous artists appeared in the middle of the jungle to sing against Maduro. Conveniently right next to the US military base there.
And for Navalny, for example, Western celebrities wrote an open letter to Putin in April 2021.
It did not contain any truths and probably hardly anyone has read it.
It was just important to be able to name the celebrities in the headlines of the media who are against Putin.
There are innumerable examples of this method of war propaganda.
But none of this has anything to do with politics, after all, what politician is interested in a singer’s opinion?
These reports only have the purpose of giving the public the feeling that the position of the West is morally correct.
And thus the fans of the stars are to be influenced accordingly and to follow their idol.
It’s all about emotions, not the actuality.
Rule 9: Our concern is something sacred
Of course, after all, it is supposedly about the “holy” values of the West, that is to say about democracy and human rights.
You can also kill people for this.
This is probably the oldest means of war propaganda in world history.
In ancient Rome one had to bring civilization to the barbarians, of course it was not about the enrichment of the generals.
Caesar moved to Gaul as a practically bankrupt man and came back very rich.
Later the Spaniards had to bring the “savages” in America the right faith so that they would not burn in the hell to which the Spaniards sent them on the occasion.
It wasn’t about the gold, of course.
And the British Empire wanted to bring civilization back to the “backward” colonies, because the poor, backward people in the colonies couldn’t rule themselves.
What I am writing here so ironically is true.
You can read it in the documents from the corresponding periods.
There was always a “sacred” reason for urgently going to war.
And today the “holy” concerns are democracy, human rights, women’s rights and so on.
It’s still the same principle as in antiquity, only the “sacred” concern changes every now and then.
Rule 10: Anyone who questions our propaganda is a traitor
Today the word “traitor” is out of date.
Today you can choose to say “Putin understanders”, “Kremlin trolls”, “conspiracy theorists”, “Chicom”, “fifty center”, “anti-Americans” and whatever other names are currently circulating.
Anyone who disagrees is demonized and marginalized.
But all of these terms have one thing in common: They identify the named person as an opponent of “Western values” or democracy. Ergo: it’s a traitor.
It’s shocking, but the German media is actually doing war propaganda like in the darkest times in history.
And not just since yesterday, it happened in 1991 in the First Gulf War with the incubator lie and has not been less since then, on the contrary, it has become more, and the techniques have been refined more and more.
Do you think it is a coincidence that the media works exactly according to the propaganda textbook?
Since many good people have found themselves susceptible to the narrative that China is the global supervillain…
…conspiring to overthrow western Christian values by any means necessary…
… I believe some lessons should be brought to bear.
Anti-Nation state fanatic George Soros stated at the 2020 Davos Summit that China has become the greatest threat to his vision for Open Society (right behind Trump’s USA). This was echoed by Lord Malloch Brown’s 2020 Global Government Speeches.
China’s deep alliance with Russia and the increased integration of the Eurasian Economic Union with the 135 nation strong Belt and Road Initiative form the basis of an alternative multipolar paradigm has kept imperialists up at night for the past several years.
The prospect of a US-China-Russia alliance has been one of the greatest threats to empire which peeked in the weeks before COVID-19 arose onto the scene as the US-China Trade Pact successfully entered its first phase (and has since fallen into shambles) as well as Trump’s repeated calls for “good relations with Russia.”
Amidst the surge of anti-China media psy ops published across Five Eyes nations, countless patriots of a conservative bent have found themselves absorbed into a red-scare manic hysteria.
Understanding the nature of the current psy ops, and new red scare deflection underway…
… it is necessary to review some seriously underappreciated facts of recent history…
… and since former secretary of State Sir Henry Kissinger (a genuine Knight of the British Empire), figures prominently in this story, it is wise to start with his relationship with China.
Although he is celebrated for being an “enlightened” liberal politician who helped China open up to the west after the dark days of Mao’s Cultural Revolution by extending western markets to China…
… the truth is very different.
A devout proponent of world government and population control, Kissinger had been the tool selected during a particularly important period of human history to advance a new ordering of world affairs.
The Division of the World Into Producers and Consumers
Since the world was taken off the gold reserve system way back in 1971, a new age of “post-industrialism” was unleashed onto a globalized world.
Humanity was given a new type of system which presumed that both our nature and the cause of value itself were located in the act of consuming.
The old idea that our nature was creative, and that our wealth was tied to producing, was assumed to be an obsolete thing of the past… a relic of a dirty old industrial age.
Under the new post-1971 operating system, we were told that the world would now be divided among producers and consumers.
The “have-not producers” would provide the cheap labor which first world consumers would increasingly rely on for the creation of goods they used to make for themselves.
“First world” nations were told…
…that according to the new post-industrial rules of de-regulation and market economics…
… that they should export their heavy industry, machine tools and other productive sectors abroad…
…as they transitioned into “white collar” post-industrial consumer societies.
The longer this outsourcing of industries went on, the less western nations found themselves capable of sustaining their own citizenries…
… building their own infrastructure…
…or determining their own economic destinies.
In place of full spectrum economies that once saw over 40% of North America’s labor force employed in manufacturing, a new addiction to “buying cheap stuff” began, and a “service economies” took over like a cancer.
To make matters worse, the many newly independent nations struggling to liberate themselves from colonialism…
…were told that they would have to abandon their dreams of development…
…since those goals would render the formula of a producer-consumer stratified society impossible to create.
Those leaders resisting this edict would face assassination or CIA overthrow.
Those leaders who adapted to the new rules would become peons of the new age of “Economic Hitmen”.
China and the West: The Real Story
By the time Deng Xiaoping announced the “opening up” of China in 1978, Kissinger had already managed the economic paradigm shift of 1971…
…which transformed U.S. Foreign Policy from a pro-development orientation towards a new policy of depopulation.
One that ended up targeting the poor nations of the global south under the logic that the resources under their soil were the lawful possession of the USA.
The NSSM 200 (titled “Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for US Security and Overseas Interests”) outlined its objective “Assistance for population moderation should give emphasis to the largest and fastest growing developing countries where there is a special US and strategic interest”.
… which was begun in full with the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes to 20% …
…that ensured a vast destruction of small and medium businesses across the board.
Believing China (then still largely an impoverished third world country) to be desperate enough to accept money and short-term salvation…
…after years of trauma induced by the Cultural Revolution.
Under Kissinger’s logic, China would receive just enough money to sustain a static existence but would never be able to stand on its own two feet.
Unbeknownst to Kissinger, China’s leaders under the direction of Zhou Enlai, and his disciple Deng Xiaoping had a much longer-term strategic perspective than their western partners ever imagined.
While receiving much needed revenue from foreign exports, China began to slowly create the foundations for a genuine renaissance which would be made possible by…
…slowly learning the skills…
… leapfrogging technologies…
…and acquiring means of production which the west had once pioneered.
Zhou Enlai had first enunciated this visionary program as early as 1963 under his Four Modernizations mandate (Industrial, agricultural, national defense and science and technology).
And then restated this program in January 1976 weeks before his death.
This program manifested itself in the July 6, 1978 State Council Forum on the “Principles to Guide the Four Modernizations”.
Informed by the findings of international exploratory missions conducted by economist Gu Mu’s delegations around various advanced world economies (Japan, Hong Kong, Western Europe).
The findings of Gu Mu’s reports laid out the concrete pathways for full spectrum economic sovereignty.
A sovereignty with a focus on cultivating the cognitive creative powers of a new generation of scientists.
Scientists that would drive the non linear breakthroughs needed for China to ultimately break free of the rules of closed-system economics which technocrats like Kissinger wished the world adhere to.
Deng Xiaoping broke from the radical Marxism prevalent among the intelligentsia by redefining “labor” from purely material constraints and elevating the concept rightfully to the higher domain of mind saying:
“We should select several thousand of our most qualified personnel within the scientific and technological establishment and create conditions that will allow them to devote their undivided attention to research.
Those who have financial difficulties should be given allowances and subsidies…
We must create within the party an atmosphere of respect for knowledge and respect for trained personnel.
The erroneous attitude of not respecting intellectuals must be opposed. All work. Be it mental or manual, is labor.”
Over the course of the coming decades, China learned, and like any student, copied, reverse engineered and reconstructed western techniques as it slowly generated capacities that ultimately allowed them press on the limits of human knowledge outpacing all western models.
Project 863 focused on areas of space, lasers, energy, biotechnology, new materials, automation and information technology.
This project became the driver for creative innovation guided by the National Science Foundation and was upgraded to the 973 Basic Research Program in 2009 to: “1).
Project 973 supported [1] multidisciplinary and fundamental research of relevance to national development; [2] Promote frontline basic research; [3] Support the cultivation of scientific talent capable of original research; and [4] Build high-quality interdisciplinary research centers.”
The fruits of these long term programs was beginning to be felt and by 1996, discussion for a New Silk Road reviving the ancient trade routes connecting China to Europe and Africa through the Middle East and Caucasus was beginning with conferences hosted by Beijing under President Jiang Zemin.
One of the few western participants at these Chinese events was the Schiller Institute, whose founders delivered a full day seminar in 1997 describing the program that would finally come back to life in 2013 when Xi Jinping made it the focus of China’s foreign policy outlook under the Belt and Road Initiative.
Why did this program wait until 2013 to blossom onto the world stage when obvious momentum was already in motion in 1997?
George Soros and the Attack on the Asian Markets
From May 1997, George Soros’ targeting of the Southeast Asian “Tigers economies” of Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Laos, and Malaysia with…
…speculative short sales of their local currencies…
…and which resulted in months of vast anarchy across all of Asia and the world more broadly.
Currencies collapsed from 10-80% over the next 8 months and took many years to begin to recover.
Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohammed was brave enough to call out Soros’ economic warfare.
He did much to help his nation weather the storm by imposing capital controls to maintain some semblance of stability.
He ended up calling out the speculator saying:
“as much as people who produce and distribute drugs are criminals, because they destroy nations, the people who undermine the economies of poor nations are too.”
Chinese President Jiang Zemin followed suit calling Soros “a financial sniper” and stated he would not let the speculator enter Chinese markets.
“The ultimate target is China.
The British are particularly worried about the increasingly close collaboration between China and the ASEAN nations, which are being integrated into the massive regional and continental development projects initiated by China under the umbrella of the Eurasian Continental Land-Bridge program.
Such real development policies offer the alternative to the cheap-labor, colonial-style export industries of the “globalization” model
- the model that has led to the financial bubbles now bursting worldwide.”
The Tumultuous Years of 1997-2013
With the advent of the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management…
(whose meltdown nearly took down the world economy in 1999 if not bailed out by central banks),
…followed by the Y2K/tech bubble explosion of 2000, the world markets nearly collapsed on several occasions.
9-11 unleashed a new era of warfare which deflected attention from the rot of the financial system while derivatives were deregulated.
And ‘Too Big To Fail’ banking formed in short order growing far beyond the powers of any nation state to rein in.
Under this period of destabilization, wars, terrorism and easy money speculation, China and its Eurasian allies moved slower to rebuild the physical basis of their existence…
…with the creation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization…
… long term planning…
… and a slow but steady focus on real (vs speculative) economic activity.
The fact that China was among the only nations of the world to keep national controls over their central bank and maintain Glass-Steagall bank separation were not lost on the enemies of humanity…
…all of whom are still yearning for a world-wide bankers’ dictatorship.
This process continued until it became evident that the western unipolar agenda would stop at nothing…
…including nuclear war…
…in order to assure the total subservience of all nation states.
With Obama unveiling his Asia Pivot (air-sea battle) plans against China along with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) economic attack on China.
The veil was now lifted to the true ugly face behind the liberal fascist smiles and it became clear that the full spectrum dominance military encirclement of Russia’s perimeter was being fully extended to China’s perimeter as well.
The Revival of the New Silk Road
It was in the face of this existential threat that Xi Jinping emerged as the new leader of China.
And a historic crackdown of party corruption on all levels Federal, Provincial and Municipal was begun in force.
Although China is often accused of intellectual theft, the reality is that it has begun to clearly outpace western nations becoming a pioneer on every level of science and technology.
… since it is very well understood that it would become the basis for a new world system…
…as the old globalized paradigm comes crashing down faster than the Hindenburg.
The Real Perpetrators Laugh as a New Cold War Hysteria is Orchestrated
It is perhaps an irony that those figures who have been caught time and again attempting to destroy the foundations of both the USA, China and Russia have deflected attention from their own actions by promoting the idea that China is the USA’s natural enemy.
The reality is China is currently not only reviving the ancient silk road paradigm that focused on a harmony of interests and mutual self interest through economic and cultural exchange…
In this 1920 document China’s first President outlined the superiority of the American system of political economy which he studied deeply beginning in his early student days in the USA.
And upon which he explicitly modelled his new republican China and his three Principles of the People (premised on Lincoln’s principle of a nation for, by and of the people).
Sun Yat-sen (a Christian Confucian revolutionary) is not only the beloved founding father of the republic of China celebrated to this day, but stated his views pro-American views in the following terms
“The world has been greatly benefited by the development of America as an industrial and a commercial Nation.
So a developed China with her four hundred millions of population, will be another New World in the economic sense.
The nations which will take part in this development will reap immense advantages.
Furthermore, international cooperation of this kind cannot but help to strengthen the Brotherhood of Man.”
Both mainstream and alternative media outlets that tend to be sympathetic to conservative values have bit the bait…
…and are now blind to the fact that those oligarchical social engineers managing the World Economic Forum…
…and drooling over a new era of World Government…
… population reduction and technocratic feudalism…
…are laughing at all of those fish in their nets whose ignorance to history and other cultures are leading them to their own self-destruction.
…
Upon this backdrop we have this little interesting take on events…
U.S. Four Star Generals Ask DNI To Stop Lying
These folks have had it with the constant stream of baseless propaganda U.S. intelligence is spilling over the world:
Dear Director of National Intelligence,we, the the 4-star Generals leading U.S. regional commands all over the world, are increasingly concerned with about the lack of evidence for claims you make about our opponents.We, as true believers, do not doubt whatever judgment you make about the harmful activities of Russia, Iran and China. However - our allies and partners do not yet subscribe to the bliss of ignorance. They keep asking us for facts that support those judgmentsUnfortunately, we have none that we could provide.You say that Russia thought to manipulate Trump allies and to smear Biden, that Russia and Iran aimed to sway the 2020 election through covert campaigns and that China runs covert operations to influence members of Congress.Media reports have appeared in which 'intelligence sources' claim that Russia, China and Iran are all paying bounties to the Taliban for killing U.S. soldiers. Fortunately no soldier got hurt by those rumors.Our allies and partners read those and other reports and ask us for evidence. They want to know how exactly Russia, Iran and China are doing these things. They, of course, hope to learn from our experience to protect their own countries.Currently we are not able to provide them with such information. Your people keep telling our that all of it is SECRET.We therefore ask you to declassify the facts that support your judgments.*Sincerely
The Generals
----PS: *Either that or shut the fuck up.
The above may well have been a draft for the letter behind this report:
America’s top spies say they are looking for ways to declassify and release more intelligence about adversaries’ bad behavior, after a group of four-star military commanders sent a rare and urgent plea asking for help in the information war against Russia and China.The internal memo from nine regional military commanders last year, which was reviewed by POLITICO and not made public, implored spy agencies to provide more evidence to combat "pernicious conduct."
Only by "waging the truth in the public domain against America’s 21st century challengers” can Washington shore up support from American allies, they said. But efforts to compete in the battle of ideas, they added, are hamstrung by overly stringent secrecy practices.
“We request this help to better enable the US, and by extension its allies and partners, to win without fighting, to fight now in so-called gray zones, and to supply ammunition in the ongoing war of narratives," the commanders who oversee U.S. military forces in Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, as well as special operations troops, wrote to then-acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire last January.
“Unfortunately, we continue to miss opportunities to clarify truth, counter distortions, puncture false narratives, and influence events in time to make a difference," they added.
The generals must have been seriously miffed to write such a letter.
There have been a number of published intelligence judgments where the NSA had expressed low confidence in conclusions made mainly by the CIA.
The NSA is part of the military.
Between two bureaucracies such an accusing letter or internal memo is the equivalent of a declaration of war.
It is doubtful that the intelligence folks would win that fight.
That gives some hope that the Office of the DNI and the agencies below it will now lessen their production of nonsensical claims.
….
The CIA/FBI/17+ known/unknown agencies are clearly a security apparatus that’s gone out of control when even the USA’s “nine regional [four-star general] military commanders” are out of the loop and pleading to be better informed.
Worryingly, though, they ask for “ammunition in the ongoing war of narratives,” which they apparently are ready to go right along with.
Western news media, of course, has become but a compliant weaponized appendage of that security apparatus, and democracy, which depends on informed voters, is nowhere in control of any of this.
Down this slippery slope, lies fascism.
US needs a correct mindset to compete with China: Global Times editorial
It must be emphasized that it's the sacred right of all 1.4 billion Chinese people to have a better living standard through the country's development. The US elites fear and try to contain China's development, and turn the normal competition between the two countries into a zero-sum game. This is immoral and runs counter to human rights that they trumpet. Washington cannot say one thing but do another. Blocking the economic and technological progress of developing countries is the biggest sin of the 21st century. They need to bear in mind that it's not the privilege of the Americans and Westerners to live a decent life.
Around and around the water goes down the drain. Those in the water are desperately trying to throw out anchors and shoot flare into the night skies above. But no one is aware.
The warning alarms are ringing loudly
While the United States might believe that it represents the entirety of the “free world” and thus ALL nations that “matter”. This is a complete falsehood. The rest of the world is really, seriously getting fed up, and angry.
Since Joe Biden took over the White House on January 20, the US has been pushing for what it calls an allied approach against China on trade and other issues. So far, that approach appears to be gaining some traction, as the US and some of its allies, including the EU and Japan, are reportedly mulling harsher trading rules targeting China.
Chinese officials have repeatedly registered their displeasure with such an approach of forming small circles or clans among so-called democratic economies to harm other countries’ interests.
However, China’s legitimate concerns have been largely overshadowed by what appears to be a coordinated smearing campaign against China by the West and their media. Not many countries, including developing economies that may also be targeted by the West’s “tougher” rules against China, spoke up. Even if some did, their voices are often ignored.
But at the EU’s trade policy day this week, where EU officials repeated long-standing grievances against China’s industrial policies and the state-owned companies, the new head of the WTO offered a very powerful and pragmatic repudiation of the group’s approach to gang up on China.
“I’ll just be very open,” said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who made history in March when she became the first woman and first African to head the WTO, as she warned against targeting China. “When China feels it’s being targeted and it’s only about China, then you get a lot of resistance.”
In the speech, Okonjo-Iweala went further to warn countries not to “use the WTO or trade as kind of a weapon to solve” political issues. She did not name names, but that is a reference to the plan pushed by the US, the EU and Japan to try to “weaponize the WTO” and international trading rules to serve their ill-willed, selfish political interests in containing China’s economic rise.
The WTO chief was eloquent and understandably diplomatic in issuing a dire warning against such a dangerous trend in global multilateral trading system. But in case some in the West might need a more straightforward reminder, here is the bottom line: The era when a small group of powers can decide others’ fate is long gone. The global multilateral system is no longer a tool that they can deploy at will.
Moreover, today’s China is no longer the same country that was easily invaded by the so-called Eight-Nation Alliance over a century ago. It is now the world’s second-largest economy, the world’s largest trading nation, and the biggest contributor to global economic growth. China will not be intimidated and pushed around by a few so-called advanced countries.
To put the WTO chief’s warning into more blunt terms, China will not sit idle and allow the US and its allies to use the WTO as a weapon against itself. Any such attempt should and will be met with forceful resistance.
And that resistance won’t just come from China.
The US and its allies might being targeting China directly, but whatever reform plans they push forward at the WTO will also hit other developing countries, which have similar economic policies and development plans as China. In fact, while the US and its allies may have put China on the spotlight, their true intention is to pull the WTO and global trading rules further into their favor and away from the developing economies.
The WTO, whose operations and authority have been seriously undermined by the US, is in dire need of reform. But any reform plan should be discussed and decided by all of its 150 or so members, not just by the US and its allies. The reforms should make the WTO more balanced to serve not only advanced economies – as it is in many cases – but also developing economies – which make up two-thirds of its membership.
Conclusion
Ok, so it’s really clear. Billions of dollars are pouring out of the United States towards the demonization of China, and towards instigation of internal strife and NGO-backed revolutions.
This will not happen quietly.
American readers will get the brunt of the propaganda. Most Americans, Brits, and Australians (as well as other member of the “Western Alliance”) will start seeing their news feeds clogged up with very healthy does of anti-China “news”.
Some of it will be subtle; existing real news with injections of anti-China phrases and content interspersed.
Some of it will be direct, in your face. It might consist of lies, or half-truths. All will be distortions.
Some of it will be directed at any nations that support China. If Cambodia does something in favor of the BRI, you can well expect a healthy dose of anti-Cambodia articles to start appearing as well.
But that’s not all.
The new funding is specifically directed at fomenting military operations inside of China itself.
There will be more attempts at “color revolutions”, “pro-democracy” actions, and covert insurgency operations.
There will be an increase in Social Justice Warrior interruptions; all designed to tear apart the strong Chinese social and familial value system.
There will be training to these ends, and clandestine efforts to stop China at all casts so that it collapses from the outer edges, and internally from the middle.
Every time you read an anti-China “news” article, realize that it is part of a triad of articles across different platforms all sending the same messages, and with that they interlock with your reading habits to interject, at key points, other anti-China screeds. All with the ultimate desire to have you (the reader) “foaming at the mouth” ready for war with China.
Here’s what they want the sheeple to turn into… (from my inbox)
Filthy Scumbag Communist Traitors are constantly trying to convince you that it’s normal to go through life living off handouts and dependent on the government for survival.
Communists want you to believe you are a victim and that others are to blame for your circumstances.
Communists employ censorship and violence to force their beliefs on you because they are incapable of forming valid arguments. Because there is no valid argument to convince you to accept that your prosperity must depend on the degree of your worship of the state.
You can not be convinced by logic or reason that you’re better off poor and powerless than rich and in control of your destiny.
Real Americans believe in and practice self-reliance. Real Americans accept responsibility for their circumstances and make the necessary sacrifices of their time and attention to improve the quality of their lives.
Real Americans Are Entrepreneurs. Real Americans create opportunity and prosperity. Real Americans are not victims because Real Americans Are Champions.My Fellow Americans Please Help To Make America Greater Than We Already Are And To Help Keep America Great By Starting Your Own Business Or Expanding Your Existing Business.Capital Funding And Comprehensive Training And Mentoring Are Available to All American Patriots Regardless Of Your Current Credit Score Or Current Or Past Circumstances.
This comes from a reader who admitted that they never visited China, never obtained a passport, but knows what China is because…
…well they said it’s “obvious”.
Sheeple. The United States Congress has decided to militarize the sheeple to ready them for war.
Last Minute additions
Video: US President Biden administration will provide US$300 million per year to promote fake news against China. 美國總統拜登政府將每年提供3億美元，以宣傳針對中國的虛假新聞.
Expect more hate crimes targeting Asian American in the coming months and years. 預計在未來數年內，將有更多針對亞裔美國人的仇恨犯罪。
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
I do not advocate following this law, but you all should be made well aware of it. When you are outside of your friends and family you enter a zone of questionable trust. You do need to be somewhat guarded in your public dealings as not everyone is a friend. No matter what they say. The world is filled with all kinds of people, all involved with all kinds of agendas.
Please take note that there are others that prefer to use this technique. Be wary.
LAW 12
USE SELECTIVE HONESTY AND GENEROSITY TO DISARM YOUR VICTIM
JUDGMENT
One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people. Once your selective honesty opens a hole in their armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. A timely gift— a Trojan horse—will serve the same purpose.
OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW
Sometime in 1926, a tall, dapperly dressed man paid a visit to Al Capone, the most feared gangster of his time.
Speaking with an elegant Continental accent, the man introduced himself as Count Victor Lustig.
He promised that if Capone gave him $50,000 he could double it.
Capone had more than enough funds to cover the “investment,” but he wasn’t in the habit of entrusting large sums to total strangers.
He looked the count over: Something about the man was different—his classy style, his manner—and so Capone decided to play along.
He counted out the bills personally and handed them to Lustig. “Okay, Count,” said Capone. “Double it in sixty days like you said.”
Lustig left with the money, put it in a safe-deposit box in Chicago, then headed to New York, where he had several other money- making schemes in progress.
The $50,000 remained in the bank box untouched.
Lustig made no effort to double it.
Two months later he returned to Chicago, took the money from the box, and paid Capone another visit.
He looked at the gangster’s stony- faced bodyguards, smiled apologetically, and said,
“Please accept my profound regrets, Mr. Capone. I’m sorry to report that the plan failed... I failed.”
Capone slowly stood up.
He glowered at Lustig, debating which part of the river to throw him in.
But the count reached into his coat pocket, withdrew the $50,000, and placed it on the desk.
“Here, sir, is your money, to the penny. Again, my sincere apologies. This is most embarrassing. Things didn’t work out the way I thought they would. I would have loved to have doubled your money for you and for myself—Lord knows I need it— but the plan just didn’t materialize.”
Capone sagged back into his chair, confused. “I know you’re a con man, Count,” said Capone.
“I knew it the moment you walked in here. I expected either one hundred thousand dollars or nothing. But this... getting my money back ... well.”
“Again my apologies, Mr. Capone,” said Lustig, as he picked up his hat and began to leave. “
My God! You’re honest!” yelled Capone.
“If you’re on the spot, here’s five to help you along.”
He counted out five one-thousand-dollar bills out of the $50,000. The count seemed stunned, bowed deeply, mumbled his thanks, and left, taking the money.
The $5,000 was what Lustig had been after all along.
FRANCESCO BORRI. COURTIER CHARLATAN
Francesco Giuseppe Borri of Milan, whose death in 1695 fell just within the seventeenth century ... was a forerunner of that special type of charlatanical adventurer, the courtier or “cavalier” impostor....
His real period of glory began after he moved to Amsterdam.
There he assumed the title of Medico Universale, maintained a great retinue, and drove about in a coach with six horses.... Patients streamed to him, and some invalids had themselves carried in sedan chairs all the way from Paris to his place in Amsterdam.
Borri took no payment for his consultations: He distributed great sums among the poor and was never known to receive any money through the post or bills of exchange.
As he continued to live with such splendor, nevertheless, it was presumed that he possessed the philosophers’ stone.
Suddenly this benefactor disappeared from Amsterdam. Then it was discovered that he had taken with him money and diamonds that had been placed in his charge.
THE POWER OF THE CHARLATAN, GRETE DE FRANCESCO, 1939
Interpretation
Count Victor Lustig, a man who spoke several languages and prided himself on his refinement and culture, was one of the great con artists of modem times.
He was known for his audacity, his fearlessness, and, most important, his knowledge of human psychology.
He could size up a man in minutes, discovering his weaknesses, and he had radar for suckers.
Lustig knew that most men build up defenses against crooks and other troublemakers.
The con artist’s job is to bring those defenses down.
One sure way to do this is through an act of apparent sincerity and honesty.
Who will distrust a person literally caught in the act of being honest?
Lustig used selective honesty many times, but with Capone he went a step further.
No normal con man would have dared such a con; he would have chosen his suckers for their meekness, for that look about them that says they will take their medicine without complaint.
Con Capone and you would spend the rest of your life (whatever remained of it) afraid.
But Lustig understood that a man like Capone spends his life mistrusting others.
No one around him is honest or generous, and being so much in the company of wolves is exhausting, even depressing.
A man like Capone yearns to be the recipient of an honest or generous gesture, to feel that not everyone has an angle or is out to rob him.
Lustig’s act of selective honesty disarmed Capone because it was so unexpected.
A con artist loves conflicting emotions like these, since the person caught up in them is so easily distracted and deceived.
Do not shy away from practicing this law on the Capones of the world.
With a well-timed gesture of honesty or generosity, you will have the most brutal and cynical beast in the kingdom eating out of your hand.
Everything turns gray when I don’t have at least one mark on the horizon. Life then seems empty and depressing. I cannot understand honest men. They lead desperate lives, full of boredom.
Count Victor Lustig, 1890-1947
KEYS TO POWER
The essence of deception is distraction.
Distracting the people you want to deceive gives you the time and space to do something they won’t notice.
An act of kindness, generosity, or honesty is often the most powerful form of distraction because it disarms other people’s suspicions.
It turns them into children, eagerly lapping up any kind of affectionate gesture.
In ancient China this was called “giving before you take”—the giving makes it hard for the other person to notice the taking.
It is a device with infinite practical uses.
Brazenly taking something from someone is dangerous, even for the powerful.
The victim will plot revenge.
It is also dangerous simply to ask for what you need, no matter how politely:
Unless the other person sees some gain for themselves, they may come to resent your neediness.
Learn to give before you take.
It softens the ground, takes the bite out of a future request, or simply creates a distraction.
And the giving can take many forms: an actual gift, a generous act, a kind favor, an “honest” admission—whatever it takes.
Selective honesty is best employed on your first encounter with someone.
We are all creatures of habit, and our first impressions last a long time.
If someone believes you are honest at the start of your relationship it takes a lot to convince them otherwise.
This gives you room to maneuver.
…
Jay Gould, like Al Capone, was a man who distrusted everyone.
By the time he was thirty-three he was already a multimillionaire, mostly through deception and strong-arming.
In the late 1860s, Gould invested heavily in the Erie Railroad, then discovered that the market had been flooded with a vast amount of phony stock certificates for the company.
He stood to lose a fortune and to suffer a lot of embarrassment.
In the midst of this crisis, a man named Lord John Gordon-Gordon offered to help.
Gordon-Gordon, a Scottish lord, had apparently made a small fortune investing in railroads.
By hiring some handwriting experts Gordon-Gordon was able to prove to Gould that the culprits for the phony stock certificates were actually several top executives with the Erie Railroad itself.
Gould was grateful.
Gordon- Gordon then proposed that he and Gould join forces to buy up a controlling interest in Erie.
Gould agreed.
For a while the venture appeared to prosper.
The two men were now good friends, and every time Gordon-Gordon came to Gould asking for money to buy more stock, Gould gave it to him.
In 1873, however, Gordon-Gordon suddenly dumped all of his stock, making a fortune but drastically lowering the value of Gould’s own holdings.
Then he disappeared from sight.
Upon investigation, Gould found out that Gordon-Gordon’s real name was John Crowningsfield, and that he was the bastard son of a merchant seaman and a London barmaid.
There had been many clues before then that Gordon-Gordon was a con man, but his initial act of honesty and support had so blinded Gould that it took the loss of millions for him to see through the scheme.
A single act of honesty is often not enough.
What is required is a reputation for honesty, built on a series of acts—but these can be quite inconsequential.
Once this reputation is established, as with first impressions, it is hard to shake.
…
In ancient China, Duke Wu of Chêng decided it was time to take over the increasingly powerful kingdom of Hu.
Telling no one of his plan, he married his daughter to Hu’s ruler.
He then called a council and asked his ministers,
“I am considering a military campaign. Which country should we invade?”
As he had expected, one of his ministers replied, “Hu should be invaded.”
The duke seemed angry, and said,
“Hu is a sister state now. Why do you suggest invading her?”
He had the minister executed for his impolitic remark.
The ruler of Hu heard about this, and considering other tokens of Wu’s honesty and the marriage with his daughter, he took no precautions to defend himself from Cheng.
A few weeks later, Chêng forces swept through Hu and took the country, never to relinquish it.
…
Honesty is one of the best ways to disarm the wary, but it is not the only one.
Any kind of noble, apparently selfless act will serve.
Perhaps the best such act, though, is one of generosity.
Few people can resist a gift, even from the most hardened enemy, which is why it is often the perfect way to disarm people.
A gift brings out the child in us, instantly lowering our defenses.
Although we often view other people’s actions in the most cynical light, we rarely see the Machiavellian element of a gift, which quite often hides ulterior motives.
A gift is the perfect object in which to hide a deceptive move.
…
Over three thousand years ago the ancient Greeks traveled across the sea to recapture the beautiful Helen, stolen away from them by Paris, and to destroy Paris’s city, Troy.
The siege lasted ten years, many heroes died, yet neither side had come close to victory.
One day, the prophet Calchas assembled the Greeks.
Image: The Trojan Horse. Your guile is hidden inside a magnificent gift that proves irresistible to your opponent. The walls open. Once inside, wreak havoc.
“Stop battering away at these walls!” he told them. “You must find some other way, some ruse. We cannot take Troy by force alone. We must find some cunning stratagem.”
The cunning Greek leader Odysseus then came up with the idea of building a giant wooden horse, hiding soldiers inside it, then offering it to the Trojans as a gift.
Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, was disgusted with this idea; it was unmanly.
Better for thousands to die on the battlefield than to gain victory so deceitfully.
But the soldiers, faced with a choice between another ten years of manliness, honor, and death, on the one hand and a quick victory on the other, chose the horse, which was promptly built.
The trick was successful and Troy fell.
One gift did more for the Greek cause than ten years of fighting.
…
Selective kindness should also be part of your arsenal of deception.
For years the ancient Romans had besieged the city of the Faliscans, always unsuccessfully.
One day, however, when the Roman general Camillus was encamped outside the city, he suddenly saw a man leading some children toward him.
The man was a Faliscan teacher, and the children, it turned out, were the sons and daughters of the noblest and wealthiest citizens of the town.
On the pretense of taking these children out for a walk, he had led them straight to the Romans, offering them as hostages in hopes of ingratiating himself with Camillus, the city’s enemy.
Camillus did not take the children hostage.
He stripped the teacher, tied his hands behind his back, gave each child a rod, and let them whip him all the way back to the city.
The gesture had an immediate effect on the Faliscans.
Had Camillus used the children as hostages, some in the city would have voted to surrender.
And even if the Faliscans had gone on fighting, their resistance would have been halfhearted.
Camillus’s refusal to take advantage of the situation broke down the Faliscans’ resistance, and they surrendered.
The general had calculated correctly.
And in any case he had had nothing to lose: He knew that the hostage ploy would not have ended the war, at least not right away.
By turning the situation around, he earned his enemy’s trust and respect, disarming them.
Selective kindness will often break down even the most stubborn foe: Aiming right for the heart, it corrodes the will to fight back.
Remember: By playing on people’s emotions, calculated acts of kindness can turn a Capone into a gullible child. As with any emotional approach, the tactic must be practiced with caution: If people see through it, their disappointed feelings of gratitude and warmth will become the most violent hatred and distrust. Unless you can make the gesture seem sincere and heartfelt, do not play with fire.
Authority:
When Duke Hsien of Chin was about to raid Yü, he presented to them a jade and a team of horses. When Earl Chih was about to raid Ch’ou- yu, he presented to them grand chariots. Hence the saying: “When you are about to take, you should give.”
(Han-fei-tzu, Chinese philosopher, third century B.C.)
REVERSAL
When you have a history of deceit behind you, no amount of honesty, generosity, or kindness will fool people.
In fact it will only call attention to itself.
Once people have come to see you as deceitful, to act honest all of a sudden is simply suspicious.
In these cases it is better to play the rogue.
…
Count Lustig, pulling the biggest con of his career, was about to sell the Eiffel Tower to an unsuspecting industrialist who believed the government was auctioning it off for scrap metal.
The industrialist was prepared to hand over a huge sum of money to Lustig, who had successfully impersonated a government official.
At the last minute, however, the mark was suspicious.
Something about Lustig bothered him.
At the meeting in which he was to hand over the money, Lustig sensed his sudden distrust.
Leaning over to the industrialist, Lustig explained, in a low whisper, how low his salary was, how difficult his finances were, on and on.
After a few minutes of this, the industrialist realized that Lustig was asking for a bribe.
For the first time he relaxed.
Now he knew he could trust Lustig: Since all government officials were dishonest, Lustig had to be real.
The man forked over the money.
By acting dishonest, Lustig seemed the real McCoy.
In this case selective honesty would have had the opposite effect.
…
As the French diplomat Talleyrand grew older, his reputation as a master liar and deceiver spread.
At the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), he would spin fabulous stories and make impossible remarks to people who knew he had to be lying.
His dishonesty had no purpose except to cloak the moments when he really was deceiving them.
One day, for example, among friends, Talleyrand said with apparent sincerity, “In business one ought to show one’s hand.”
No one who heard him could believe their ears: A man who never once in his life had shown his cards was telling other people to show theirs.
Tactics like this made it impossible to distinguish Talleyrand’s real deceptions from his fake ones.
By embracing his reputation for dishonesty, he preserved his ability to deceive.
Nothing in the realm of power is set in stone.
Overt deceptiveness will sometimes cover your tracks, even making you admired for the honesty of your dishonesty.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my “48 Laws of Power” Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Well, this post is to be an elaboration on a few specific MM comments. The poster wanted some clarification on what is going on regarding [1] hotels (in China, obviously) and [2] “new friends” that you might make on your adventures inside of China, and I of course, was more than willing to help him out.
But before I begin, let me clarify a few things.
First Off, China has changed.
China is not the way it was ten years ago, or even later. The days of going to a salon with wall to wall girls that can give you some manly pleasures are few and far-between today. Even in the remote communities. It’s all kind of dying off.
So your experience from ten years ago or longer are actually (sad to say) not really going to be replicated. Those days are over.
I do not see them returning.
The same goes with the ladies that walk the streets, and hang out on the corners. You used to see them everywhere and on certain streets. You can still go to those streets, but things are much more discreet these days. You need to know what you are doing, and have a local friend to help you navigate the local geography.
It’s all about change.
And change is good. Well, in this case it’s good.
Part of the reasons behind these changes it are due to laws, part of it is due to society, and part of it is due to technology.
Laws
China has implemented some harsh laws regarding morality. The Chinese government wishes to maintain a traditional culture, and thus many venues related to vice are discouraged. Prostitution has always existed, and still exists, but it is no longer so blatant and open as it used to be.
Raw, Western style, quick flings are a dying breed. Instead, they have been replaced with talented and beautifulcourtesans. These are mighty women. Some youngish (in their 20's) and some older. All strong, capable and beautiful.
Not to mention... profit oriented.
Society
China is very prosperous.
The Western "news" has been so God-Damn awful that no one outside of China realizes just how well off the Chinese are. They are not only far richer than their American equals, but they own multiple homes, have savings, and are generally far happier.
A walk through any Chinese parking lot will produce a vast number of Mercedes, BMW's, Porches, and high-end local vehicles. Not to mention the occasional Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Bentley.
What this means is that even the poorest Chinese person is doing quite well. The need to go prostitute yourself out of drug addiction, poverty or some kind of forced-slavery is no longer on the table. People who prostitute themselves in China do so for additional money, or to improve their lives. Not out of necessity.
Technology
QR code in the skies of Shenzhen. All done by laser-mounted and LED mounted drones flying via 5G and AI.
Sure there are dating APPs, and payment APPS and QR codes and all sorts of technology that makes business transactions very easy, and free.
Unlike the USA where every single thing you do comes with a fee, in China it's free. You want to transfer some money electronically, scan the QR. No cost. It's free. Try doing that in America. America is the land with a million tiny, tiny hands in your wallet taking very small bites out of everything that you do, so that at the end of the day your wallet is empty.
Not in China.
So it's much easier to network electronically, make your connections and associations and make some "new friends" in the process. Everyone has a smart phone, and unlike America where you need to pay a weeks salary for one, here in China they are cheap and easy to get. Everyone has them. Everyone uses them.
And if you want to make a few spare yuan on the side, it's ridiculously easy to meet new people, and make new friends.
China is far, far, FAR more advanced than anyone in the West has any idea about. All those electronics, and technologies that come from Germany, Japan, Switzerland and Korea are all developed and made inside of China.
That’s the reality.
And that is partially why the US government is so horrified about “China’s rise”. As if it just happened “over night”. It didn’t.
And don’t even get me started on the idea that America is going to invest 2 trillion dollars on infrastructure to catch up with China…
Catch up…
The second point…
I think that the world has become a very harsh place.
Some places like the Middle East, and America are very difficult places to live. People feel under all sorts of pressure and need a release. They want some fun, and some pleasure.
And while I like to talk about the sexual activity that may or may not be associated with this, I strongly believe that the companionship of some new friends, some good food, and great conversation is really … REALLY… very much in need today.
Seriously, the best conversationalists are women.
I am sorry guys. That’s a fact. And they can chat up a storm, and they are interesting to boot! Add to that the fact that they can read EQ and emote to you on a very deep and significant level. It’s calming to me, and seriously I need to relax before I am ready to perform any kind of sexual activity. I’m not a 16 year old boy. I need intellectual stimulation to relax.
The old days of being “ready to go” in a second and leap into bed are long, long gone. Those days are like a very distant memory to me.
Now from my point of view, as a older man, I need to have more stimulation aside from what you would just get sexually. I need to have some good food. Some great wine. And some great conversation with a woman that spends the time to look great and who is willing to chat up and have some fun with me. Other older men in the MM audience know what I am talking about.
For you’se other guys that don’t know, and don’t understand, you WILL find out.
Just popping a Viagra, or a Cialis just won’t cut it.
It’s no longer about getting “it up”, and “staying hard”. It’s also about wanting to have sex, being interested, and staying interested, and having the energy and stamina to engage in some physical romping.
Your little-MM won’t budge an inch unless you are relaxed and interested in your partner and what they have to say.
That’s just the way it is.
Believe me or not. I don’t care.
For me, you just aren’t gonna get that with a run-of-the-mill street walker. Instead, You get that (what you need) from friends, and from other people who are upwardly mobile looking to chat up with successful and interesting men.
Interesting men. People who can discuss things on a wide selection of topics, and who have some money to spend, and like to play around a little bit. And that’s … well… you all like MM don’t you?
Ok. Enough of that disclaimer.
I think you all know what I am trying to say. Stop thinking that everything is a black and white cartoon. It isn’t. the world is colorful, and the needs of humans are varied and complex. Our best experiences come from understanding and embracing this fact.
Drink some wine. Chat up on a subject that you love to talk about. Be a little goofy, or silly. Don’t be afraid to say things. Joke some, drink some and eat some delicious food. have a great time, and then… relaxed, and engaged, you can take your time alone with your new friends. At a nice, leisurely pace.
It’s a win – win.
The Comment
I think this comment was written on 19APR21.
Concerning “ding dong” girls.
IMO best to just go into the bar. My first experience was in a Zhuhai hotel. (Took ferry straight from Hong Kong airport). The bar folks will call somone to come talk to you if there is no one there.
However, found out the hard way that first Chinese trip that you need to be careful about the pebble trick (I believe that is what happened: someone put a stone in the door so it never fully closed and while showering someone came in and exchanged my real RMB with counterfeit RMB). First the taxi guy told me I had fake RMB (didn’t believe him since I had it exchanged in the bank the previous day) but accepted they were fake when I went for an incredible foot and back massage the next night.
Also, learned the scary way in Shanghai to never go to KTVs that are not connected to the hotels you are staying in, unless you are with a local.
If one had a “ding dong” girl (first time I heard the term), how does one pay them if currency is no longer exchanged? Or do you still need cash for stuff like that?
And this is my response, and note that I elaborated upon it substantially…
Payment
You pay the girls using QR scans via Ali-pay, WeChat, or in E-yuan.
The most common way to move money around to friends or make purchases within China is through QR code. Everyone has one, and depending on your situation, you might have a couple all directing to different backs or purposes that you have arranged beforehand. You can read about it HERE.
Sometimes you can use some paper currency. They are useful. No one is going to reject a couple of thousand RMB if you hand it to them.
But in general, you use e-pay. You just generate your personal QR to your bank account. It’s amazingly easy.
If she (or he) is reluctant to give you a QR to scan, you can easily pass the money to here electronically. (BTW, It’s never happened.) I know that there is a KTV club in Louhu, Shenzhen that has a nice troop of young attractive men (in white) that service the ladies. They have a QR code printed on a cloth that is sewn into their jacket. They just flop out the cloth QR and the lady (or guy) scans the code and everyone is good to go.
Male hosts tend to provide services to the ladies in fine, clean (and often white) attire.
It doesn’t sound very classy, but it is. It’s all in the presentation. You know, for a man who is providing services to a lady, the actions and the behaviors are all very scripted and precise. It’s not crude at all, but rather very refined, polite, and calming.
In general, the most common way of transferring money is through the exchange of wechat names, and then you can either do a direct transfer, or send a few red envelopes to her. As in the picture at the top of this article.
Sending a “red envelope” full of money to a friend is very easy using WeChat.
If that doesn’t work, then you can do a direct surface to surface transfer of cash.You use a direct transfer APP and put your two phones physically together and the transfer goes directly without using Wifi.
Finally, if she is associated with the hotel, you can tack her fees to your hotel bill, and the gal at the register will hand her cash or transfer via QR.
Most of the bars with the bar-girls available via ferry from HK to Shekou no longer exist. The entire area has been built up by overseas Chinese investors and is now one large sprawling mall with Western prices. Yikes!
As far as Zhuhai is concerned, the major hotels that were involved in the KTV girls pretty much were closed. The hotel in front of my home was busted in 2013 for having 600 KTV girls. It was a night of many sorrows, I can well imagine.
Vice raids on Chinese hotels that host KTV girls and boys occur all over China. Since 2013 the police has put a major clamp-down on these establishments and most have ended up operating in a stealth mode ever since.
Ding Dong girls are the girls on the colorful business cards that you see shoved under your hotel doors, or on the street. Usually if you see a trail of cards on the sidewalk, they are a trail of “bread crumbs” that you follow to a hotel lobby.
You can tell that “X” marks the spot with a bunch of cards lying on the cement in front of the lobby door.
So you look down, see all these business sized colorful cards with pictures of cute girls and then you look in the front lobby. There when you go in, you’ll see from three to seven girls all sitting around in the lobby looking bored and playing with their phones.
You can, of course, go up to them and chat.
But more commonly is that you turn on your wechat “scan for local members” and see if any of the girls near you are broadcasting.This feature will alert you to all the local people near you with a wechat on. Which should be a couple thousand. But if you only look at those that are the closest to you, you will be fine. You should be able to pick out the girls really easily.
For instance, if you are in a lobby, the girls will be from 1 to 10 meters away. So you look over the closest girls and try to associate the girl with the wechat picture. The smartest girls will put their picture so that you can recognize them directly.
Chances are, that they are available. so you find the gal that you want, and you connect, and send her a message. The wechat function allows you to chat and translate at the same time. So you just say hi. Ask the amount, and the desired services, and then you two can go up to the hotel and have some fun.
It’s super convenient.
Now the “shake” feature is something different. You can easily connect with someone. You both click on the shake feature , and then both phones will connect. It’s useful when you don’t have a local Wifi and you don’t want to use data. You just shake and broadcast.
I tend not to use it very much.
But it can get you to meet some interesting people…
About the “fun”
Well, I assume that most MM readers are adults, eh?
Fun means many things to many people. When I was a younger fellow, I would immediately get down to “business”. Get my rocks off and they see the lady out the door. But, you know, that’s a long, long time ago.
So you see guys, as you get older, your testosteronedropsdramatically, You just don’t have the interest in sex like you used to have when you are younger.
Now, the thing is that it’s not only the singular need to have enough blood pressure in the nether regions so you can pop up a nice erection, but rather it is the entire system.
It’s like a car that’s getting old…
Worn out car. This is what happens to hard-drivers when they get old.
When you get old, you are like a high-performance car that needs some really, really good tender loving and care.
You run out of gas…
…and out of oil,
…and out of windshield washer fluid,
…and out of brake fluid,
…and out of steering wheel fluid,
…and a loss of air pressure in the tires…
Yikes!
And along with that comes with the entire effort to “get it up” to engage in sexual activity.
Actually as bad as it sounds, it’s no big deal. We all (really) don’t care that much about it. The truth of the matter is that by the time you are in your mid-60’s you know how the world works and discover that your fears about relationships and sex are just nonsense.
And when you don’t have that testosterone screaming in your ear all day and night, you can take your time and savor what is in front of you. Things are not so urgent, and driven any longer.
Truth.
You no longer gobble down a hamburger and wash it down with a coke. Instead, you take the time to find a nice local restaurant, and call a friend to join you. You pick out the meal carefully, and you savor the smells, the environment, and the companionship. You appreciate things more. You are no longer in such a frantic rush to “obtain”, or to “get” what ever it is that you are being driven towards.
As you get older, you start to savor what is placed before you. And you start enjoying life.
What is going on…
There are three primary components to a male sex rive & ability. They are…
Ability to have (and maintain) an erection. [Blood pressure]
Interest and desire
Ability to make the milky goodness and release.
Of course, this is never spoken about. The closest you ever come to this kind of discussion is on a Viagra commercial. But it’s a real issue and you all should be made aware of it.
Guys, because after all, we all encounter these situations. One way or the other, and…
Women, to understand what is going on with the men in your life, you need to best understand a little bit about their biology.
Now…
I really don’t want to have this entire article degrade into a biologically based topic, but I do want to though out some quick notes that people can nod in agreements with or go “pshaw! You dat crazy!”.
[1] Ability to have (and maintain) an erection. [Blood pressure]
This is easy, more or less, to take care of. There are medicines (today) such as viagra, levitra and cialis. that can take care of this issue. The thing is about this is that you must be careful with drinking alcohol when you mix drugs. And when you are older, and you are taking other medicines for heart issues, blood pressure issues, and other issues, mixing medicines can come with consequences.
The thing is, and it's an important thing, just being hard and strong means nothing unless your other two issues are taken cared for.
[2] Interest and desire
The ability to have interest and desire is also complex. Much of that comes from Testosterone. and men tend to lose it as they get older. Which can be a real problem. You can end up having a lot of sex, but can never release. It can be a little frustrating. Don't you know.
Now there are natural ways to increase your production of this very important hormone. Good healthy food, and moderate exercise will work wonders. You can also take one of the different kinds of testosterone medications that are available.
Heck! You can even get some of the testosterone injection tablets that they inject into cattle (to make them big) and suck on it for a few minutes to improve your dose. (They are little white pills that look like tip of a ball point pen, on shaped like a miniature barrel.) But like all medications, if you do that without compensation in other areas, you might cause other problems. Try to strive for balance.
[3] Ability to make the milky goodness and release.
And thus, with the two above systems working well, and you are interested and relaxed with your partner, you would be able to ejaculate. And this (of course) starts up and fires up those wonderful endorphins that make us all feel good and healthy.
And the more times you do this a day (with a partner) the younger you become. Not just in mental attitude, but also in physical health.
Which leads me to…
Exercise
Never the less, having sex is a great way to get exercise, and we need exercise. If you don’t get your needed exercise you can be prone to illnesses, and those illnesses can actually kill you. So exercise is an important part of your daily regimen. So we engage in healthy pleasureful exercise every opportunity we get.
Did you know that men who have daily or sex often (during) a week tend to live, act, and look ten times younger? Its true!
So every opportunity I get, I try to engage in sex… you know… for health reasons. It’s important for me (personally) and for my family. It’s a need that all men must take regardless of your age.
Now if you don’t believe me, that’s fine too. But I am going to stick with my theories. Thank you very much.
The need for fun & companionship
All this being said, even if you have near-zero levels of testosterone, and a low interest in sex, you do want and need to have companionship. And if you are out and about, on the road, working like crazy, far away from home you do get lonely.
It might be nice eating in a restaurant a few times a week, but it gets really old, really fast if you are forced to do it every single day.
Business Road Warrior.
The life of a “road warrior” is not all that it is cracked up to be. And so when you are out with your friend and are out and about, it’s a real pleasure to have some close physical contact with an attractive member of the opposite sex who you want talk to and who is interesting.
And really…
Seriously…
Why be lonely when you could share it with other nice and interesting people. Not just women, of course, but men. And dogs. And cats. Is that fight, fight, fight for the “big money” worth taking away from some companionship, pleasures and fun?
I say NO!
Hotels
Now, we’ve talked about all sorts of things, but let’s get down to talking about hotels. And Lordy, I have seen my fair share. I have been in every kind of hotel imaginable inside China. From five star castles to one star flop-houses, to rural three-star “business” hotels, to Bordello Hotels. I’ve been to them all.
It’s always an adventure.
They are not the clones of hotels that you see in the USA. Whether it is a Marriott, Hilton or Hotel-6. Each hotel inside of China has it’s own very unique and interesting branding. It’s all a real pleasure.
Like before, this all began with a comment…
In reply to congjing yu.
Your integrity shows by not trying to dispel reality.
The criticism of public washrooms must include a caveat about Hotel rooms and their showers.
Spent over a hundred days in China over 20+ trips to China in early 2010’s. Being SuperElite on Air Canada had me upgraded on almost ever flight to First Class while paying almost always under USD$1,000 return. So I am smart cheap and have experiences in Chinese hotels. And was fortunate to hit 6 of 7 continents before 50 and hope to step on 7th before I die.
Chinese hotels are the BOMB! Spacious and Clean and everyone with King-sized beds. Now there are filthy hotels I am sure, but I always paid between USD$50-USD$100/night. Each room would have cost more than USD$300 in Western Europe, USD$250 in NYC, and over USD$150 everywhere else in Canada and the U.S.
The Showers were the best in the World. All showers had room for 2 and many for 3. Rain showers with incredible shower heads were included in almost all rooms. Some had water jets from the sides. Funny things is that half were glass so you could see the rest of the room while showering (something I have never experienced outside China – maybe available in rest of southeast Asia, but I have not traveled there)! There was a shower curtain (shower privacy blind) on the side facing the room, so if you had a visitor in your room and didn’t want them to see you, you could pull down.
I suggest anyone wanting to see what I am raving about just watch a few of the many Chinese quarantine videos out there.
MM, question: You showed us your kit that you use to go on overnight stays. You included a toothbrush and toiletries. Have Chinese hotels gone the Rest of the World way and no longer provide these?
Every hotel room I was in had complimentary combs, tooth brushes, and plenty of everything else. Many even had complimentary condoms.
-TorontoSamIAm
Great info on the hotels, I think that I am going to write an article on this subject int he future. Thanks for the alert!
Actually, I am so used to the Hotels inside of China that I have forgotten just how shoddy the ones in the United States are.
You are absolutely correct, and they all are nice. Or course, you were a foreigner so you probably stayed at the four and five star hotels, and of course they are the shit! I’ll tell you what, but you must know that I am used to sleeping all over the place in China, from five star hotels to one star hotels. So I have a pretty decent idea of what it is all about.
Most showers are glass. When I mean most, I mean 99.9999% are. I have NEVER seen a shower curtain in my life here. Most are very open, spacious and have these very nice shower heads. Most of the shower accessories are made in FoShan, and coincidentally, I happen to know most of the factory bosses for this particular line of products. And yeah… all over the world… they are all made in China.
Foshan is in the center of the Guangdong province. It is near the major city of Guangzhou.
As far as the kit goes, each hotel is different.
Most do have toiletries. They do, as well as complementary items for your use and a few free bottles of water, a tea kettle, and free tea. Also normal are disposable slippers, bathrobes, and condom access. Also normal is a gas mask (in a red box) in case there is a fire in the hotel.
Emergency fire-mask that can be found in all of the hotels inside of China.
What is not normal is ice. The only time where I have seen an ice machine is in the five star western hotels. Never in the local hotels.
Also a shaving kit tends to be hit or miss. I would say around 40% of the hotels don’t have them. Also missing is hand creme or lotion. This seems to be very common in the United States, but absolutely absent in China.
Now that all being said, on occasion, I have run into instances where there isn’t a toothbrush. It does happen, you know. So what I tend to do is pick up a spare brush or two and throw it in my kit just in case. I haven’t needed them for a while, but it’s better safe than sorry.
In the smaller cities, you can also get a lot of “ding dong” girl cars slid under your door. They tend to look good on the cards, but the real deal is rather hit or miss.
Ding Dong Cards
These are the cards that you find lying everywhere. They have a half-life and tend to expire, so if you find a fresh card around then you can probably pick it up if you want to meet someone new.
And…
While I am at it…
Let’s take a look at some of the advertisements that you can find inside the men’s bathrooms all over China. The following is a stamp that I think ended up being stamped everywhere in China. They must have used a couple tankers of red ink to advertise all this…
Manly advertisements.
Anyways…
This is pretty much how it is inside of China.
If you are at a Western hotel that caters to travelers from the West the beds will be extra soft, they will have complementary coffee packets, some hand lotion, and English-fluent staff. The rest of China will, however, have harder beds. Complementary tea bags, and instructions in Chinese.
It’s all good.
A final note…
We are not machines.
And the illusions that the media, and that the “news” provide to us tend to be lies. The gals in the pictures that you see might be all that perfect, and alluring and wonderful, but you know what?
It’s when their real personality comes out that I really get interested in them. It’s when I see what they are like. It’s when I see that behind that nice perfect appearance that they have “heart”, passion, and uniqueness.
It’s the PERSONALITY that makes my jizzle sizzle!
Do you want more?
I have more posts along these lines in my China KTV Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
The soaring contempt and smug exceptionalism made me almost gag on my weetbix as I read this. I've never met an empire more in dire need of a slap down...
-Posted by: Patroklos | Apr 14 2021 19:50 utc | 6
For shits and giggle, I often read some of the policy papers that are generated out of Washington DC. They are fantastical and outlandish and shows that either [1] America is a nation run by herd-mentality idiots, or [2] that they are so enraptured in their own echo chamber that they don’t realize what fresh-air is. Here is one such policy paper.
It is from RAND.
Which is a big “Think Tank” out in Washington DC that loves war, like I love sex, pizza and wine.
I love sex, pizza and wine.
It’s a hoot. I’ll tell you what.
Here’s access to the document yourself, and a nice summary with my MM comments thrown in for some points of stability.
Russia Is a Rogue, Not a Peer; China Is a Peer, Not a Rogue
How do Russia and China challenge U.S. national security and global influence?
How can the United States meet those challenges?
Russia and China represent distinct challenges to U.S. national security.
Russia is not a peer or near-peer competitor but rather a well-armed rogue state that seeks to subvert an international order it can never hope to dominate.
So Russia; enormous Russia with a population larger than the United States is a "well armed" rogue state.I can agree that it is well-armed. But, a rogue state?Arogue state otherwise known as an outlaw state, is a term appliedby some international theorists to states that they consider threatening to "the world's peace".
This means being seen to meet certain criteria, such as [1] being ruled by authoritarian or totalitarian governments. [2] That severely restrict human rights. That [3] sponsors terrorism and [4] seeking to proliferate weapons of mass destruction.
By these criteria, it is America that is a rogue state.
Yet, the term is used most by the United States, and in his speech at the United Nations in 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated this phrase.
In contrast, China is a peer competitor that wants to shape an international order that it can aspire to dominate.
Yes. China is a peer competitor with the Untied States, and in many areas it has surpassed the Untied States.
But this idea that it wants to "shape an international order" that it can dominate is flat-out false.
It wants to follow confucianism values in cooperation and harmony so that all can benefit. Of course China wants to put the Chinese people first. This is the function of all governments. But to call a peaceful nation that hasn't been involve din a war for over 50 years desirous of dominating others is really outlandish.
4 Confucian principles that are integral to a moral life and a moral society[1] Development of the self. The development of the self and the cultivation of virtue and morality are crucial to Confucius’ vision of a harmonised world.[2] Filial Piety. Filial piety is a love and respect for one’s parents. ...[3] Theimportanceof tradition. ...[4] We must behumane. ...
No wonder that RAND and those psychopathic personalities in Washington DC are confused with China. these values are completely alien to them.
Both countries seek to alter the status quo.
But only Russia has attacked neighboring states, annexed conquered territory, and supported insurgent forces seeking to detach yet more territory.
Russia assassinates its opponents at home and abroad.
Russia interferes in foreign elections.
Russia subverts foreign democracies.
Russia works to undermine European and Atlantic institutions.
And so does the United States. Historically this is known as spy-craft, international politics, and intrigue. It's not a reason to go to war over.
In contrast, China’s growing influence is based largely on more-positive measures: trade, investment, and development assistance. These attributes make China a less immediate threat but a much greater long-term challenge.
True. China is not an immediate military threat.
But the only challenge here is whether the Untied States is able to compete with it. After throwing away it's scientists and engineers, it's going to be a hard slog trying to compete with "diversity directors" and "accountants".
In the military realm, Russia can be contained, but China cannot.
Its military predominance in east Asia will grow over time, compelling the United States to accept greater costs and risks just to secure existing commitments.
But it is geoeconomics, rather than geopolitics, in which the contest for world leadership will play out.
It is in the domain of geoeconomics that the balance of global influence between the United States and China has begun shifting in China’s favor.
Key Findings
China presents a greater geoeconomic challenge to the United States than Russia does
China’s per capita GDP approaches Russia’s; its population is eight times Russia’s, and its growth rate three times.
As of 2017, China’s economy was the second largest in the world, behind only that of the United States. Russia’s was 11th.
Russia’s military expenditure is lower than China’s, and that gap is likely to grow.
Russia is far smaller, has poorer economic prospects, and is less likely to dramatically increase its military power in the long term.
You can tell just how out of sync this entire paper is when they start using GDP instead of PPP for comparison values. I argue, rather convincingly I must add, that if you remove the top 0.1% of the super-billionaires out of America in your GDP calculations, the GDP slides way down to a value that is half of China's GDP.
Also the level of crime and corruption is far lower than what you see in America. Thus you can make and create things with far, far less effort and money.
Thus you really cannot make the comparisons that are being made here.
It truly is like comparing apples with bananas.
Russia is a more immediate and more proximate military threat to U.S. national security than China is but can be countered
Russia will probably remain militarily superior to all its immediate neighbors other than China.
Russia is vulnerable to a range of nonmilitary deterrents, such as sanctions on the Russian economy and limiting Russian income from exports of fossil fuels; multilateral efforts would be more effective than U.S.-only operations, however.
China presents a regional military challenge and a global economic one
Militarily, China can be contained for a while longer; economically, it has already broken free of regional constraints.
Russia backs far-right and far-left political movements with a view to disrupting the politics of adversarial societies and, if possible, installing friendlier regimes. China, in contrast, seems basically indifferent to the types of government of the states with which it interacts, increasing its attractiveness as an economic partner.
Recommendations
In the security sphere, the United States should continue to hold the line in east and southeast Asia, accepting the larger costs and risks involved in counterbalancing growing Chinese military capabilities. Meanwhile, Washington should help its regional allies and partners to field their own antiaccess and area denial systems. Finally, the United States should take advantage of any opportunities to resolve issues and remove points of Sino-American tension, recognizing that its bargaining position will gradually deteriorate over time.
In the economic realm, the United States needs to compete more effectively in foreign markets, persevere and strengthen international norms for trade and investment, and incentivize China to operate within those norms. Given China’s efforts to take technological leadership in the long term and the potential advantages that such leadership brings, the United States also needs to improve its innovation environment. Measures could include greater funding for research, retention of U.S.-educated foreign scientists and technologists, and regulatory reforms that ease the introduction of product and process improvements into businesses and the market.
In responding to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the United States should move to secure its own preferential access to the world’s largest markets, the industrialized countries of Europe and Asia; assist nations in increasing connectivity with the world economy; work with partners to ensure more transparency in China’s Belt and Road projects; and increase support to U.S. exporters and investors.
In all these challenges, the United States will be more successful coordinating action with allies and trading partners.
This report is part of the RAND Corporation perspective series. RAND perspectives present informed perspective on a timely topic that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND perspectives undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Russians are chess masters and the Chinese have Go, while the U.S.of A has Monopoly. Simple really.Posted by: Michael McPherson | Apr 6 2021 20:46 utc | 25
This is perhaps the best article that I have read in a while…
I really liked this:
"Socialism versus capitalism? No, it is a long time since the U.S. was a capitalist economy; it’s hardly even a market economy today. It has become, more and more, a rentier economy ..."
Looking at the stock markets and asset prices in general, they are completely disconnected from fundamentals – so much for “market efficiency” and “price discovery” under US-led “capitalism”.
The U.S. “democracy” is also not much of a democracy, but more of a corporatocracy and corrupt plutocracy.
You know, the world doesn’t have to be an either or between socialism/capitalism, and that we can take the key ingredients from both – perhaps what Professor Hudson means by a mixed economy, perhaps something along the lines of what China is trying.
"the U.S.of A has Monopoly" - like that, very apt! That simple analogy encompasses the American plutocracy's mindset of non-productive rent extraction, seeking to control every part of the world, and goal of winner-takes-all hegemony.
Posted by: Canadian Cents | Apr 6 2021 21:11 utc | 27
There can be other flavors and variations.
Delicious Chinese flavors and food.
Alastair Crooke
April 5, 2021
The U.S. will ignore the message from Anchorage. It is already testing China over Taiwan, and is preparing an escalation in Ukraine, to test Russia.
Sun Tzu’s The Art of War (c. 500 BCE) advises that:
“To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands; yet the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself … Therefore the clever combatant imposes his will; and does not allow the enemy’s will to be imposed on him”.
This is the essence of the Chinese resistance economy – a strategy which has been fully unveiled in the wake of the Anchorage talks; talks that silenced any lingering thoughts in Beijing that America might somehow find some modus vivendi with Beijing in its headlong pursuit of primacy over China.
Although earlier there had been tantalising glimpses of déshabillé, the full reveal to China’s tough stance and rhetoric has only been permitted now – post-Anchorage – and the talks’ confirmation that the U.S. intends to block China’s ascent.
If it is assumed that this ‘resistance’ initiative constitutes some tit-for-tat ‘jab’ at Washington – through sinking Biden’s Iran ambitions, as revenge for America loudly crying ‘war crimes’ (‘genocide’ in Xingjian) – then we miss wholly its full import.
The new great Eurasian partnership.
The scope of the Iran pact by far transcends trade and investment, as one commentator in the Chinese state media made plain:
“As it stands, this deal (the Iran pact) will totally upend the prevailing geopolitical landscape in the West Asian region that has for so long been subject to U.S. hegemony”.
So here is the essence to ‘a clever combatant moving to impose his will’ – there is no need for China or Russia or Iran to go to war to do this; they just implement ‘it’.
They can do ‘it’ – quite simply. They don’t need a revolution to do it, because they have no vested interest in fighting America.
What is ‘it’?
It is not just a trade and investment pact with Tehran; neither is it simply allies helping each other. The ‘resistance’ lies precisely with the way they’re trying to help each other.
It is a mode of economic development.
It represents the notion that any rent-yielding resource – banking, land, natural resources and natural infrastructure monopolies – should be in the public domain to provide basic needs to everybody – freely.
This new way of governance is one where any rent-yielding resource should be public domain, and given to the people for free.
The alternative way simply is to privatise these ‘public goods’ (as in the West), where they are provided at a financialized maximum cost – including interest rates, dividends, management fees, and corporate manipulations for financial gain.
‘It’ is then a truly different economic approach.
To give one example:
New York’s Second Avenue Subway extension cost $6 billion, or $2 billion per mile – the most expensive urban mass transit ever built.
The average cost of underground subway lines outside the U.S. is $350 million a mile, or a sixth of New York’s cost.
How does this ‘it’ change everything?
Well, just imagine for a moment: the biggest element in anyone’s budget today is housing at 40%, which simply reflects high house prices, based on a debt-fuelled market.
Instead, imagine that proportion at 10% (as in China).
Suppose too, you have low-cost public education.
Well then, you are rid of education-led debt, and its interest cost.
Suppose you have public healthcare, and low priced transport infrastructure.
Then you would have the capacity to spend – It becomes a low-cost economy, and consequently it would grow.
Another example:
The cost of hiring R&D staff in China is a third to half the comparable cost in the U.S., so China’s tech spend is closer to $1 trillion a year (in terms of purchasing power parity), whereas the U.S. spends just 0.6% of GDP, or about $130 billion, on federal R&D.
At one level therefore, this ‘it’ is a strategic challenge to the western eco-system.
In one corner, the debt-driven, hyper-financialised, yet stagnant economies of Europe and the EU – in which strategic direction and economic ‘winners and losers’ are set by the Big Oligarchs, and in which the 60% struggle, and 0.1% thrive.
And, in the far corner, a very mixed economy in which the Party sets a strategic course for state enterprises, whilst others are encouraged to innovate, and to be entrepreneurial in the mold of a state-directed economy (albeit, with Taoist and Confucian characteristics).
Socialism versus capitalism?
No, it is a long time since the U.S. was a capitalist economy; it’s hardly even a market economy today.
It has become, more and more, a rentier economy since leaving the gold standard (in 1971).
This forced U.S. exit from the ‘gold window’ facilitated the U.S. via the resultant global demand for U.S. debt instruments, (Treasury bonds), to finance itself for free (from out of the entire world’s economic surplus).
To all my sisters and brothers I say drastic change is in the air as Nature is informing us on many levels of our standing on the precipice of annihilation (not in 30 years but currently), and the only hope for humanity is a quantum leap in consciousness. There is no time to waste. On the world stage, “Us versus Them” is becoming obsolete while “united we stand, divided we fall” increasingly will be forced upon us by momentous forces infinitely more powerful than our illusive technology and weapons that only threaten self destruction while delaying action to save us from our follies and foibles. If we are to survive as a species, we must all strive to develop a cooperative and holistic view of life encompassing all other beings and species, the ecosystem and its vulnerabilities, and the stability of the climate system. We must refrain from conflict resolved through violence, otherwise we are finished. Any discussion of geopolitics must be framed by that awareness.Posted by: norecovery | Apr 7 2021 4:36 utc | 67
The Washington Consensus ensured additionally that the inflows of dollars to Wall Street from around the globe would never be subject capital controls, nor would states be able to create their own currency, but would have to borrow in dollars from the World Bank and the IMF.
And that essentially meant borrowing from the Pentagon and the State Department in U.S. dollars, who ultimately were the system ‘enforcers’, as Professor Hudson notes.
The shift in the U.S. financial system to being an entity that that prioritises ‘real’ assets, such as mortgages and real estate that offer a certain ‘rent’, rather than to invest directly in speculative business ventures, also means that debt jubilees are verboten. (The Greeks can recount the experience of what that entails, in grim detail).
The point is that – at the economic plane – the U.S., hyper-financialised sphere is fast shrinking, as China, Russia and much of the ‘World Island’ turn to trading in their own currencies (and do not buy U.S. Treasuries).
In a ‘war’ of economic systems, America therefore starts on the back foot.
Halford Mackinder argued a century ago that control of the ‘Heartland’, which stretched from the Volga to the Yangtze, would control the ‘World Island’, which was his term for all Europe, Asia and Africa.
Over a century later, Mackinder’s theory resonates as the two leading nations behind the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) transform this into a system of inter-relations from one Eurasian end to another.
It is not so new, of course.
It is simply the revival of the ancient trade-based economy of the Eurasian heartland, which finally was collapsed in the 17th century.
Alastair Macleod notes that commentators usually fail to understand ‘why’ this flourishing in West Asia is happening:
“It is not due to military superiority, but down to simple economics.
While the U.S. economy suffers a post-lockdown inflationary outcome and an existential crisis for the dollar – China’s economy will boom on the back of increasing domestic consumption … and increasing exports, the consequence of America’s stimulation of consumer demand and a soaring budget deficit”.
There, explicitly said, is Sun Tzu’s point!
“Opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself”.
There is in Washington (and to an extent in Europe too), a faction entertaining a pathological emotional desire for war with Russia, largely stemming from a conviction that the Tzars (and later Stalin), were anti-Semitic.
Their emotion is one of hatred and anger, yet it is they who largely are responsible for bringing Russia and China together.
This, and America’s proclivity to sanction the world, has given China and Russia their opportunity.
The underlying point however, is that – even for the EU – the Rimland periphery is less important than Mackinder’s World Island.
There was a time when British and then American primacy outweighed its importance – but this may no longer be true.
What is actualizing here is the greatest challenge yet mounted to American economic power and technological supremacy.
Yet this economic Realpolitik is but half the story to China and Russia’s launch of a ‘global resistance economy’. It has a parallel geo-political frame, too.
It is to this latter aspect, most probably, that the Chinese official referred when he said that the Iran deal would…
“totally upend the prevailing geopolitical landscape in the West Asian region that has for so long been subject to U.S. hegemony”.
Note that he did not say that it would upend Iran’s relations with U.S. or Europe – he said the whole region. He implied too, that China’s initiatives would free West Asia from American hegemony.
“The Middle East was a highland of brilliant civilizations in human history. Yet, due to protracted conflicts and turmoil in the more recent history, the region descended into a security lowland … For the region to emerge from chaos and enjoy stability, it must break free from the shadows of big-power geopolitical rivalry, and independently explore development paths suited to its regional realities.
It must stay impervious to external pressure and interference, and follow an inclusive and reconciliatory approach to build a security architecture that accommodates the legitimate concerns of all sides …
Against this backdrop, China wishes to propose a five-point initiative on achieving security and stability in the Middle East:“Firstly, advocating mutual respect …
Both sides should uphold the international norm of non-interference in others’ internal affairs.
… it is particularly important for China and Arab states to stand together against slandering, defamation, interference and pressurizing in the name of human rights … [the EU should take note]
“Second, upholding equity and justice, opposing unilateralism, and defending international justice …
China will encourage the Security Council to fully deliberate on the question of Palestine to reaffirm the two-state solution …
We should uphold the UN-centred international system, as well as the international order underpinned by international law – and jointly promote a new type of international relations. We should share governance experience … and oppose arrogance and prejudice.“Third, achieving non-proliferation …
Parties need to … discuss and formulate the roadmap and timeframe for the United States and Iran to resume compliance with the JCPOA.
The pressing task is for the U.S. to take substantive measures to lift its unilateral sanctions on Iran, and long-arm jurisdiction on third parties, and for Iran to resume reciprocal compliance with its nuclear commitments.
At the same time, the international community should support efforts by regional countries in establishing a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.“Fourth, jointly fostering collective security …
We propose holding in China a multilateral dialogue conference for regional security in the Gulf (Persian Gulf) …“And fifthly, accelerating development cooperation …”.
Well, China has spectacularly made its entrance in the Middle East, and is challenging the U.S. with a resistance agenda.
FM Wang, when he met with Ali Larijani, special adviser to the Supreme Leader Khamenei, framed it all in a single sentence:
“Iran decides independently on its relations with other countries, and is not like some countries that change their position with one phone call”.
This single comment encapsulates the new ‘wolf warrior’ ethos: states should stick with their autonomy and sovereignty.
China is advocating a sovereigntist multilateralism to shake off “the western yoke”.
Wang did not confine this political message to Iran.
He had just said the same in Saudi Arabia, before arriving in Tehran.
It was well received in Riyadh.
In economic development terms, China earlier had linked Turkey and Pakistan into the ‘corridor’ plan – and now Iran.
How will the U.S. react?
Will There Be A Global Resistance Economy?
Wrong question, imo.
If China is nattering about it then it's a fact on the ground.
The question now is "What will the Totalitarian Capitalist do to nip it in the bud?"
One of the reasons advanced for the Iraq Fake War was that Saddam had declared his intention to side-step the US$ in conducting Iraq's oil transactions.
The trouble with China is that it plans ahead in 5-year & 10-year chunks so the idea of a GRE isn't something Xi dreamt up yesterday afternoon.
If he's nattering about it; it means that all the physical and bureaucratic infrastructure is in place, and is probably already processing transactions.
I wondered why Scum Mo panicked by chopping CGTN off at the socks after hearing about China's 13th People's Congress in early March and assumed it was because his idea of a long-range plan is "Who are we going to screw tomorrow?" or "No, sorry, we're discussing the future and the meeting is Top Secret so you voters/shitkickers aren't invited!"
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 6 2021 20:33 utc | 23
How will the USA react?
It will ignore the message from Anchorage.
It will likely press on.
It is already testing China over Taiwan, and is preparing an escalation in Ukraine, to test Russia.
For the EU, the Chinese entry into global politics is more problematic.
It was trying to leverage its own ‘strategic autonomy’ by erecting European values as the gateway to inclusion into its market and trade partnership.
China effectively is telling the world to reject any such hegemonic imposition of alien values and rights.
The EU is stranded in the midst.
Unlike the U.S., it is precluded from printing the money with which to resurrect its virus-blighted economy.
It desperately needs trade and investment.
Its biggest trading partner, and its tech well-spring, however, has just told the EU (as the U.S.), to give up on its moralising discourse.
At the same time, Europe’s ‘security partner’ has just demanded the opposite – that the EU strengthens it.
What’s to be done?
Sit back, and watch … (with fingers crossed that no one does something extremely stupid).
China, in turn, was definitely 3rd world when the Qing dynasty fell. 40 years of "capitalism" did nothing whatsoever to improve China's economy. And even at the beginning of Deng's "market" reforms, China was a very different place - economically and infrastructurally - than it was in 1949.What Crooke writes about is exactly what Hudson has repeatedly spoken to: the original goal for economists was reform. Reform of economies away from the stranglehold of feudal/aristocratic rentiers towards economic goals that benefit everyone. The feudal/aristocratic interests have only been replaced by banksters - and thus the Russia/China/Iran response is as much defensive as it is reform. They're being attacked politically and economically by the bankster classes because all 3 of those nations have, in the recent past, booted out their oligarchs.Russia booted out its aristocrats in 1917 then Putin brought the "privatization" oligarchs to heel 2000-2006.China booted out its capitalist/warlord oligarchs in 1949, then booted out the socialist bureaucrats in the 1980s.Iran booted out both its king and British American oil interests in 1979.Is it any wonder these nations are hated and feared by the banksters worldwide? And their existence gleefully used to justify outrageous sums spent on "defense" by the MIC profiteers?Posted by: c1ue | Apr 7 2021 16:56 utc | 91
Conclusions and some thoughts
What is going on now is historic. It’s not a matter of one nation fighting another. Instead an entire way of doing things is being up-ended. China has shown the way, and it is no wonder that the United States is blocking videos out of China, and news out of China, and whenever it discusses anything about China it is so darn negative.
Look at America today.
EVERYTHING is for profit. Everything. From drinking water, to getting arrested for having too much money inside your wallet. Even Adobe has changed from…
"Save PDF as..."
to
"Save PDF as long as you have a "membership" just pay this monthly fee...
For a fee, don’t you know.
People! This is all FUCKED UP!
China’s way of doing things is WORKING.
America is nearly 30 trillion dollars in debt. That’s an impossible number. If you mined all the gold on the entire planet, you would never have this kind of money.
How can this situation arise?
But creating debt out of “thin air”; out of nothing. And that has been the pyramid scheme for all these many, many decades. People who make nothing, and provides no services end up being fantastically engorged with wealth, while those who make and create things, and provide tangible services end up in poverty or as debt slaves.
It’s not a sustainable model.
In the mean time we must re-organize our societies and get rid of the parasites that try to end our world even before the next big asteroid. What China and Russia is doing is clearly the way forward.I think however "capitalism" and "socialism" is 20th century vocabulary of limited relevance in the present situation. It is not "left" vs. "right" anymore (if it ever was).Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 6 2021 20:43 utc | 24
China, a nation of meritocracy understands this.
And so you are seeing the result…
The wealthy oligarchy, sitting on top of their big imaginary fortunes are demanding that the world engage in a hot (probably nuclear) war rather than they succumb to the ultimate reality that is approaching “on the tracks”. Indeed it’s going to be one fuck of a “train wreck”.
Is the greater public ever going to get a clear view of the difference behind the "rules based order" of the West (we own the money system and make the rules) and the negotiated International law based order?Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 20 2021 17:05 utc | 4
And the rest of the world is starting to jump on the “bandwagon” and trade in their own currencies backed in solid tangible items. Those nations that will refuse to do so will see their piles of money evaporate in value. And thus a great economic explosion is looming in the future, and the ONLY means to prevent it is for the Untied States to nuke the fuck out of Asia.
We will see what will happen.
That is my take as well. Plus the message that China possesses an incredible sense of social solidarity and flexibility. The switches in production to meet emergency pandemic components from masks to complex ventilators to food distribution chains - that is an extraordinary tale of a great civilisation facing an immense stress test and emerging wiser and stronger.Most interesting is the synchronicity between the small and large capitalist sector with the public sector. THAT is the economy that the west was deluded into abandoning and still detests and undermines with every ounce of its effort.Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 7 2021 5:40 utc | 72
I for one welcome a world without all those psychopathic leeches charging fees and taxes and regulations on everything that you do. It was totally refreshing when I moved to China, and those who have never had this experience is in for an amazing ride!
Good for Iran; and China, Russia, and Asia will benefit as well.
My main fear is a wounded USA over reacting itself into a war...
A bully usually needs a good whupping to stop bullying; in the case of the US, it may bring out the worst, to avoid losing face on the world's stage....and yes; they're that sick, IMHO...
The positive in all this is that, I believe, both Russia and China know the US better than the US knows them...Posted by: V | Apr 7 2021 6:06 utc | 76
Picture Time
For all of you don’t have a clue as to what I am talking about, and instead drink the “electric Kool Aide” from the American media, and who are fearful of living like those “dirty, filthy Chinese” here’s some pictures that I took with my Metallic-Camera.
The main objective of China’s Government is the rejuvenation of China.
In part demonstrably evidenced by the determined efforts made for the betterment and the well-being of its population.
Which is reflected in the credibility and high level of trust the Chinese people place in their government.
These concepts don’t exist in the west.
In the US, the “world’s model for everything”, a virus epidemic is seen through lenses of profiteering by large corporations.
With sick people not being humans in need of assistance but merely a new lucrative “market” – for those with money to pay.
An American hospital is not a place for healing the sick but a kind of barnyard filled with cash cows to milk.
This is one fundamental reason underlying America’s chaotic and hopeless approach to dealing with the epidemic.
Zhuhai. A view from my front yard.
But don’t you all worry. According to this article written in 2016, China is going to collapse any day now (LOL)!
And we can clearly see this from a MM point of view, like here…
A pretty typical Chinese factory. This is a brake operation. Note the slave and child labor that you hear so much about in the American and UK media. Oh, and don’t forget the nets that are used to prevent people from jumping off the tops of the buildings! LOL!
But…
For some years now I've been looking for a decent currency to live my life with. We seem much closer now with the Digital Yuan. And as you say, if somehow it were banned by the world and refused exchange in other currencies (which seems impossible even to imagine), I'd be happy to cash it all in within China.Bitcoin never became a currency - it may or may not end up highly priced at a collector's value but it seems improbable that it could settle enough to become a usable mainstream currency. It could be a wealthy person's trading counter, perhaps. But like all such tokens, it remains vulnerable to fads.But I don't want to leave my last word with bitcoin. The last word, quite possibly for the entire world, may well rest with the Yuan.Posted by: Grieved | Apr 7 2021 1:57 utc | 55
Let’s take a look at just what is actually going on in China today. You know when the cost of housing is less than 10% of your income, and the TOTAL taxes and fees for being a citizen is less than 3%, you have the ability to save and live a stress free life.
It manifests like this…
When your rent or housing cost is less than 10% of your income, it’s easy to save money; and as a result life isn’t all that stressful.
AH.
Socialism does not mean the government owns everything.
It means the government owns the things that everybody NEEDS to have work well. Those things you don't want some needy jerk exploiting to make themselves rich or powerful with.
And those socialized things should be at nominal cost or free, to enable EVERYBODY to do their best in life.
If you want your culture and society (as a whole) to do well, you have to enable them with all the necessities.
You can have either "unproductive parasites" or you can have "a healthy body politic", not both.
Posted by: Bemildred | Apr 6 2021 20:32 utc | 22
But there’s more than what meets the eye. Instead of a “live your life as you see fit as a lone wolf” in America, the Chinese look hard and expect their children to grow up to be useful productive members of society. Here’s a pre-Kindergarden where infants are learning social interaction, basic spelling and language skills and proper social manners.
This is quite different from what American Public Education provides.
This is a Chinese pre-Kindergarden. Here’ the kids learn to socialize and learn their language skills early on.
There’s change in the air.
You can feel it.
To all the others who have read or are interested in the summation by Larry Romanoff over at the Saker called, Dealing With Demons.It's a lengthy review of the coronavirus as it hit China and the world. It's basically a forensic report on 2020, with about 160 footnotes to media and authority sources - the piece itself is a reference to bookmark, and the stories linked are probably a world of fascination.For those of us intensely following the situation, many of the facts and summaries presented are not new, but everyone will find something previously unknown in Romanoff's magisterial story.And it is a story, immensely readable, merely long - so make coffee or pour a drink and find a quiet hour, and there in that mere one hour you will have the real story of 2020, and the true picture of China.~~One thing - I had originally heard the translation of Xi's rallying call to action as the virus being a "Devil", not a Demon. The obvious connection seemed compelling with the "foreign devils" that plundered China of old and that still at every opportunity now attempt to exploit it. Maybe it's a nothing, maybe it's everything, in China's response of total mobilization, as if under attack. Romanoff doesn't go there, although he may have in earlier reports of this pandemic that he has dealt with so well (he's had great articles on the pandemic at Unz).~~For me, the venality and mean-spiritedness of the US establishment becomes so clear that I have to correct a previous speculation I made recently. I wondered - here in these threads, I think - if the hardening of Chinese diplomatic language was somewhat calculated and aimed at preparing its own nation for military conflict with the US.But I see now from Romanoff's report the extraordinary effort made by the Chinese people to help the US, in the spirit of goodness, even as the US media was being fed the lies to demonize China, and to turn the US populace into a majority population that hates China.And the Chinese people are well aware of this. And now that the dust has settled for them, it is a clear picture for them to reflect on regarding the US and say, "fuck 'em - never again will we help those people."So the real change came first, as the Chinese nation opened its heart to the US, and was trashed and slandered in return.
And the Chinese diplomatic language is simply reflecting the overall feeling of 1.4 billion citizens of this planet who now understand with great finality that the US is beyond the pale.Posted by: Grieved | Apr 7 2021 4:38 utc | 68
And you know, nothing says it’s time to close out this article than a movie. Here’s one that I took while I was on a trip to a factory the other week.
The movie…
Do you want more?
Ok, then.
Here’s a MV in Cantonese.
I have more posts in my International America Index here…
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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.
There is a lot of changes that are set in motion. Many long-overdue changes are coming to America, and those that have been doing quite well do not want change. They want to fight change, and they will go as far as to start a nuclear World War III to guarantee that their lives never change.
Here we are going to chat a little bit about the root, and the source of much of the problems in America today…
… the American system that permits people, and companies to become fantastically wealthy while all the time making everyone around them much poorer.
…
The American Promise
In America, the media narrative is that this is a good thing. A “lone wolf”, “hard working” person can “pull himself up by his bootstraps” and become successful. Look at Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. See! Normal people. Everyone can do it.
Ah. The American promise…
The American Reality
Nope.
That’s not how it works. Maybe it used to be that way some two hundred years ago, and maybe as recent as seventy five years ago. But today, it’s a hopeless proposition. There are too many layers of government regulation. Too many powerful companies. The “little guy” has too many hurtles to overcome.
Leaving only the existing wealth structures in control and in power.
It’s the American reality.
The problem with America
This situation where only the wealthy have the vast bulk of the money has created far too many problems. And if left unchecked will generate many more to come. Including, eventually, the potential end of the world as we know it today.
For instance, to keep the people from rising up in revolution, you need [1] propaganda and [2] control of the media, you need [3] armed and strong militarized domestic police forces, you need [4] distractions which tend to mean [5] wars and chaos, and you need to [6] constantly decrease the standard of life of the rabble so that you can maintain your own power.
And isn’t that what we have been observing?
American income distribution
The chart of the income distribution for America today greatly resembles what it must have been in France before the French revolution, and in Russia before the Russian revolution.
The poor got much poorer.
The middle class disappeared.
The super-duper wealthy become stratospheric wealthy.
Which brings me to an article. It was written back in 2014, and back then the alarms were a ringing and the sirens were screaming, and the lights were flashing, but few paid attention…
In a new Pew poll, more than three quarters of self-described conservatives believe…
“poor people have it easy because they can get government benefits without doing anything.”
In reality, most of America’s poor work hard, often in two or more jobs.
The real non-workers are the wealthy who inherit their fortunes. And their ranks are growing.
In fact, we’re on the cusp of the largest inter-generational wealth transfer in history.
MM Comment
This was written in 2014. The cusp has passed and now America is at this state, firmly entrenched within this condition; firmly put in place. Rock solid and immovable.
The wealth is coming from those who over the last three decades earned huge amounts on Wall Street, in corporate boardrooms, or as high-tech entrepreneurs.
It’s going to their children, who did nothing except be born into the right family.
The “self-made” man or woman, the symbol of American meritocracy, is disappearing. Six of today’s ten wealthiest Americans are heirs to prominent fortunes. Just six Walmart heirs have more wealth than the bottom 42 percent of Americans combined (up from 30 percent in 2007).
The U.S. Trust bank just released a poll of Americans with more than $3 million of investable assets.
Nearly three-quarters of those over age 69, and 61 per cent of boomers (between the ages of 50 and 68), were the first in their generation to accumulate significant wealth.
But the bank found inherited wealth far more common among rich millennials under age 35.
This is the dynastic form of wealth French economist Thomas Piketty warns about. It’s been the major source of wealth in Europe for centuries. It’s about to become the major source in America – unless, that is, we do something about it.
As income from work has become more concentrated in America, the super rich have invested in businesses, real estate, art, and other assets. The income from these assets is now concentrating even faster than income from work.
In 1979, the richest 1 percent of households accounted for 17 percent of business income. By 2007 they were getting 43 percent. They were also taking in 75 percent of capital gains. Today, with the stock market significantly higher than where it was before the crash, the top is raking even more from their investments.
Both political parties have encouraged this great wealth transfer, as beneficiaries provide a growing share of campaign contributions.
MM Comment
The reader is asked to put a clothespin to their noses as some politics is bantered about. It's the same nauseatingly "Wonderful Democrats", and "terrible Republicans". Ugh.
Both are members of the Uni-party. They are identical.
But Republicans have been even more ardent than Democrats.
For example, family trusts used to be limited to about 90 years. Legal changes implemented under Ronald Reagan extended them in perpetuity. So-called “dynasty trusts” now allow super-rich families to pass on to their heirs money and property largely free from taxes, and to do so for generations.
George W. Bush’s biggest tax breaks helped high earners but they provided even more help to people living off accumulated wealth. While the top tax rate on income from work dropped from 39.6% to 35 percent, the top rate on dividends went from 39.6% (taxed as ordinary income) to 15 percent, and the estate tax was completely eliminated. (Conservatives called it the “death tax” even though it only applied to the richest two-tenths of one percent.)
Barack Obama rolled back some of these cuts, but many remain.
Before George W. Bush, the estate tax kicked in at $2 million of assets per couple, and then applied a 55 percent rate. Now it kicks in at $10 million per couple, with a 40 percent rate.
House Republicans want to go even further than Bush did.
Rep. Paul Ryan’s “road map,” which continues to be the bible of Republican economic policy, eliminates all taxes on interest, dividends, capital gains, and estates.
Yet the specter of an entire generation who do nothing for their money other than speed-dial their wealth management advisors isn’t particularly attractive.
It’s also dangerous to our democracy, as dynastic wealth inevitably accumulates political influence.
MM Comment
America is not a democracy. It is a military empire that is run by a global oligarchy.
What to do? First, restore the estate tax in full.
MM Comment
His solution; the same-old, same-old. More taxes. More regulation. Bigger government.
Not what is needed; a complete structural overhaul on the entire American government-society system.
Second, eliminate the “stepped-up-basis on death” rule. This obscure tax provision allows heirs to avoid paying capital gains taxes on the increased value of assets accumulated during the life of the deceased. Such untaxed gains account for more than half of the value of estates worth more than $100 million, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Third, institute a wealth tax. We already have an annual wealth tax on homes, the major asset of the middle class. It’s called the property tax. Why not a small annual tax on the value of stocks and bonds, the major assets of the wealthy?
MM Comment
All the solutions are the same-old, same-old. More taxes to go to government. Not any systematic changes to the entire way the system operates.
We don’t have to sit by and watch our “meritocracy” be replaced by a permanent aristocracy, and our democracy be undermined by dynastic wealth. We can and must take action – before it’s too late.
MM Comment
It is too late. America has a permanent aristocracy where the vast wealth is either concocted out of thin air, or by dynastic wealth.
But you know…
China is taking notes…
Let’s open up the dialog with this comment that I found in my e-mailbox…
In China, the CCP draw from the experience of the first 30 years of opening up, and [has] concluded that:
1) China endorsed the part of the free market logic that encourage individual innovation and that rewards hardwork.
2) However, China will not allow the ultimate outcome of a free market economy. As it is one where a handful of billionaires will eventually take control of the market, killing competition, and dictate the price and distribution chain of supply and demand.
The world has been controlled by the Western set of rules for far too long. These rules were set up at the time they are working towards Western advantages.
The collapse of the USSR and the drop in standard of living and life expectancy in Russia is widely studied in China and experienced is learned.
Now, China will open up further to counter US strategy to form a war alliance against China.
Instead, China is strategically beginning a dual circle economy build on food security, financial security, economic security, and national security. As well as a discussion on the evil doing of privatized capital and western capital across the world.
The CCP armed with Mao theories of how to run a country with serving the people as the party motto is far more down to earth than the capitalists who control western politicians.
When Xi came to power, he openly pledged that the SOEs sector has to become larger, and stronger.
In contemporaneous China, any large scale businesses are require to sell to the government 1% of their share. Now with this 1%, the government representatives will sit in a broad of director meeting, and have the power to stop any plan that threaten the security of any sector of the Chinese economy or society.
Therefore, if it only involved expanding product ranges, improve services, opening a few more outlets, they are totally free to do so.
...
Cheers
<redacted>
And perhaps that will give you all some perspective why America must DESTROY China, and why there is no-room for co-habitation. It’s all or nothing with America. For once the rest of the world sees that the American emperor has “no clothes”, the fall of the empire will only be minutes away.
And it’s all pretty depressing. Anyways, I’m tossing this idea out to you all. That the idea of “what America stands for” is wealth accumulation by the super-rich, for themselves, and everyone else is just a herd animal to service them. Being so fantastically wealthy they not only own most of what you eat, use, and read, but they also control your government, and as a result you have zero influence on what your government is doing.
Pot-holes need fixing? No problem, your government is going to bomb the shit out of Yemen! Now, don’t you feel better?
Taxes too high? No problem, the government is going to reclassify the taxes in a fee, and then make it mandatory for you to pay that fee or else you will go to prison. There! Don’t you feel better?
Can’t find work? No problem. You can enlist in the military, get on welfare, or donate blood. The news says that the economy is roaring and that everything is just “hunky-dory”. So you must be lazy. Don’t you know!
Conclusion
This exhausts me. This situation is not sustainable. The question and the big unknown is when will it all fall down?
I have no answers.
I think that I need to go out, eat some fine delicious food, quaff some brews, and go a whoring. Life is too short not to have fun.
And that is my definitive opinion on this subject.
Do you want more?
I have more posts elsewhere. I don’t know what this will file under. But you can probably find others like it here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
A soft landing for America 20 years from now? Don’t bet on it. The demise of the United States as the global superpower could come far more quickly than anyone imagines. If Washington is dreaming of 2040 or 2050 as the end of the American Century, a more realistic assessment of domestic and global trends suggests that by 2025, it could all be over except for the shouting.
The screaming.
The writhing, and…
…the dying.
Despite the aura of omnipotence most empires project, a look at their history should remind us that they are fragile organisms. So delicate is their ecology of power that, when things start to go truly bad, empires regularly unravel with unholy speed.
It’s typically a long, long, looonnnggg build up.
And then, something snaps.
And it all unravels…
Like an over-wound spring.
We know this from history: just a year for Portugal, two years for the Soviet Union, eight years for France, 11 years for the Ottomans, 17 years for Great Britain, and, in all likelihood quite soon for the United States, ending within the next few years.
It’s all going to go “belly up”…
Economic (Health of the Economy)
Social (Social unrest, and a collapse of norms.)
Military (Attempts at creating large wars.)
Industrial (Jump starting the manufacturing base.)
Technology (Investments in R&D, NPD and innovation.)
Financial (Value of the USD)
The following is from the Kuntsler Blog also known as “Cluster-fuck nation”. He usually have some nice and pointed points, but this is a crown jewel. In this observation he talks about the major miscalculation(s) in economic policy inside the Washington DC beltway and how it will manifest in “heartland America” when the entire “deck of cards” come tumbling down.
This is a full reprint, all credit to the author. Reprinted to fit this venue with only minor editing as necessary.
We will start with this article, and the follow up with a second one, back to back…
Clusterfuck Nation
For your reading pleasure Mondays and Fridays
A nation literally falling apart certainly might want to Build Back Better, but it also might want to consider building back differently, consistent with the signals that reality is sending to humankind these days.
For instance, the signals that the old industrial paradigm is coming to an end, and that the furnishings and accessories of it may not be the ones that humankind actually requires going forward.
Alas, the psychology of previous investment tends to dictate that societies pound their capital — if they still have any —down a rat-hole in the vain and desperate attempt to keep old rackets going.
And this is the essence of Mr. Biden’s infrastructure bill; a colossal confection of government over-reach with its thin cake layers, cloyingly thick “social justice” frosting, and its giant cherry-on-top of drawing on “capital” that doesn’t exist.
The main racket is the ongoing effort to replace a transactional economy of individual enterprise with the managerial state (that attempts to allocate all resources and direct markets).
We’ve seen that movie before.
It beats a path directly to totalitarian tyranny, and that is already sickeningly visible in the pre-production activities for the new movie.
With social media assisting government to set up total control of its citizens lives — actually copying the techniques already operating in China.
Some pieces of the bill are just plain tragic.
Like the effort to prop up mass motoring by switching out electric cars for the old gasoline-powered cars that have ruled the land for a century.
It’s an appealing fantasy, of course…
…but the electric car thing ain’t a’gonna happen.
Not at the scale envisioned, not unless the government plans to buy the electric cars and give them away to everybody, and that’s rather a stretch.
First, the whole mass motoring racket is falling apart more on its financial model than on whether the cars move by gasoline or electricity.
Americans are used to buying cars on installment loans, and, with the middle-class withering away, there are ever-fewer credit-worthy borrowers for those loans (for ever more expensive cars).
Soon, as the debt markets wobble, there will also be even less hallucinated capital (“money”) to loan out to this shrinking pool of borrowers.
Second, the decrepit US electric grid can’t handle the charging needs of such a gigantic electric car fleet (and fixing the grid alone would be a trillion-dollar project).
Third, the manufacturing of electric cars depends on scarce rare mineral resources that are not readily available in the US, but controlled by foreign nations.
Fourth, car-making utterly depends on far-flung international supply lines for parts and electronics.
This is occurring at a time when the integrated global economy is cracking up under the strain of desperate competition for dwindling resources and the ill-will generated by that.
More… There are yet more kinks in the electric car scheme but those are enough.
MM Comments.
Of course he's talking about the Untied States. The rest of the world doesn't really have this problem. In China, for instance, most public transportation is electric, as is a sizable portion of the private automobile market.
Of course, this whole initiative is in the service of preserving a set of living arrangements that is going obsolete…
… namely, suburbia.
The previous investment represented by all the housing subdivisions, commercial highway strips, malls, office parks, and super-highways pretty much drove the American economy since the Second World War.
It’s understandable that we would be desperate to keep it all running.
As well as fix the pieces that are falling apart, because it’s where we put most of our national wealth.
It’s the whole American Dream in one nifty package.
And, it sure seemed like a good idea at the time, in such a big country, with so much cheap land, and all that oil.
But now things have changed and reality is sending us clear signals that we have to live differently.
The effort to oppose reality is apt to be ruinous for us.
A thumping sense of triumph attended the roll-out of the Build Back Better infrastructure bill…
… at least on the Democrats’ side, especially with all the chocolate Easter eggs for “social justice”…
…lodged in the $1.9 trillion basket.
I imagine it will mark the Biden regime’s high point of esprit.
By the time Congress churns through it all, the financial markets will be sending florid distress signals of deepening instability…
And, with Covid lockdowns ending (or even if they resume), warm weather will bring out people angry about one thing or another into the streets.
And a number of pending legal matters — the Derek Chauvin verdict, the Durham investigation, the Hunter Biden case at DOJ, and perhaps the burgeoning and rather sinister new Matt Gaetz melodrama…
… will stir the pot that the American zeitgeist is brewing in.
With plumes of chaos wafting over the land.
By fall, Build Back Better might transmogrify into the ominous question: build back anything?
Clusterfuck Nation
For your reading pleasure Mondays and Fridays
The people pretending to run the world’s financial affairs do.
The more layers of abstract game-playing they add to the existing armatures of unreality they’ve already constructed…
…the more certain it becomes that they will blow up all the support systems…
…support systems of a sunsetting hyper-tech economy that now has no safe lane to continue running in.
Virtually all the big nations are doing this now in desperation.
This is because they don’t understand that the hyper-tech economy is hostage to the deteriorating economics of energy.
Basically fossil fuels, and oil especially.
The macro mega-system can’t grow anymore.
We’re now in the de-growth phase of a dynamic that pulsates through history, as everything in the universe pulsates.
We attempted to compensate for de-growth with debt, borrowing from the future.
But debt only works in the youthful growth phases of economic pulsation, when the prospect of being paid back is statistically favorable.
Now in the elder de-growth phase, the prospect of paying back debts, or even servicing the interest, is statistically dismal.
The amount of racked-up debt worldwide has entered the realm of the laughable.
So, the roughly twenty-year experiment in Central Bank credit magic, as a replacement for true capital formation, has come to its grievous end.
Hence, America under the pretend leadership of Joe Biden ventures into the final act of this melodrama, which will end badly and probably pretty quickly.
They are about to call in the financial four horsemen of apocalypse:
Modern Monetary Theory (MMT),
A “command” economy,
Universal Basic Income (UBI, “helicopter” money for the people), and
the “Build Back Better” infrastructure scheme.
MMT
MMT is the idea that a nation which claims a monopoly on issuing money can “create” new money ad infinitum with no negative consequences.
That is, we can “lend” ourselves money (borrow it into existence) without having to worry about paying it back.
The theory caught on only because that’s what we’ve done for two decades and, so far, it hasn’t destroyed the banking system…
…though debt turned exponential, which is to say ruinous, only recently…
… so we won’t have to stand by long to see how this experiment works out.
Note this: MMT completes the divorce between productive activity and capital formation, that is, prosperity without wealth.
A “command” economy
A “command” economy means that government increasingly attempts to take over economic enterprise.
It does so to replace x-million individual economic choices of freely-acting people in a society with bureaucratic central planning.
MM Comments.
It is usually a complete and absolute failure. The sole lone exception is China, and it really isn't a "command" economy at all. Just a "top driven" one.
UBI
UBI is the primary feature of that because, in a command economy, production is mostly pretend, so you just have to give people money (for nothing).
Remember the old basic operating system of the Soviet Union, stated succinctly as: We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.
Got that?
Build Back Better
The idea behind “Build Back Better” is to renovate the infrastructure of a hyper-tech economy that actually no longer exists.
Why?
Because we are in the contraction phase of an historic pulsation or cycle.
It is leaving us with lots of tech and less production, trending toward zero.
Nobody flogging this slogan actually knows what it ought to mean under the circumstances, which is to go with the flow of the reality of this contraction:
To downsize, downscale, and re-localize all our activities to bring them back into sync with actual productivity…
… that is, raising food, making real stuff, and trading it. Again, it’s the energy dynamic, stupid.
To get to that point, we’re going to shed the massive over-burden of financial game-playing that has pretended to represent our economy.
That means stock valuations and bond prices will vaporize along with the derivative activities concocted for trading gainfully in these now-phantom representations of capital.
If that happens sooner rather than later, we won’t even be able to pretend to Build Back Better the interstate highways, the electric grid, airports, and all the other stuff in the “infrastructure” folder.
Indeed, a lot of that would be malinvestment folly now because we’re nearing the end of mass motoring and commercial aviation as we’ve known them.
If we even have electricity twenty-five years from now, it will come from much-reduced grids on a much more regional basis.
The bottom line for all this is that pretty soon every corner of the country will be on its own amid quite a bit of social disorder and financial wreckage.
So, whatever energy you actually can marshal to Build Back Better, save it for your town or your local community.
And remember, all of the attempts by a national government to control these events…
… and coerce its citizens in the service of that…
… will only lead to a more ineffectual and impotent national government that nobody has faith in…
… confirming the fact…
…that you are on your own.
Yikes!
All things end…
Have no doubt: when Washington’s global dominion finally ends, there will be painful daily reminders of what such a loss of power means for Americans in every walk of life.
Even when the American government tries to distract from the collapse by launching a war.
This little quote was written over a decade ago, in 2010, in Salon…
By 2020, according to current plans, the Pentagon will throw a military Hail Mary pass for a dying empire.
It will launch a lethal triple canopy of advanced aerospace robotics that represents Washington's last best hope of retaining global power despite its waning economic influence.
By that year, however, China's global network of communications satellites, backed by the world's most powerful supercomputers, will also be fully operational, providing Beijing with an independent platform for the weaponization of space and a powerful communications system for missile- or cyber-strikes into every quadrant of the globe.
-Salon 2010
As a half-dozen European nations have discovered, imperial decline tends to have a remarkably demoralizing impact on a society…
…regularly bringing at least a generation of economic privation.
As the economy cools, political temperatures rise, often sparking serious domestic unrest.
Available economic, educational, and military data indicate that, when it comes to U.S. global power, negative trends has aggregated rapidly and are likely to reach a critical mass no later than 2025.
The American Century, proclaimed so triumphantly at the start of World War II, is already tattered and fading and by 2025, its eighth decade, and could (very probably) end up being history.
But don’t worry!
Here’s a number of articles that make the point that there is a significant difference between a collapse and a crisis.
And while not explicitly spelled out directly, it is implied that the worst possible thing that might happen is yet another economic crisis, not an economic collapse.
Economic Depressions vs Collapse
To begin with, I think it’s important to differentiate between economic collapse and economic depression.
A depression is a rather normal part of the market cycle.
As Adam Smith points out in Wealth of Nations, these occasionally happen as the market corrects imbalances within itself.
Maybe there’s some form of bubble akin to the Dutch Tulip Bubble of the 1600s where the price of rare tulip bulbs increased to preposterous levels before people lost entire fortunes when the market corrected itself.
Who knew?
The point is that economic depression is rather normal.
Panicked investors withdrew billions from money market accounts where businesses keep cash to fund day-to-day operations.
If withdrawals had gone on for even a week, and if the Fed and the U.S. government had not stepped in to shore up the financial sector, the entire economy would likely have ground to a halt.
Trucks would have stopped rolling.
Grocery stores would have run out of food, and businesses would have been forced to shut down.
That’s how close the U.S. economy came to a real collapse—and how vulnerable it is to another one.
Will the U.S Economy Collapse?
A U.S. economy collapse is unlikely. When necessary, the government can act quickly to avoid a total collapse.
MM Comment
Nonsense. Compare the US Economy with the Chinese economy.
Most of the CCP government debts are infrastructure = investment. If they need cash, they can simply privatised.
China have a lot of high quality SOEs, they not only make money and contributed to government tax revenue, but their stocks can be used by government to fund social services such as 10% of selected SOEs share are used for age care in China without the need to increase tax.
China Economy benefited from government infrastructure and water redirection strategies, as a result there are new growing opportunities to the economy. Government revenues are healthy with big potential to growth further.
So, no worries with the current china debt level. Beside, the CCP does not give tax Payer money to too big to fail private businesses. when they billed out a private business , they took over the ownership. Last year, there is a private bank become state own.
However, Western debts are given to wall street for speculative activities from real estate to stock markets. These businesses don't pay tax, they only bribe the politicians with campaign money, and enrich those most corrupt politicians with speech fees, book deals etc.
The super rich in the West keep taking from the tax payers by bribing the politicians and not giving back to the society.
So sources of western government revenue become narrower, national and household debt keep rising at radicurous speed. these are real debt with no ability to repay.
So western governmen keep taxing the 99% with yearly rising service fees, council rate, all kind of fines. These policies affect the average people buying power, hence affecting the people buying power. Thus, domestic consumption as one of the major pillars of Western GDP contracted, the economy in trouble.
As rich people don't pay tax, the 99% running out of money. As a result, small and medium sized businesses suffered, tax revenue for government reduced. So trump think that trade war is easy to win, he can raise tax from China, but he failed miserably.
US will collapsed once RMB successfully replace the dollar as world trading currency, when the ability to continue print money without inflation in US is gone, US dollar will collapse, economy will collapse.
Hope the above make sense.
Cheers
<redacted>
Demand would outstrip supply of food, gas, and other necessities.
If the collapse affected local governments and utilities, then water and electricity might no longer be available.
A U.S. economic collapse would create global panic.
MM Comment
Most of the world has expected this collapse for decades and have put in place systems to mitigate any American-centrist collapse. Certainly the five-eyes nations of Canada, UK, NZ and Australia will be negatively affected, but the rest of the world will not be so directly affected.
The USA does not own, run or dictate to the world.
Investors would rush to other currencies, such as the yuan, euro, or even gold. It would create not just inflation, but hyperinflation, as the dollar lost value to other currencies.
If you want to understand what life is like during a collapse, think back to the Great Depression. The stock market crashed on Black Thursday. By the following Tuesday, it was down 25%.
Many investors lost their life savings that weekend.
By 1932, one out of four people was unemployed.
Wages for those who still had jobs fell precipitously—manufacturing wages dropped 32% from 1929 to 1932.
U.S. gross domestic product was cut nearly in half.
Thousands of farmers and other unemployed workers moved to California and elsewhere in search of work.
Two-and-a-half million people left the Midwestern Dust Bowl states.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average didn’t rebound to its pre-Crash level until 1954.
MM Comment
Everything in America today is an illusion. The GDP is artificially skewed in favor of the fantastic wealth held by the 1%. Were they to lose 30% of their wealth, the GDP for the nation could possibly drop to a mere tiny fraction of it's value.
When the curtain comes falling down everything that is fake and an illusion becomes clear for the world to see.
Collapse Versus Crisis
An economic crisis is not the same as an economic collapse. As painful as it was, the 2008 financial crisis was not a collapse. Millions of people lost jobs and homes, but basic services were still provided.
Other past financial crises seemed like a collapse at the time, but are barely remembered now.
1970s Stagflation
The OPEC oil embargo and President Richard Nixon’s abolishment of the gold standard triggered double-digit inflation. The government responded to this economic downturn by freezing wages and labor rates to curb inflation.7 The result was a high unemployment rate. Businesses, hampered by low prices, could not afford to keep workers at unprofitable wage rates.
1981 Recession
The Fed raised interest rates in a bid to end double-digit inflation.
That created the worst recession since the Great Depression. President Ronald Reagan cut taxes and increased government spending to end it.
1989 Savings and Loan Crisis
One thousand banks closed after improper real estate investments turned sour. Charles Keating and other Savings & Loan bankers had mis-used bank depositor’s funds. The consequent recession triggered an unemployment rate as high as 7.5%. The government was forced to bail out some banks to the tune of $124 billion.
Post-9/11 Recession
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 sowed nationwide apprehension and prolonged the 2001 recession—and unemployment of greater than 10%—through 2003. The United States’ response, the War on Terror, has cost the nation $6.4 trillion, and counting.
2008 Financial Crisis
The early warning signs of the 2008 Financial Crisis were rapidly falling housing prices and increasing mortgage defaults in 2006. Left untended, the resulting subprime mortgage crisis, which panicked investors and led to massive bank withdrawals, spread like wildfire across the financial community. The U.S. government had no choice but to bail out “too big to fail” banks and insurance companies, like Bear Stearns and AIG, or face both national and global financial catastrophes.
2020 Recession
It is too soon to tally up the total costs of the 2020 global health crisisCoronavirus pandemic—the crisis is still ongoing. Already we have seen worldwide supply-chain interruptions, heightened volatility and steep losses in financial markets, and sharp slowdowns in the travel and hospitality industries.
How much economic cost should we expect? According to the United Nations’ Conference on Trade and Development, the global economic hit could reduce global growth rates to 0.5% and cost the global economy as much as $2 trillion for 2020.
So what is going to happen?
I am not really all that good in predicting future events. You know, it’s all a very personal event that lies upon your world-line template. But regardless as to what your template map looks like we can make a couple of basic and reasonable statements…
America is deep, deep in debt.
There are no efforts to control this debt, or slow down spending.
This is not sustainable.
Since it is not sustainable, there will come a time when this kind of behavior will end. It might be gradual, or sudden. But it will have to end.
How the nation handles this change in economic policy will depend on may, many factors. Knowing human nature, humans do not like change, and those accustomed to doing things a certain way will have a difficult time adapting.
Gradual Change
If the change is gradual, and those managing the economy are talented, capable and willing…
… the United States economy can contract in a very controlled implosion, will little radical change, and managed in such as way that the United States might experience a simple minor recession.
Significantly, in 2008, the U.S. National Intelligence Council admitted for the first time that America's global power was indeed on a declining trajectory. In one of its periodic futuristic reports, Global Trends 2025, the Council cited "the transfer of global wealth and economic power now under way, roughly from West to East" and "without precedent in modern history," as the primary factor in the decline of the "United States' relative strength -- even in the military realm."
Like many in Washington, however, the Council’s analysts anticipated a very long, very soft landing for American global preeminence, and harbored the hope that somehow...
... the U.S. would long "retain unique military capabilities… to project military power globally" for decades to come.
Sure…
What ever you say.
Wrapped in imperial hubris, like Whitehall or Quai d'Orsay before it, the White House still seems to imagine that American decline will be gradual, gentle, and partial. In his State of the Union address last January, President Obama offered the reassurance that "I do not accept second place for the United States of America."
A few days later, Vice President Biden ridiculed the very idea that "we are destined to fulfill [historian Paul] Kennedy's prophecy that we are going to be a great nation that has failed because we lost control of our economy and overextended."
Similarly, writing in the November issue of the establishment journal Foreign Affairs, neo-liberal foreign policy guru Joseph Nye waved away talk of China's economic and military rise, dismissing "misleading metaphors of organic decline" and denying that any deterioration in U.S. global power was underway.
Ordinary Americans, watching their jobs head overseas, have a more realistic view than their cosseted leaders. An opinion poll in August 2010 found that 65 percent of Americans believed the country was now "in a state of decline." Already, Australia and Turkey, traditional U.S. military allies, are using their American-manufactured weapons for joint air and naval maneuvers with China.
Already, America's closest economic partners are backing away from Washington's opposition to China's rigged currency rates. As the president flew back from his Asian tour last month, a gloomy New York Times headline summed the moment up this way: "Obama's Economic View Is Rejected on World Stage, China, Britain and Germany Challenge U.S., Trade Talks With Seoul Fail, Too."
-Salon 2010
Sudden Change
If those in Washington DC, have been living in isolation bubbles, echo chambers, and have selfish, self-interests at heart rather than what is good for the nation, it is highly likely that there could be a very sudden change. Perhaps one that reaches the limits and boundaries of a catastrophe.
There are far too many variables involved to make accurate predictions. But that doesn’t stop people. And you can find these predictions all over the internet.
Viewed historically, the question is not whether the United States will lose its unchallenged global power, but just how precipitous and wrenching the decline will be.
In place of Washington’s wishful thinking, let’s use the National Intelligence Council’s own futuristic methodology.
Here we suggest four realistic scenarios for how, whether with a bang or a whimper, U.S. global power could reach its end in the 2020s (along with four accompanying assessments of just where we are today).
The future scenarios include:
Economic decline,
Oil shock,
Military misadventure, and…
World War III.
While these are hardly the only possibilities when it comes to American decline or even collapse, they offer a window into an onrushing future.
Economic Decline: Scenario 2020
After years of swelling deficits fed by incessant warfare in distant lands, in 2020, as long expected, the U.S. dollar finally loses its special status as the world’s reserve currency.
Hasn't happened... yet. But that is currently in process.
For many reasons, the Chinese authorities will probably someday stop pegging the yuan to a basket of currencies, and shift to a modern inflation-targeting regime under which they allow the exchange rate to fluctuate much more freely, especially against the dollar.
When that happens, expect most of Asia to follow China. In due time, the dollar, currently the anchor currency for roughly two-thirds of world GDP, could lose nearly half its weight.
Considering how much the United States relies on the dollar’s special status – or what then-French Finance Minister Valéry Giscard d’Estaing famously called America’s “exorbitant privilege” – to fund massive public and private borrowing, the impact of such a shift could be significant.
Suddenly, the cost of imports soars.
This did happen. From the "Trump Tariffs" of 25%, to the costs of shipping in 2021, importing products into the United States is factually much more costly than before.
Unable to pay for swelling deficits by selling now-devalued Treasury notes abroad, Washington is finally forced to slash its bloated military budget. Under pressure at home and abroad, Washington slowly pulls U.S. forces back from hundreds of overseas bases to a continental perimeter. By now, however, it is far too late.
Did not happen. The United States military instead got much larger.
Faced with a fading superpower incapable of paying the bills, China, India, Iran, Russia, and other powers, great and regional, provocatively challenge U.S. dominion over the oceans, space, and cyberspace.
True, and in process.
Meanwhile, amid soaring prices, ever-rising unemployment, and a continuing decline in real wages, domestic divisions widen into violent clashes and divisive debates, often over remarkably irrelevant issues.
True and in process.
Riding a political tide of disillusionment and despair, a far-right patriot captures the presidency with thundering rhetoric, demanding respect for American authority and threatening military retaliation or economic reprisal.
Good call. Donald Trump became President, and Biden continues his neocon ambitions.
The world pays next to no attention as the American Century ends in silence.
Oh, the world is paying attention. It's just that America is viewed as a declining and unstable nation.
Oil Shock: Scenario 2025
The United States remains so dependent upon foreign oil that a few adverse developments in the global energy market in 2025 spark an oil shock.
By comparison, it makes the 1973 oil shock (when prices quadrupled in just months) look like the proverbial molehill.
Angered at the dollar’s plummeting value, OPEC oil ministers, meeting in Riyadh, demand future energy payments in a “basket” of Yen, Yuan, and Euros.
That only hikes the cost of U.S. oil imports further.
At the same moment, while signing a new series of long-term delivery contracts with China, the Saudis stabilize their own foreign exchange reserves by switching to the Yuan.
Meanwhile, China pours countless billions into building a massive trans-Asia pipeline and funding Iran’s exploitation of the world largest percent natural gas field at South Pars in the Persian Gulf.
Concerned that the U.S. Navy might no longer be able to protect the oil tankers traveling from the Persian Gulf to fuel East Asia, a coalition of Tehran, Riyadh, and Abu Dhabi form an unexpected new Gulf alliance and affirm that China’s new fleet of swift aircraft carriers will henceforth patrol the Persian Gulf from a base on the Gulf of Oman.
Not happened, and there are no plans for this. What is happening is that China and Iran, with Russia have formed a joint military block.
Under heavy economic pressure, London agrees to cancel the U.S. lease on its Indian Ocean island base of Diego Garcia, while Canberra, pressured by the Chinese, informs Washington that the Seventh Fleet is no longer welcome to use Fremantle as a homeport, effectively evicting the U.S. Navy from the Indian Ocean.
Did not happen. In fact, the United States is pushing for even stronger military presence, and few other nations are enthusiastic about joining the QUAD.
With just a few strokes of the pen and some terse announcements, the “Carter Doctrine,” by which U.S. military power was to eternally protect the Persian Gulf, is laid to rest in 2025. All the elements that long assured the United States limitless supplies of low-cost oil from that region — logistics, exchange rates, and naval power — evaporate. At this point, the U.S. can still cover only an insignificant 12 percent of its energy needs from its nascent alternative energy industry, and remains dependent on imported oil for half of its energy consumption.
Did not happen. Instead, the USA is heavily involved militarily in the entire Middle East region.
The oil shock that follows hits the country like a hurricane, sending prices to startling heights, making travel a staggeringly expensive proposition, putting real wages (which had long been declining) into freefall, and rendering non-competitive whatever American exports remained.
Not happened yet, but 2025 is still four years away.
With thermostats dropping, gas prices climbing through the roof, and dollars flowing overseas in return for costly oil, the American economy is paralyzed. With long-fraying alliances at an end and fiscal pressures mounting, U.S. military forces finally begin a staged withdrawal from their overseas bases.
I would highly doubt it. If anything the last few years has been a nearly insane level of pro-military anti-China, anti-Russia and anti-Iran war-mongering.
Within a few years, the U.S. is functionally bankrupt and the clock is ticking toward midnight on the American Century.
Military Misadventure: Scenario 2014
Counterintuitively, as their power wanes, empires often plunge into ill-advised military misadventures. This phenomenon is known among historians of empire as “micro-militarism” and seems to involve psychologically compensatory efforts to salve the sting of retreat or defeat by occupying new territories, however briefly and catastrophically.
These operations, irrational even from an imperial point of view, often yield hemorrhaging expenditures or humiliating defeats that only accelerate the loss of power.
Embattled empires through the ages suffer an arrogance that drives them to plunge ever deeper into military misadventures until defeat becomes debacle.
In 413 BCE, a weakened Athens sent 200 ships to be slaughtered in Sicily.
In 1921, a dying imperial Spain dispatched 20,000 soldiers to be massacred by Berber guerrillas in Morocco.
In 1956, a fading British Empire destroyed its prestige by attacking Suez.
And in 2001 and 2003, the U.S. occupied Afghanistan and invaded Iraq.
With the hubris that marks empires over the millennia, Washington has increased its troops in Afghanistan to 100,000, expanded the war into Pakistan, and extended its commitment to 2014 and beyond, courting disasters large and small in this guerilla-infested, nuclear-armed graveyard of empires.
So irrational, so unpredictable is “micro-militarism” that seemingly fanciful scenarios are soon outdone by actual events. With the U.S. military stretched thin from Somalia to the Philippines and tensions rising in Israel, Iran, and Korea, possible combinations for a disastrous military crisis abroad are multifold.
Washington makes its move, sending in Special Operations forces to seize oil ports in the Persian Gulf. This, in turn, sparks a rash of suicide attacks and the sabotage of pipelines and oil wells. As black clouds billow skyward and diplomats rise at the U.N. to bitterly denounce American actions, commentators worldwide reach back into history to brand this “America’s Suez,” a telling reference to the 1956 debacle that marked the end of the British Empire.
Well things are going on. Most are not reported. There is the enormous Beirut explosion, as well as various other oil related military Mal-adventures.
World War III: Present Situation
In the summer of 2010, military tensions between the U.S. and China began to rise in the western Pacific, once considered an American “lake.” Even a year earlier no one would have predicted such a development. As Washington played upon its alliance with London to appropriate much of Britain’s global power after World War II, so China is now using the profits from its export trade with the U.S. to fund what is likely to become a military challenge to American dominion over the waterways of Asia and the Pacific.
With its growing resources, Beijing is claiming a vast maritime arc from Korea to Indonesia long dominated by the U.S. Navy.
In August, after Washington expressed a “national interest” in the South China Sea and conducted naval exercises there to reinforce that claim, Beijing’s official Global Times responded angrily, saying, “The U.S.-China wrestling match over the South China Sea issue has raised the stakes in deciding who the real future ruler of the planet will be.”
Amid growing tensions, the Pentagon reported that Beijing now holds “the capability to attack… [U.S.] aircraft carriers in the western Pacific Ocean” and target “nuclear forces throughout… the continental United States.” By developing “offensive nuclear, space, and cyber warfare capabilities,”
China seems determined to vie for dominance of what the Pentagon calls “the information spectrum in all dimensions of the modern battlespace.” With ongoing development of the powerful Long March V booster rocket, as well as the launch of two satellites in January 2010 and another in July, for a total of five, Beijing signaled that the country was making rapid strides toward an “independent” network of 35 satellites for global positioning, communications, and reconnaissance capabilities by 2020.
To check China and extend its military position globally, Washington is intent on building a new digital network of air and space robotics, advanced cyberwarfare capabilities, and electronic surveillance. Military planners expect this integrated system to envelop the Earth in a cyber-grid capable of blinding entire armies on the battlefield or taking out a single terrorist in field or favela.
By 2020, if all goes according to plan, the Pentagon will launch a three-tiered shield of space drones — reaching from stratosphere to exosphere, armed with agile missiles, linked by a resilient modular satellite system, and operated through total telescopic surveillance.
Last April, the Pentagon made history. It extended drone operations into the exosphere by quietly launching the X-37B unmanned space shuttle into a low orbit 255 miles above the planet. The X-37B is the first in a new generation of unmanned vehicles that will mark the full weaponization of space, creating an arena for future warfare unlike anything that has gone before.
From 2008 through 2016, American military forces were training to invade islands in the South China Sea, and moneys were spent enlarging military bases in the Pacific.
From 2017 through 2020, it's been war. Mostly "hybrid", but there has been a major biological warfare effort involved against China with 7 strains attacking livestock, and three attacking people. All have failed.
Leaving and resulting a March 2021 Alaskan meeting where the USA told China to "roll over and die", or be destroyed. China responded back with "Fuck you".
World War III: Scenario 2025
The technology of space and cyberwarfare is so new and untested that even the most outlandish scenarios may soon be superseded by a reality still hard to conceive. If we simply employ the sort of scenarios that the Air Force itself used in its 2009 Future Capabilities Game, however, we can gain “a better understanding of how air, space and cyberspace overlap in warfare,” and so begin to imagine how the next world war might actually be fought.
It’s 11:59 p.m. on Thanksgiving Thursday in 2025. While cyber-shoppers pound the portals of Best Buy for deep discounts on the latest home electronics from China, U.S. Air Force technicians at the Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) on Maui choke on their coffee as their panoramic screens suddenly blip to black. Thousands of miles away at the U.S. CyberCommand’s operations center in Texas, cyberwarriors soon detect malicious binaries that, though fired anonymously, show the distinctive digital fingerprints of China’s People’s Liberation Army.
The first overt strike is one nobody predicted. Chinese “malware” seizes control of the robotics aboard an unmanned solar-powered U.S. “Vulture” drone as it flies at 70,000 feet over the Tsushima Strait between Korea and Japan. It suddenly fires all the rocket pods beneath its enormous 400-foot wingspan, sending dozens of lethal missiles plunging harmlessly into the Yellow Sea, effectively disarming this formidable weapon.
Determined to fight fire with fire, the White House authorizes a retaliatory strike. Confident that its F-6 “Fractionated, Free-Flying” satellite system is impenetrable, Air Force commanders in California transmit robotic codes to the flotilla of X-37B space drones orbiting 250 miles above the Earth, ordering them to launch their “Triple Terminator” missiles at China’s 35 satellites. Zero response. In near panic, the Air Force launches its Falcon Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle into an arc 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean and then, just 20 minutes later, sends the computer codes to fire missiles at seven Chinese satellites in nearby orbits. The launch codes are suddenly inoperative.
As the Chinese virus spreads uncontrollably through the F-6 satellite architecture, while those second-rate U.S. supercomputers fail to crack the malware’s devilishly complex code, GPS signals crucial to the navigation of U.S. ships and aircraft worldwide are compromised. Carrier fleets begin steaming in circles in the mid-Pacific. Fighter squadrons are grounded. Reaper drones fly aimlessly toward the horizon, crashing when their fuel is exhausted. Suddenly, the United States loses what the U.S. Air Force has long called “the ultimate high ground”: space. Within hours, the military power that had dominated the globe for nearly a century has been defeated in World War III without a single human casualty.
A New World Order?
Even if future events prove duller than these scenarios suggest, every significant trend points toward a far more striking decline in American global power by 2025 than anything Washington now seems to be envisioning.
As allies worldwide begin to realign their policies to take cognizance of rising Asian powers, the cost of maintaining 800 or more overseas military bases will simply become unsustainable…
… finally forcing a staged withdrawal on a still-unwilling Washington.
With both the U.S. and China in a race to weaponize space and cyberspace, tensions between the two powers are bound to rise, making military conflict by 2025 at least feasible, if hardly guaranteed.
Complicating matters even more, the economic, military, and technological trends outlined above will not operate in tidy isolation.
As happened to European empires after World War II, such negative forces will undoubtedly prove synergistic.
They will combine in thoroughly unexpected ways, create crises for which Americans are remarkably unprepared, and threaten to spin the economy into a sudden downward spiral, consigning this country to a generation or more of economic misery.
As U.S. power recedes, the past offers a spectrum of possibilities for a future world order.
At one end of this spectrum, the rise of a new global superpower, however unlikely, cannot be ruled out.
Yet both China and Russia evince self-referential cultures, recondite non-roman scripts, regional defense strategies, and underdeveloped legal systems, denying them key instruments for global dominion. At the moment then, no single superpower seems to be on the horizon likely to succeed the U.S.
Nonsense. As of 2021, Russia, China and Iran have combined for a unified Asia.
In a dark, dystopian version of our global future, a coalition of transnational corporations, multilateral forces like NATO, and an international financial elite could conceivably forge a single, possibly unstable, supra-national nexus that would make it no longer meaningful to speak of national empires at all.
As stated by an American inside of America over ten years ago. Such dated ignorance.
While denationalized corporations and multinational elites would assumedly rule such a world from secure urban enclaves, the multitudes would be relegated to urban and rural wastelands.
In “Planet of Slums,” Mike Davis offers at least a partial vision of such a world from the bottom up. He argues that the billion people already packed into fetid favela-style slums worldwide (rising to two billion by 2030) will make “the ‘feral, failed cities’ of the Third World… the distinctive battlespace of the twenty-first century.”
As darkness settles over some future super-favela, “the empire can deploy Orwellian technologies of repression” as “hornet-like helicopter gun-ships stalk enigmatic enemies in the narrow streets of the slum districts… Every morning the slums reply with suicide bombers and eloquent explosions.”
At a midpoint on the spectrum of possible futures, a new global oligopoly might emerge between 2020 and 2040, with rising powers China, Russia, India, and Brazil collaborating with receding powers like Britain, Germany, Japan, and the United States to enforce an ad hoc global dominion, akin to the loose alliance of European empires that ruled half of humanity circa 1900.
Another possibility: the rise of regional hegemons in a return to something reminiscent of the international system that operated before modern empires took shape.
In this neo-Westphalian world order, with its endless vistas of micro-violence and unchecked exploitation, each hegemon would dominate its immediate region — Brasilia in South America, Washington in North America, Pretoria in southern Africa, and so on. Space, cyberspace, and the maritime deeps, removed from the control of the former planetary “policeman,” the United States, might even become a new global commons, controlled through an expanded U.N. Security Council or some ad hoc body.
All of these scenarios extrapolate existing trends into the future on the assumption that Americans, blinded by the arrogance of decades of historically unparalleled power, cannot or will not take steps to manage the unchecked erosion of their global position.
If America’s decline is in fact on a 22-year trajectory from 2003 to 2025, then we have already frittered away most of the first decade of that decline with wars that distracted us from long-term problems and, like water tossed onto desert sands, wasted trillions of desperately needed dollars.
Duh. It's pretty fucking obvious.
If only 15 years remain, the odds of frittering them all away still remain high. Congress and the president are now in gridlock; the American system is flooded with corporate money meant to jam up the works; and there is little suggestion that any issues of significance, including our wars, our bloated national security state, our starved education system, and our antiquated energy supplies, will be addressed with sufficient seriousness to assure the sort of soft landing that might maximize our country’s role and prosperity in a changing world.
Yup. Forget about a "soft landing". The psychopaths in Washington DC will have none of that.
Europe’s empires are gone and America’s imperium is going.
It seems increasingly doubtful that the United States will have anything like Britain’s success in shaping a succeeding world order that protects its interests, preserves its prosperity, and bears the imprint of its best values.
This was written a decade ago in 2010.
The “knee jerk” reaction is for America to start a war.
Don’t.
China. Does. Not. Play.
The Oligarchy have their ideas…
Certainly the PTB, and the oligarchy skedaddled to their hidy-holes in remote areas of NZ, Canada, and Europe. So that tells me that the oligarchy believe that a collapse is imminent.
So, taking their lead and some common sense, we can take note and prepare…
As Ayn Rand points out throughout her books (particularly in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal), it is production which is true wealth. The person who produces, whether that be food, shoes, holsters, or some other form of tangible good, is the one who holds true wealth. They’re adding something to society, creating something that others need or want.
In the same spirit, I would argue that the person who can provide a tangible service as well also has true wealth. An electrician who can provide light to a building, a plumber who can ensure personal hygiene is a diminished issue, and a doctor who can repair a wound are all examples of people who may not necessarily produce tangible goods (such as in the case of farmers, leatherworkers, and blacksmiths), but they still are able to produce a service that is both wanted and needed.
So, one of the first things that we can do to prepare ourselves for economic collapse is to become capable of producing.
This can be done in two primary ways: by the learning of a new skill or by getting into the business of producing merchandise.
Learning a New Skill
This is part of the reason that I went and became a locksmith. I have more than one job but wanted to have something of a backup plan perchance something should happen to my primary income. Tradesmen are both necessary and (typically) in short supply. Learning a concrete skill seemed to be something that would provide a fairly decent insurance policy should I need to fall back on something else. I’m glad I did, too. We’re a ‘key’ business.
Whether it be plumbing, carpentry, farrier work, or any other kind of trade for that matter, the point is that becoming proficient in a trade is to make yourself proficient in something that is likely to always be necessary. To look at a rather morbid example of such, we can analyze what the Germans did to the Jews throughout the Holocaust. Whether you are reading Schindler’s List, Maus, or The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz, you can see that it was the Jews who knew a trade such as metal polishing, mechanical work, or machining were (at least for a while) kept alive. (Of course, I’m by no means saying that pianists, teachers, and shopkeepers had no value.)
Learning to Produce Products
The second aspect would be investment in a particular merchandise. It involves producing products, starting a side business of some sort, perhaps. True, this often requires increasing one’s knowledge in a particular field, but there are some regions where it is simply the investment that allows a man to produce. As the saying goes, it takes money to make money.
This is where a shopkeeper would fit in. It is because such a man has invested capital into supplies that he is able to produce wealth for himself. Post-economic collapse though, which supplies will help one to produce wealth, however? Well, that leads me to the next topic: bartering.
Barter Society
I think that one of the first things that people need to realize when it comes to economic collapse is that things revert to a BARTER society. Look throughout history, and you’ll see that this is the case. The world doesn’t go to pot and a day later people are walking around and trading gold coins with one another. (I believe Joe Nobody illustrates this point rather well in his Holding Their Own series).
No, people start with trading goods and services for other needed/desired goods and services. Greece proved this with their recent economic collapse within the past five years or so. People traded eggs, milk, and meat for what they needed. I think it’s important to note that the farmer – a producer – was the one that was able to provide this for people as well. HE had true wealth throughout the collapse.
Again, in Venezuela we saw the same thing. People resorted to trading bananas for haircuts. The FIRST thing that becomes of value during an economic collapse is goods and services. True, there will be a very short window in which cash is king until people realize that the paper they have trusted all those years is now truly worthless in every sense of the word, but that window is short.
Barterable Goods and Services
So, after the brief cash window closes, after your world resorts to barter, the question becomes: “Okay, so what do I barter with? How do I get the things that my family needs?”
Regarding goods, I believe that the following is a good list to begin with. These are the things that people are going to need, and that are going to hold intrinsic value post-economic collapse:
Water – Particularly water bottles. These are readily portable, and not so value dense as to be unpractical for trade.
Water Filters – The majority of Americans have less than 3 days of food in their home. That includes water. If people can’t afford their electric bill, post-economic collapse, they are going to need access to safe water, and a water filter provides that.
Ammo– I truly believe that this will be one of the most practical and widely accepted forms of currency. It’s been used before as a currency, and it’ll be used again.
Guns– Value-dense, but there are going to be people who want them to protect their families from post-collapse violence. The demand for guns skyrocketed this year thanks to the riots and government action. What do you think the demand will look like post-collapse?
Food – There will always be a need for food, and – as witnessed by food bank lines – one of the first indicators of economic downturns.
Diapers – Parents go through thousands of these per year and will not have an adequate supply for their kids post-collapse. I believe reusable cloth diapers will be important.
Body Armor – Value-dense, but people will want it. There are record sales of it this year, and that desire will continue in a violent, post-collapse economy.
Coffee – It creates an addiction, and the withdrawal effects SUCK. People are going to want coffee, and there are ways to store it for a long time.
Boots – There will be an increase in the amount of walking the average man does thanks to the unavailability of gasoline. Shoes will wear out and need to be replaced.
Coats – Clothing wears out, new people are always being created, people constantly change size, and people always need it.
Gloves– There will be an increase in outdoor work, and gloves wear out.
Alcohol – Another thing that mankind can’t seem to get enough of. I just wouldn’t broadcast how much of this stuff that you have. People kill for it.
Tobacco – Another addiction that I wouldn’t broadcast you have a lot of. Cigarettes were routinely used as currency among POWs in WW2, and still are used in prisons throughout the world as currency.
Baby Formula – If breastfeeding is no longer an option, people are going to need formula to feed their babies. Parents WILL feed their babies, and there will be a dire need for such. Once again, not something I would advertise that I have a stockpile of.
Gasoline – This will always be needed for vehicles and generators.
Salt – Needed for meat storage since it is very unlikely that people will have access to constant electricity for refrigeration.
Medical Supplies – Crutches, slings, gauze, various first aid equipment and more will be in short supply. People always hurt themselves, and very few of much stored for their own first aid.
Medicine – There will always be a need for medication.
Spare Gun Parts – Guns break, and few have spare parts stored.
Condoms – People are going to realize that now is probably not the best time to get pregnant. If you staple three of them together and sell them in multi-packs, you can create a market for your baby formula as well! (I’m kidding, I’m kidding.)
Eye Glasses – Maybe it’s difficult to get replacement glasses, but reading glasses can be bought in bulk cheaply. It’s one of the most difficult things to get in prison, as the “state issue” glasses make you look like a retired mob boss.
Holsters – The thousands of people who bought pistols to keep in their nightstand will come to realize that they need a way to carry their weapon around with them. Things will be too dangerous to do otherwise, and many forget to buy a holster ahead of time.
When it comes to services, these are the skills that I believe will be in great demand post-economic collapse. It would be wise to learn at least some degree of proficiency in one of them.
Farming – Food production will be vital, and the man with beehives, fields, a garden, chickens, or dairy animals will be able to produce an item that people need on a daily basis.
Ranching – Much different than farming. Whether you know how to manage cattle for somebody else, or have the knowledge to raise them of your own accord, cattle, sheep, goats, and so on are going to need to be cared for to provide meat, leather, hides, and more for people.
Mechanical Work – Vehicles, generators, and more will break down and people will need them to be fixed.
Electrical Work – Wiring solar, pumps for wells, and more will always be needed.
Machining – It is likely that there will still be factories producing, and machinists will be needed for such.
Gunsmithing – Accidents happen, and few trust their own abilities to fix a firearm. Gunsmiths will be needed for such events.
Leatherwork – Primarily for holsters, gun straps, and clothing.
Medical Work – There will be a dire need for such workers post-economic collapse. People will be unable to afford their medications, or regular healthcare services, and thus there will be a drastic increase in acute conditions. Medical workers will be needed to address such, even if it is on the individual barter basis.
Protection – Herds, businesses, neighborhoods, and residences are going to want permanent protection, and will be willing to hire experienced armed men to do so. Knowing how to patrol, set up a perimeter, and dispose of threats will be in demand.
Baking – Knowledge of how to make bread will allow you to produce an item that everyone will need and want post-collapse.
Textile Creation – Whether this comes in the form of knitting, crocheting, tailoring, or so on, there will be a need for items of cloth as clothing gradually wears out, is lost, soiled, or stolen.
Keep in mind that all the above are general lists. Undoubtedly, you will be able to think of both goods and services that will have post-economic collapse value that are not included above. These are simply given to get your mind thinking about some sure-fire ways to be able to barter for what you need in the event of an economic collapse.
What About Precious Metals?
There are two reasons gold and silver have been omitted:
First, the use of precious metals doesn’t seem to come into common use until well after the period of barter transactions.
Second, I believe that precious metals are much more important for wealth evacuation. Let’s take a look at both of these in more detail.
To begin with, seldom throughout history do we see precious metals instantly being reverted to as currency post-economic collapse. Why? You can’t eat them, you can’t drink them, and few understand their inherent value (ask a friend what the current price of gold is to find see). Even fewer can tell if the gold/silver that you are offering them is the real deal or a fake.
Stocking precious metals is now how to survive an economic collapse. People don’t want gold and silver after an economic collapse. They want to be able to feed their families. Gold and silver will not be a readily used means of exchange in such an event.
To further complicate matters, gold is incredibly value dense. As of this writing, gold is a little over $2000 an ounce. That’s a lot of value wrapped up in that little coin. If you need ammunition, and go to buy it from some small-time reloader, do you think he’ll be able to honor the equivalent of an ounce of gold’s worth of ammo? Odds are he won’t even have that much in stock. If we really want to examine the issue, I think that silver would be a better form of currency, precious-metals wise.
Silver is currently around $25/ounce. That’s a much more useable value amount on a daily basis. (If you want to read more, read about the best silver for preppers.) However, what we see throughout history is the reversion to barter, not to the gold standard.
Gold Exception – Wealth Evacuation
If you’ve got to get the heck out of somewhere, and fast, then I believe that gold is where it’s at. Silver is too bulky. A pocket full of gold coins would allow you to “start fresh” somewhere a bit more stable (if you can find such a place). Shoot, we can even look at the US post-Civil War here. Southern money was worth nothing after the war. However, those with gold and silver were able to have something with inherent value that would be redeemable for the new currency.
Again, we can look to the German Jews of the late 1930s. This was a very scary time to be a Jew in Europe. The persecution was very real, and things were heating up. The man who was able to sew gold coins up into the hem of his jacket, and get the heck out of Dodge ASAP was able to arrive at a new and politically friendlier climate with at least some of his wealth intact and under the radar. Baggage is lost and stolen. Clothing seldom is. Thus, I believe that one of the best purposes of gold is wealth evacuation.
How to Survive an Economic Collapse Summary
If you had asked people a year ago if they ever thought the entire world would enact lockdowns and throw refuse people for not wearing a surgical mask at Kroger, they would have said you were nuts. Yet, here we are. Why is it so improbable to think an economic collapse couldn’t be next? All of the warning signs are there? Is it foolish to just ignore them, and pretend that things will always continue on as “normal”?
I’ll let you come to your own conclusions.
Conclusion
So, let’s simplify things.
The statists argue that nothing really bad will happen in the future. At worst will be a recession, but Washington DC will have everything under control.
The “doom and gloomers” are forecasting a complete melt-down of the American society, and it will happen regardless of an American involvement in World War III.
Preppers are fearful for the worst of the worst.
Fourth Turning followers are also fearful for the worst of the worst.
Media Shrills are mindless automatons. They just regurgitate their programming.
Sheeple are oblivious. They know that things are going to shit, but they believe what ever they read. The the “news” says that everything is under control.
Neocons believe that everything will be fixed and turn around once the USA wins World War III.
So what is going to happen?
I cannot tell you all because everyone’s future is different. We all have our own MWI topography maps, and our futures depend on our thoughts, and affirmations.
Would it be too strange for me to allude that the members of each of the groups above will have their own futures play out exactly as their thoughts and actions dictate…
…Yup. That is what it’s gonna be (more or less).
No one is going to be unscathed. We will all experience changes. It’s just that the magnitude of the changes will differ from person to person. The best advice that I can give is to make your immediate environment safe, secure and as stable as possible.
There is no way to predict what will happen for the vast bulk of humanity. All you can do is prepare for your own family and your own region.
The best way to prepare is to be prudent. Be cautious. Be positive, and conduct prayer affirmations that include a GENEROUS listing of affirmations that describe safety and isolation from any looming catastrophes as a result of American mismanagement, evil behaviors, or insanity of one level or the other.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
Yeah. So today I went and got myself a nice beer, as is my custom on my way to the house for lunch. It’s a nice day. The weather is warming up. Getting a little glare from the clouds and the “feeling” in the air is one of calmness. There was a gaggle of young girls near the elevator. All in their lower to mid 20’s. Nice. Cute. Entry-level office workers.
Came home, and my damn dog decides to break the afternoon stillness by barking like a mad-dog.
He’s getting old and doggie dementia is kicking in. I had to go up to him let him smell my hand before I could calm him down. Ah. That’s life, you know. There’s always different folk on different wavelengths creating the canopy of life that we know and love.
The wife made me a Cobb Salad to have with my beer. It’s good stuff, I’ll tell you what.
Cobb salad.
Lately I have been a-wondering about what is “next”. You know, World War III, a new beginning, or something else. I have come to the conclusion that we have reached the point that I like to refer to as “The end of the beginning“.
Ah. Isn’t that the case.
It’s like this video (below).
As always, please click on the picture to have the video load and open up in a new window.
It’s not a dreary thing.
It’s a realization that things are changing, and yet the changes will continue.
My top running posts, by far, are my writings on SHTF. As has been the case for the last three months or so. People from all over the internet have been visiting my writings on these matters. They don’t post comments, but they read, stick around and then disappear. Like ghosts in the night. I don’t know who they are, or why they are reading about how to prepare for turmoil inside of America. But they do.
People are scared.
As uncomfortable as things are, they are not yet dire. There is this feeling like an axe is going to fall any day now, and it’s at all levels. It’s like the cats and dogs barking before an earthquake, or that bird migrate South before a disaster. Something is up, but no one can put their finger on it.
The “news” is following the direction that must have been set in place years earlier. It does not reflect this feeling; this situation, or this condition. Instead its the same old bullshit.
The same bullshit.
Accuse China of XXXX, and YYYY.
Don’t report on radical Marxist legislation or progressive issues, but they continue apace.
Harp on the Coronavirus.
Promote the super wealthy as if the debt-serfs give a fuck anymore.
New taxes on the horizon!
But NASA is developing new things!
Yeah. Different subjects, but the same tired old formula.
It’s the end of the beginning.
People know. They KNOW.
The world that we all used to live in, and the ideas and the beliefs that we all used to have are long gone. They are dead. Dead as in two day old fish dead. Dead like Fat Fredy’s Cat sniffing a dead fish dead.
Fat Fredy’s cat
.
But why?
Why is the human species out in the West (not in China, nor Russia, nor Africa) feel this way?
Why?
Certainly there’s a lot of “chatter” on the social media. Today “Moon Over Alabama” and all sort of “armchair experts” talking and discussing the Tao inside of China and how that defines what China is today. LOL!
Fact of the matter.
Inside of China… no one talks about the Tao.
I do mean NO ONE.
Although Taoism is China's only indigenous religion, its sway now pales compared with its previous status.
- Corespirit
That’s like assuming all Americans have daily discussions about the influences of President Taft on contemporaneous social media platforms. Especially what President Traft would have to say in regards to selfies on Tiktok, and shadow-blocking trolls.
So silly.
Seriously.
I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry.
Perhaps it has something to do with how the West; the American run Western societies have evolved. And to which degree they sit as the world around them evolves in a different direction. Perhaps it is something much more fundamental to this degree…
The End of the Beginning
I believe that the big changes that all of us are due to experience have already been set in motion. And with this understanding comes the realization that “the stage is set”.
What is next…
Well it is the Start of the changes.
All that we have experienced so far is just the prep-work. And it’s all in place. Every single thing is where it needs to be for the big changes to take place.
What am I talking about?
I am talking about this….
This is a most excellent interview from the Greanville post. All credit to the authors. It was edited to fit this venue, but aside from that it is as intact as possible.
It deals with economics and finance and government systems. All stuff that I find boring. But this point of view is refreshing as it looks at what is going on and how the banking class is looking at profiting from the collapse. Yikes! What a great read!
Pepe: So, what’s going to happen in the, let’s say, short to mid-term in the U.S.?
Michael, we are seeing the corrosion of the whole system, not only externally in terms of foreign policy and the end of the free lunch, but internally with those 70-million-plus “deplorables” being literally canceled from public debate, the impoverishment of the middle classes, with over 50 million people in America who are practically becoming literally poor.
And obviously the American dream ended a few decades ago, maybe, but now there’s not even a glimpse of it, that there could be a renewal of the American dream.
So we have a larval civil war situation, degrading on a daily basis.
What’s the end game in fact? And what exactly does Wall Street, the American ruling class —the guys who have those lunches at the Harvard club — what do they ultimately want?
Michael: Well, what you call a disaster for the economy, isn’t it a bonanza for the 1 percent?
This is a victory of finance.
You look at it as a collapse of industrial capitalism. I look at it as the victory of rentier finance capitalism.
You’re having probably 10 million Americans that are going to be thrown out of their apartments and their homes in June when the moratorium on rents and mortgages ends.
You’re going to have a vast increase in the homeless population.
That will probably represent an increase in people who use the subways. Where else are they going to live?
And all of this, there’s an immense amount of private capital firms that have all been created in the last year of just wealth accumulations and they’re saying there are going to be such great opportunities to pick up real estate at bargain prices, all of this for the commercial real estate, that’s broken, all the buildings and the restaurants that have to be sold because they can’t meet their mortgage payments and their rents, all the houses that are going to be under, private capital can come in and do what was done after the Obama evictions.
We can do what Blackstone did. We can buy them all out for pennies on the dollar. So, for them, they’re looking at their own 20-year plan. And their 20-year plan is to grab everything!
The United States is an object lesson for China on what to avoid, not only in industrializing the economy, but in creating a picture of the economy as if everybody earns everything and there’s no exploitation, no unearned income, nobody makes money in their sleep and there’s no 1 percent..."
Michael Hudson: Well, I’m honored to be here on the same show with Pepe and discuss our mutual concern. And I think you have to frame the whole issue that China is thriving, and the West has reached the end of the whole 75-year expansion it had since 1945.
So, there was an illusion that America is de-industrializing because of competition from China. And the reality is there is no way that America can re-industrialize and regain its export markets with the way that it’s organized today, financialized and privatized and if China didn’t exist. You’d still have the Rust Belt rusting out. You’d still have American industry not being able to compete abroad simply because the cost structure is so high in the United States.
The wealth is no longer made here by industrializing. It’s made financially, mainly by making capital gains. Rising prices for real estate or for stocks and for bonds. In the last nine months, since the coronavirus came here, the top 1 percent of the U.S. economy grew by $1 trillion. It’s been a windfall for the 1 percent. The stock market is way up, the bond market is up, the real estate market is up while the rest of the economy is going down. Despite the tariffs that Trump put on, Chinese imports, trade with China is going up because we’re just not producing materials.
America doesn’t make its own shoes. It doesn’t make some nuts and bolts or fasteners, it doesn’t make industrial things anymore because if money is to be made off an industrial company it’s to buy and sell the company, not to make loans to increase the company’s production. New York City, where I live, used to be an industrial city and, the industrial buildings, the mercantile buildings have all been gentrified into high-priced real estate and the result is that Americans have to pay so much money on education, rent, medical care that if they got all of their physical needs, their food, their clothing, all the goods and services for nothing, they still couldn’t compete with foreign labor because of all of the costs that they have to pay that are essentially called rent-seeking.
Housing in the United States now absorbs about 40 percent of the average worker’s paycheck. There’s 15 percent taken off the top of paychecks for pensions, Social Security and for Medicare. Further medical insurance adds more to the paycheck, income taxes and sales taxes add about another 10 percent. Then you have student loans and bank debt. So basically, the American worker can only spend about one third of his or her income on buying the goods and services they produce. All the rest goes into the FIRE sector — the finance, insurance and real estate sector — and other monopolies.
And essentially, we became what’s called a rent-seeking economy, not a productive economy. So, when people in Washington talk about American capitalism versus Chinese socialism this is confusing the issue. What kind of capitalism are we talking about?
America used to have industrial capitalism in the 19th century. That’s how it got richer originally but now it’s moved away from industrial capitalism towards finance capitalism. And what that means is that essentially the mixed economy that made America rich — where the government would invest in education and infrastructure and transportation and provide these at low costs so that the employers didn’t have to pay labor to afford high costs — all of this has been transformed over the last hundred years.
And we’ve moved away from the whole ethic of what was industrial capitalism. Before, the idea of capitalism in the 19th century from Adam Smith to Ricardo, to John Stuart Mill to Marx was very clear and Marx stated it quite clearly; capitalism was revolutionary. It was to get rid of the landlord class. It was to get rid of the rentier class. It was to get rid of the banking class essentially, and just bear all the costs that were unnecessary for production, because how did England and America and Germany gain their markets?
“We’ve moved away from the whole ethic of what was industrial capitalism.”
They gained their markets basically by the government picking up a lot of the costs of the economy. The government in America provided low-cost education, not student debt. It provided transportation at subsidized prices. It provided basic infrastructure at low cost. And so, government infrastructure was considered a fourth factor of production.
And if you read what the business schools in the late 19th century taught like Simon Patten at the Wharton School, it’s very much like socialism. In fact, it’s very much like what China is doing. And in fact, China is following in the last 30 or 40 years pretty much the same way of getting rich that America followed.
It had its government fund basic infrastructure. It provides low-cost education. It invests in high-speed railroads and airports, in the building of cities. So, the government bears most of the costs and, that means that employers don’t have to pay workers enough to pay a student loan debt. They don’t have to pay workers enough to pay enormous rent such as you have in the United States. They don’t have to pay workers to save for a pension fund, to pay the pension later on. And most of all the Chinese economy doesn’t really have to pay a banking class because banking is the most important public utility of all. Banking is what China has kept in the hands of government and Chinese banks don’t lend for the same reasons that American banks lend.
(When I said that China can pay lower wages than the U.S., what I meant was that China provides as public services many things that American workers have to pay out of their own pockets – such as health care, free education, subsidized education, and above all, much lower debt service.
When workers have to go into debt in order to live, they need much higher wages to keep solvent. When they have to pay for their own health insurance, they have to earn more. The same is true of education and student debt. So much of what Americans seem to be earning — more than workers in other countries — goes right through their hands to the FIRE sector. So, what seems to be “low wages” in China go a lot further than higher wages in the United States.)
Eighty percent of American bank loans are mortgage loans to real estate and the effect of loosening loan standards and increasing the market for real estate is to push up the cost of living, push up the cost of housing. So, Americans have to pay more and more money for their housing whether they’re renters or they’re buyers, in which case the rent is for paying mortgage interest.
So, all of this cost structure has been built into the economy. China’s been able pretty much, to avoid all of this, because its objective in banking is not to make a profit and interest, not to make capital gains and speculation. It creates money to fund actual means of production to build factories, to build research and development, to build transportation facilities, to build infrastructure. Banks in America don’t lend for that kind of thing.
“So, you have a diametric opposite philosophy of how to develop between the United States and China.”
They only lend against collateral that’s already in place because they won’t make a loan if it’s not backed by collateral. Well, China creates money through its public banks to create capital, to create the means of production. So, you have a diametric opposite philosophy of how to develop between the United States and China.
The United States has decided not to gain wealth by actually investing in means of production and producing goods and services, but in financial ways. China is gaining wealth the old-fashioned way, by producing it. And whether you call this, industrial capitalism or a state capitalism or a state socialism or Marxism, it basically follows the same logic of real economics, the real economy, not the financial overhead. So, you have China operating as a real economy, increasing its production, becoming the workshop of the world as England used to be called and America trying to draw in foreign resources, live off of foreign resources, live by trying to make money by investing in the Chinese stock market or now, moving investment banks into China and making loans to China not actual industrial capitalism ways.
“China is gaining wealth the old-fashioned way, by producing it.”
So, you could say that America has gone beyond industrial capitalism, and they call it the post-industrial society, but you could call it the neo-feudal society. You could call it the neo-rentier society, or you could call it debt peonage but it’s not industrial capitalism.
And in that sense, there’s no rivalry between China and America. These are different systems going their own way and I better let Pepe pick it up from there.
Pepe Escobar: Okay. Thank you, Michael, this is brilliant. And you did it in less than 15 minutes. You told the whole story in 15 minutes. Well, my journalistic instinct is immediately to start questions to Michael. So, this is exactly what I’m gonna do now. I think it is much better to basically illustrate some points of what Michael just said, comparing the American system, which is finance capitalism essentially, with industrial capitalism that is in effect in China. Let me try to start with a very concrete and straight to the point question, Michael.
Okay. let’s says that more or less, if we want to summarize it, basically they try to tax the nonproductive rentier class. So, this would be the Chinese way to distribute wealth, right? Sifting through the Chinese economic literature, there is a very interesting concept, which is relatively new (correct me if I am wrong, Michael) in China, which they call stable investment. So stable investment, according to the Chinese would be to issue special bonds as extra capital in fact, to be invested in infrastructure building all across China, and they choose these projects in what they call weak areas and weak links. So probably in some of the inner provinces, or probably in some parts of Tibet or Xinjiang for instance. So, this is a way to invest in the real economy and in real government investment projects.
Right? So, my question in fact, is does this system create extra local debt, coming directly from this financing from Beijing? Is this a good recipe for sustainable development, the Chinese way and the recipe that they could expand to other parts of the Global South?
Michael: Well, this is a big problem that they’re discussing right now. The localities, especially rural China, (and China is still largely rural) only cover about half of their working budget from taxation. So, they have a problem. How are they going to get the balance of the money? Well, there is no official revenue sharing between the federal government and its state banks and the localities.
So, the localities can’t simply go to central government and say, give us more money. The government lets the localities be very independent. And it is sort of the “let a hundred flowers bloom” concept. And so, they’ve let each locality just go the long way, but the localities have run a big deficit.
What do they do? Well in the United States they would issue bonds on which New York is about to default. But in China, the easiest way for the localities to make money, is unfortunately they will do something like Chicago did. They will sell their tax rights for the next 75 years for current money now.
So, a real estate developer will come in and say; look we will give you the next 75 years of tax on this land, because we want to build projects on this (a set of buildings). So, what this means is that now the cities have given away all their source of rent.
Let me show you the problem by what Indiana and Chicago did. Chicago also was very much like China’s countryside cities. So, it sold parking meters and its sidewalks to a whole series of Wall Street investors, including the Abu Dhabi Investment Fund for seventy-five years. And that meant that for 75 years, this Wall Street consortium got to control the parking meters.
So, they put up the parking meters all over Chicago, raised the price of parking, raised the cost of driving to Chicago. And if Chicago would have a parade and interrupt parking, then Chicago has to pay the Abu Dhabi fund and Wall Street company what it would have made anyway. And this became such an awful disaster that finally Wall Street had to reverse the deal and undo it because it was giving privatization a bad name here. The same thing happened in Indiana.
Indiana was running a deficit and it decided to sell its roads to a Wall Street investment firm to make a toll road. The toll on the Indiana turnpike was so high that drivers began to take over the side roads. That’s the problem if you sell future tax revenues in advance.
Now what China and the localities there are discussing is that we’ve already given the real estate tax at very low estimates to the commercial developers, so what do we do? Well, I’ve given them my advice. I’m a professor of economics at the Peking University, School of Marxist studies and I’ve had discussions with the Central Committee. I also have an official position at Wuhan University. There, we’re discussing how China can put an added tax for all of the valuable land, that’s gone up. How can it be done to let the cities collect this tax? Our claim is that the cities, in selling these tax rights for 75 years, have sold what in Britain would be called ground rent (i.e. what’s paid to the landed aristocracy).
Over and above that there’s the market rent. So, China should pass a market-rent tax over and above the ground rent tax to reflect the current value. And there they’re thinking of, well, do we say that this is a capital gain on the land? Well, it’s not really a capital gain until you sell the land, but it’s value. It’s the valuation of the capital. And they’re looking at whether they should just say this is the market rent tax over and above the flat tax that has been paid in advance, or it’s a land tax on the capital gain for land.
Now, all of this requires that there be a land map of the whole country. And they are just beginning to create such a land map as a basis for how you calculate how much the rent there is.
What I found in China is something very strange. A few years ago, in Beijing, they had the first, International Marxist conference where I was the main speaker and I was talking about Marx’s discussion of the history of rent theory in Volume II and Volume III of Capital where Marx discusses all of the classical economics that led up to his view; Adam Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, John Stuart Mill, and Marx’s theory of surplus value was really the first history of economic thought that was written, although it wasn’t published until after he died. Well, you could see that there was a little bit of discomfort with some of the Marxists at the conference. And so, they invited for the next time my colleague David Harvey to come and talk about Marxism in the West.
Well, David gave both the leading and the closing speech of the conference and said, you’ve got to go beyond volume I of Capital. Volume I was what Marx wrote as his addition to classical economics, saying that there was exploitation in industrial employment of labor as well as rent seeking and then he said, now that I’ve done my introduction here, let me talk about how capitalism works in Volumes II and III. Volumes II and III are all about rent and finance and David Harvey has published a book on Volume III of Capital and his message to Peking University and the second Marxist conference was – you’ve got to read Volume II, and III.
Well, you can see that, there’s a discussion now over what is Marxism and a friend and colleague at PKU said Marxism is a Chinese word; It’s the Chinese word for politics. That made everything clear to me. Now I get it! I’ve been asked by the Academy of Social Sciences in China to create a syllabus of the history of rent theory and value theory. And essentially in order to have an idea of how you calculate rent, how do you make a national income analysis where you show rent, you have to have a theory of value and price and rent is the excess of price over the actual cost value. Well, for that you need a concept of cost of production and that’s what classical economics is all about. Post-classical economics denied all of this. The whole idea of classical economics is that not all income is earned.
Landlords don’t earn their income for making rent in their sleep as John Stuart Mill said. Banks don’t earn their income by just sitting there and letting debts accrue and interest compounding and doubling. The classical economists separated actual unearned income from the production and consumption economy.
Well, around the late 19th century in America, you had economists fighting against not only Marx, but also even against Henry George, who at that time, was urging a land tax in New York. And so, at Columbia University, John Bates Clark developed a whole theory that everybody earns whatever they can get. That there was no such thing as unearned income and that has become the basis for American national income statistics and thought ever since. So, if you look at today’s GDP figures for the United States, they have a figure for 8 percent of the GDP for the homeowners’ rent. But homeowners wouldn’t pay themselves if they had to rent the apartment to themselves, then you’ll have interest at about 12 percent of GDP.
And I thought, well how can interest be so steady? What happens to all of the late fees; that 29 percent that credit card companies charge? I called up the national income people in Washington, when I was there. And they said well, late fees and penalties are considered financial services.
And so, this is what you call a service economy. Well, there’s no service in charging a late fee, but they add all of the late fees. When people can’t pay their debts and they owe more and more, all of that is considered an addition to GDP. When housing becomes more expensive and prices American labor out of the market, that’s called an increase in GDP.
This is not how a country that wants to develop is going to create a national income account. So, there’s a long discussion in China about, just to answer your question, how do you create an account to distinguish between what’s the necessary cost to production and what’s an unnecessary production cost and how do we avoid doing what the United States did. So again, no rivalry. The United States is an object lesson for China on what to avoid, not only in industrializing the economy, but in creating a picture of the economy as if everybody earns everything and there’s no exploitation, no unearned income, nobody makes money in their sleep and there’s no 1 percent. Well, that’s what’s really at issue and why the whole world is splitting apart as you and I are discussing in what we’re writing.
“When people can’t pay their debts and they owe more and more, all of that is considered an addition to GDP.”
Pepe: Thank you, Michael. Thank you very much. So just to sum it all up, can we say that Beijing’s strategy is to save especially provincial areas from leasing their land, their infrastructure for 60 years or 75 years? As you just mentioned, can we say that the fulcrum of their national strategy is what you define as the market rent tax? Is this the No. 1 mechanism that they are developing?
Michael: Ideally, they want to keep rents as low as possible because rent is a cost of living and a cost of doing business. They don’t have banks that are lending to inflate the real estate market.
However, in almost every Western country — the U.S., Germany England — the value of stocks and bonds and the value of real estate is just about exactly the same. But for China, the value of real estate is way, way larger than the value of stocks.
And the reason is not because the Chinese Central bank, the Bank of China lends for real estate; it’s because they lend to intermediaries and the intermediaries have financed a lot of housing purchases in China. And, this is really the problem for if they levy a land tax, then you’re going to make a lot of these financial intermediaries go bust.
That’s what I’m advocating, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. These financial intermediaries shouldn’t exist, and this same issue came up in 2009 in the United States. You had the leading American bank being the most crooked and internally corrupt bank in the country, Citibank making junk mortgage, and it was broke.
Its entire net worth was wiped out as a result of its fraudulent junk mortgages. Well, Sheila Bair, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) wanted to close it down and take it over. Essentially that would have made it into a public bank and that would be a wonderful thing. She said, look Citibank shouldn’t be doing what it’s doing. And she wrote all this up in an autobiography. And, she was overruled by President Obama and Tim Geithner saying, but wait a minute, those are our campaign contributors. So, they were loyal to the campaign contributors, but not the voters; and they didn’t close Citibank down.
And the result is that the Federal Reserve ended up creating about $7 trillion of quantitative easing to bail out the banks. The homeowners weren’t bailed out. Ten million American families lost their homes as a result of junk mortgages in excess of what the property was actually worth.
All of this was left on the books, foreclosed and sold to private capital companies like Blackstone. And the result is that home ownership in America declined from 68 percent of the population down to about 61 percent. Well, right where the Obama administration left off, you’re about to have the Biden administration begin in January with an estimated 5 million Americans losing their homes. They’re going to be evicted because they’ve been unemployed during the pandemic. They’ve been working in restaurants or gyms or other industries that have been shut down because of the pandemic. They’re going to be evicted and many homeowners, low-income homeowners have been unable to pay their mortgages.
There’s going to be a wave of foreclosures. The question is, who’s going to bear the cost? Should it be 15 million American families who lose their homes just so the banks won’t lose money? Or should we let the banks that have made all of the growth since 2008? Ninety five percent of American GDP of the population has seen its wealth go down. All the wealth has been accumulating for the 5 percent in statistics. Now the question is should this 5 percent that’s got all the wealth lose or should the 95 percent lose?
The Biden administration says the 95 percent should lose basically. And you’re going to see a wave of closures so that the question in China should be that, these intermediate banks (they’re not really banks they are sort of like payday loan lenders), should they come in and, bear the loss or should Chinese localities and the people bear the loss? Somebody has to lose when you’re charging, you’re collecting the land’s rent that was paid to the creditors, and either the creditors have to lose or, the tax collector loses and that’s the conflict that exists in every society of the world today. And, in the West, the idea is the tax collectors should lose and whatever the tax collector relinquishes should be free for the banks to collect. In China obviously, they don’t want that to happen and they don’t want to see a financial class developing along US lines.
Pepe: Michael, there’s a quick question in all this, which is the official position by Beijing in terms of helping the localities. Their official position is that there won’t be any bailouts of local debt. How do they plan to do that?
Michael: What they’re discussing, how are you not going to do it? They think they sort of let localities go their own way. And they think, well you know which ones are going to succeed, and which ones aren’t, they didn’t want to have a one-size-fits all central planning. They wanted to have flexibility. Well, now they have flexibility. And when you have many different “let a hundred flowers bloom,” not all the flowers are going to bloom at the same rate.
And the question is, if they don’t bail out the cities, how are the cities going to operate? Certainly, China has never let markets steer the economy, the government steers the markets. That’s what socialism is as opposed to finance capitalism. So, the question is, you can let localities go broke and yet you’re not going to destroy any of the physical assets of the localities, and all of this is going to be in place. The question is how are you going to arrange the flow of income to all of these roads and buildings and land that’s in place? How do you create a system? Essentially, they’re saying well, if we’re industrial engineers, how do we just plan things? Forget credit, forget property claims, forget the rentier claims. How are we just going to design an economy that operates most efficiently? And that’s what they’re working on now to resolve this situation because it’s gotten fairly critical.
Pepe: Yes, especially in the countryside. Well, I think, a very good metaphor in terms of comparing both systems are investment in infrastructure. You travel to China a lot so, you’ve seen. You’ll travel through high-speed rail. You’ll see those fantastic airports, in Pudong or the new airport in Beijing. And then you’ll take the Acela to go from Washington to New York City, which is something that I used to do years ago. And the comparison is striking. Isn’t it?
Or if you go to France, for instance, when France started development of the TGV, which in terms of a national infrastructure network, is one of the best networks on the planet. And the French started doing this 30 years ago, even more. Is there…it’s not in terms of way out, but if we analyze the minutia, it’s obvious that following the American finance utilization system, we could never have something remotely similar happening in United States in terms of building infrastructure.
So, do you see any realistic bypass mechanism in terms of improving American infrastructure, especially in the big cities?
Michael: No, and there are two reasons for that. No. 1, let’s take a look at the long-term railroads. The railroads go through the center of town or even in the countryside, all along the railroads, the railroads brought business and all the businesses had been located as close to the railroad tracks as they could.
Factories with sightings off the railroad, hotels and especially right through the middle of town where you have the railway gates going up and down. In order to make a high-speed rail as in China, you need a dedicated roadway without trucks and cars, imagine a car going through a railway gate at 350 miles an hour.
So, when I would go from Beijing to Tianjin, here’s the high-speed rail, there’s one highway on one side, one highway on the other side. There’ll be underpasses. But there it goes straight now. How can you suppose you would have a straight Acela line from Washington up to Boston when all along the line, there’s all this real estate right along the line that has been built up? There’s no way you can get a dedicated roadway without having to tear down all of this real estate that’s on either side and the cost of making the current owners whole would be prohibitive. And anywhere you would go, that’s not in the center of the city, you would also have to have the problem that there’s already private property there.
And there’s no legal, constitutional way for such a physical investment to be made. China was able to make this investment because it was still largely rural. It wasn’t as built up along the railways. It didn’t have any particular area that was built up right where the railroad already was.
So certainly, any high-speed rail could not go where the current railways would be, and they’d have to go on somebody’s land. And, there’s also, what do you do if you want to get to New York and Long Island from New Jersey?
Sixty years ago, when I went into Wall Street, the cost of getting and transporting goods from California to Newark, New Jersey, was as large as from Newark right across the Hudson River to New York, not only because of the mafia and control of the local labor unions, but because of the tunnels. Right now, the tunnels from New Jersey to New York are broke, they are leaking, the subways in New York City, which continually break down because there was a hurricane a few years ago and the switches were made in the 1940s. The switches are 80 years old. They had water damage and the trains have to go at a crawl. But the city and state, because it is not collecting the real estate tax and other taxes and because ridership fell on the subways to about 20 percent, the city’s broke. They’re talking about 70 percent of city services being cut back. They’re talking about cutting back the subways to 40 percent capacity, meaning everybody will have to get in — when there’s still a virus and not many people are wearing masks, and there was no means of enforcing masks here.
So, there’s no way that you can rebuild the infrastructure because, for one thing the banking system here has subsidized for a hundred years junk economics saying you have to balance the budget. If the government creates credit it’s inflationary as if when banks create credit, it’s not inflationary. Well, the monetary effect is the same, no matter who creates the money. And so, Biden has already said that President Trump ran a big deficit, we’re going to run a bunch of surpluses or a budget balance. And he was advocating that all along. Essentially Biden is saying we have to increase unemployment by 20 percent, lower wages by 20 percent, shrink the economy by about 10 percent in order to, in order for the banks not to lose money.
“You’re going to price the American economy even further out of business because they say that public investment is socialism.”
And, we’re going to privatize but we are going to do it by selling the hospitals, the schools, the parks, the transportation to finance, to Wall Street finance capital groups. And so, you can imagine what’s going to happen if the Wall Street groups buy the infrastructure. They’ll do what happened to Chicago when it sold all the parking meters, they’ll say, OK, instead of 25 cents an hour, it’s now charged $3 an hour. Instead of a $2 for the subway, let’s make it $8.
You’re going to price the American economy even further out of business because they say that public investment is socialism. Well, it’s not socialism.It’s industrial capitalism. It’s industrialization, that’s basic economics. The idea of what, and how an economy works is so twisted academically that it’s the antithesis of what Adam Smith, John Stewart Mill and Marx all talked about. For them a free- market economy was an economy free of rentiers. Free of rent, it didn’t have any rent seeking. But now for the Americans, a free-market economy is free for the rentiers, free for the landlord, free for the banks to make a killing. And that is basically the class war back in business with a vengeance. That blocks and is preventing any kind infrastructure recovery. I don’t see how it can possibly take place.
Pepe: Well, based on what you just described, there is a process of turning the United States into a giant Brazil. In fact, this is what the Brazilian Finance Minister Paulo Guedes, a Pinochetista, as you know Michael, has been doing with the Brazilian economy for the past two years, privatizing everything and selling everything to big Brazilian interests and with lots of Wall Street interests involved as well. So, this is a recipe that goes all across the Global South as well. And it’s fully copied all across the Global South with no way out now.
Michael: Yes, and this is promoted by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. And when I was brought down to Brazil to meet with the council of economic advisers under Lula, [Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, former president of Brazil], they said, well the whole problem is that Lula’s been obliged to let the banks do the planning.
So, basically free markets and libertarianism is adopting central planning, but with central planning by the banks. America is a much more centrally planned economy than China. China is letting a hundred flowers bloom; America has concentrated the planning and the resource allocation in Wall Street. And that’s the central planning that is much more corrosive than any government planning, could be. Now the irony is that China’s sending its students to America to study economics. And, most of the Chinese I had talked to say, well we went to America to take economics courses because that gives us a prestige here in China.
I’m working now, with Chinese groups trying to develop a “reality economics” to be taught in China as different from American economics.
“America has concentrated the planning and the resource allocation in Wall Street. And that’s the central planning that is much more corrosive than any government planning, could be.”
Pepe: Exactly, because of what they study at Beijing University, Renmin or Tsinghua is not exactly what they would study in big American universities. Probably what they study in the U.S. is what not to do in China. When they go back to China, what they won’t be doing. It’s an object lesson for what to avoid.
Michael, I’d like to go back to what the BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] had been discussing in the 2000s when Lula was still president of Brazil and many of his ideas deeply impressed, especially Hu Jintao at the time, which is bypassing the U.S. dollar. Well, at the moment obviously we’re still at 87 percent of international transactions still in U.S. dollars. So, we are very far away from it, but if you have a truly sovereign economy, which is the case of China, which we can say is the case of Russia to a certain extent and obviously in a completely different framework, Iran. Iran is a completely sovereign, independent economy from the West. The only way to try to develop different mechanisms to not fall into the rentier mind space would be to bypass the U.S. dollar.
Michael: Yes, for many reasons. For one thing the United States can simply print the dollars and lend to other countries and then say, now you have to pay us interest. Well, Russia doesn’t need American dollars. It can print its own rubles to provide labor. There’s no need for a foreign currency at all for domestic spending, the only reason you would have to borrow a foreign currency is to balance your exchange rate, or to finance a trade deficit. But China doesn’t have a trade deficit. And in fact, if China were to work to accept more dollars, Americans would love to buy into the Chinese market and make a profit there, but that would push up China’s exchange rate and that would make it more difficult for her to make its exports because the exchange rate would come up not because it’s exporting more but because it’s letting American dollars come in and push it up.
Well, fortunately, President Trump as if he works for the Chinese National Committee, said, look, we don’t want to really hurt China by pushing up its currency and we want to keep it competitive. So, I’m going to prevent American companies from lending money to China, I’m going to isolate it and so he’s helping them protect their economy. And in Russia he said, look Russia really needs to feed itself. And, there’s a real danger that when the Democrats come in, there are a lot of anti-Russians in the Biden administration. They may go to war. They may do to Russia what they tried to do to China in the ‘50s. Stop exporting food and grain. And only Canada was able to break the embargo. So, we’re going to impose sanctions on Russia. So immediately, what happened is Russia very quickly became the largest grain exporter in the world. And instead of importing cheese from the Baltics, it created its own cheese industry. So, Trump said look, I know that Russians followed the American idea of not having protective tariffs, they need protective tariffs. They’re not doing it. We’re going to help them out by just not importing from them and really helping them.
Pepe: Yeah. Michael, what do you think Black Rock wants from the Chinese? You know that they are making a few inroads at the highest levels? Of course, I’m sure you’re aware of that. And also, JP Morgan, Citibank, etc. What do they really want?
Michael: They’d like to be able to create dollars to begin to buy and make loans to real estate; let companies grow, let the real estate market grow and make capital gains.
The way people get wealthy today isn’t by making an income, it’s been by making a capital gain. Total returns are current income plus the capital gains. As for capital gains each year; the land value gains alone are larger than the whole GDP growth from year to year. So that’s where the money is, that’s where the wealth is. So, they are after speculative capital gains, they would like to push money into the Chinese stock market and real estate market. See the prices go up and then inflate the prices by buying in and then sell out at the high price. Pull the money out, get a capital gain and let the economy crash, I mean that’s the business plan.
Pepe: Exactly. But Beijing will never allow that.
Michael: Well, here’s the problem right now, they know that Biden is pushing militarily aggressive people in his cabinet. There’s one kind of overhead that China is really trying to avoid and that’s the military overhead because if you spend money on the military, you can’t spend it on the real economy. They’re very worried about the military and they say, how do we deter the Biden administration from actually trying a military adventure in the South China Sea or elsewhere? They said well, fortunately America is multi-layered. They don’t think of America as a group. They realize there’s a layer and they say, who’s going to represent our interests?
“There’s one kind of overhead that China is really trying to avoid and that’s the military overhead because if you spend money on the military, you can’t spend it on the real economy.”
Well, Blackstone and Wall Street are going to represent their interests. Then I think one of the Chinese officials last week gave a big speech on this very thing, saying look, our best hope in stopping America’s military adventurism in China is to have Wall Street acting as our support because after all, Wall Street is the main campaign contributor and the president works for the campaign contributors.
The politician works for the campaign contributors. They’re in it for the money! So fortunately, we have Wall Street on our side, we’ve got control of the political system and they’re not there to go to war so that helps explain why a month ago they let wholly-owned U.S. banks and bankers in. On the one hand, they don’t like the idea of somebody outside the government creating credit for reasons that the economy doesn’t need. If they needed it, the Bank of China would do it. They have no need for foreign currency to come in to make loans in domestic currency, out of China.
The only reason that they could do it is No. 1, it helps meet the World Trade Organization’s principles and, No. 2, especially during this formative few months of the Biden administration, it helps to have Wall Street saying; we can make a fortune in China, go easy on them and that essentially counters the military hawks in Washington.
Pepe: So, do you foresee a scenario when Black Rock starts wreaking havoc in the Shanghai stock exchange for instance?
Michael: It would love to do that. It would love to move things up and down. The money’s made by companies with the stock market going up and down; the zigzag. So of course, it wants to do a predatory zigzag. The question is whether China will impose a tax to stop this, all sorts of financial transactions. That’s what’s under discussion now. They know exactly what Black Rock wants to do because they have some very savvy billionaire Chinese advisers that are quite good. I can tell you stories, but I better not.
Pepe: Okay. If it’s not okay to tell it all, tell us part of the story then.
Michael: The American banks have been cultivating leading Chinese people by providing them enough money to make money here, that they think that, okay they will now try to make money in the same way in China and we can join in. It’s a conflict of systems again, between the finance capital system and industrial socialism. You don’t get any of this discussion in the U.S. press, which is why I read what you write because in the U.S. press, the neocons talk about the fake idea of Greek history and fake idea of the Thucydides’ problem of a country jealous of another country’s development.
There’s no jealousy between America and China. They’re different, they have their own way. We are going to destroy them. And if you look at the analogy that the Americans draw —and this is how the Pentagon thinks — with the war between Athens and Sparta. It’s hard to tell, which is which. Here you have Athens, a democracy backing other democracies and having the military support of the democracies and the military in these democracies all had to pay Athens protection money for the military support and that’s the money that Athens got to ostensibly support its navy and protection that built up all of the Athenian public buildings and everything else. So, that’s a democracy exploiting its allies, to enrich itself via the military. Then you have Sparta, which was funding all of the oligarchies, and it was helping the oligarchies overthrow democracies. Well, that was America too. So, America is both sides of the Thucydides war if the democracy is exploiting the fellow democracies and is the supporter of oligarchies in Brazil, Latin America, Africa and everyone else.
So, you could say the Thucydides problem was between two sides, two aspects of America and has nothing to do with China at all except, for the fact that the whole war was a war between economic systems. They’re acting as if somehow if only China did not export to us, we could be re-industrialized and somehow export to Europe and the Third World.
And as you and I have described, it’s over. We painted ourselves into such a debt corner that without writing down the debts, we’re in the same position that the Eurozone is in. There’s so much money that goes to the creditors to the top 1 percent or 5 percent that there is no money for capital investment, there is no money for growth. And, since 1980 as you know, real wages in America have been stable. All the growth has been in property owners and predators and the FIRE sector, the rest of the economy is in stagnation. And now the coronavirus has simply acted as a catalyst to make it very clear that the game is over; it’s time to move away from the homeowner economy to rentier economy, time for Blackstone to be the landlord. America wants to recreate the British landlord class and essentially what we’re seeing now is like the Norman invasion of England taking over the land and the infrastructure. That’s what Blackstone would love to do in China.
“There’s so much money that goes to the creditors to the top 1 percent or 5 percent that there is no money for capital investment, there is no money for growth.”
Pepe: Wow. I’m afraid that they may have a lot of leeway by some members of the Beijing leadership now, because as you know very well, it’s not a consensus in the political arena.
Michael: We’re talking about Volume II and III of Capital.
Pepe: Exactly. But you know, you were talking about debt. Coming back to that, in fact I just checked this morning, apparently global debt as it stands today is $277 trillion, which is something like 365 percent of global GDP. What does that mean in practice?
Michael: Yeah, well fortunately this is discussed in the 19th century and there was a word for that — fictitious capital — it’s a debt that can’t be paid, but you’ll keep it on the books anyway. And every country has this. You could say the question now, and The Financial Times just had an article a few days ago that China’s claims on Third World countries on the Belt and Road Initiative is fictitious capital, because how can it collect?
Well, China’s already thought of that. It doesn’t want money. It wants the raw materials. It wants to be paid in real things. But a debt that can’t be paid, can only be paid either by foreclosing on the debtors or by writing down the debts and obviously a debt that can’t be paid won’t be paid.
“Fictitious capital — it’s a debt that can’t be paid, but you’ll keep it on the books anyway. And every country has this.”
And so, you have not only Marx using the word fictitious capital. At the other end of the spectrum, you had Henry George talking about fictive capital. In other words, these are property claims that have no real capital behind them. There’s no capital that makes profit. That’s just a property claim for payment or a rentier claim for payment.
So, the question is, can you make money somehow without having any production at all, without having wages, without having profits, without any capital? Can you just have asset grabbing and buying-and-selling assets? And as long as you have the Federal Reserve in America, come in, Trump’s $10 trillion Covid program gave $2 trillion to the population at large with these $1,200 checks, that my wife and I got, and $8 trillion all just to buy stocks and bonds. None of this was to build infrastructure. None of this $8 trillion was to build a single factory. None of this 8 trillion was to employ a single worker. It was all just to support the prices of stocks and bonds, and to keep the illusion that the economy had not stopped growing. Well, it’s growing for the 5 percent. So, it’s all become fictitious. And if you look at the GDP as I said, it’s fictitious.
Pepe: And the most extraordinary thing is none of that is discussed in American media. There’s not a single word about what you would have been describing.
Michael: It’s not even discussed in academia. Our graduates at the university of Missouri at Kansas City, we’re all trained in Modern Monetary Theory. And as hired professors they have to be able to publish in the refereed journals and the refereed journals are all essentially controlled by the Chicago School. So, you have a censorship of the kind of ideas that we’re talking about. You can’t get it into the economic journals, so you can’t get it into the economics curriculum. So, where on earth are you going to get it? If you didn’t have the internet you wouldn’t be discussing at all. Most of my books sell mainly in China, more than in all the other countries put together so I can discuss these things there. I stopped publishing in orthodox journals so many years ago because it’s talking to the deaf.
“None of this $8 trillion was to build a single factory, employee, a single worker.”
Pepe: Absolutely. Yeah. Can I ask you a question about Russia, Michael? There is a raging debate in Russia for many years now between let’s say the Eurasianists and the Atlanticists. It involves of course, economic policy under Putin, industrial capitalism Russian style. The Eurasianists basically say that the central problem with Russia is how the Russian central bank is basically affiliated with all the mechanisms that you know so well, that it is an Atlanticist Trojan Horse inside the Russian economy. How do you see it?
Michael: Russia was brainwashed by the West when the Soviet Union broke up in 1991. First of all, the IMF announced in advance that there was a big meeting in Houston with the IMF and the World Bank. And the IMF published all of its reports saying, first you don’t want inflation in Russia so let’s wipe out all of the Russian savings with hyperinflation, which they did. They then said, well now to cure the hyperinflation the Russian central bank needs a stable currency and you need a backup for the currency. You will need to back it with U.S. dollars.
“Russia was brainwashed by the West when the Soviet Union broke up in 1991.”
So, from the early 1990s, as you know, labor was going unpaid. The Russian central bank could have created the rubles to pay the domestic labor and to keep the factories in place. But, the IMF advisers from Harvard said, no you’ll have to borrow U.S. dollars. I met with people from the Hermitage Fund and the Renaissance Fund and others. We had meetings and I met with the investors. Russia was paying 100 percent interest for years to leading American financial institutions for money that it didn’t need and could have created itself. Russia was so dispirited with Stalinism that, essentially, it thought the opposite of Stalinism must be what they have in America.
“…to destroy a country, you don’t need an army anymore. All you have to do is teach it American economics.”
They thought that America was going to tell it how America got rich, but America didn’t want to tell Russia how it got rich, but instead wanted to make money off Russia. They didn’t get it. They trusted the Americans. They really didn’t understand that, industrial capitalism that Marx described had metamorphosized into finance capitalism and was completely different.
And that’s because Russia didn’t charge rent, it didn’t charge interest. I gave three speeches before the Duma, urging it to impose a land tax. Some of the people I noticed, Ed Dodson was there with us and we were all trying to convince Russia, don’t let this land be privatized. If you let it be privatized, then you’re going to have such high rents and housing costs in Russia that you’re not going to be able to essentially compete for an industrial growth. Well, the politician who brought us there, Viatcheslav Zolensky was sort of maneuvered out of the election by the American advisers.
The Americans put billions of dollars into essentially financing American propagandists to destroy Russia, mainly from the Harvard Institute of International Development. And essentially, they were a bunch of gangsters and the prosecutors in Boston were about to prosecute them.
The attorney general of Boston was going to bring a big case for Harvard against the looting of Russia and the corruption of Russia. And I was asked to organize and to bring a number of Russian politicians and industrialists over to say how this destroyed everything. Well, Harvard settled out of court and essentially that made the perpetrators the leading university people up there. (I’m associated with Harvard Anthropology Department, not the Economics Department.)
So, we never had a chance to bring my witnesses, and have our report on what happened, but I published for the Russian Academy of Sciences a long study of how all of this destruction of Russia was laid out in advance at the Houston meetings by the IMF. America went to the leading bureaucrats and said; look, we can make you rich why don’t you register the factories in your own name, and if you’re registered in your own name, you know, then you’ll own it. And then you can cash out. You can essentially sell, but obviously you can’t sell to the Russians because the IMF has just wiped out all of their savings.
You can only cash out by selling to the West. And so, the Russian stock market became the leading stock market in the world from 1994 with the Norilsk Nickel and the seven bankers in the bank loans for shares deal through 1997. And, I had worked for a firm Scutter Stevens and, the head adviser, a former student of mine didn’t want to invest in Russia because she said, this is just a rip off, it’s going to crash. She was fired for not investing. They said look, we know that’s going to crash. That’s the whole idea, it’s going to crash. We can make a mint off it before the crash. And then when it crashes, we can make another mint by selling short and then all over again. Well, the problem is that the system that was put in with the privatization that’s occurred, how do you have Russia’s wealth used to develop its own industry and its own economy like China was doing. Well, China has rules for all of this, but Russia doesn’t have rules, it’s really all centralized, it’s President Putin that keeps it this way.
Well, this was the great fear of the West. When you had Mikhail Gorbachev beginning to plan to do pretty much what is done today, to restrain private capital, the IMF said hold off. We’re not going to make any loans to stabilize the Russian currency until you remove Mr. Primakov.
The U.S. said we won’t deal with Russia until you remove him. So, he was pushed out and he was probably the smartest guy at the time there. So, they thought [President Vladimir] Putin was going to be sort of the patsy. And he almost single-handedly, holding the oligarchs in and saying, look, you can keep your money as long as you do exactly what the government would do. You can keep the gains as long as you’re serving the public interest.
But none of this resulted into a legal system, a tax system, and a system where the government actually does get most of the benefits. Russia could have emerged in 1990 as one the most competitive economies in Eurasia by giving all of the houses to its people instead of giving Norilsk Nickel and the oil companies to Yukos. It could have given everybody their own house and their own apartment, the same thing in the Baltics. And instead it didn’t give the land out to the people. And Russians were paying 3 percent of their income for housing in 1990. And rent is the largest element in every household’s budget.
“Russia could have emerged in 1990 as one the most competitive economies in Eurasia by giving all of the houses to its people.”
So, Russia could have had low-price labor. It could have financed all of its capital investment for the government by taxing, collecting the rising rental value. Instead, Russian real estate was privatized on credit and it was even worse in the Baltics.
In Latvia, where I was research director for the Riga Graduate School of Law, Latvia borrowed primarily from Swedish banks. And so, in order to buy a house, you had to borrow from Swedish banks. And they said, well, we’re not going to lend in the Latvian currency because it can go down. So, you have a choice; Swiss Francs or German Marks or U.S. Dollars. And so, all of this rent was paid in foreign currency. There came an outflow that essentially drained all the Baltic economies. Latvia lost 20 percent of its population. Estonia and Lithuania followed suit.
And of course, the worst hit by neo-liberalism was Russia. As you know, President Putin said that neo-liberalism cost Russia more of its population than World War II. And you know that to destroy a country, you don’t need an army anymore. All you have to do is teach it American economics.
Pepe: Yes, I remember well, I arrived in Russia in the winter of 91 coming from China. So, I transited from the Chinese miracle. In fact, a few days after Deng Xiaoping’s famous Southern tour when he went to Guangzhou and Shenzhen. And that was the kick for the 1990s boom, in fact a few years before the handover, and then I took the Trans-Siberian and I arrived in Moscow a few days after the end, in fact, a few weeks after the end of the Soviet Union.
But yeah, I remember the Americans arrived almost at the exact minute, wasn’t it, Michael? I think they already were there in the spring of 1992. If I’m not mistaken.
Michael: The Houston meeting was in 1990. But all before that already in, 1988 and 1989, there was a huge outflow of embezzlement money via Latvia. The assistant dean of the university who ended up creating Nordex, essentially the money was all flying out because Ventspils in Latvia, was where Russian oil was exported and it was all fake invoicing. So, the Russian kleptocrats basically made their money off false export invoicing, ostensibly selling it for one price and having the rest paid abroad and, this was all organized through Latvia and the man who did it later moved to Israel and finally gave a billion dollars back to Russia so that he went on to live safely for the rest of his life in Israel.
Pepe: Well, the crash of the ruble in 1998 was what, roughly one year after the crash of the baht and the whole Asian financial crisis, no? It was interlinked of course, but let me see if I have a question for you, in fact, I’m just thinking out loud now. If the economies of Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, the case of South Korea and Russia, were more integrated at the time as they are trying to integrate now, do you think that the Asian financial crisis would have been preventable in 1997?
Michael: Well, look at what happened in Malaysia with Mohammad Mahathir. Malaysia avoided it. So of course, it was preventable, and they had the capital controls. All you would have needed was to do what Malaysia did. But you needed an economic theory for that.
And essentially the current mode of warfare is to conquer the brains of a country to shape how people think and how they perceive the economy. And if you can twist their view into an unreality economics, where they think that you’re there to help them not to take money out of them, then you’ve got them hooked. That was what happened in Asia. Asia thought it was getting rich off the dollars inflows and then the IMF and all the creditors pulled the plug, crash the industry. And now that all of a sudden you had a crash, they bought up Korean industry and other South Asian industries at giveaway prices.
That’s what you do. You lend the money; you pull the plug. You then let them go under and you pick up the pieces. That’s what Blackstone did after the Obama depression began, when Obama saved the banks, not the constituency, the mortgage borrowers. Essentially that’s Blackstone’s modus operandi to pick up distressed prices at a bankruptcy sale, but you need to lend money and then crash it in order to make that work.
Pepe: Michael, I think we have only five minutes left. So, I would expect you to go on a relatively long answer and I’m really dying for it. It’s about debt, it about the debt trap. And it’s about the New Silk Roads, the Belt and Road Initiative, because I think rounding up our discussion and coming back to the theme of debt and global debt.
The No. 1 criticism apart from the demonization of China that you hear from American media and a few American academics as well against the Belt and Road is that it’s creating a debt trap for Southeast Asian nations, Central Asian nations and nations in Africa, etc…. Obviously, I expect you to debunk that, but the framework is there is no other global development project as extensive and as complex as Belt and Road, which as you know very well was initially dreamed up by the Ministry of Commerce. Then they sold it more or less to Xi Jinping who got the geopolitical stamp on it, announcing it, simultaneously, (which was a stroke of genius) in Central Asia in Astana and then in Southeast Asia in Jakarta. So, he was announcing the overland corridors through the heartland and the Maritime Silk Road at the same time.
At the time people didn’t see the reach and depth of all that. And now of course, finally the Trump administration woke up and saw what was in play, not only across Eurasia but reaching Africa and even selected parts of Latin America as well. And obviously the only sort of criticism, and it’s not even a fact-based criticism, that I’ve seen about the Belt and Road is it’s creating a debt trap because as you know Laos is indebted, Sri Lanka is indebted, Kyrgyzstan is indebted etc. So, how do you view Belt and Road within the larger framework of the West and China, East Asia and Eurasia relations? And how would you debunk misconceptions created, especially in the U S that this is a debt trap.
Six proposed corridors of Belt and Road Initiative, showing Italy inside circle, on maritime blue route. (Lommes, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
Michael: There are two points to answer there. The first is how the Belt and Road began. And as you pointed out, the Belt and Road began, when China said, what is it we need to grow and how do we grow within our neighboring countries so we don’t have to depend upon the West, and we don’t have to depend on sea trade that can be shut down? How do we get to roads instead of seas in a way that we can integrate our economy with the neighboring economies so that there can be mutual growth?
So, this was done pretty much on industrial engineering grounds. Here’s where you need the roads and the railroads. And then how do we finance it? Well, The Financial Times article, last week, said didn’t the Chinese know that [with past] railroad development, they’ve all gone broke? The Panama Canal went broke, you know, the first few times there were European railway investment in Latin America in the 19th century, that all went broke.
Well, what they don’t get is China’s aim was not to make a profit off the railroads.
The railroads were built to be part of the economy. They don’t want to make profit. It was to make the real economy grow, not to make profits for the owners of the railroad stocks. The Western press can’t imagine that you’re building a railroad without trying to make money out of it.
Then you get to the debt issue.
Countries only have a debt crisis if their debt is in a foreign currency. The first way that the United States gained power was to fight against its allies. The great enemy of America was England and it made the British block their currency in the 1940s. And so, India and other countries, that had all these currencies holdings in sterling, were able to convert it all into dollars.
The whole move of the U.S. was to denominate world debt in dollars. So that No. 1, U.S. banks would end up with the interest in financing the debt. And No. 2, the United States could, by using the debt leverage, control domestic politics.
Well, as you’re seeing right now in Argentina, for instance, Argentina is broke because it owes foreign-dollar debt. When I started the first Third World bond fund in 1990 at Scutter Stevens, Brazil and China and Argentina were paying 45 percent interest per year, 45 percent per year in dollars debt. Yet we tried to sell them in America. No American would buy. We went to Europe, no European buy this debt. And so, we worked with Merrill Lynch and Merrill Lynch was able to make an offshore fund in the Dutch West Indies and all of the debt was sold to the Brazilian ruling class in the central bank and the Argentinian bankers in the ruling class, we thought oh, that’s wonderful.
We know that they’re going to pay the foreign Yankee Dollars debt because the Yankee Dollars debt is owed to themselves. They’re the Yankees! They’re the client oligarchy. And you know, from Brazil client oligarchy is, you know, they’re cosmopolitan, that’s the word. So, the problem is that on the Belt and Road, how did these other countries pay the debt to China?
Well, the key there again is the de-dollarization, and one way to solve it is since we’re trying to get finance out of the picture, we’re doing something very much like, Japan did with Canada in the 1960s. It made loans to develop Canadian copper mines taking its payment, not in Canadian dollars, that would have pushed up the yen’s exchange rate, but in copper.
So, China says, you know you don’t have to pay currency for this debt. We didn’t build a railroad to make a profit and you want, we can print all the currency we want. We don’t need to make a profit. We made the Belt and Road because it’s part of our geopolitical attempt to create what we need to be prosperous and have a prosperous region. So, these are self-reinforcing mutual gain. Well, so that’s what the West doesn’t get — mutual gain? Are we talking anthropology? What do you mean mutual? This is capitalism! So, the West doesn’t understand what the original aim of the Belt and Road was, and it wasn’t to make a profitable railroad to enable people to buy and sell railway stocks. And it wasn’t to make toll roads to sell off to Goldman Sachs, you know. We’re dealing with two different economic systems, and it’s very hard for one system to understand the other system because of the tunnel vision that you get when you get a degree in economics.
“We’re dealing with two different economic systems, and it’s very hard for one system to understand the other system because of the tunnel vision that you get when you get a degree in economics.”
Pepe: Belt and Road loans are long-term and at very low interest and they are renegotiable. They are renegotiating with the Pakistanis all the time for instance.
Michael: China’s intention is not to repeat an Asia crisis of 1997. It doesn’t gain anything by forcing a crisis because it’s not trying to come in and buy property at a discount at a distressed sale. It has no desire to create a distressed sale. So obviously, the idea is the capacity to pay. Now, this whole argument occurred in the 1920s, between [John Maynard] Keynes and his opponents that wanted to collect German reparations and, Keynes made it very clear. What is the capacity to pay? It’s the ability to export and the ability to obtain foreign currency. Well, China’s not looking for foreign currency. It is looking for economic returns but the return is to the whole society, the return isn’t from a railroad. The return is for the entire economy because it’s looking at the economy as a system.
The way that neoliberalism works, it divides the economy in parts, and it makes every part trying to make a gain, and if you do that, then you don’t have any infrastructure that’s lowering the cost for the other parts. You have every part fighting for itself. You don’t look at in terms of a system the way China’s looking at it. That’s the great advantage of Marxism, you’ll look at the system, not just the parts.
Pepe: Exactly and this is at the heart of the Chinese concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, which is the approximate translation from Mandarin. So, we compare community with a shared future for mankind, which is, let’s say the driving force between the idea of Belt and Road, expanded across Eurasia, Africa and Latin America as well with our good old friends’, “greed is good” concept from the eighties, which is still ruling America apparently.
Michael: And the corollary is that non-greed is bad.
Pepe: Exactly and non-greed is evil.
Michael: I see. I think we ran out of time. I do. I don’t know if Alanna wants to step in to wrap it up.
Michael: There may be somebody who has a question.
Pepe: Somebody has a question? That’ll be fantastic.
Alanna: There is a question from Ed Dodson. He wanted to know why there are these ghost cities in China? And who’s financing all this real estate that’s developed, but nobody’s living there? We’ve all been hearing about that. So, what is happening with that?
Michael: Okay. China had most of its population living in the countryside and it made many deals with Chinese landholders who have land rights, and they said, if you will give up your land right to the community, we will give you free apartment in the city that you could rent out.
So, China has been building apartments in cities and trading these basically in exchange to support what used to be called a rural exodus. China doesn’t need as many farmers on the land as it now has, and the question is how are you going to get them into cities? So, China began building these cities and many of these apartments are owned by people who’ve got them in exchange for trading their land rights. The deals are part of the rural reconstruction program.
Alanna: Do you think it was a good deal? Vacant apartments everywhere.
Pepe: You don’t have ghost cities in Xinjiang for instance, Xinjiang is under-populated, it’s mostly desert. And it’s extremely sensitive to relocate people to Xinjiang. So basically, they concentrated on expanding Urumqi. When you arrive in Urumqi it is like almost like arriving in, Guangzhou. It’s enormous. It’s a huge generic city in the middle of the desert. And it’s also a high-tech Mecca, which is something that very few people in the West know. And is the direct link between the eastern seaboard via Belt and Road to Central Asia.
Last year I was on an amazing trip. I went to the three borders, the Tajik-Xinjiang border, Kyrgiz-Xinjiang border and the Kazakh-Xinjiang border, which is three borders in one. It’s a fascinating area to explore and specially to talk to the local populations, the Kyrgiz, the Kazakhs and the Tajiks.
How do they see the Belt and Road directly affecting their lives from now on?
So, you don’t see something spectacular for instance, in the Xinjiang – Kazakh boarder, there is one border for the trucks, lots of them like in Europe, crossing from all points, from Central Asia to China and bringing Chinese merchandise to Central Asia.
There’s the train border, which is a very simple two tracks and the pedestrian border, which is very funny because you have people arriving in buses from all parts of Central Asia. They stop on the Kazakh border. They take a shuttle, they clear customs for one day, they go to a series of shopping malls on the Chinese side of the border. They buy like crazy, shop till it drops, I don’t know for 12 hours? And then they cross back the same day because the visa is for one day. They step on their buses and they go back.
So, for the moment it’s sort of a pedestrian form of Belt and Road, but in the future, we’re going to have high-speed rail. We’re going to have, well the pipelines are already there as Michael knows, but it’s fascinating to see on the spot. You see the closer integration; you see for instance Uyghurs traveling back and forth. You know, Uyghurs that have families in Kyrgizstan for instance, I met some Uyghurs in Kyrgyzstan who do the back-and-forth all the time. And they said, there’s no problem. They are seen as businessmen so there’s no interference. There are no concentration camps involved, you know, but you have to go to these places to see how it works on the ground and with Covid, that’s the problem for us journalists who travel, because for one year we cannot go anywhere and Xinjiang was on my travel list this year, Afghanistan as well, Mongolia.
These are all parts of Belt and Road or future parts of Belt and Road, like Afghanistan. The Chinese and the Russians as well; they want to bring Afghanistan in a peace process organized by Asians themselves without the United States, within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, because they want Afghanistan to be part of the intersection of Belt and Road and Eurasian Economic Union. This is something Michael knows very well. You don’t see this kind of discussions in the American media for instance, integration of Eurasia on the ground, how it’s actually happening.
Michael: That’s called cognitive dissonance.
Alanna: To try to understand it gets you cognitive dissonance.
Pepe: Oh yeah, of course. And obviously you are a Chinese agent, a Russian agent. And so, I hear that all the time. Well, in our jobs we hear that all the time. Especially, unfortunately from our American friends.
Alanna: Okay. I know you have other things to do. This has been fabulous. I want to thank you so much, both of you, uh, with so easy to get attendance for this webinar. There were 20 people in five minutes enrolled and in two days we were at capacity. So, I know there are many more people who would love to hear you talk another time, whenever you two are so willing. And I think you both got much out of your first conversation in person. Everybody listening knows these two wonderful gentlemen, they have written more than 10 books, and they have traveled all over the world. They are on the top of geopolitical and geoeconomic analysis, and they are caring, loving people. So, you can see that these are the people we need to be listening to and understanding all around the world.
This was part ONE.
Now for the follow up; part TWO…
INDISPENSABLE READS: In Quest of a Multi-Polar World
Michael Hudson and Pepe Escobar resume their conversation about a global monetary system that appears headed for divorce.
“Free market meant giving power to the monopolists, to the oppressors, to violence. A free market was where armies can come in, take over your country, impose a client dictatorship like [Gen. Augusto] Pinochet in Chile or the neo-Nazis in the Ukraine. And you call that a free market…”
Michael Hudson: Fifty ago, I wrote Super Imperialism about basically how America dominates the world financially and gets a free ride.
I wrote it right after America went off gold in 1971, when the Vietnam War, which was responsible for the entire balance of payments deficit, forced the country to go off gold. And everybody at that time worried the dollar was going to go down. There’d be hyperinflation. And what happened was something entirely different.
Once there was no gold, America strong-armed its allies to invest in U.S. Treasury bonds because their central banks don’t buy companies. They don’t buy raw materials. All they could buy is other central bank’s treasury bonds. So, all of a sudden, the only thing that other people could buy with all the dollars coming in were U.S. Treasury securities.
And the securities they bought essentially were to finance yet more war making and the balance of payments deficit from war and the 800 military bases America has around the world. And the largest customer, I think we discussed it before, are the Defense Department and the CIA that looked at it [Super Imperialism] as a how-to-do it book. Well, that was 50 years ago.
And what I’ve done is not only re-edit the book and add more information that’s come out, but I’ve picked up the last 50 years and how it’s absolutely transformed the whole world. And it’s a new kind of imperialism.
There was still a view 50 years ago that imperialism was [essentially] economic. And this is the view that there’s still a rivalry for instance, between America and China or America and Europe and other countries.
But I think the whole world has changed so much in the last 50 years that what we have now is not really so much a conflict between America and China or America and Russia, but between a financial system economy run by finance and an economy run by governments — democratic or less democratic, but certainly a mixed economy.
Well, everything that made industrial capitalism rich, everything that made America so strong in the 19th century, through its protective tariffs, through its public infrastructure investment all the way down through World War II and the aftermath. We had a mixed economy in America, and that was very balanced. Europe had a mixed economy. Every economy since Babylon and Rome has been a mixed economy, but in America you’ve had since 1980 something entirely different. That was not foreseen by anybody because it seemed to be so disruptive.
And what that was, was the financial sector saying we need liberty and by liberty, meaning we have to take planning and subsidy and economic policy and tax policy out of the hands of government. And put it in the hands of Wall Street.
And so, libertarianism and free market is a centralized economy that is centralized in the hands of the financial centers, Wall Street, the City of London, the Paris Bourse. And what you’re having today is the attempt of the financial sector to take the role that the landlord class had in Europe, from feudal times through the 19th century. It’s a kind of resurgence.
If you look at the whole last 200 years of economic theory — from Adam Smith and, Henry George and Marx, onward — the whole idea was that everybody expected a mixed economy to become more and more productive and to free itself from the landlords, to free itself from banking to make land a public utility.
That was the tax base to make finance basically something public, and government would decide who gets the funding and thus, the idea of finance in the public sector was going to be pretty much what it is in China. You create bank credit in order to finance capital investment in factories. It means the production of machinery, agricultural modernization, of transport, infrastructure of high-speed trains of ports and all of that.
But in the United States and England, you have finance becoming something completely different. Banks don’t lend money to factories. They don’t want money to make means of production. They make money to take over other assets. Eighty percent of bank loans are mortgage loans to transfer the ownership of real estate. And of course that’s what created a middle class in the United States.
The middle class was able to buy its own housing, it didn’t have to pay rent to landlords or absentee owners or warlords and their descendants in England and Europe. They could buy their own. What nobody realized is that if you borrowed the money to take a mortgage, there’s still an economic rental value that is not paid to the landlords. It’s paid to the banks. And so, in the Western civilizations in America and Europe, the banks have played the role that the landlords played a hundred years ago.
And just as the landlord is trying to do everything they could through the House of Lords in England and the upper houses of government in Europe, they’re trying to block any kind of democratic government. And the fight really is against government that would do anything that is not controlled by the 1 percent, by the banks. Essentially the merger between finance insurance and real estate; the FIRE sector. So, you have almost a relapse of capitalism in the West back into feudalism, but feudalism with a financialized twist much more than it was in medieval times.
The fight against China, the fear of China is that you can’t do to China, what you did to Russia. America would love for there to be a [former Russian President Boris] Yeltsin figure in China to say, just give all of the railroads that you’ve built, the high-speed rail, the wealth, all the factories to individuals. And let the individuals run everything and, then we’ll lend them the money, or we’ll buy them out and then we can control them financially.
And China’s not letting that happen. And Russia stopped that from happening. And the fury in the West is that somehow, the American financial system is unable to take over foreign resources, foreign agriculture. It is left only with military means of grabbing them as we are seeing in the near East. And you’re seeing in the Ukraine right now.
Pepe Escobar: Well, as an introduction, Michael that was perfect because now we have the overall framework — geo-economic and historically — at least for the past 70 years.
I have a series of questions for you. I was saving one of these for the end, but I think I should start really the Metallica way. Let’s go heavy metal for a start, right?
So considering what you describe as a new kind of imperialism and the fact that this sort of extended free lunch cannot apply anymore because sovereigns around the world, especially Russia and China, I tried to formulate the idea that there are only three real sovereign powers on the planet, apart from the hegemon; Russia, China, and Iran, these three, which happen to be the main hub and the main focus of not only of the New Silk Roads but of the Eurasia integration process, they are actively working for some sort of change of the rules that predominated for the past 70 years.
So my first question to you would be, do you see any realistic possibility of a, sort of a Bretton Woods 2.0, which would imply the end of the dollar hegemony as we know it, and petrodollar recycling on and on and on, with the very important presence of that oily hacienda in the lands of Arabia. And do you think this is possible considering that President [Vladimir] Putin himself only a few days ago reiterated once again that the U.S. is no longer agreement- capable? So that destroys already the possibility of the emergence of the new rules of the game. But do you think this is still realistically possible?
Michael: I certainly do not see any repetition of a Bretton Woods because as I described in Super Imperialism, the whole of Bretton Woods was designed to make American control over Britain, over Europe total. Bretton Woods was a U.S.-centered system to prevent England from maintaining its empire. That’s okay. To prevent France from maintaining its empire and for America to take over the sterling area and, essentially with the World Bank, to prevent other countries from becoming independent and feeding themselves, to make sure that they supported plantation agriculture, not land reform. The one single fight of the World Bank was to prevent land reform and to make sure that America, and foreign investors, would take over the agriculture of these countries.
And very often people think of capitalism, certainly in the sense that Marx described in Volume One, capitalism is the exploitation of wage labor by employers. But capitalism also is an appropriation of the land rent, the agricultural rent, the natural resource rent, the oil and the mineral rent. And the idea of Bretton Woods was to make sure that other countries could not impose capital controls to prevent American finance coming in and appropriating their resources, of making the loans to foreign governments so that governments would not create their own money to promote their own social development but would have to borrow from the World Bank and the IMF, which essentially meant from the Pentagon and the State Department, in U.S. dollars.
And they would dollarize their economies and the economies would all be sucked. The economic rents from oil, agriculture, mining would all be sucked into the United States. That kind of Bretton Woods cannot be done again. And since Bretton Woods was an idea of centralizing the world’s economic surplus in a single country, the United States, no, that can never be done again.
What is happening? You mentioned the world of free, free lunch, and that’s what was a theme of Super Imperialism, when America issues dollars, for these all end up in central banks and they hold the dollars as a surplus. That means what can they do? All they can do is really lend them to the United States. America got a free lunch. It could spend and spend on its military, on bumping up corporate takeovers of other countries. The dollars have come in and foreign countries couldn’t cash them in for gold. They had nothing to cash them into. And all they could do is finance the U.S. budget deficit by buying Treasury bills.
That’s the irony now, what has happened in the last few years in the fight against Russia and China is America has killed the free lunch because it said, okay, now we’re going to have sanctions against Russia and China. We’re going to all of a sudden grab whatever money you have in foreign banks like we grabbed Venezuela’s money. Let’s go, we’re going to excommunicate you from the bank clearing system. So, you can’t use banking. We’re going to put sanctions against banks that deal with you.
So obviously Russia and China said, okay, we can’t deal with the dollar anymore, because the United States just crammed them. And if we do have dollars, we’re just going to hold everything in reserves and lending to the United States, the dollars that it’s going to spend building more military bases around us to make us waste our money on monetary spending. And so, America itself by the way, in fighting against China and Russia, has ended the free lunch.
“In America you’ve had since 1980 something entirely different. That was not foreseen by anybody because it seemed to be so disruptive.”
And now, Russia and China as you pointed out, are de-dollarizing, they’re trading in each other’s currency. They’re being the exact opposite of everything that Bretton Woods tried to create. They’re trying to create independence from the United States.
If Bretton Woods is this dependence on the United States, a centralized system dependent ultimately on Wall Street financial planners then, what China and Russia are trying to create is an economy that’s not run by the financial sector, but it is run by, let’s say, industrial and economic engineering and saying, what kind of an economy do we need in order to raise living standards and wages and self-sufficiency and preserve the environment, what is needed for the ideal world that we want?
Well, in order to do that, you’re going to have to have a lot of infrastructure. And in America, infrastructure is all privatized. You have to make a profit. And once you have infrastructure, a railroad or electric utility, like you see in Texas recently, it’s a monopoly. Infrastructure, for 5,000 years, Europe, the near East, Asia was always kept in the public domain that goes, if you’ll give it to private owners, they’ll charge a monopoly rent.
Well, the idea that China has is, “OK, we’re going to provide the educational system freely and let everybody try to get an education.” In America if you have an education, you have to go into debt for the banks for between $50,000 and $200,000. And whatever you make you’re going to end up paying the bank while in China, if you give free education, the money that they earned from the education will be spent into the economy, buying the goods and services that they produce, and the economy will be expanding, not shrinking, not having it all sucked out into the financial banks that are financing the education, same thing with the railroads, same things with the healthcare.
If you provide healthcare freely then the employers do not have to pay for the healthcare because that’s provided freely. In the United States, if the corporation and the employees have to pay for healthcare, that means that the employees have to be paid a much higher wage in order to afford the healthcare, in order to afford the transportation that gets him to work, in order to afford the auto loans, in order to drive to work, all of this is free, or subsidized in other countries, who create their own credit.
In the United States and Europe, governments feel that they have to borrow from the wealthy people in a bond and pay interest. In China they say, “we don’t have to borrow from a wealthy class. We can simply print the money.” That’s Modern Monetary Theory. As Donald Trump has explained in the United States, we can print whatever we want. Dick Cheney said, deficits don’t matter. We can just print it. And of course, Stephanie Kelton and my colleagues in MMT at Kansas City for many years have been saying.
“The economy has been saturated and Reaganized and the result is a fight of economic systems against China and Russia.”
The banks fear this because they say, “Wait a minute, Modern Monetary Theory means it’s not feudal monetary theory. We want feudal monetary theory. We want the rich people to be able to have a choke point on the economy that you can’t survive unless you borrow from us and pay us interest. We want the choke points.” That’s called economic rent.
And so, you have the West turning into a rent-extractive economy, a rent-seeking economy. And you’ll have the whole ideal of Russia, China, and other countries being the ideal of not only Marx, but Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Ricardo. The whole of classical economics was to free economies from economic rent. And the American economy is all about extracting rent through the real estate sector, the financial sector, the health insurance sector, the monopolies and infrastructure sector.
The economy has been saturated and Reaganized and the result is a fight of economic systems against China and Russia. So, it’s not simply that, there’s a fight between who makes the best computer chips and the best iPhones. It’s: are we going to have a fallback of civilization back into feudalism, back into control by a narrow class at the top of the economy, that 1 percent? Or are we going to have the ideal of democratic industrialization that used to be called socialism but it was also called capitalism. Industrial capitalism was socialism; it was socialized medicine, it was socialized infrastructure, it was socialized schooling. And so, the fight against socialism is a fight against industrial capitalism, a fight against democracy, a fight against prosperity.
That’s why what you’re seeing now is a fight for what direction civilization will go into. And you can’t have a Bretton Woods for a single kind of organization because the United States would never join that civilization. The United States calls a country trying to make its labor force prosperous, educated and healthy instead of sick with shorter lifespans, they call it communism or socialism.
Well, it can call it whatever it wants, but that’s the dynamic we are talking about.
Pepe: Well, you put it very, I would say starkly. The opposition between two completely different systems, what the Chinese are proposing, including, from productive capitalism to trade and investment all across Eurasia and beyond, including Africa, parts of Latin America as well. And the rentier obsession of the 0.01 percent that controls the U.S. financial system. In terms of facts on the ground, are we going slowly but surely and ominously towards an absolute divorce by a system based on rentier, ultra-financialization, which is the American system, not productive capitalism at all.
I was going through a small list of what the U.S. exports, it’s not much as you know, better than I do. Agricultural products but always privileging U.S. farmers. Hollywood, we are all hostages of Hollywood all over the world. Pop culture? That’s not the pop culture that used to be absolutely impregnable and omniscient during the ‘60s, the 70s, during the Madonna, Michael Jackson era in the ‘80s, right? Infotech. And that’s where a big bet comes in. And this is maybe the most important American export at the moment because American Big Tech controls social networks all over the planet. Big Pharma. Now we see the power of Big Pharma with the whole Covid operations, right? But Boeing prefers to invest in financial engineering instead of building decent products. Right?
So, in terms of a major superpower, the hyperpower, that’s not much, and obviously buyers all over the world already noticed that. So, China is proposing the New Silk Roads, which is a foreign-policy strategy, and a trade, investment and sustainable development strategy. [It’s] applied not only to the whole of Eurasia, but Eurasia and beyond to grow a great deal of the Global South and that’s why we have Global South partners to the New Silk Roads — 130-and-counting as we speak.
So, the dichotomy could not be clearer. What will the 0.001 percent do? Because they don’t have anything seductive to sell. To all those nations in the Global South to start with; the new version of the Non-Aligned Movement, NAM, the countries that are already part of New Silk Road projects, not even to Europe and this, we could see by the end of last year when the China-European Union agreement was more or less sealed. It’s probably going to be sealed in 2021 for good.
And at the same time, we had the Regional Economic Comprehensive Partnership, RCEP, with the ASEAN 10, my neighbors here, the Association of South East Asian Nations, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. So, when you have the China-EU deal, and when you have RCEP, you have China as the number one trade partner on the planet, no competition whatsoever.
And obviously every one of these players wants to do business with China. And they’re privileging doing business with China to doing business with the U.S., especially with a country that once again, according to President Putin, is non-agreement capable. So, Michael, what is your key geo-economic view of the next steps? Are we going towards the divorce of the American financialization system and the Eurasia-and-beyond integration system?
Michael: Well, you you’ve made the whole point clear. There is incompatibility between a rentier society controlled by the finance and real estate interests and military interests and an industrial democracy.
Industry in England and Europe in the 19th century — the whole fight for democratic reform to increase the role of the House of Commons against the House of Lords in England and the lower house in Europe — was a fight to get labor on the side of industry [and] to get rid of the landlord class. And it was expected that … capitalism [would then be] free of the landlord class, free of something that wasn’t really capitalism at all, it was a carry-over from feudalism. Once you free capitalism, you wouldn’t have this overhead of the idle 1 percent, only consuming resources and going to war, anymore.
And then World War I changed all of that . … Already, in the late 19th century, the landlords and the banks fought back, and they fought back largely through the Austrian School of individualism and the English marginalist and they called it freedom. They call it free markets. Free market meant giving power to the monopolists, to the oppressors, to violence. A free market was where armies can come in, take over your country, impose a client dictatorship like [Gen. Augusto] Pinochet in Chile or the neo-Nazis in the Ukraine. And you call that a free market.
The free world was a world centrally planned by the American military and finance together. So, it’s Orwellian, and the dynamic of this world is shrinking because it’s polarizing and you’ve seen with the Covid pandemic in the United States, the economy has polarized much more sharply than ever before between the 1 percent, the 10 percent and the rest of the economy.
Well, as opposed to that here, you have economies that are not run by a rentier class, that do not have a banking class and the landlord class controlling the economy, but a partnership. The kind of thing you had in Germany in the late 19th century, government industry and labor, all working together to design how we provide the financing for industry so that it can provide not only industrial capital formation, but public funding for us to build infrastructure and uplift the population.
What China is doing is what made America rich in the 19th century, what made Germany rich. It’s exactly the same logical engineering plan. Now, this plan because it’s based on economic expansion, and environmental preservation and economic balance instead of concentration, this is going to be a growing economy. So, you’re having a growing economy outside of the United States and a shrinking economy in the States and its satellites in Europe.
“What China is doing is what made America rich in the 19th century, what made Germany rich.”
Europe had a choice; either it could shrink, and be American, or it could join the growth. Europe has decided unanimously, we don’t want to grow. We want to be constant. We want our banks to take over just like in America. That’s a free market because Americans have found out, and I’m told by American officials we just buy the European politicians, they’re bribable. That’s why when president Putin says, America and Europe are not agreement capable, it means they’re just in it for the money. There is no ideology there. There is no idea of the overall social benefit. The system is “how can I get rich, and you can get rich by being bribed?” That’s why you go into politics. As you can tell in America with the Supreme Court law saying politics can be personally financed.
So, you’re having two incompatible systems and, they’re on different trajectories and if you have a system that is shrinking like the West and growing in the East, you have resentment. People who obtain their wealth in crooked ways, or without working — by inheritance, by crime, by exploitation — they will fight like anything to keep that. Whereas people who actually create wealth, labor, capital, they, they’re not willing to fight, they just want to be creative. So you have a destructive military force, in the West. And, basically a productive, economic growth force. And in Eurasia, the clash now is occurring largely in Ukraine. You’re having the United States back the neo-Nazis.
Pepe: The old Nazi movement!
Michael: It’s the same swastika-carrying group that threatened Russia in World War II. And this is like waving a red flag before a bull. Putin continues to remind the Russians. We know what happened with the 22 million Russians that died, in World War II with Europe coming in. We’re not going to let it happen again.
And you can be certain Russia is not going to be sucked into invading the Ukraine. The United States has its military advisers in the Ukraine. Now, the Vineyard of the Saker has a very good report on that. America’s trying to needle Russia into fighting back against the terrorist groups and Russia has no desire at all to. There’s nothing that Russia has to gain by taking it over. It’s essentially a bankrupt country.
The United States is trying to provoke a response so it can say Russia is attacking the West. The result will probably be that Russia will very simply provide arms to the Eastern Ukrainians to fight back the invasion. And you’re going to have a wasteland in Western Ukraine and Poland. And this wasteland will be the new buffer state with Europe. Already you have, maybe 10 percent of the Ukrainians having moved to Russia and the east. [Another] 10 percent are now plumbers in England and Europe, working. They’re beginning to look like Latvia and other neo-liberalized countries. Neo-liberalized countries? If you want to see the future, look at Latvia, Estonia. Look at Greece. That’s the American plan. Essentially, an emigration of skilled labor, a sharp reduction of living standards, a 20 percent decline in population. And although it may appear to have more income, all of this income and GDP is, essentially, interest collection and rents to the FIRE sector.
All the American GDP growth is essentially payment to the bank, to the landlords and the monopolist, it’s not, the population, the employees are not sharing in the GDP. It’s all concentrated at the top. They make a desert, and they call it growth.
It hasn’t changed. Rome was a predatory economy held by military force that ultimately collapsed and America is on the same trajectory as Rome. And it knows this, I have spoken to American policymakers and they say, “you know, we we’re going to be dead by then. It doesn’t matter if the West loses. I’m going to get rich. I’m going to buy a farm in New Zealand and make a big bomb shelter there and live underground, you know, like a cave dweller.”
The financial time frame and the predatory rentier time frame is short term. The Eurasian time frame is long-term. So, you’ve got to have the short-term burning what wealth it has as opposed to the longer-term building up.
[Consider the Biden Covid relief measure.] They call it a stimulus bill, but if you’re starving, if you haven’t been able to pay your rent, if you’re six months behind in your rent and you get enough money to pay the landlord, at least one month back rent, that’s not a stimulus, that’s a survival. And it’s a one-time payment. This kind of stimulus checks that America’s sending out are sent out every month in Germany and parts of Europe.
“All the American GDP growth is essentially payment to the bank, to the landlords and the monopolist.”
The whole idea in Europe is: OK, you have a pandemic, you have business interrupted. What we’re going to do is we’re going to have a pause. You don’t pay the rent, but the landlords are not going to pay the banks. And the banks are not going to be in arrears. We’re just going to have a pause so that when it’s all over people will go back to normal. Well, China and Russia are already pretty much there and where you are [in Asia], and especially in Thailand, are already back to normal.
But in America anybody who’s renting or who’s bought a house on mortgage credit or who has credit card debt or personal debt or automobile debt they’re way behind. And all of these stimulus checks are just being used to pay the banks and the landlords not to not to buy more goods and services.
All they’re trying to do is, is get out of the hole that they’ve been dug into in the last 12 months. That’s not a stimulus that’s a partial, desperation payment. This problem never existed in other civilizations. You have the whole tradition of Greece, Babylonia that’s what my book Forgiving the Debt is all about. The whole idea is when there is an economic interruption, you have an interruption, you don’t have people into debt. You wipe out all of the arrears that have mounted up. You wipe out the tax arrears, the rent arrears, the debt of payment arrears. So once the crisis is over, you can start from a normal position again.
There’s no normalization in America, there’s no normal position to start. You’re starting from a position, even more behind the financial problems than you were when you went in. The foreign economies of China and Russia don’t have that kind of problem, they don’t have any kind of deficit. So, the West is beginning with 99 percent of the population deeper and deeper into debt to the 1 percent.
Where is that whole polarization between the 1 percent and the 99 percent? It doesn’t exist certainly in China and in Russia, Putin is trying to minimize it, given the legacy of the kleptocracy that the neo-liberals put in he’s still trying to deal with that, but you really have that. It’s a difference in economic systems and the direction in which these systems are moving in.
Pepe: I’m really glad that you brought up Ukraine, Michael, because this, let’s say U.S. foreign policy, even, before Trump and now with the new Biden-Harris administration, basically more or less what it boils down to is sanction sanctions, sanctions, as we know, and provocations, which is what they’re doing certainly in Syria with that recent bombing.
And, in the case of Ukraine and Donbass, it’s absolutely crazy because NATO so-called strategists, when you talk to them in Brussels, they know very, very well about each state or whatever they weaponize and financialize to profit Kiev to mount some sort of offensive against the Donbass and even if they would have like 300,000 soldiers against like 30,000 in Donbass.
If the Russians see that this is going to get really heavy if they intervene in directly, with their bombing, with their super missiles, they can finish this story in one day. And if they want it, they could finish the whole story, including invading Ukraine in three days, like they did in 2008 with Georgia and still they keep the provocations, loosely acted on by people from inside the Pentagon.
And so, we have sanctions, we have nonstop provocations, and we have also a sort of introducing a Fifth Column — elements inside or at the top of government — which brings me to, and I would love to have your personal analysis on the role of Mario (Goldman Sachs) Draghi now in Italy, which is something I had been discussing with my Italian friends. And there’s more or less a consensus, among very well informed, independent Italian analysts that Draghi may be the perfect Trojan horse to accelerate the destruction of the Italian state, which will accelerate the globalist project of the European Union, which is absolutely non-state centric.
Let’s put it this way, which is also part of the Great Reset so if you could briefly talk to us about the role of Super Mario at the moment.
Michael: Well, Italy is a very good example to look at. It had strings for a long time. When you have a country that needs infrastructure, that needs public, social democratic spending, you need a government to create the credit. But when Americans and specifically the University of Chicago free market lobbyists created the European, the Eurozone financial system, their premise was that governments cannot create money. Only banks can create money. Only banks owned by the bond holders can create money for the benefit of their owners and bond holders. So, no European government, first of all, can run a budget deficit sufficient to cope with the coronavirus or with the problems that have been plaguing Italy for a decade. They can’t create their money to revive employment, to revive infrastructure, to revive the economy. The European Central Bank only lends to other central banks.
It’s created trillions of euros just to buy stocks and bonds, not to spend into the economy, not to hire labor, not to build infrastructure, but just for the holders of the stocks and bonds. The 1 percent or 5 percent of the population gets richer. The function of the European Central Bank is to create money, to save the wealthiest 5 percent from losing a single penny on their stocks and bonds.
And the cost is to impoverish the economy and to basically make the economy end up looking like Greece, which was sort of the dress rehearsal for how the Eurozone was going to just essentially reduce Europe to debt dependency, just like in feudalism everybody had to have access to the land by becoming a serf.
Well now you’re in debt peonage. It’s the modern, finance capital’s version of serfdom. And so, in Italy we’re going to need government spending. We’re going to need to do in our way what China’s doing in its way and what Russia is doing in its way. We’re going to have some kind of government program. And we can’t have the economy being impoverished just because the University of Chicago has designed a plan for Europe to prevent the euro ever from being a rival to the U.S. dollar. If there’s no European central bank to borrow, to pump euros into the world economy, then, only dollars will be left for central bank reserves. The United States doesn’t ever want a rival. It wants satellites and so that’s what it’s basically turned Europe into. And I don’t see any response outside of Italy for an attempt to say we can’t be a part of this system. Let’s withdraw from the euro.
I know that the Greeks, when I was in Greece years ago, we all thought can’t we join with Italy and Portugal and Ireland and say look, the system isn’t working. Everybody else no, no, the Americans will just simply get us out of office one way or another. And in Italy, of course, if you look at what happened after World War II, the great threat was Italian communism. You had the Americans essentially say well, we know the answer to communism, it’s fascism and, you saw where they put the money. They essentially did every dirty trick in the book in order to fight any left- wing group in Italy, just as they did in Yugoslavia, just as they did in Greece, wiping out the partisans, all the leading anti-Nazi groups from Greece to Italy to elsewhere. All of a sudden they were all either assassinated or moved out of office and replaced by the very people that America had been fighting against during World War II.
Well, now Italy is finally coming to terms with this and trying to fight back and you’re having what’s happening there, between Northern Italy and Southern Italy. You’re having the same splits occur in other countries.
Pepe: Yeah. Well, I’m going to bring up, perhaps an even more extreme case now Michael, which is the case of Brazil, which at the moment is in the middle of an absolutely out of this world mix of telenovela and Kabuki theater that even for most Brazilians is absolutely incomprehensible. It’s like a fragmentation bomb exploding over and over again, a Groundhog Day of fragmentation bombs.
In fact, it’s completely crazy. Lula [former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva] is back in the picture as well. We still don’t know under which terms, we still don’t know how the guys who run the show, which are the Brazilian military, are going to deal with him or instrumentalize him, et cetera.
In 2007, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) and his wife Marisa Letícia review troops during the Independence Day military parade. (Ricardo Stuckert, Agência Brasil, CC BY 3.0. Wikimedia Commons)
I bring up this case because … essentially it has convulsed Brazil completely and large parts of Latin America. It is a telenovela with one cliffhanger after another, sometimes in a matter of minutes, but it encompasses all the basic themes of what really interests the 0.01 percent, which we can identify for instance as a class war against labor which is what the system in Brazil, since the coup against Dilma [Former President Dilma Vana Rousseff] has been waging. A war against mixed economies, economic sovereignty, which is something that the Masters of the Universe of the 0.01 percent cannot wage against Russia and China. But that was very successfully waged against Brazil and implemented in Brazil. In fact, in a matter of two years, they completely devastated the country in every possible sense, industrially, sociologically, you name it…
And of course, because the main objective is something that you keep stressing over and over again, unipolar rentier dominance, in fact.
Brazil, I would say is the extreme case in the world not only in the Global South, but in planetary terms of let’s say the last frontier of the rentier economy, when you manage to capture a country that was slowly emerging as a leader in the Global South, as an economic leader. Don’t forget that a few years ago, Brazil was the sixth-largest economy in the world and on the way to become the fifth. Now it’s the 12th and falling down nonstop and controlled by a mafia that includes not by accident, a Chicago Boy Pinochetista, Minister Paulo Guedes, who is implementing, in the 21st century, something that was implemented in Chile in the ‘70s and ‘80s. And they were successful. Apparently, at least so far.
Brazil is so disorganized as a nation, so shattered, so fragmented and atomized as a nation that basically it depends on the re-emergence of a single political leader, in this case, Lula to try to rebuild the nation from scratch. And even in a position where he cannot control the game he can interfere in the game, which is what happened, like you know, … when he gave a larger-than-life press conference, mixed with a re-presentation of himself as a statesman and said, “Look the whole thing is shattered, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel.”
But still he cannot confront the real Masters of the Universe that have allowed this to happen in the first place. So just to give an example to many of you who are not familiar with some details of the Brazilian case, and it involves directly the Obama-Biden scheme or the Obama-Biden larger operation. When Biden was vice president in 2013, in May 2013, he visited Brazil for three days and he met with President Dilma.
They discussed very touchy subjects, including the most important one, the absolutely enormous, pre-salt oil reserves, which obviously, the Americans wanted to be part of the whole thing, not by accident. You know what happened one week later? The start of the Brazilian color revolution, in fact, and this thing kept rolling and rolling and rolling.
We got the coup against Dilma in 2016, we got to the Car Wash operation landing Lula in jail. And we got to the election of [President Jair] Bolsanaro. And now we are in a place where even if the military controls this whole process, even if Bolsanaro is becoming bad for business will he become bad for the rentier class business, for the 0.01 percent in the U.S. that has all the connections in their new, large neo-colony in the tropics, which has enormous strategic value, not to mention, unforeseen resources, wealth resources, right? So, this is an extreme case and I know that you follow Brazil relatively closely. So, your geo-economic and geopolitical input on the running telenovela I think would be priceless for all of us.
Michael: Well, this problem goes back 60 years. In 1965, the former president of Brazil came to New York and we met. He explained to me how the United States essentially got rid of him because he wasn’t representing the banking class. And he said that they built Brasilia because it’s apart from the big industrial cities, they wanted to prevent industry and democracy and the population from controlling the government.
So, they built Brasilia. He said maybe they’ll use it as an atom bomb site. It certainly doesn’t have an economic thing. Well, fast forward, in 1980, after Mexico defaulted on its foreign debt in 1972, nobody would invest in Latin America. And by 1990, Brazil was paying 45 percent interest per year to borrow the dollars to be able to finance its deficit, which is mainly flight capital by the wealthy. Well, I think I’d mentioned before here, I was hired by Scudder, Stevens and Clark for the Third World bond fund. Forty five percent: I mean, just imagine that. That’s a fortune every year. No American would buy it, no European would buy it. Who bought it? The Brazilians and the Argentineans bought, and I get it, they’re the government, they’re the central bankers. They’re the president’s family. They’re the 1 percent, they’re the only people that are holding Brazil’s dollar debt.
So when Brazil pays its foreign dollar debt, it’s paying to its own 1 percent who are holding, who are saying well, we’re holding it off shore in the Dutch West Indies where the fund was located for tax-exempt purposes and pretending to be American imperialists, but actually being local imperialists.
Well then, just towards the end of Lula’s reign, the Council of Economic Advisors brought Jamie Galbraith and Randy Wray and me down for a discussion. How do we, you know, we’re, we’re really worried because, Lula in order to get elected, had to meet with the banks and agree to give them what they wanted.
They said, look, we can see that, you know, you have the power to be elected. We don’t want to have to fight you in dirty ways, but will let you be elected, but you’re going to have to do the policies and certainly the financial policies that we want and Lula made a kind of a devil’s agreement with them because he didn’t want to be killed and he wanted to do some good things.
So, he was sort of like a Bernie Sanders-type character. Okay, you have to go along with a really bad system in order to get something good done, because Brazil really needs something good done. Well, the fact is that even the little bit he did the finance couldn’t take because one of the characteristics of financial wealth is it’s addictive. It’s not like diminishing marginal utility. If you give more food to an employee or to a worker you know, at the end of the meal, you’re satiated, you don’t want much more. If you give enough money you know, OK, they buy a few luxuries and then, OK, they save it. But if you give more money to a billionaire they want even more and they grow even more desperate. It’s like a cocaine-addicted person and the Brazilian ruling class wanted it so desperately that they framed up and controlled the utterly corrupt judiciary. The judiciary in Brazil is almost as corrupt as it is in New York City.
Pepe: More, even more.
Michael: They framed them up and they want totalitarian control. And that sort of is what free market is.Totalitarian control by the financial class. That’s freedom for the financial class, if the freedom to do what they want to do to the rest of the economy, that’s libertarianism, it’s a free market, it’s Austrian economics.
It’s the right wing’s fight against government, it’s a fight against any governments for long enough who resist the financial and real estate interests. That’s what the free market is. And Brazil is merely the most devastating example of this because it takes such a racial term there. Not only does Brazil want to make a fortune, tearing down the Amazon, cutting up the Amazon, selling the lumber to China, turning the Amazon into soy production to sell to China. But for that, you have to exterminate the domestic population, the indigenous population that wants to use the land to feed itself. So you see the kind of race war and ethnic war that you have, not to mention the war against the blacks in the Brazilian slums that Lula tried so much to overcome.
So you have a resumption of the ethnic war there, and on Wall Street, I had discussions with money managers back in 1990. Well I wonder whether that’s going to be a model for what’s happening in the United States with the ethnic war here.
Essentially, it’s a tragedy what’s happening in Brazil, but it’s pretty much what happened in Chile under Pinochet which is why they have the Pinochetistas and the Chicago boys that you mentioned.
Pepe: Absolutely. Coming back to China, Michael, and the [recent] approval of the Five-Year Plan, which is not actually the five-year plan. It’s actually three five-year plans in one because they are already planning 2035, which is something absolutely unimaginable anywhere in the West. Right?
So, it’s a different strategy of productive investment, of expansion of social welfare and solidifying social welfare, technological improvements. I would say by 2025 China would be very close to the same infotech level of the U.S., which is part of “Made in China 2025,” which is fantastic. They stopped talking about it, but they are still implementing it, the technological drive in all those standard areas that they had codified a few years ago. And of course, this notion, which I found particularly fascinating because it is in one sense socialism with some Confucianist elements, but it’s also very Taoist: The dual development strategy, which is inversions and expansion of domestic investment and consumption and balancing all the time with projects across Eurasia, not only affiliated with the Belt and Road, with the New Silk Road, but all other projects as well. So, when you have a leadership that is capable of planning with this scope, amplitude breadth and reach, and when we compare it to the money managers in the West, which basically their planning goes, not even quarterly in many cases, it’s 24 hours.
So our dichotomy between rentier capitalism, financialization, or whatever we want to define it, and state planning with the view of social benefit is even starker in fact, and I’m not saying that the Chinese system can be exported to the rest of the world, but I’m sure that, all across the Global South, when people look at Chinese policies, long-term, how they are planning, how they are developed and how they are always fine tuning what they developed and discuss…. As you said in the beginning, this is a frontal shock of two systems and sooner or later we’re going to have the bulk of the Global South including nations which nowadays are still American vassals or satrapies or puppets or poodles, et cetera.
They’re going to see which way the wind is blowing. Right?
Michael: Why can’t the Chinese system be exported to the West? That’s a good question…. How would you make American industry able to follow the same productive path that China did? Well for one thing the biggest element in workers’ budget today is housing, 40 percent. There was one way to get rid of it, get rid of the high housing prices that essentially, or whatever a bank would lend. And the banks lend essentially the economic rent. There’s a very simple way to keep housing prices down. You tax the land rent, you use your tax system, not on taxing labor, that increases the cost of labor, not increasing capital, that leaves less, industrial capital, but your tax of the land and the real estate and the banks.
Well, suppose you were to lower the price of housing in America from 40 percent to 10 percent like China has, and this is the big element in the cost structure difference. Well, if all of a sudden people only had to pay 10 percent of their income for housing, then all the banks would go under because 80 percent of the bank loans are mortgage loans.
The whole idea is that the purpose of housing is to force how many buyers and renters go into debt to the banks so that the banks end up with all of the lend rent that the landlord class used to get. This is what’s preventing America from being like China. What if America would try to develop a high-speed railroad like China?
Well, then you need the right of way. You’d need to have the railroads go in a straight line. … They need a right of way and it doesn’t have a right of way because that conflicts with private property and most of the right of way is a very expensive real estate.
So, you can’t have high-speed rail in the United States, like in China. Suppose you would have a low-cost education. Well then, you get rid of the whole means of siphoning off labor’s income to pay for education loans. You could go, suppose you had private healthcare and prevent Americans from getting sick like they do in China and Thailand, where you are.
One of China’s many super-speed electric trains. They are generations ahead of America’s rail system. (Wikicommons)
Well, then the health insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies wouldn’t be able to make their rent. So you could not have America adopt a China type industrial program without what would be really a revolution against the legacy of the monopoly of private banking, of finance and all of the fortunes that have been built up financially really in the last 40 years since 1980.
Pepe: So, what’s going to happen in the, let’s say, short to mid-term in the U.S.? Michael, we are seeing the corrosion of the whole system, not only externally in terms of foreign policy and the end of the free lunch, but internally with those 70-million-plus “deplorables” being literally canceled from public debate, the impoverishment of the middle classes, with over 50 million people in America who are practically becoming literally poor. And obviously the American dream ended a few decades ago, maybe, but now there’s not even a glimpse of it, that there could be a renewal of the American dream. So we have a larval civil war situation, degrading on a daily basis. What’s the end game in fact? And what exactly does Wall Street, the American ruling class —the guys who have those lunches at the Harvard club — what do they ultimately want?
Michael: Well, what you call a disaster for the economy, isn’t it a bonanza for the 1 percent? This is a victory of finance. You look at it as a collapse of industrial capitalism. I look at it as the victory of rentier finance capitalism. You’re having probably 10 million Americans that are going to be thrown out of their apartments and their homes in June when the moratorium on rents and mortgages ends. You’re going to have a vast increase in the homeless population. That will probably represent an increase in people who use the subways. Where else are they going to live? And all of this, there’s an immense amount of private capital firms that have all been created in the last year of just wealth accumulations and they’re saying there are going to be such great opportunities to pick up real estate at bargain prices, all of this for the commercial real estate, that’s broken, all the buildings and the restaurants that have to be sold because they can’t meet their mortgage payments and their rents, all the houses that are going to be under, private capital can come in and do what was done after the Obama evictions.
We can do what Blackstone did. We can buy them all out for pennies on the dollar. So, for them, they’re looking at their own 20-year plan. And their 20-year plan is to grab everything!
…
A Long read, eh?
Yeah. I know it was a long read. Maybe you all should have gotten a beer and some pizza before you started to read it, maybe.
Delicious Beer and pizza.
.
Keep in mind that any disruption will be uneven. It will be in patches. Avoid the high-risk areas if you can, and be part of a group.
A Comment that generated this post…
The question;
Your website is by far THE MOST IMPORTANT resource for westerners right now. I have a lot to learn from site, and I also have some questions. The most important question I have at this moment is –
1) How do you advise Americans/Europeans who understand what is happening, the future that is approaching to prepare, survive AND maintain their sanity in these trying times. Especially those who can’t move outside USA/EU?
Your help and answer will be much appreciated. The feeling of doom and dread while your compatriots run towards jumping off a cliff (and forcibly drag you along) is not a fun feeling.
Note: I am in EU but I am using a VPN for my safety. My IP address will indicate an Asian country close to China but I am living in EU. Please approve my comment, it’s not a spam.
The Answer:
Thank you for this. This question has been asked of me my many people, and I have answered it. Long time MM readers can answer this for you, but I will take a quick stab at it yet again.
Essentially, the social system that humans established way back around 5000 years ago is faulted. The moment that banking interest obtained the same value as gold or physical exertion, the system was doomed. It just took 7000 years to manifest.
Now the USA is in debt for nearly 30 trillion dollars. All the gold on the planet earth wouldn’t be able to pay this debt. Yet this debt is jut an artificial creation. It’s just money out of thin air. Value from nothing.
For the last 75 years, the United States used this artificial value to control the world. The wealthy became like Gods. The poor became like slaves.
And as a result the world became a very difficult place to live. Are you enjoying life right now? If not, why?
Everything can be traced down to people who make nothing, who produce nothing, becoming Gods over those that do. And these “Gods” have their own group of toadies who service them. Creating wars, strife, and elements of control. It’s all ungainly and unraveling.
China, Russia and Iran are unifying.
They are not allowing this artificial wealth creation mechanism to become the monster that it is in the West, and this is a major threat to the “American way of life”, “democracy” and what little is left of “freedom”.
The world is resetting.
Now, America and the West (the five eyes) is like a big old enraged old elephant on a jet aircraft. It is thrashing about, banging into the side of the aircraft and is roaring and howling and tearing up the floor. The pilot and his crew are deciding whether or not it is in the best interests to just open up the rear cargo door and throw him out the plane with no parachute. This is where we are today.
You have no control on whether or not the elephant will get ejected. For you are just a tiny, tiny flea on the back of this enraged elephant. Your choices are quite limited, but they are clear. Do you [1] jump off now and land on the sterile clean floor of the aircraft, while the elephant stomps about, [2] ride the elephant as you have been and hope that the elephant calms down and the plane lands safely, [3] fight with the other fleas on the back of the elephant and try to build a little nest of elephant hair, and float gently to the side of the plane intact.
And who is this elephant? Why it is the United States; an Oligarchy-ruled Military-Empire.
I have advised everyone who could, to take option [1] and flee.
Those that could not, like yourself, I suggest option [3]. What ever you do, do not take option [2]. That is the herd option and it will be lethal.
And I will repeat my advice. Here is the advice for option [3]...
[1] Do not be a “lone wolf”. That is going to get you killed. Be part of a local community. Know who you can trust and who you cannot. Identify friends and foes. Again, I will repeat, do not try to be alone. You need to be part of a community to survive. This is your MOST IMPORTANT task.
[2] Learn a skill. Take an online class in paramedic technology, know some basic repair skills. You need to be useful when things go really crazy. have a skill. Have abilities. be able to work as a "team player". Be reasonable, balanced, and provide something of worth.
[3] Stock up on food supplies. Make sure that you have an enormous larder of dry goods.
[4] Guns and weapons. Having a firearm is beneficial only if you know how to use it well. Otherwise, count on the avoidance strategy of survival, but be absolutely ready to kill with your bare hands if necessary. If you are not at this point, then you need to get to that point. Its basic survival 101.
[5] Basics of location. If you are going to "hunker down", then be ready. Make sure that you have a hidden room in your basement or a place to go where you can hide if need be. Know where to get water, potable water easily, if you need to. Know how to recharge a batter with solar power or a generator from a bicycle.
[6] Do not trust the “news”. The "news" do not report anything, they actually provide deceptive reporting.
[5] Lie low, be low key. Do not get on any public or private arguments. Be as neutral as possible. Do not be a target. Use the avoidance strategy at every point.
[6] Do not have “burned bridges”. Go ahead “mend your fences”. Your future depends on your ability to work as a team.
[7] Barter goods. When times are rough, and money is worthless, humans resort to bartering. Women will provide sexual favors. Men can provide items, or services. Top rated items are small bottles of cheap whiskey, vodka, or spirits. Also good are tobacco, cigarettes and pipe tobacco. A box of 100 disposable lighters is very cheap and you would be surprised how valuable they can become. Be able to reload ammo even if you don't have a gun. Antibiotics will be worth YOUR weight in gold. Whether for animals, or humans or next best herbal alternatives, having a supply is important. Same goes with condoms. You do not want to have a nasty STD when you are in a SHTF situation.
[8] Avoid crowds. Stay out of the cities. Do not isolate in the country.
[9] Do not trust anyone. We are all entering a time where betrayal and lies have become normal. Don't believe anyone. Don't trust anyone.
In America today is a world of hurt because everyone demands their “freedom” and “independence”. Contrast that to here in China where people work together to the greater good of everyone. Sure there might be a star basketball player, but he is shit when he comes across a well trained and organized team.
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You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Here is another law from the 48 laws of power by Robert Greene. This is Law 7. Get others to do the work for you. We can see how this law is practiced throughout the United States. Steve Jobs. Bill Gates. Jeff Bezos. Eric Schmidt. Donald Trump. Can you name their “right hand men”? I’ll bet you cannot. For they are the figurehead and they get all the credit for the system that they are part of.
LAW 7
GET OTHERS TO DO THE WORK FOR YOU, BUT ALWAYS TAKE THE CREDIT
JUDGMENT
Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to further your own cause. Not only will such assistance save you valuable time and energy, it will give you a godlike aura of efficiency and speed. In the end your helpers will be forgotten and you will be remembered. Never do yourself what others can do for you.
TRANSGRESSION AND OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW
In 1883 a young Serbian scientist named Nikola Tesla was working for the European division of the Continental Edison Company. He was a brilliant inventor, and Charles Batchelor, a plant manager and a personal friend of Thomas Edison, persuaded him he should seek his fortune in America, giving him a letter of introduction to Edison himself. So began a life of woe and tribulation that lasted until Tesla’s death.
IIII TORTOISE THE LELP AND THE HIPPOPOI
One day the tortoise met the elephant, who trumpeted, “Out of my way, you weakling—I might step on you!” The tortoise was not afraid and stayed where he was, so the elephant stepped on him, but could not crush him. “Do not boast, Mr. Elephant, I am as strong as you are!” said the tortoise, but the elephant just laughed. So the tortoise asked him to come to his hill the next morning. The next day, before sunrise, the tortoise ran down the hill to the river, where he met the hippopotamus, who was just on his way back into the water after his nocturnal feeding. “Mr Hippo! Shall we have a tug-of-war? I bet I’m as strong as you are!” said the tortoise. The hippopotamus laughed at this ridiculous idea, but agreed. The tortoise produced a long rope and told the hippo to hold it in his mouth until the tortoise shouted “Hey!” Then the tortoise ran back up the hill where he found the elephant, who was getting impatient. He gave the elephant the other end of the rope and said, “When I say ‘Hey!’ pull, and you’ll see which of us is the strongest. ”Then he ran halfway back down the hill, to a place where he couldn’t be seen, and shouted, “Hey!” The elephant and the hippopotamus pulled and pulled, but neither could budge the other-they were of equal strength. They both agreed that the tortoise was as strong as they were. Never do what others can do for you. The tortoise let others do the work for him while he got the credit.
-ZAIREAN FABLE
When Tesla met Edison in New York, the famous inventor hired him on the spot. Tesla worked eighteen-hour days, finding ways to improve the primitive Edison dynamos. Finally he offered to redesign them completely.
To Edison this seemed a monumental task that could last years without paying off, but he told Tesla, “There’s fifty thousand dollars in it for you— if you can do it.”
Tesla labored day and night on the project and after only a year he produced a greatly improved version of the dynamo, complete with automatic controls. He went to Edison to break the good news and receive his $50,000.
Edison was pleased with the improvement, for which he and his company would take credit, but when it came to the issue of the money he told the young Serb, “Tesla, you don’t understand our American humor!,” and offered a small raise instead.
Tesla’s obsession was to create an alternating-current system (AC) of electricity. Edison believed in the direct-current system (DC), and not only refused to support Tesla’s research but later did all he could to sabotage him.
Tesla turned to the great Pittsburgh magnate George Westinghouse, who had started his own electricity company.
Westinghouse completely funded Tesla’s research and offered him a generous royalty agreement on future profits. The AC system Tesla developed is still the standard today— but after patents were filed in his name, other scientists came forward to take credit for the invention, claiming that they had laid the groundwork for him. His name was lost in the shuffle, and the public came to associate the invention with Westinghouse himself.
A year later, Westinghouse was caught in a takeover bid from J. Pierpont Morgan, who made him rescind the generous royalty contract he had signed with Tesla.
Westinghouse explained to the scientist that his company would not survive if it had to pay him his full royalties; he persuaded Tesla to accept a buyout of his patents for $216,000—a large sum, no doubt, but far less than the $12 million they were worth at the time.
The financiers had divested Tesla of the riches, the patents, and essentially the credit for the greatest invention of his career.
The name of Guglielmo Marconi is forever linked with the invention of radio. But few know that in producing his invention—he broadcast a signal across the English Channel in 1899—Marconi made use of a patent Tesla had filed in 1897, and that his work depended on Tesla’s research.
Once again Tesla received no money and no credit. Tesla invented an induction motor as well as the AC power system, and he is the real “father of radio.” Yet none of these discoveries bear his name.
As an old man, he lived in poverty.
In 1917, during his later impoverished years, Tesla was told he was to receive the Edison Medal of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. He turned the medal down. “You propose,” he said, “to honor me with a medal which I could pin upon my coat and strut for a vain hour before the members of your Institute.
You would decorate my body and continue to let starve, for failure to supply recognition, my mind and its creative products, which have supplied the foundation upon which the major portion of your Institute exists.”
Interpretation
Many harbor the illusion that science, dealing with facts as it does, is beyond the petty rivalries that trouble the rest of the world.
Nikola Tesla was one of those.
He believed science had nothing to do with politics, and claimed not to care for fame and riches. As he grew older, though, this ruined his scientific work. Not associated with any particular discovery, he could attract no investors to his many ideas. While he pondered great inventions for the future, others stole the patents he had already developed and got the glory for themselves.
He wanted to do everything on his own, but merely exhausted and impoverished himself in the process.
Edison was Tesla’s polar opposite.
He wasn’t actually much of a scientific thinker or inventor; he once said that he had no need to be a mathematician because he could always hire one. That was Edison’s main method.
He was really a businessman and publicist, spotting the trends and the opportunities that were out there, then hiring the best in the field to do the work for him. If he had to he would steal from his competitors. Yet his name is much better known than Tesla’s, and is associated with more inventions.
To be sure, if the hunter relies on the security of the carriage, utilizes the legs of the six horses, and makes Wang Liang hold their reins, then he will not tire himself and will find it easy to overtake swift animals. Now supposing he discarded the advantage of the carriage, gave up the useful legs of the horses and the skill of Wang Liang, and alighted to run after the animals, then even though his legs were as quick as Lou Chi’s, he would not be in time to overtake the animals. In fact, if good horses and strong carriages are taken into use, then mere bond-men and bondwomen will be good enough to catch the animals.
-HAN-FEI-TZU, CHINESE PHILOSOPHER, THIRD CENTURY B.C.
The lesson is twofold:
First, the credit for an invention or creation is as important, if not more important, than the invention itself. You must secure the credit for yourself and keep others from stealing it away, or from piggy- backing on your hard work. To accomplish this you must always be vigilant and ruthless, keeping your creation quiet until you can be sure there are no vultures circling overhead.
Second, learn to take advantage of other people’s work to further your own cause. Time is precious and life is short. If you try to do it all on your own, you run yourself ragged, waste energy, and burn yourself out. It is far better to conserve your forces, pounce on the work others have done, and find a way to make it your own.
Everybody steals in commerce and industry. I’ve stolen a lot myself. But I know how to steal.
-Thomas Edison, 1847-1931
KEYS TO POWER
The world of power has the dynamics of the jungle:
There are those who live by hunting and killing, and there are also vast numbers of creatures (hyenas, vultures) who live off the hunting of others. These latter, less imaginative types are often incapable of doing the work that is essential for the creation of power.
They understand early on, though, that if they wait long enough, they can always find another animal to do the work for them.
Do not be naive: At this very moment, while you are slaving away on some project, there are vultures circling above trying to figure out a way to survive and even thrive off your creativity. It is useless to complain about this, or to wear yourself ragged with bitterness, as Tesla did.
Better to protect yourself and join the game. Once you have established a power base, become a vulture yourself, and save yourself a lot of time and energy.
A hen who had lost her sight, and was accustomed to scratching up the earth in search of food, although blind, still continued to scratch away most diligently. Of what use was it to the industriuus fool? Another sharp-sighted hen who spared her tender feet never moved from her side, and enjoyed, without scratching, the fruit of the other’s labor. For as often as the blind hen scratched up a barley-corn, her watchful companion devoured it.
-FABLES, GOITCHOLD LESSING, 1729-1781
Of the two poles of this game, one can be illustrated by the example of the explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa. Balboa had an obsession—the discovery of El Dorado, a legendary city of vast riches.
Early in the sixteenth century, after countless hardships and brushes with death, he found evidence of a great and wealthy empire to the south of Mexico, in present-day Peru.
By conquering this empire, the Incan, and seizing its gold, he would make himself the next Cortés. The problem was that even as he made this discovery, word of it spread among hundreds of other conquistadors. He did not understand that half the game was keeping it quiet, and carefully watching those around him.
A few years after he discovered the location of the Incan empire, a soldier in his own army, Francisco Pizarro, helped to get him beheaded for treason. Pizarro went on to take what Balboa had spent so many years trying to find.
The other pole is that of the artist Peter Paul Rubens, who, late in his career, found himself deluged with requests for paintings.
He created a system: In his large studio he employed dozens of outstanding painters, one specializing in robes, another in backgrounds, and so on. He created a vast production line in which a large number of canvases would be worked on at the same time. When an important client visited the studio, Rubens would shoo his hired painters out for the day. While the client watched from a balcony, Rubens would work at an incredible pace, with unbelievable energy. The client would leave in awe of this prodigious man, who could paint so many masterpieces in so short a time.
This is the essence of the Law: Learn to get others to do the work for you while you take the credit, and you appear to be of godlike strength and power.
If you think it important to do all the work yourself, you will never get far, and you will suffer the fate of the Balboas and Teslas of the world.
Find people with the skills and creativity you lack.
Either hire them, while putting your own name on top of theirs, or find a way to take their work and make it your own. Their creativity thus becomes yours, and you seem a genius to the world.
There is another application of this law that does not require the parasitic use of your contemporaries’ labor: Use the past, a vast storehouse of knowledge and wisdom.
Isaac Newton called this “standing on the shoulders of giants.”
He meant that in making his discoveries he had built on the achievements of others. A great part of his aura of genius, he knew, was attributable to his shrewd ability to make the most of the insights of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance scientists.
Shakespeare borrowed plots, characterizations, and even dialogue from Plutarch, among other writers, for he knew that nobody surpassed Plutarch in the writing of subtle psychology and witty quotes. How many later writers have in their turn borrowed from—plagiarized—Shakespeare ?
We all know how few of today’s politicians write their own speeches.
Their own words would not win them a single vote; their eloquence and wit, whatever there is of it, they owe to a speech writer. Other people do the work, they take the credit. The upside of this is that it is a kind of power that is available to everyone. Learn to use the knowledge of the past and you will look like a genius, even when you are really just a clever borrower.
Writers who have delved into human nature, ancient masters of strategy, historians of human stupidity and folly, kings and queens who have learned the hard way how to handle the burdens of power—their knowledge is gathering dust, waiting for you to come and stand on their shoulders.
Their wit can be your wit, their skill can be your skill, and they will never come around to tell people how unoriginal you really are.
You can slog through life, making endless mistakes, wasting time and energy trying to do things from your own experience. Or you can use the armies of the past. As Bismarck once said, “Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others’ experience.”
Image: The Vulture. Of all the creatures in the jungle, he has it the easiest. The hard work of others becomes his work; their failure to survive becomes his nourishment. Keep an eye on the Vulture—while you are hard at work, he is cir cling above. Do not fight him, join him.
Authority: There is much to be known, life is short, and life is not life without knowledge. It is therefore an excellent device to acquire knowledge from everybody. Thus, by the sweat of another’s brow, you win the reputation of being an oracle. (Baltasar Gracián, 1601-1658)
REVERSAL
There are times when taking the credit for work that others have done is not the wise course: If your power is not firmly enough established, you will seem to be pushing people out of the limelight. To be a brilliant ex ploiter of talent your position must be unshakable, or you will be accused of deception.
Be sure you know when letting other people share the credit serves your purpose. It is especially important to not be greedy when you have a master above you. President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to the People’s Republic of China was originally his idea, but it might never have come off but for the deft diplomacy of Henry Kissinger. Nor would it have been as successful without Kissinger’s skills. Still, when the time came to take credit, Kissinger adroitly let Nixon take the lion’s share. Knowing that the truth would come out later, he was careful not to jeopardize his standing in the short term by hogging the limelight. Kissinger played the game expertly: He took credit for the work of those below him while graciously giving credit for his own labors to those above. That is the way to play the game.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my 48 Laws of Power Index here…
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One the most profound realizations that one MUST arrive at is that the American (and Western) “news” is a massive propaganda organ. It’s not that they twist and distort the news. Oh, I wish it was that simple. No. Rather, they lie, and make up fanciful stories towards manipulation. That’s it, and nothing more can be said.
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Now, of course, you can categorize the the lies.
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You can say that the lies fall under categories. And of these, purposes for the manipulation of large groups of people.
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I really don’t think that this is all that difficult to understand.
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All these different organizations are vying for your mind. They want you to think certain ways, and in doing so it gives them advantage. Depending on who is involved, you can then map out the funding, and the then compare with the depth and breadth of the articles that the media bombards you with.
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I’ve posted a lot of articles about the anti-China narrative, and discussed the people behind this screed. Pretty much it’s a mix of religious fundamentalists, neocons, and hard-Right players. And when Donald Trump became President in 2016, the opened the funding floodgates, as well as staffed his administration with neocons, and the result was a “firehose” of anti-China disinformation.
They all are looking forward to getting involved in a hot war with “juicy and wealthy” China. They just want an EXCUSE.
You will find these articles all over the internet. Such as this one (below) that I pulled off of Free Republic right now…
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China's military is poised to outgun the West after HUGE growth
3/15/2021, 9:34:39 AM · by RomanSoldier19 · 12 repliesDaily Mail via msn ^ | 3/14/2021 | Marco Giannangeli
It follows an ominous warning last week by the commander of US forces in the Indo-Pacific that China may launch a military operation against Taiwan "in the next six years". This would likely lead to military reprisals from the US Navy and allies including Britain, which is sending its new carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, to lead a multinational strike force to the Far East in May. China commands the world's largest military, with 2.18 million soldiers, sailors and aviators on active duty. And after a recent 6.8 percent rise it will command a £200billion military budget this year. But it...
Oh, Ah.
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Read the text, of “ominous warning” and “military reprisals”. War in that far-away land is being jinned up, don’t you think? Any day now, some proud American Rambo’s are gonna “kick some slant eyed butt”, don’t you know.
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Not gonna happen.
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Why?
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Well, in the first case the American and UK military excursion into the South China Sea in late Summer 2020 was a disaster, and the seven aircraft carriers steamed back to American (and the UK) with their “tail between their legs”. Trump incensed that his orders were not carried out, fired his military brass as soon as then returned. It was a “Waterloo moment“, and scared the living shit out of the military brass.
And in the Second Case, please just keep in mind that Taiwan is part of China. No matter how much this is omitted in the neocon publications and articles. No matter how many times the American “news” talks about the USA “doing something”, nothing is going to happen. You can yell, scream and stamp your feet but that will not change the fact that Taiwan agreed to become part of China, and this union is recognized by the United Nations.
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Taiwan stopped being an independent nation, and became a Chinese client state in 1972 by [1] The Shanghai Communiqué and the 1982 [2] Joint Communiqué and [3] the August 17 Communiqué. It's the 23rd province of China.
All of this his was codified and made permanent on October 1971, when the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 2758, which recognized the government of the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representative of China at the United Nations and established the One-China Principle.
American “news” is a big lie, and people are following it because just about everything in America has been corrupted beyond recognition. No one trusts the government, yet somehow they believe the media. They turn to alternative media in the belief that they have not been corrupted.
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Ah. But they have.
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But anyways,
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Aside from all that “noise” out of the “news”, China is moving on. It is on all fronts. So the USA doesn’t want to partner with China on anything. OK. No problem. But watch out. As I have said before; China does not play.
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Meanwhile check out what is going on with China and Taiwan right now…
China’s railway operator echoes netizens’ call for a high-speed rail route to Taiwan
By Global Times Published: Mar 14, 2021 03:03 PM
Reprinted as found. All credit to the author, and edited to fit this venue.
An aerial photo shows the Pingtan Strait Road-rail Bridge in East China’s Fujian Province. The first of its kind in China, the bridge opened on Saturday, shortening travel time between the provincial capital of Fuzhou with the island county of Pingtan to 35 minutes from around two hours. The bridge will make it more convenient for compatriots in the island of Taiwan to travel to the Chinese mainland. Photo: cnsphoto
China’s top railway operator said on Sunday that it has “taken seriously the building of a railway to the island of Taiwan,” echoing Chinese netizens’ calls as well as the Russian Ambassador to China’s wish to visit the island by train.
China Railways, the country’s top railway construction company, discussed the technical issues and routes of building the high-speed railway from East China’s Fujian Province to the island of Taiwan in an article published in its official WeChat account on Sunday.
No wonder Donald Trump wanted to ban WeChat, you cannot have the anti-China narrative polluted by facts.
In the article, it mentioned China’s National Comprehensive Transportation Network Plan, which was rolled out in late February and set the construction goals from 2021 to 2035 with a long-term plan extended. A route from Fuzhou to Taipei, in the island of Taiwan, was also listed in the plan.
China’s HST (High Speed Train) rail network as of 2020.
The plan soon drew heated discussions on Chinese social media platforms. Netizens also expressed a strong wish to “visit Taiwan by train.”
Close up showing the HST bridge between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.
Denisov said he is looking forward to taking a high-speed train to visit the island some day in an interview with Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV in early March. “If I could have a chance to visit Taiwan Province, of course I prefer to do it by train.”
Responding to such calls, the railway operator giant noted, “The dream that countless Chinese people have dreamt is finally drawing closer,” as the Beijing-Taipei high-speed rail has only “the last part” between the Straits left to be completed.
It further went on to explain that with the completion of the Fuzhou-Pingtan railway last December, all of the construction work on the Beijing-Taipei high-speed rail has been completed except for the last section, which will link the mainland across the Straits, referring to “the last part” from Pingtan to Taipei.
The Fuzhou-Pingtan railway, the nearest one on the mainland from Taiwan, was put into operation on December 26. Pingtan is only 68 nautical miles away from Taiwan’s Hsinchu, the closest point across the straits.
The Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge, a key project of the Fuzhou-Pingtan railway, has a total length of 16.34 kilometers. It is the world’s longest cross-sea road-rail bridge and the first road-rail bridge in China.
Is this even possible, or is this a “pipe dream”?
Oh yes. It is absolutely possible. Consider that all of the neighboring nations are enthusiastically participating with China in establishing communication and trade routes and upgrading their infrastructure. And consider the a fore mentioned “Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge” which was just completed last year. Which followed the HK – Macao – Zhuhai bridge effort (outside my front door)…
The Fuzhou-Pingtan railway in east China’s Fujian Province went into operation Saturday morning after seven years of construction, allowing visitors from the Chinese mainland and China’s Taiwan to travel more conveniently across the Taiwan Straits.
The Fuzhou-Pingtan railway in east China’s Fujian Province went into operation Saturday morning after seven years of construction, allowing visitors from the Chinese mainland and China’s Taiwan to travel more conveniently across the Taiwan Straits.
The 88-kilometer railway, designed to support high-speed trains running at a speed of up to 200 km per hour, connects the provincial capital of Fuzhou with the largest island in the province, which is the nearest place in the Chinese mainland to Taiwan Island, only 68 nautical miles (about 126 km) away from Hsinchu City.
The 88-kilometer railway, designed to support high-speed trains running at a speed of up to 200 km per hour, connects the provincial capital of Fuzhou with the largest island in the province.
Noting that they have been taking the “Strait” ship to travel between Pingtan and Taiwan, Yang Binghao, who is from Taiwan and runs a cultural and creative center in Pingtan, said that with the Fuzhou-Pingtan railway, “Taiwan compatriots can now transfer via railway after arriving in Pingtan by sea, and then we can easily travel to Beijing, Shanghai and other parts of the mainland.”
Yang believes that the railway will further promote the opening-up and development of Pingtan and facilitate cross-strait travel and communication, benefiting local residents and people from both sides.
Thanks to bullet trains running on the Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge, it now only takes around half an hour for residents and visitors to commute between both places.
Thanks to bullet trains running on the Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge, it now only takes around half an hour for residents and visitors to commute between both places. The 16.3-kilometer-long bridge, with a six-lane highway on top and a high-speed railway at bottom, is China’s first and the world’s longest cross-sea road-rail bridge.
The 16.3-km-long Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge is China’s first and the world’s longest cross-sea road-rail bridge. /CFP
The new railway will link the island county with major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen through the transportation hub in Fuzhou, according to Li Fei, an official with the China Railway Nanchang Group Co., Ltd.
In 2009, the Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone was launched in the county to facilitate cross-strait exchange and cooperation, aiming to become a “common home for compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Straits,” which currently houses more than 1,000 Taiwan-invested enterprises.
A young child ride the HST on the way to Taiwan.
Comprised of 126 islands, Pingtan is home to marvelous natural wonders and a number of tourist attractions such as Haitan Island, Tannan Bay, Pingtan Island National Forest Park, and Haitan Ancient City, and has become increasingly popular among visitors from home and abroad in recent years.
From January 20, up to 17 sets of bullet trains will run on the line every day, up from 9.5 sets plying currently, further boosting the development of local tourism.
So what is China doing to quench the anti-unification efforts?
Sure all this is fine and good. China is building bridges, and tunnels and aiding in economic development. However the United States is funding the Taiwan separatist movement. (As well as funding NGO’s such as the NED, and NID for insurgency efforts.) But what is China doing to quench those who want to fight a “hot war” for “American Democracy”?
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday stressed the importance of the one-China principle and 1992 Consensus in addressing the development of cross-strait relations.
The premier made the remarks during a virtual press conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing after the closing of the fourth session of the 13th National People's Congress, China's top legislature.
The Chinese mainland welcomes dialogue with different parties regarding cross-strait relations to achieve the unification of China, Li said, before stressing opposition to any form of separatist activities or foreign interference in cross-strait affairs.
The central government will continue to enable Taiwan compatriots to share in opportunities on the mainland, he added.
So yeah. Who, as you well know, already have Chinese passports, is still able to buy property and set up businesses but will now be granted easy loans and smooth sailing in new businesses and ventures. China is “pulling out all the stops” to help integrate the Taiwanese with the mainland Chinese.
Some thoughts
When I was a young boy, the “news” was all about the “War in Vietnam”. Every day were reports on how our “brave young men were saving the world from communism”. And the media was all over it. From Walter Cronkite on television to magazines such as “Popular Mechanics (illustrated)” and “Vanity Fair”. In those days we were all afraid of “The Red Menace”, and the “Domino Effect”, and were terrified of the “loss of our freedoms”.
Domino theory, also called Domino Effect, theory in U.S. foreign policy after WorldWar II stating that the “fall” of a noncommunist state to communismwould precipitate the fall of noncommunist governments in neighbouring states. Thetheorywas first proposed by President Harry S.Truman.domino theory | internationalrelations | Britannica.com
In those days, as a young boy, I would watch Hollywood movies glorify war. I would envision myself flying in TheB-24Liberator bombing the shit out the of the evil Nazi’s (12 O’Clock High), or fighting on the front lines with John Wayne in the movie TheGreenBerets (1968).
John Wayne in the movie The Green Berets (1968).
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It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized that were I to follow my boyhood dreams, I would probably have been shipped off to die in some distant land. I would have died a virgin, and forgotten by the rest of the world. But no one else realizes this, and America is still playing the same old games that ended up killing thousands of Americans, and millions of civilians over the last fifty years.
This is just a typical example of how absolutely “off the wall” American media is when it comes to reporting what is going on in China.
It omits facts.
it omits history.
It omits contemporaneous news.
It fabricates news.
It distorts events.
It produces emotion laden articles full of fear.
It is, after all, a reflection of what America stands for.
I will generate more articles along these lines in the future. For now they will all fall under the heading… “America is having a hissy fit.”
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
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When I lived in Massachusetts I used to drive about and explore the beautiful, beautiful countryside. It was always glorious. New England, and most especially Massachusetts is just breathtakingly beautiful. I, and my wife at the time, would visit the tiny quaint towns, the historical buildings and walk the thousands of quaint trails in the meticulously preserved wooded areas. And as we drove we would encounter the strangest things in the middle of the road. These things called “round a bouts” were a continuously and vexing feature of Massachusetts that I never really got accustomed to.
RoundaboutA roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.-Wikipedia
Now, the point of this is that I would go and get on these things, and it would be a “free for all”. You wouldn’t really know when to get off, and instead your would go around, and around until you found your exit. For the locals, it’s no big deal. But for a new person entering these things, it tended to get really messy and confusing.
Some areas you stop and wait for traffic. Some areas you yield to traffic, and some areas you wonder what is going on. We (when I lived in Mass) said that it was often a “free for all” during “rush hour”.
Now roundabouts are inherited from the British who really seemed to like them. Why, I’ll never know. But they kept them on and enhanced them to a point where they are just a royal mess and point of confusion.
Check out this roundabout in England. It’s called The Magic Roundabout. Magic Roundabout was voted the worst roundabout in 2005.
The Magic Roundabout
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Now, do you see those little points with arrows going around, and around? Those are mini-roundabouts. There are five of them in this particular roundabout. When a car reaches that point, they are to go around and around until a point opens up for them to pass into the right (or is it the left) lane.
Ah.
Modern life. We try to make things simple and orderly and end up making a very stressful, confusing and bewildering situation for everyone.
It’s really no wonder that many people in the United States are completely stressed out…
Stressing Americans
I guess the days of Mayberry RFD are long gone.
And you know, you really need to ask yourself “what happened”?
What happened to that great and glorious quality of life that we used to enjoy and were oh so very proud of being part of. What happened to it?
People, I have to ask, is the quality of life in America getting better, or is it getting worse?
Americans certainly have a lot more “money” than they did when I was a kid, but that doesn’t mean much because the U.S. dollar has only a fraction of the value that it did back then.
1971 – Burger King Meal – $0.55
2021 – Burger King Meal – $5.00
And without a doubt our electronic devices have become much more advanced, but that doesn’t mean that we are happier.
Happiness. In fact, everywhere I look, American people seem to be deeply unhappy.
It is rare to see someone actually smiling in public, but of course there is a good reason for that. If you smile too much, someone might accuse you of being creepy.
As Americans, we are being trained to not express emotions and to keep to ourselves. Being friendly is considered to be “suspicious”, if you tell a joke there is a very good chance that you will deeply offend someone, and if you express strong opinions you might just get “canceled”.
Even though we are far more “wealthy” than they were, I imagine that our culture is not too different from what East Germans experienced before the Berlin Wall came down.
East Germany before the unification in the early 1980’s greatly resembles modern America today.
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Hate and Division. There is so much hate and division in our society, and everyone seems ready to rat out those around them at the drop of a hat. So most people are careful to keep to themselves, but at the same time most people are desperately lonely.
Lonely.
Isolated.
Alone.
Zombies. These days, most Americans walk around like a bunch of zombies. In fact, as a result of mental health problems and stress, a majority of Americans are exhibiting at least one of the symptoms of post-concussion syndrome…
A survey of more than 31,000 people shows that insufficient sleep, mental health problems, and stress were the causes of a whole host of symptoms doctors are used to seeing in head injury patients. Symptoms of what doctors call post-concussion syndrome (PCS) range from persistent headaches, dizziness and anxiety, to insomnia and loss of concentration and memory.
While 27 percent of people report having several of these symptoms, between one-half and three-quarters say they experience at least one. The most common symptoms are fatigue, low energy and drowsiness. Yet despite their findings, researchers believe the number in the general population could be much higher.
Of course one of the primary reasons why so many people are acting like zombies is because we have been drugged out of our minds. Americans take more legal drugs than anyone ever has in the entire history of the world, and each year the pharmaceutical companies come up with even more drugs for us to try.
Drug Abuse. In particular, because we are so deeply unhappy Americans take boatloads of anti-depressants. More than 50 million Americans are on anti-depressants right now, and it gets worse with each passing year.
But even though we are taking so many “happy pills”, Americans continue to kill themselves at a staggering pace, and this is particularly true for our young people.
In North Carolina, one school superintendent recently shared the fact that “the suicide rate among teens is higher than the COVID rate of death in their county”…
The debate to reopen schools for in-person learning has highlighted an alarming idea – that students are not just falling behind academically, but at a heightened risk of death by suicide.
“One of our local superintendents recently shared with me that the suicide rate among teens is higher than the COVID rate of death in their county,” Sen. Deanna Ballard, a Republican from the 45th district, recently told CBS 17, though she declined to name the superintendent or county. Ballard did not respond to NC Health News’ requests for comment.
Isn’t that insane?
Teen Suicide. You can’t just blame the pandemic for the rise in suicide either. In fact, the national suicide rate for teens was skyrocketing before the pandemic ever began…
The national rate of suicide in young people increased 57 percent between 2007 and 2018, according to the CDC.
“Even before the pandemic, we’ve been seeing an increase in youth suicides,” said Virginia Hamlet Rodillas, hotline manager for National Alliance on Mental Illness NC, which operates a statewide helpline.
If our society is so wonderful, then why are so many kids killing themselves?
The truth is that our society has become so sick and so twisted that life seems completely empty to so many of these youths. Life is such a wonderful gift, and every day should be enjoyed to the fullest, but our society has become so evil that many teens are killing themselves rather than live in it one more day.
There is hope even for those that are facing the darkest circumstances, but most people don’t realize that because our society certainly doesn’t offer any hope.
Life Expectancy. Overall life expectancy has been dropping in the U.S. as well. In fact, during the first half of 2020 life expectancy in the United States declined by a full year…
It’s already known that 2020 was the deadliest year in US history, with deaths topping 3MM for the first time. But the latest batch of morbid data is in, and they suggest things are about to get worse on average as life expectancy in the US dropped a full year during the first half of the year.
Life expectancy is a statistical measure of the average time a baby born today is expected to live. From January through June of last year, that was 77.8 years for the entire U.S. population, down from 78.8 years in 2019. It’s the lowest level since 2006, the report said.
Healthcare. Our healthcare system has become a complete and utter nightmare, and it is not going to get any better any time soon.
Education. Speaking of nightmares, our system of public education has become a sick joke. Just look at what has been going on in Baltimore…
A shocking discovery out of a Baltimore City high school, where Project Baltimore has found hundreds of students are failing. It’s a school where a student who passed three classes in four years, ranks near the top half of his class with a 0.13 grade point average.
Tiffany France thought her son would receive his diploma this coming June. But after four years of high school, France just learned, her 17-year-old must start over. He’s been moved back to ninth grade.
Millions upon millions of young people graduate from high school each year, but many of them can barely read, write or speak in public.
I could go on and on.
Life Satisfaction. Just about every system that you could possibly name is in the process of failing, and that is probably why American satisfaction with the way our country is functioning is at the lowest level ever measured.
Americans’ satisfaction with seven broad aspects of the way the country functions is collectively at its lowest in two decades of Gallup measurement. This includes satisfaction with the overall quality of life in the U.S., assessments of government, corporate and religious influence, and perceptions of the economic and moral climates.
The average percentage satisfied with these seven dimensions has plunged to 39% at the start of 2021. That compares with 53% a year ago, the highest average in more than a decade amid strong economic confidence and before the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the U.S.
So what do you do when your entire population is unhappy, drugged up and facing a bleak future?
You blame it on someone else.
Some comments on the “blame game”
You can look at the American “news” and listen to the groundless, lying and nonsense and come to the conclusion that China is so enormously evil that it must be eradicated from the surface of the earth.
But is it really?
I argue (and so do others) that the A-number one American government answer to stopping the “pitchforks and torches” is to blame some other nation for all the ills that Americans experience.
Sort to like this…
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Ai!
Playing the “blame game” has been pretty effective so far.
It has. It really has.
You blame another group of people, and then you lob bombs and a propaganda campaign against them. The American flag is raised and patriotic movies flood the airwaves.
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Americans might be sad, lonely and unhappy, but at least ‘Merica “kicks ass”.
But 75 years of fighting wars in far-off and distant lands is really wearing thin. People are not getting happier, and the patriotism can only last so long.
Not to mention that you must be judicious on who you decide to pick a fight with.
Caitlin Comments
Here’s some thoughts by Caitlin Johnson…
Caitlin Johnson has been one of the most prolific tellers of truth over the last several years. This is not empty praise. She churns out solid, relevant, and hard hitting insight and analysis on a near daily basis and from my perspective, she has been on the correct side of every issue she has engaged with. She recently wrote:
“In a time of great need the US government is letting its citizens freeze, go broke, get evicted, and die of preventable illnesses so obviously it’s of paramount importance right now that Americans rise up with one voice and direct their righteous anger at China. I’m developing a special disdain for people who mindlessly regurgitate US anti-China narratives, especially people who are normally skeptical of US government claims. There’s just no excuse for this nonsense. The geostrategic agendas are so obvious, the barefaced liars so familiar, and the facts so readily available for anyone intellectually honest enough to look”.
It is with this same mindset that Mr. Billy Bob penned the article below. Reprinted from an earlier version that has since been expanded upon and elaborated. I edited it to fit this venue, from the raw, emotion-laden brilliance that Billy Bob has been famous for.
He (and myself) share Caity’s frustration with those that want to claim the mantle of the left but whose words are seemingly written by State Department apparatchiks…
…and the comments (on my side of the ocean in “Sinoland”) is a flying in crazed abandon! Check it all out.
Rant-a-thon Numero Uno
We’ve all read the laundry list of Western propaganda that is designed to falsely depict China as a brutal dystopic, authoritarian shithole, where everyone hates their government and are totally miserable.
It’s interesting that with regards to Western propaganda targeted at China, the lies are simultaneously proportionate but the exact opposite of truth.
So, Mao who did more good for more people than anyone else in the history of the known universe, is known as “the greatest mass murderer of all time”. Or the Chinese government that according to a 2016 Harvard study has a satisfaction rating of 96% (compared to the 38% enjoyed by the US) is casually described by the Western press as “authoritarian, corrupt, unjust, and one of the biggest human rights violators on the planet”.
For people that fail to recognize the chasm of incongruence here, and are incapable of coming to the only possible conclusion, please ensure that your fork is properly corked before continuing so you don’t injure yourself.
The false indoctrination that has taken hold of far too many self identified “leftists” goes something like this:
"...the CCP is entirely opaque, forbids a free press and completely censors free information... that a few hundred members of a single ruling party dictates policy and is unelected... that political opposition is all but illegal and completely suppressed... that no workers own the means of their own production... that China has the largest increase and concentration of new billionaires while income and wealth inequality is also at its largest, due to rampant exploitative and equally destructive capitalist practices in the past decades... that China engages in imperialism via debt and increased militarism to its Asian neighbors... that China is committing genocide against the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang... that China oppresses, exploits, and impoverishes it’s citizens."
The Most Necessary and Fundamental Context: Class War
There are several mitigating factors that need to be kept in mind when analyzing the issues brought up above.
First and foremost is the reality that our planet is in the midst of a class war . It is a war where an infinitesimally small group of obscenely rich plutocrats, industrialists, and oligarchs, seek to maintain their power. They seek to maintain their wealth, power, and privilege by enforcing a global system of political and economic control. Yet doing so without any moral restraint whatsoever.
The Western ruling class consensus sees China as the enemy and is looking for any possible way to subvert, weaken, divide, and destroy their society.
These gangsters of capitalism are masters at their craft. They have successfully dismantled the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Syria among others. They have regime changed scores of countries, most recently, Libya, Ukraine, Honduras, and Bolivia.
They will not hesitate to exploit any weakness or to kill millions of people to defeat China and maintain their global supremacy.
To ignore the fact that China must defend against this very real threat. It is a valid threat posed by Western imperialism. Thus to simply analyze China’s system in a vacuum, detached from the fundamental context of class war, is to demonstrate a cluelessness about the most important aspect of the big picture.
Cluelessness.
Keep the citizens in the West ignorant, and bombard them with lies. That way, they will acting like robots, and automatons and are easily manipulated to do your bidding.
Keep them clueless.
Cherry-picking what you want to believe while ignoring the facts staring you straight in the face.
This (the desire and threat of Western imperialism to kill and destroy without restraint in the maintenance of their global supremacy) is everything.
This is the entire ballgame.
Nothing else comes anywhere close to this fundamental reality in terms of importance or relevance for humanity and the planet we inhabit.
A Propaganda Battle Over Perception:
Does China censor speech? Of course they do as it would be naïve and reckless to allow subversive Western lies and divisive capitalist propaganda, free reign over the airwaves.
A class war is taking place and the propaganda battle is an integral front.
China censors divisive lies while the West censors truth. It’s really that simple.
The Chinese people aren’t starved for truth. Truth is not censored in China.
China censors lies that are intended to destroy their society. The West censors truth which threatens their hegemony.
There is a tremendous difference here and failing to recognize this fundamental difference results in a misguided analysis that is detached from reality.
The Farcical and Self-Defeating Arrogance of Promotors of Liberal Governance:
The Chinese working class correctly rejects the Western governance by “democracy”. As they should. It’s a farce, and a full half of the American population recognizes this. Face it; putting the entire enterprise to a vote every four years…
…or engaging in some bourgeois parliamentarian democracy…
…with all the gridlock that entails and which is sure to be far less effective in furthering working class interests.
Westerners arrogantly perceive this lack of liberal democracy in China as an indictment because their liberal minds have been deluded by nonsense and are detached from political reality.
Democracy is the best.
Democracy means FREEDOM!
Democracy give the “little guy” power over the government.
The Chinese see the lack of Western liberal democracy as a great thing. It’s really rather simple. This is because they prefer stability and the rapid advancement in living standards to gridlock, political chaos, and turmoil every four years.
The Chinese working class collectively says “HELL NO” to Western pleas for liberal democracy and I for one agree with them.
Hell no indeed. Long live the dictatorship of the proletariat. May they continue to work just as hard advancing working class interests over the next 70 years, as they have over the past 70 years.
Judging China Using Unreasonable Metrics:
China is condemned by pseudo leftists because no workers own the means of their own production, but this is an entirely illegitimate bar.
Where exactly on this planet does anyone own the means of their own production? One may as well condemn China for still utilizing money, for maintaining borders, or for not eradicating scarcity.
This is not legitimate criticism.
China’s banks are [1] nationalized, their biggest industries [2] are publicly owned, [3] the private sector is often owned by party members and it is [4] subservient to party diktats and their five year economic plans which are designed [5] to achieve specific social goals.
The pseudo left also attacks China for having classes.
This too is no more legitimate than blaming China for not yet eradicating scarcity or for not abolishing private property. The nature of economic growth is to allocate growth disproportionately.
It’s entirely true, China is not a classless society.
So what?
China has not eliminated class and…?
Well…
And…?
Classless societies simply do not exist at this point in time. But in China, it is the working class that has the monopoly on power. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat that tolerates the capitalist class but only as long as they obey the law and are advantageous to the economy, exactly as Mao explained.
China is indeed far from perfect.
Room for improvement exists and this is acknowledged by the CPC. They have had tremendous success in their public battle against corruption and inequality. They have a police force that is devoted to exactly this., problems which have resulted from unprecedented economic growth. and the CPC is actively and successfully attempting to curtail these negative externalities while at the same time, trying to maintain growth, increase productive forces, and continue to raise living standards.
Oppressed, Angry and Scared?
I’ve seen Westerners point to China’s “conviction rate” and claim that such a rate proves “innocence has nothing to do with the justice system”.
I’m curious how such a conclusion is deduced from the data.
What conviction rate is optimal? At what conviction rate would we believe that justice is being served in a fair manner?
Is the 90+% conviction rate in the US optimal and proof of a fair justice system?
What about 93% for Israel?
What about the 99.9% conviction rate in Japan?
Is the Japanese justice system even less fair than China’s?
Or, are Westerners just being bamboozled into drawing bullshit conclusions from the dishonest presentation of decontextualized statistics? I’m pretty sure it’s the latter.
It is claimed that the Chinese are throwing themselves off of buildings into “suicide nets”...
...though China’s suicide rate is 40% lower than that of the US.
Western propagandists claim Chinese are miserable and simply too scared to speak out against their government...
...though professional Western scientific polling companies claim China is one of the happiest places on earth.
The “narrative” being pushed through the Western “news” is fantastical and has entered the realm of fantasy.
In China, Poverty is GONE.
Extreme poverty was eradicated this year and now every Chinese has “a home, a job, plenty of food, education, safe streets, health and old age care.
Meanwhile there… [are] …more drug addicts, suicides and executions, more homeless, poor, hungry and imprisoned people in America than in China.
500,000,000 urban Chinese… have more net worth and disposable income than the average American.
Chinese mothers and infants… [are] less likely to die in childbirth than Americans are.
Chinese children graduate from high school three years ahead of Americans.
Chinese children will all outlive our American children.
Ninety-eight percent of Chinese listed as ‘poor’ already own their homes (paid for completely with no mortgages and taxes EVER on it) and what’s more…
…President Xi has scheduled 2021-2035 to bringing GINI below Finland’s.”
“Imperialism” of Peace-Through-Mutual-Prosperity?
And what about imperialism?
Is China just as imperialist as the Western ruling class which the pseudo left seems to only condemn after they are called out for their hypocritical attacks on anti-imperialist nations?
Please, Western imperialism is the only imperialism that actually exists.
People! Keep in mind this important fact. Defending oneself from imperialism is not the same as engaging in imperialism.
China has not sandwiched the US with military bases just off it’s northern and Southern borders. China has not been arming, training, and funding US separatists for years. China has not been working with Narco terrorist death squads, intolerant radical jihadists, or neo-nazi militias in order to perpetrate politically motivated acts of violence and murder. China hasn’t regime changed nearly a country a year for the past 70 years. China doesn’t have embargoes and economic sanctions against nearly 40 countries in order to force their political capitulation.
Seriously, the pseudo left needs to just stop with the “China is imperialist” bullshit. It’s not even close to true.
Genocide or Winning Hearts and Minds?
Hands down, the crown Jewel of the West’s dishonest propaganda offensive and the one which they are investing all their capital in and pinning all of their political hopes on is the claim of “Uyghur Genocide in Xinjiang province”.
Much needs to be said about this particular strategy to destabilize, weaken, and subvert Chinese society but for the sake of brevity I will confine myself to explaining China’s perspective on the issue.
Here are some highlights regarding the terrorism problem faced by China:
“In February 1997 the CIA-instigated bombing of public buses in Urumqi that killed nine people died and injured more than 70.
In 2007-08, Uyghur separatists exploited the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing to internationalize their cause. An attempted suicide bombing on a China Southern Airlines flight was thwarted but a terrorist attack in Kashgar in Xinjiang killed 16 police officers four days before the start of the Games.
In July 2009, Uyghur extremists in the provincial capital Urumqi killed 200 people, mostly Han Chinese. True to the imperial double standard, Washington refuses to characterize such deadly attacks as acts of terrorism.
Since 2013, thousands of Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority from western China, have traveled to Syria to train with the Uighur militant group Turkestan Islamic Party and fight alongside al-Qaida, playing key roles in several battles. Syrian President Bashar Assad’s troops are now clashing with Uighur fighters as the six-year conflict nears its endgame.
The violence continued through 2014. There were two more failed hijackings of commercial planes as well as scores of bombings, killing tens of civilians each time.
The knife attack at the southwestern China city of Kunming railway station in March 2014 was a watershed, resulting in 33 dead and 141 injured. NATO member Turkey subsequently gave passports to four of the fugitives involved in the railroad station massacre.
In 2015 Uyghur-linked terrorists staged a Bangkok bombing which targeted mainly Chinese tourists and left 20 dead. Thailand offered to send Uyghur terror suspects back to China to face justice and defied the US demands that the suspects be allowed to travel onward to Turkey.”
Genocide in China?
There is a new report on Xinjiang that's been hailed by CNN, Guardian, Vox etc as the "first independent/non-governmental report" that confirms the genocide narrative.
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22311356/china-uyghur-birthrate-sterilization-genocidehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/09/chinas-treatment-of-uighurs-breaches-un-genocide-convention-finds-landmark-report
But the report is from Newline Institute, a previously unheard (?) of think tank. Moreover, it's funded by a university (Fairfax University of America) that has just 150 students and in many ways looks like a diploma mill. From Wikipedia: "In March 2019, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia threatened to revoke VIU's license to operate in the Commonwealth of Virginia after an audit found rampant grade inflation and severe deficiencies in the academic rigor of VIU's online courses.".
-MoA
And then this interesting comment comes up…
LOL ur right, that looks like a dodgy think tank founded in 2019 by a certain Ahmed Alwani, who also happened to have served on the advisory board of US AFRICOM.https://newlinesinstitute.org/people/ahmed-alwani/The report contains contributions by the questionable Dr Adrian Zenz, i think MoA has also mentioned him beforehttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-09/chinese-firms-sue-german-researcher-at-center-of-xinjiang-claimsThat "university" had 181 students in 2019, it is literally 1 building... conveniently near Washington... i'm guessing this Alwani guy is a CIA asset or gets paid by one of their other million agencies?
-Posted by: #ashtag | Mar 10 2021 22:11 utc | 36
More propaganda operating out of propaganda mills. But not to worry, the internet is gonna shake some trees for “apples of truth”…
The report contains contributions by the questionable Dr Adrian Zenz, i think MoA has also mentioned him before
Not only that, the bugger is listed as a member of the "Newlines Team".https://newlinesinstitute.org/people/adrian-zenz/
Posted by: farm ecologist | Mar 10 2021 23:29 utc | 46
And then we cut to the chase and find this…
This 'Think Tank' is in fact a front for the International Institute of Islamic Thought an islamist neo-conservative organization in the US, linked to Egypt’s Muslim brotherhood, who’s members have pleaded guilty to sponsoring terrorism.The director of the Newlines institute, Ahmed Alwani just happens to be the Vice President of this organization. He also served as an advisor to the U.S Africa command.In 2006, a scholar of this group, Sami Al-Arian, pleaded guilty to “aiding terrorism” and was given a five year prison sentence.The Washington Post at that time described the group as “the nation’s largest terrorism-financing investigation,” and stated it was linked to a number of Muslim Brotherhood affiliates.Yet now, the mainstream media seem to be absolutely content for Newlines, which is a effectively front for IIIT, to spread propaganda on Xinjiang ...Posted by: Arch Bungle | Mar 10 2021 23:34 utc | 48
So, China faces a serious threat from Western sponsored terrorist separatists, but did they really respond to this threat by initiating Genocide?
Give me a fucking break! Will you guys.
Think people. T.H.I.N.K.
Does genocide truly sound like the go-to for a government who’s top priority has been raising living standards and eradicating poverty?
What a ridiculous farce to suggest that China would believe it’s best interest would be served by secretly committing genocide. As always, nothing could be further from the truth and the truth is exactly the opposite:
“Some 600,000 Uighurs were lifted out of poverty in 2016, and another 312,000 in 2017. More than 400,000 have been relocated from remote villages to places where they are gainfully employed.
Neighborhood religious institutes have been set up to educate citizens on the perils of religious extremism.
These community centers where classes are held to detoxify radical Wahhabism were labelled “re-education camps” or concentration camps by the western press, and those attending the classes termed “incarcerated”.
Programs to eradicate poverty are implemented to train and prepare Uyghurs for jobs in towns and cities.
The Chinese government, through various programs, has been winning the hearts and minds of ordinary Uyghurs. This is very bad news for the US and Uyghur separatists who are making a desperate, all-out bid to unravel the work done by Beijing to eradicate religious extremism and poverty in Xinjiang.
The deluge of fake news from Western corporate media since the beginning of this year seeks to demonize the Chinese government, painting it as a gross violator of human rights, when the truth is the exact opposite.”
"Xinjiang’s GDP grew 8% last year and is expected to accelerate since it is a gateway for the Belt and Road Initiative. Its future is bright and we can expect its recent problems, like Tibet’s, to fade into memory within three years."
The Only Rational Conclusion:
In summary, each and every one of the anti-China talking points pushed by the Western propaganda apparatus and which are dutifully parroted by Western pseudo leftists, are easily demonstrated to be false and dishonest.
The China described by the pseudo left agents of imperialism simply does not exist. In actual China the people are very happy and they appreciate their government to a degree that is simply unheard of by Western standards. This appreciation is understandable as the CPC has been tremendously successful in developing a happy, healthy, and prosperous society.
So called leftists that *honestly* bash China are confused and are totally upside down regarding political reality. Their support for Western imperialism through the regurgitation of anti-China talking points needs to stop.”
Some Comments (Not from MM)
Hi friends, always happy to see the lively discussion on anti-China nonsense. Billy Bob sure wrote up a great piece and I will definitely share it somewhere in coming days. Meanwhile I’ve had a couple more pieces recently published all along the same lines hope you’ll enjoy…
Ah. The “mainstream fodder” for a very gullible and manipulated American populace. We call them sheeple, because that is exactly what they are. They are lied to so egregiously, and so fantastically that they believe the narratives that their owners, the PTB tell them.
Such fantasies such as…
"We don't hate the Chinese people, just the Chinese government."
Show such a profound level of ignorance, that it is incomprehensible. That’s like saying “I don’t hate pizza, I just hate eating pizza“. Duh! China is not like the United States. It’s not “lip service”. China is the Chinese people. The government of China is composed of the Chinese people. It’s a flat hierarchy that is “grass roots” from the very smallest hamlets on up.
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And the inability to understand this most basic attribute of China is to display a profound and stunning lack of knowledge, insight, and understanding of China.
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That includes not just an understanding of China, but of America as well. The notion that Americans are “free“, and that they stand for the “principles of liberty though democracy” is so profoundly ignorant, and an absolute insult to the founders who established America int he first place.
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As I have repeatedly stated, the founders not only warned against democracy, but they wrote in the Federalist papers that democracies always turn into oligarchies. And if the oligarchies do not collapse from internal revolt by the citizenry, then they turn into military empires. Empires that historically are destroyed and erased from the surface of the earth.
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The stupidly is thick in America these days. And trying to talk with an average American is a cross between “The Stepford Wives” and “A Wal-mart shopper”. No matter what side of the political spectrum that they come from. They all parrot what they read…
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…not what they experience.
The Stepford wives.
But back to my point…
New technologies, and new ways of doing things, can lead to real horrors.
On April 26, 1933, the interior minister for the German state of Prussia issued a decree creating a new secret state police, or Geheime Staats Polizei, abbreviated: Gestapo.
The Gestapo was tasked with stamping out all opposition to Germany’s new Chancellor and the party he brought to power one year earlier.
It operated by collecting tips from ordinary citizens, including even school children. And this network of Gestapo informants changed Germans’ behavior almost overnight.
Even a joke about the ruling party could land you in a Gestapo interrogation room. Talking politics around your children became a dangerous gamble.
According to Erik Larson’s book In the Garden of Beasts, 37% of denunciations “arose not from heartfelt political beliefs, but from private conflicts with the trigger often breathtakingly trivial.”
For example in one case, a grocery store clerk reported a customer who insisted on receiving the wrong change. The customer was accused of tax fraud.
Another man lent a banned book to his friend, and was quickly denounced by his friend’s wife.
The new Chancellor— who encouraged the behavior — was so shocked by the citizens’ eagerness to rat out their neighbors that he remarked, “We are living at present in a sea of denunciations and human meanness.”
That Chancellor, of course, was Adolf Hitler.
The secret police didn’t need wire taps in every home or spies on every street corner. They found an army of willing, eager informants in the general population.
The volume of denunciations was so great, in fact, that the Gestapo actually had to ask people to stop reporting political crimes to them, because they were overwhelmed and found it impossible to process them all.
Obviously Germany in the 1930s is an extreme case, and I’m not saying that the West today is in the same boat. Not even close.
The similarity, however, is how quickly things changed.
In Nazi Germany, the entire culture changed literally within a few months. In early Spring of 1933, people were still civil to one another. By the summer, they were ratting out their friends and neighbors to the secret police.
Similarly, it wasn’t that long ago that people in the west felt free to speak their minds and state an opinion.
Today saying the wrong words can get you fired, cancelled, and your life turned upside down.
For example, lately there’s been a number of so-called “fact checkers,” i.e. self-appointed censors, who are upset about a new app called Clubhouse.
If you haven’t heard of it, Clubhouse allows people to discuss different topics in audio-only chat rooms.
The audio-based content does not allow recording. And that means there is no record of conversations.
As one fact-checker laments:
“...there are no screenshots. There is no way to drag up old Clubhouse posts years later like a user might do on Twitter. There is no way to record conversations—meaning there is no way to prove that someone said anything controversial at all. . . Users on Clubhouse know, or at least believe, that they can openly speak their mind with zero repercussions.”
The horror!
This drives the ‘fact checkers’ bananas. They want people to be afraid to speak their minds. They want people to fear being denounced if they do not adhere to the doctrine of wokeness.
-Simon Black
Our society, no matter where you live, has been growing and expanding. new technologies confront us every day, and as we run head-first into the utilization of technology, and to the adaptation of our lives to fit that monster we create, people become profoundly unhappy.
Unhappy people tend to topple governments.
Unhappy people tend to topple governments.
.
Which is why there is the American idiom about “torches and pitchforks”. And it’s a real thing. The ruling class, no matter where they live, do not want to hang from ropes on scaffolding.
But America has a solution!
It’s called distraction.
Find someone, anyone, and vilify them. Make it so that they are hated and despised to the extent that they are no longer considered to be human, but rather instead some kind of illness or disease that must be eradicated. And that is the game that the monied elite in Washington DC has been playing with China these last four years.
All prep for a hot “kinetic” war.
American war machine meme about China.
.
It’s the same old, game, and the same old playbook. Same old fun & games. But here I am telling you all on MM…
China. Does. Not. Play.
Asia is unifying, or perhaps best stated, they have already unified.
Any attack anywhere on Asia risks a devastating nuclear salvo that will eliminate America from the face of the earth, and turn the North American continent into a radioactive wasteland where the rest of the world dare not tread. Do not be lulled into the false belief that America is invincible, or that it is blessed by God, or that America has the best, and most modern equipment. None of these lies, and illusions are true.
But it need not be that way.
America can focus on providing for it’s people. Not on blowing up “mud huts”, slaughtering defenseless fields of sheep and donkeys, or picking fights with people who are very, very dangerous.
The biggest failing of the USA is its massive disregard for human life and human wellbeing, a tragedy we inherited from our British forbearers and have yet to cast-off. And to our great misfortune, that anti-life sentiment is deeply rooted in the Federal Government. Ehret exposes some of it; Max Blumenthal's article on the genocidal sadist and Biden admin member Richard Nephew documents such behavior; couple it with Native American policy; mass killing of civilians in WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Central and South America, Southwest Asia, The Balkans, Ukraine, etc., and your damn right we ought to suspect the very worst from that government. Monsters do exist.Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 10 2021 21:51 utc | 35
America needs to focus on Americans.
America should focus on its people.
.
Not “lip service”. Not “token efforts”. Not “Blue Ribbon Panels”. But actual programs, spending actual money to raise the standard of living for Americans from the class-feudal lifestyle that it has devolved into, to a modern and healthy society that embraces culture, and differences. Where America will move away from the blue-grey nightmare into a colorful and vivacious active society…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
This article is part of my prayer / intention campaign sub-index. In it we discuss how you can change your life by your thoughts. And, in this particular article, we look at the mechanism(s) involved. We look at just how a consciousness is able to navigate. This is a rather deep conversation, and certainly more involved than what I have been saying in the past. That “thoughts create reality“. Here we talk about how and why it works that way.
It all began with a simple question;
...Another thing I noticed and perhaps this is of value to my fellow MM.
Six months ago when starting my first prayer campaign MM style I started to feel tired of praying after about 3 weeks already. And my former prayer style was just as long So it wasn't the change in style. Just tired after years of relentless prayer I guess. As a result my other 2 campaigns I still go through all my rituals and prayers but as a robot So to speak. So much less intensity in the words.
Yet I have seen lots of things manifesting.
It seems one can go through prayers by just saying them out loud even when you don't feel like it much sometimes.
Is that the case? And if so, how come just talking to other people when saying you are gonna do things doesn't cause that to happen. Whats the technical difference.
Or has my brain been primed by my previous years of prayer?
Would love your take on it MM and some readers too I think.
The point here is the basic question;
If thoughts change the reality, why does vocalizing them out loud appear to have an effect, when thinking about them in silence doesn't?
And we will answer it here.
To understand how affirmation prayers work, you need to look at the way things work. Forget about Newtonian science. You need to look at Quantum science for answers.
You Must vocalize or write down your thoughts.
You just cannot think things and expect them to happen.
Yes. I know. I know. I have repeatedly stated that what you think causes your desires to manifest. And yes, that is the general outline of how it works, but that is not the “operation manual”. You need to perform a physical action regarding those thoughts to use them to navigate.
You must either [1] vocalize or [2] write the thoughts down. You must do something physically to connect the thoughts to your reality. Other techniques might include the display of pictures that you can view while you are thinking about things. You need a physical connection.
You need to physically write and vocalize your navigation direction for it to work.
Otherwise NOTHING will happen.
Thoughts alone will not cause things to happen. Wishing for things to happen will not make them happen. Worrying about things will not cause them to manifest. You MUST do something physically.
You must do something physically
It has been my experience that if you write things down in a list, and then read them out verbally (not silently), the system will work.
You can also use rituals, create talismans, generate electronic mechanisms that operate in the physical to generate physical navigation movements.
You can create a “vision board”. The creation of the vision board will have the same effect as reading a verbal affirmation. And the viewing of the board, will contribute to that effect. (The contribution magnitude will be lesser than the actual creation of the board.) So viewing a vision board isn’t as effective as creating one.
Recommendation for best results
I recommend that [1] you generate a list of affirmations, and [2] that you read them out loud in a campaign, that [3] consists of an on/off cycle for the best effects.
The pre-birth world-line template
The most important thing that you must understand is that our consciousness is foreign to this universe.
Our consciousness did not evolve in THIS universe. It evolved in a different universe.
Thus it is alien. It doesn't fit here.
This universe is something that the consciousness USES for it's own purposes.
I know that that opens up a ton-load of questions. Answers to that and their implications are “above my pay grade”, but I do have some thoughts. I can cover them later on if you wish.
Our consciousness comes from soul.
Soul creates a smaller part of itself. This part is known as "consciousness" and it is used to travel outside of the "Heaven" universe.
Again. The “soul” does not exist here; in this (apparent) universe. The soul occupies an entirely separate universe. One which I refer to as “The Heaven Universe”.
The Soul creates a consciousness.
It ejects that consciousness into a “transport tube”; a kind of tunnel.
This tunnel is a mechanism for the consciousness to move from one universe to another.
Then the consciousness arrives in the “reality” universe.
Being foreign, there is really nothing that our consciousness is able to do in this “reality” universe. It is like water and oil. They just do not interact together well.
The only thing that our consciousness is able to do is generate thoughts. That is it.
Like a sun generates light, or how a flame creates sparks. The consciousness is able to create the same kinds of "stuff" that it is comprised of. This is what thoughts are.
Thoughts are a form of the same kind of constructions as one's consciousness is.
And this reality universe (as I like to call it), consists of a near infinite number of fixed world-lines.
The "Heaven" universe is completely different from the "reality" universe.
In fact, it is almost like the "reality" universe is an "artificial" construct of some type.
The "reality" universe consists of an infinite number of static moments in time, or what I call "world-lines".
All that our soul can do, is inject our consciousness into a body. Then, once the consciousness is there, the thoughts that the consciousness has navigates to the next world-line based on the highest-probability occurrence. This highest-probability of occurrence is a pre-established vector that the consciousness follows independent of thought.
We call this the “world-line pre-birth template”.
It is the fated direction that your life will unfold towards as your consciousness rides the physical body life-time. It is critically important in what your life will present to you to experience. (At least that is what your very own soul expects.)
You could be an infant, brain-dead in a vegetative state, or mind dulled by drugs and abuse, but the vector path of the life that you will live will be following the pre-mapped out “pre-birth world-line template”. It is the system that your soul establishes for your consciousness. It is the way for your consciousness to obtain experiences.
How to navigate the world-lines
Well, thoughts are the ONLY thing that the consciousness can create.
And thoughts act like a magnet to the most similar world-lines. The thoughts form a “shape” or better yet, a “profile” that surrounds the consciousness. And the consciousness automatically moves towards the world-lines that match that profile.
This is a basic activity that describes MOVEMENT UPON the pre-birth world-line template.
But it does not describe movement off the pre-birth world-line template. That requires a different mechanism for movement. (A similar mechanism, but fundamentally different.)
So thoughts alone, without any further actions, can navigate upon the pre-birth world-line template. It is what is known as a “fated life”.
So if you rely on your thoughts alone to navigate, you will find that your life seems to be “fated”. That you might wish and yearn for things, but they never materialize. You might think about that nice guy or gal at the coffeehouse, but nothing will really manifest. Your life will just follow your pre-mapped out life.
Your thoughts might move you close to certain areas, but it won’t take you to where you want to go.
Movement off the Pre-Birth World-line Template
If this situation describes you…
That you think, wish and dream for things, but they never materialize. It seems that your life is fated to some degree.
Then, you are “trapped” following the pre-birth world-line template.
If you do not want to follow the fated life that has been provided to you, then you will need to incorporate additional measures to navigate the MWI. You will need to navigate off the pre-birth world-line template.
There are two main techniques to do so.
Verbal Affirmations
Slides
Quick recap
There are three techniques in total.
Thoughts alone (dreams, wishes, desires, plans and obsessions).
Verbal affirmations (Written goals, and verbalizing them aloud.)
Slides.
Let’s talk about the systems that take you off your “fated life”…
Verbal Affirmations
You must physically say, write down, or illustrate your dreams and wishes and desires to navigate using this method. This connection; between thoughts and action is the most fundamental way that you can move upon your pre-birth world-line template.
You can move upon the “fated” pre-birth world-line template.
You can move “nearby” to your targets that might lie off the pre-birth world-line template, but are not that too “far distant”.
Now in illustration, for illustration and descriptive purposes, I have illustrated the pre-birth world-line template as a “flat sheet” showing a matrix of world-lines connected by highest probability routes. In reality, it’s not really flat. It actually looks like a thick slab. And the world-lines that lie upon this sheet actually are (instead) embedded within this slab.
So movement, most movement, whether directed by thoughts alone, or by verbal affirmations will lie within the “pre-birth world-line template” slab.
To move about off the pre-defined vector path (as defined by the pre-birth world-line template) you need to navigate further than what the (default) pre-birth world-line template allows.
That requires actual physical activity, or physically associated thoughts.
You see, our consciousness moves in a cyclic fashion following a sine curve. One half the time it is in wave form, in which is it moving from world-line to world-line. The other half of the time it is in particle form where it occupies the physical body.
It is ONLY when it is in wave form that the consciousness can physically move within the MWI.
It is ONLY when it is in particle form that the consciousness can control the navigation.
So, [1] to navigate you need a starting world-line; the one that you occupy at that moment. Thus your consciousness is in particle form. [2] Your consciousness can only generate thoughts when it is in wave form. So your thoughts are basically generated entering and leaving a reality.
In Wave Form...
You generate thoughts.
You move on the MWI.
In Particle form...
You occupy a world-line.
You navigate to the next world line.
Combined together, the ONLY way to effective navigate through the MWI off the pre-birth world-line template, (or to extreme points upon the pre-birth world-line template), you must do so by directing while in particle form.
Thoughts alone.
You move and navigate at the same time.
You can only do this upon a Pre-Birth World-Line Template.
Verbal Affirmations.
You do this while in particle form, upon a world-line.
You program the physical reality by your actions.
Thus, thoughts (in wave form) cannot alter your course vector substantively. Only your actions while in particle form can.
In short, when you are in the physical form, you are operating the levers that control the body via quantum particle forms. You MUST perform physical actions to navigate. This usually means thinking while you are doing something physical. Thus reading affirmations out loud.
Now, let’s talk about making REAL and SUBSTANTIVE changes to your life…
Performing a “Slide”
A “slide” is a complete movement off and outside of the pre-birth world-line template. And what defines it from the “verbal affirmations” are two primary characteristics.
You navigate in a similar fashion to “verbal affirmations” AND…
You establish a completely new world-line template terrain geometry.
This new world-line template replaces your pre-birth world-line template.
The smart MWI traveler would define the new world-line template that he/she would travel upon. And he/she would make sure and provide safeguards to guarantee that accidental world-line template geometry wouldn’t be accidentally created.
How to generate a replacement template to travel upon
It’s actually rather simple.
The “devil is in the details”.
Scene from “Breaking Bad”. Be careful about what you wish for. It might not be what you really want.
Or, in other words, you must verbally create the new replacement world-line template that you will follow. But of course, there are many unknowns doing this. You might think that you are creating one new reality for yourself by constructing the template, only to discover that you have “created a monster” and other unexpected events, and consequences have cropped up and appeared “out of the blue”.
Let’s use the following as an example…
You live a nice, but boring life. You have a small pizza business in a small town. You are pretty happy doing it, but you hear and read about how everyone else is getting rich investing in the stock-market and in bit-coin. So you decide to completely replace your pre-birth world-line template with a template of your own design.
You perform your normal verbal affirmation campaigns, but you specifically state that you have slid off the pre-birth world-line template and on to a a new template of your own geometry.
You describe the new template as a life of wealth as a big important businessman, with factories making frozen pizza that everyone loves. You describe your rich cars, fancy mansion and tons of money in the bank.
What you fail to realize that these possessions, when they manifest, all come with other attachments and events. many of which you do not like at all. Such as a divorce, arrest for tax evasion, and medical problems. And while you might try to alter the manifestation of these side effects, many cannot be helped.
You see, the illusion that a 20-something beauty queen can be a world famous scientist, knows kung-fu, and live in a mansion is just Hollywood nonsense. The real world does not work that way. Do not try to replicate that fantasy. It will not work the way you intend.
A slide to a new world-line template can come with all sorts of unintended consequences.
There are numerous techniques and methods to slide off your pre-birth world-line template. This is just an overview. Keep in mind that I would advise careful thought be given to this decision. Any slide, no matter how well intentioned, WILL come with unanticipated consequences.
Conclusion
You must verbalize and write down your verbal affirmations for them to work. Thoughts alone are ineffective in world-line navigation. As I have stated in my answer to the above question…
The act of talking involves a wide range of activities. More than just thinking.
Consider thinking about eating Lasagna. Now, I love the stuff, but it’s very difficult to get in China. I’d have to make it myself or have my wife order the ingredients, learn how to make it, and then present it to me as a meal. Yet, I find myself thinking about this luscious dish often. Yet is doesn’t appear.
Why?
Consider worrying about paying a bill. And you worry and worry how you are going to come up with the money. You think about strategies, and your mind goes off in all sorts of tangents related to the debt that just sits there festering. Yet nothing is resolved.
Why?
Thoughts alone are not associated with the physical reality. They are just creations of your consciousness, and the only… the ONLY exposure those thoughts have with anyone or anything else is the consciousness that generated them. That’s it.
But, if you connect those thoughts to the reality that you inhabit, they leave the wave form, and enter the particle form. That is how thoughts are able to influence the physical. They are created by the consciousness, and transmuted into a form that the reality can accept. The techniques for this to occur include speech, sounds, writing, actions, etc. Physical activity must occur to connect the thoughts to the reality that you inhabit.
Thus worrying and fretting but not speaking, or writing about it results in no effect. Nothing happens. But if you speak about the worries (in such a way that they are resolved) the solution and navigation within the reality that you navigate manifests.
YOU MUST WRITE and/or SPEAK thoughts out for them to manifest within your reality.
Sanity Check
This is easy enough to check.
Generate two sets of affirmations.
One set you read aloud and read what you have written down on paper.
The next second set is a picture that you will look at and think about what you want.
Watch and record which thoughts manifest sooner.
I hope that I was able to clarify some key points and added some understand on how the mechanism actually works. There will be more posts and articles on this in the future, as there will probably be many more questions generated by this discussion.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my Affirmation prayer Campaign Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
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.
Here is another post from the Robert Greene book “The 48 Laws of Power”. It suggests that you say as little as possible, and use this technique to gain control over the thoughts and actions of others. It advises laconic and taciturn speech mechanisms.
LAW 4
ALWAYS SAY LESS THAN NECESSARY
JUDGMENT
When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.
Video
Here’s Robert Greene when interviewed about this law. VIDEO.
Video.
TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW
Gnaeus Marcius, also known as Coriolanus, was a great military hero of ancient Rome. In the first half of the fifth century B.C. he won many important battles, saving the city from calamity time and time again. Because he spent most of his time on the battlefield, few Romans knew him personally, making him something of a legendary figure.
In 454 B.C., Coriolanus decided it was time to exploit his reputation and enter politics. He stood for election to the high rank of consul. Candidates for this position traditionally made a public address early in the race, and when Coriolanus came before the people, he began by displaying the dozens of scars he had accumulated over seventeen years of fighting for Rome. Few in the crowd really heard the lengthy speech that followed; those scars, proof of his valor and patriotism, moved the people to tears. Coriolanus’s election seemed certain.
When the polling day arrived, however, Coriolanus made an entry into the forum escorted by the entire senate and by the city’s patricians, the aristocracy. The common people who saw this were disturbed by such a blustering show of confidence on election day.
And then Coriolanus spoke again, mostly addressing the wealthy citizens who had accompanied him. His words were arrogant and insolent. Claiming certain victory in the vote, he boasted of his battlefield exploits, made sour jokes that appealed only to the patricians, voiced angry accusations against his opponents, and speculated on the riches he would bring to Rome. This time the people listened: They had not realized that this legendary soldier was also a common braggart.
Down on his luck, [the screenwriter] Michael Arlen went to New York in 1944. To drown his sorrows he paid a visit to the famous restaurant “21.”
In the lobby, he ran into Sam Goldwyn, who offered the somewhat impractical advice that he should buy racehorses.
At the bar Arlen met Louis B. Mayer, an old acquaintance, who asked him what were his plans for the future. “
I was just talking to Sam Goldwyn ...” began Arlen.
“How much did he offer you? ”interrupted Mayer.
“Not enough,” he replied evasively.
“Would you take fifteen thousand for thirty weeks?” asked Mayer.
No hesitation this time. “Yes,” said Arlen.
-THE LITTLE, BROWN BOOK OF ANECDOTES, CLIFTON FADIMAN, ED., 1985
News of Coriolanus’s second speech spread quickly through Rome, and the people turned out in great numbers to make sure he was not elected. Defeated, Coriolanus returned to the battlefield, bitter and vowing revenge on the common folk who had voted against him. Some weeks later a large shipment of grain arrived in Rome. The senate was ready to distribute this food to the people, for free, but just as they were preparing to vote on the question Coriolanus appeared on the scene and took the senate floor. The distribution, he argued, would have a harmful effect on the city as a whole. Several senators appeared won over, and the vote on the distribution fell into doubt. Coriolanus did not stop there: He went on to condemn the concept of democracy itself. He advocated getting rid of the people’s representatives—the tribunes—and turning over the governing of the city to the patricians.
One oft-told tale about Kissinger... involved a report that Winston Lord had worked on for days.
After giving it to Kissinger, he got it back with the notation, “Is this the best you can do?”
Lord rewrote and polished and finally resubmitted it; back it came with the same curt question.
After redrafting it one more time—and once again getting the same question from Kissinger-Lord snapped, “Damn it, yes, it’s the best I can do. ”
To which Kissinger replied: “Fine, then I guess I’ll read it this time. ”
-KISSINGER. WALTER ISAACSON, 1992
When word of Coriolanus’s latest speech reached the people, their anger knew no bounds. The tribunes were sent to the senate to demand that Coriolanus appear before them. He refused. Riots broke out all over the city. The senate, fearing the people’s wrath, finally voted in favor of the grain distribution. The tribunes were appeased, but the people still demanded that Coriolanus speak to them and apologize. If he repented, and agreed to keep his opinions to himself, he would be allowed to return to the battlefield.
Coriolanus did appear one last time before the people, who listened to him in rapt silence. He started slowly and softly, but as the speech went on, he became more and more blunt. Yet again he hurled insults! His tone was arrogant, his expression disdainful. The more he spoke, the angrier the people became. Finally they shouted him down and silenced him.
The tribunes conferred, condemned Coriolanus to death, and ordered the magistrates to take him at once to the top of the Tarpeian rock and throw him over. The delighted crowd seconded the decision. The patricians, however, managed to intervene, and the sentence was commuted to a lifelong banishment. When the people found out that Rome’s great military hero would never return to the city, they celebrated in the streets. In fact no one had ever seen such a celebration, not even after the defeat of a foreign enemy.
Interpretation
Before his entrance into politics, the name of Coriolanus evoked awe.
His battlefield accomplishments showed him as a man of great bravery. Since the citizens knew little about him, all kinds of legends became attached to his name. The moment he appeared before the Roman citizens, however, and spoke his mind, all that grandeur and mystery vanished. He bragged and blustered like a common soldier. He insulted and slandered people, as if he felt threatened and insecure.
Suddenly he was not at all what the people had imagined.
The discrepancy between the legend and the reality proved immensely disappointing to those who wanted to believe in their hero. The more Coriolanus said, the less powerful he appeared—a person who cannot control his words shows that he cannot control himself, and is unworthy of respect.
The King [Louis XIV] maintains the most impenetrable secrecy about affairs of State. The ministers attend council meetings, but he confides his plans to them only when he has reflected at length upon them and has come to a definite decision.
I wish you might see the King.
His expression is inscrutable; his eyes like those of a fox. He never discusses State affairs except with his ministers in Council. When he speaks to courtiers he refers only to their respective prerogatives or duties.
Even the most frivolous of his utterances has the air of being the pronouncement of an oracle.
-PRIMI VISCONTI, QUOTED IN LOUIS XIV, LOUIS BERTRAND, 1928
Had Coriolanus said less, the people would never have had cause to be offended by him, would never have known his true feelings. He would have maintained his powerful aura, would certainly have been elected consul, and would have been able to accomplish his antidemocratic goals.
But the human tongue is a beast that few can master.
It strains constantly to break out of its cage, and if it is not tamed, it will run wild and cause you grief. Power cannot accrue to those who squander their treasure of words.
Oysters open completely when the moon is full; and when the crab sees one it throws a piece of stone or seaweed into it and the oyster cannot close again so that it serves the crab for meat. Such is the fate of him who opens his mouth too much and thereby puts himself at the mercy of the listener.
=Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519
OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW
In the court of Louis XIV, nobles and ministers would spend days and nights debating issues of state. They would confer, argue, make and break alliances, and argue again, until finally the critical moment arrived: Two of them would be chosen to represent the different sides to Louis himself, who would decide what should be done. After these persons were chosen, everyone would argue some more: How should the issues be phrased? What would appeal to Louis, what would annoy him? At what time of day should the representatives approach him, and in what part of the Versailles palace? What expression should they have on their faces?
Finally, after all this was settled, the fateful moment would finally arrive. The two men would approach Louis—always a delicate matter—and when they finally had his ear, they would talk about the issue at hand, spelling out the options in detail.
Louis would listen in silence, a most enigmatic look on his face. Finally, when each had finished his presentation and had asked for the king’s opinion, he would look at them both and say, “I shall see.” Then he would walk away.
The ministers and courtiers would never hear another word on this subject from the king—they would simply see the result, weeks later, when he would come to a decision and act. He would never bother to consult them on the matter again.
Undutiful words of a subject do often take deeper root than the memory of ill deeds....
The late Earl of Essex told Queen Elizabeth that her conditions were as crooked as her carcass; but it cost him his head, which his insurrection had not cost him but for that speech.
-SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 1554-1618
Interpretation
Louis XIV was a man of very few words. His most famous remark is “L‘état, c’est moi” (“I am the state”); nothing could be more pithy yet more eloquent.
His infamous “I shall see” was one of several extremely short phrases that he would apply to all manner of requests.
Louis was not always this way; as a young man he was known for talking at length, delighting in his own eloquence. His later taciturnity was self-imposed, an act, a mask he used to keep everybody below him off-balance.
No one knew exactly where he stood, or could predict his reactions.
No one could try to deceive him by saying what they thought he wanted to hear, because no one knew what he wanted to hear.
As they talked on and on to the silent Louis, they revealed more and more about themselves, information he would later use against them to great effect.
In the end, Louis’s silence kept those around him terrified and under his thumb. It was one of the foundations of his power. As Saint-Simon wrote, “No one knew as well as he how to sell his words, his smile, even his glances. Everything in him was valuable because he created differences, and his majesty was enhanced by the sparseness of his words.”
It is even more damaging for a minister to say foolish things than to do them.
-Cardinal de Retz, 1613-1679
KEYS TO POWER
Power is in many ways a game of appearances, and when you say less than necessary, you inevitably appear greater and more powerful than you are. Your silence will make other people uncomfortable.
Humans are machines of interpretation and explanation; they have to know what you are thinking. When you carefully control what you reveal, they cannot pierce your intentions or your meaning.
Your short answers and silences will put them on the defensive, and they will jump in, nervously filling the silence with all kinds of comments that will reveal valuable information about them and their weaknesses.
They will leave a meeting with you feeling as if they had been robbed, and they will go home and ponder your every word. This extra attention to your brief comments will only add to your power.
Saying less than necessary is not for kings and statesmen only.
In most areas of life, the less you say, the more profound and mysterious you appear.
As a young man, the artist Andy Warhol had the revelation that it was generally impossible to get people to do what you wanted them to do by talking to them. They would turn against you, subvert your wishes, disobey you out of sheer perversity. He once told a friend, “I learned that you actually have more power when you shut up.”
In his later life Warhol employed this strategy with great success.
His interviews were exercises in oracular speech: He would say something vague and ambiguous, and the interviewer would twist in circles trying to figure it out, imagining there was something profound behind his often meaningless phrases.
Warhol rarely talked about his work; he let others do the interpreting.
He claimed to have learned this technique from that master of enigma Marcel Duchamp, another twentieth-century artist who realized early on that the less he said about his work, the more people talked about it. And the more they talked, the more valuable his work became.
By saying less than necessary you create the appearance of meaning and power.
Also, the less you say, the less risk you run of saying something foolish, even dangerous. In 1825 a new czar, Nicholas I, ascended the throne of Russia. A rebellion immediately broke out, led by liberals demanding that the country modernize—that its industries and civil structures catch up with the rest of Europe.
Brutally crushing this rebellion (the Decembrist Uprising), Nicholas I sentenced one of its leaders, Kondraty Ryleyev, to death.
On the day of the execution Ryleyev stood on the gallows, the noose around his neck. The trapdoor opened—but as Ryleyev dangled, the rope broke, dashing him to the ground.
At the time, events like this were considered signs of providence or heavenly will, and a man saved from execution this way was usually pardoned. As Ryleyev got to his feet, bruised and dirtied but believing his neck had been saved, he called out to the crowd, “You see, in Russia they don’t know how to do anything properly, not even how to make rope!”
A messenger immediately went to the Winter Palace with news of the failed hanging. Vexed by this disappointing turnabout, Nicholas I nevertheless began to sign the pardon.
But then: “Did Ryleyev say anything after this miracle?” the czar asked the messenger.
“Sire,” the messenger replied, “he said that in Russia they don’t even know how to make rope.”
“In that case,” said the Czar, “let us prove the contrary,” and he tore up the pardon.
The next day Ryleyev was hanged again. This time the rope did not break.
Learn the lesson: Once the words are out, you cannot take them back. Keep them under control. Be particularly careful with sarcasm: The momentary satisfaction you gain with your biting words will be outweighed by the price you pay.
Image: The Oracle at Delphi. When visitors consulted the Oracle, the priestess would utter a few enigmatic words that seemed full of meaning and import. No one disobeyed the words of the Oracle— they held power over life and death.
Authority: Never start moving your own lips and teeth before the subordinates do. The longer I keep quiet, the sooner others move their lips and teeth. As they move their lips and teeth, I can thereby understand their real intentions…. If the sovereign is not mysterious, the ministers will find opportunity to take and take. (Han-fei-tzu, Chinese philosopher, third century B.C.)
REVERSAL
There are times when it is unwise to be silent.
Silence can arouse suspicion and even insecurity, especially in your superiors; a vague or ambiguous comment can open you up to interpretations you had not bargained for.
Silence and saying less than necessary must be practiced with caution, then, and in the right situations. It is occasionally wiser to imitate the court jester, who plays the fool but knows he is smarter than the king. He talks and talks and entertains, and no one suspects that he is more than just a fool.
Also, words can sometimes act as a kind of smoke screen for any deception you might practice. By bending your listener’s ear with talk, you can distract and mesmerize them; the more you talk, in fact, the less suspicious of you they become. The verbose are not perceived as sly and manipulative but as helpless and unsophisticated. This is the reverse of the silent policy employed by the powerful: By talking more, and making yourself appear weaker and less intelligent than your mark, you can practice deception with greater ease.
Thoughts and Conclusions
Offer no speech. Respond laconically if at all.
And that is all that I need to say about this.
Do you want more?
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This post is a little tad boring in that it relates to money and how money is used to generate more money. I find that boring. I also find it trivial.
However, this mechanism is ingrained in the United States and the West as the ONLY way for people to move upward in the class-caste structure that has been constructed.
The "big news" is that "the little guy" (people who live outside the oligarchy class) have devised a way to "get even" with the wealthy oligarchy that has been "sticking it to the rest of us" for decades now. And this "get even" event is well... it's fucking awesome.
Game Stop Corp
Late in January 2021, a few amateur stock trading nerds decided to promote a stock that was heavily shortened by certain hedge funds. The idea was to raise the stock price of Game Stop Corp., a vendor for computer games, by having lots of small stock traders to buy into it. The hedge fund that shortened the stock, and thereby bet on a dropping stock price, would then make huge losses while the many small buyers would potentially profit.
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These people, who had joined up in the sub-reddit /r/WallStreetBets, were not driven by greed but by rage against the financial machine:
Instead of greed, this latest bout of speculation, and especially the extraordinary excitement at GameStop, has a different emotional driver: anger. The people investing today are driven by righteous anger, about generational injustice, about what they see as the corruption and unfairness of the way banks were bailed out in 2008 without having to pay legal penalties later, and about lacerating poverty and inequality. This makes it unlike any of the speculative rallies and crashes that have preceded it.
1990’s portrayal of teenage hackers.
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The movement was successful. The stock price of Game Stop Corp. rose from some $10 to over $400 within just a few days. The short seller had to take cover under a larger firm:
Hedge fund Melvin Capital closed out its short position in GameStop on Tuesday after taking huge losses as a target of the army of retail investors. Citadel and Point72 have infused close to $3 billion into Gabe Plotkin's hedge fund to shore up its finances.
Then the system hit back.
Discord, the company which hosted the server for the sub-reddit /r/WallStreetBets suddenly found that there was ‘hate-speech’ in the threads. It unplugged the server. (Discord had previously unplugged the sub-reddit /r/The_Donald.)
Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald - 0:53 UTC · Jan 28, 2021
What an absolutely extraordinary coincidence of timing that Discord happened to decide the r/Wall Streetbets sub-reddit had too much “hate speech” to tolerate on the same day hedge fund billionaires declared them a huge threat for the crime of winning at their expense!
Next the trading app Robinhood, which many of the amateur traders use, blocked further buys into the stock:
Robinhood, the fee-free investment app that has helped Redditors and other retail investors pump dark horse stocks like GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry, and Nokia, has stopped allowing users to buy those stocks and others YOLO picks.
According to screenshots shared on social media, on Thursday morning a notification appeared on Robinhood telling users that they could close their position on GameStop's stock, but not buy any additional shares.
Redditors are currently panicking, looking for ways to transfer their shares of GameStop off of Robinhood to other platforms, and are generally furious at the platform.
In a blog post, Robinhood confirmed that it has placed restrictions on several stocks due to volatility.
“Volatility” = the prols are messing up Wall Street by doing legal stock transactions our overlords do not like. What an irony that a company named Robin Hood is protecting the rich from the poor.
The many people who use Robinhood can now only sell their shares and not buy additional ones:
This is likely to have a massive impact on Robinhood users and ultimately the company. According to a popup on the app's homepage, 56 percent of all Robinhood users own at least some GameStop stock. They are now unable to freely trade it; the app is only allowing users to close out their positions, meaning they can sell it but not buy more. This is potentially devastating for novice investors or those who simply want to follow the general marching orders of the r/WallStreetBets subreddit, which is to hold (and buy more) GameStop stock until further notice.
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That outright manipulation of the stock markets was noticed and may even have consequences. Unlike Joe Biden it united legislators across the aisle.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AOC - 16:36 UTC · Jan 28, 2021
This is unacceptable.
We now need to know more about @RobinhoodApp’s decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit.
As a member of the Financial Services Cmte, I’d support a hearing if necessary.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will take care that nothing will comes from it. The system has proven again and again that it is rigged. No change to it will be condoned.
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As Glenn Greenwald noted yesterday:
Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald - 13:49 UTC · Jan 27, 2021
To review:
- Politics is to be manipulated only by K Street.
- The stock market is to be manipulated only by Wall St.
- Dissemination of information is to be manipulated only by corporate media outlets.
Those are the rules.
The lesson they want us to learn: Don't even think of ever breaking those rules.
Posted by b on January 28, 2021 at 18:05 UTC | Permalink
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It’s all been brutal.
Furthermore, everybody “understands” what happened with GameStop. Unlike some other Wall Street stories, this one isn’t complicated. The entire tale, in a nutshell, goes like this. One group of gamblers announced, “Fuck you!” Another group announced back: “No, fuck YOU!” That’s it. Or, as one market analyst put it to me this morning, “A bunch of guys made a bet, got killed, then doubled and tripled down and got killed even more.”
-Suck It, Wall Street by Matt Taibbi
Why?
Well, because the oligarchy believe that they and their system were untouchable. That it was unassailable, and that they were forever free of the consequences of their actions. Does “Too big to fail” ring a bell.
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Guess that the response from Joe Average and Suzi Average has been a little brutal. But can you blame them?
A best-selling fiction author could not have spun a more ironic tale so completely representative of our time.
Just as an unprecedented situation—COVID and lockdowns—unfolded over the past year and led to massive gains for corporate titans like Walmart and Amazon. Meanwhile governments have crushed small businesses and individuals…
And a new, unprecedented situation has unfolded.
Spilling off the pages of Reddit to become a substantial threat to the stock market’s stability Is amazing.
It is a microcosm of this tale of big business quashing the little guy.
It is a tale of Wall Street profiting despite the best, most subversive efforts of the underdogs.
In short, what started out as a long stock play in a subreddit full of rocketship and “diamond hand” emojis and anti-elitist snark has fueled a form of class warfare that extends well beyond rhetoric.
Big Tech and Wall Street are fighting back, and right now it appears they’re winning.
But in the long run, you do know, you can only tread water only for so long.
The subreddit has shown us the way forward.
You Do Need Some Background
The background of this story may seem dry to some, but as with “The Big Short” of ’08, the full extent of malfeasance and recklessness by big Wall Street players can’t be understood without some working knowledge.
Reddit user “u/DeepF*ckingValue” has been touting the potential of GameStop (GME) for months.
Seen as a dying retail breed, its stock price had hovered around $5 per share for several years as people move away from brick and mortar for video games and more towards digital copies of games and online purchases of consoles.
Enter Ryan Cohen.
He is the founder of Chewy, which he sold for a cool $3 billion back in 2018. This was after successfully competing with Amazon for the e-commerce dog food market.
Then, after stepping away from dog food domination, he turned his sights towards GameStop. Where he endedup buying a 13 percent share in the company and joining its board of directors in mid-January.
This move boosted the stock price, but it was still trading under $20.
While a visionary joining a failing company has brought about spikes in stock price in the past, GameStop had another unique factor against it.
Its stock, GME, was shorted at an astronomical rate by several hedge funds, including Melvin Capital.
A short position is taken when a person or fund believes the stock price will go down. They borrow against the current market price with the intention of paying it back when the market price is lower.
For example;
Stock A is trading at $3.
Bob believes it will drop to $1 and shorts 100 shares of stock. Meaning he "borrows" the 100 shares.
He “sells” those "shorted" (borrowed) stocks immediately for $300.
In a week, if the stock price goes to $1 he can close his stock position and buy the 100 shares he “borrowed” for only $100.
At the end of it all, Bob makes $200.
However, if a week later the price rises to $5 per share, he could close out his short position by paying $500 for 100 shares at $5 per share. In the end, he’d lose $200 on his bet.
Yikes.
But…
Bob has another option.
He can hold on to it longer.
If his short position isn’t looking too hot with a current price of $5 per share. He could stick with his short position and hope it drops back down to $3 or less sometime in the future to cover his current paper loss. The risk with this is that his loss potential is theoretically unlimited. If he holds onto his short position for another week and the stock price rises to $10, he’s even more in the red.
The longer you wait; and hold on to the stock, the greater the risk or gain.
Well, this is only one of the ways you can short a stock.
The bigger you or your fund is, the more complicated a short position can become, all the way into “naked” short (selling a stock you haven’t even borrowed yet, akin to listing and selling a home you don’t even own), which are illegal but hard to track and therefore rarely prosecuted.
SEC.gov | Naked Short Saleshttps://www.sec.gov/answers/nakedshortsale.htm
2010-7-23 · In a "naked" short sale, the seller does not borrow or arrange to borrow the securities in time to make delivery to the buyer within the standard three-day settlement period.As a result, the seller fails to deliver securities to the buyer when delivery is due; this is known as a "failure to deliver" or "fail."
Back to GameStop
GameStop was shorted at 140 percent of all the shares available to purchase, meaning it is likely more shares were shorted than there were to buy back to cover those short positions.
140 %.
140%
Think about it. 100% is all you have to work with.
This should never happen.
It suggests the types of shorts that were used were questionable at best and illegal at worst.
And the US government, and SEC looked the other way. They always “look the other way”.
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So “u/DeepF*ckingValue” and a group of redditors saw an opportunity: take advantage of those who are taking advantage.
What has unfolded over the past couple weeks has been a run on purchasing GME stock to try and buy up as much shares as possible to take advantage of this short position.
Buying all those shares naturally drove up the stock price, but it also did something else.
Every time the price went a little bit higher, hedge funds that had massive short positions took more and more of a loss as they were forced to buy an ever-increasing stock to cover their short positions.
[Hedge funds] short-sold AT LEAST 40% more shares than ever existed.
They’re obliged to buy back more shares than is possible.
The only way out of that self-made trap is a complicated mess of desperately buying, returning, rebuying from the people you borrowed them from, and returning them with losses at every step.
Imagine if I sold you 10 cars, but only delivered 6.
You’re standing there with your WTF face and I say ‘Hey! how much would you sell those 4 cars for?’
You can name your price at this point.
I pay it. Then I ‘finish’ my ‘10 car delivery.’
At this point, some fund managers and individuals exited their short position realizing that as long as people who were long GME held their position, the stock price would continue to go up and there was nothing they could do about it.
This is known as a short squeeze.
As short positions become due and shorters have to cover these positions, they’re forced to buy at the price set by the shareholder.
Since these same shorters shorted more stock than was available to buy to try and make an extra buck, they’re now at the mercy of those holding the shares, leading to exponentially increasing prices.
Uh oh!
Punishing Hedge Funds for Cheating
While some shorters realized the potential losses could be catastrophic, others decided to double down on their position.
Melvin Capital lost 30 percent of their portfolio value by Jan. 25, or close to $4 billion. On that day, Citadel and Steven Cohen gifted Melvin Capital $2.75 billion to help cover their losses. They then doubled down on their shorts and their losses have skyrocketed.
On Jan. 25, they announced they finally exited their short positions.
This is when the war with individual retail investors started.
While it cannot be technically proven that Melvin didn’t exit their short positions, short positions on GME as a percentage of available float were still at the same 140 percent.
Statistically, this should’ve fallen off hard if Melvin really did sell their short positions. Thousands of retail investors thus doubted this news and continued to hold onto their stocks.
GME stock had continued to skyrocket.
On Friday 22JAN21, it closed at $65 per share.
One week later it closed at $345 per share.
Last night, u/DeepF*ckingValue’s initial $50,000 position grew to $50,000,000, and he’s continuing to hold.
Now, a lot of short positions will become due by the end of the week, and that’s when the much-anticipated short squeeze is expected to kick in.
We might see GME share prices above $1,000. With this attention on targeting heavily shorted stocks, other stocks have seen massive gains as well, including AMC, BB, and NOSS.
Recent aftermarket trading pushed GME close to $500 and bankruptcy for funds with heavy short positions seemed to become more and more probable.
It appeared that the underdog small-time investors betting against the big hedge fund pessimists successfully dealt a blow to Wall Street know-it-alls.
Of course, you still can sell these shares, you just can’t buy them.
And what happens to a stock when you can only sell it or hold it? People sell it and losses start to pile up.
Within an hour, GME dropped from $469 to $132 and AMC dropped from $12 to $7. Several traders reported orders being cancelled.
This may seem like a responsible reaction to slow volatility, but one doesn’t need to look that deeply to see what’s really going on.
Mega hedge fund Citadel gave Melvin Capital, the company with the most to lose the higher these prices go, a $2.75 billion bailout. According to Yahoo News, “Citadel’s founder is Ken Griffin, who also founded Citadel Securities, a big investor in Robinhood that also works with TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab.”
Citadel’s founder is Ken Griffin.
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The company that touts “democratizing finance for all,” that many redditors have relied on to foil the fat cats’ plan to short a beloved videogame store, is really stealing from the poor to give to the rich.
Within an hour, billions have been transferred from individual retail investors to hedge fund managers in the name of Robinhood.
Its app store rating plummeted from 5 to 1.
This is a blatant act of market manipulation, and lovers of freedom on both sides of the aisle should be outraged.
In a free market, stocks should be able to be bought or sold at any time and foolish actions should reap negative consequences—even if those consequences come via spiteful “average joe” investors. Investors who’ve likely gone through a hellish year where they’ve felt squeezed and short-changed by establishment elites in government and big business.
You’re probably wondering what’s next.
That depends on the constitution of retail investors. The subredditors of r/wallstreetbets have received an overwhelming amount of support for the hold position as trade volumes indicate the price crash was caused by very few sellers but high-frequency small trades that artificially crashed the price.
This is Melvin’s/Robinhood’s/Citadel’s/Cohen’s last battle effort before the inevitable short squeeze.
As long as retail investors hold, they should see their position skyrocket.
But do they have the strength to do so as prices artificially tanked? Considering GME has recovered to $246, it appears they might. This is a once in a decade spectacle that has pitted retail investors against hedge fund managers, with irony off-the-charts: a platform called Robinhood screwing small-time investors?
Really?
Whether the trend of Big Business succeeding while the average American suffers continues through 2021 is anyone’s guess.
But we deserve a better ending than bitter irony.
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The key point in this, and the actions of the government, clearly demonstrate in clear and unambiguous terms that there are no absolute laws. There are just what they can do, and lip service about what YOU can do.
Laws? Only For You. Bend Over
Let’s start with the law:
It is illegal to "manipulate" a stock or other security -- that is, it is unlawful to express an intent to sell or buy for any other reason than to actually sell or buy, and it is also illegal to intentionally mislead others about your reasons for doing so.
This is why “spoofing” (although almost-never prosecuted) is against the law.
“Spoofing” is the practice of laying in a bid or offer you have no intention of being filled on for the express reason of making other people think you want to sell or buy something, when in fact you want to do the opposite.
They attempt to follow your claimed “expression of intent” only to find your offer or bid has disappeared, the price moves and they come in on the other side.
It sounds like picking up pennies in front of a steamroller and it is, but it can be very profitable especially if your connection to the exchange is fast enough that the risk of getting filled is extremely low in that you can cancel your order before anyone can hit it.
This could be prevented on a trivial basis by the exchanges through a simple rule:
All orders must remain valid for enough time for the signal to travel around the globe twice (once there and once back) or until executed and you may not have more open orders at any given instant than you can clear (e.g. margin capacity.)
Now if you try to “spoof” you will get filledand the scheme fails.
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But note that despite this being blatantly obvious not one exchange has implemented such a rule and neither has the SEC demanded it.
Gee, I wonder why not? Might it be that they really don't give a rats ass so long as only the "right" people cheat?
Spoofing is an extremely common practice, a practice that especially screws small retail traders because we are nowhere near as fast with our fingers as a computer and also not sitting next to the exchange either…
… and a number of years ago one particular idiot was dumb enough to do it when the futures market was open over a holiday weekend.
It was caught on video and put on Youtube, which got the CME very pissed off.
Oh by the way, they never have gone after the “big guys” doing the same thing nor changed the rules on order validity.
Just the “little guys”.
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Given how simple it would be to instantly stop this crap does that tell you everything you need to know?
But there is nothing illegal about bidding up (or shorting) a stock for a transparent and truthful reason that has nothing to do with its underlying value. The only requirement is that you not lie; witness firms like Tesla that have crazy valuations for which there is no rational justification, or Amazon, or similar.
They’re everywhere and always on the exchanges and always have been.
Fundamentally a company that pays no dividend has no value beyond the liquidation value of its assets in the free market when it comes to common stock. Therefore, if you want to get down to it every single stock that pays no dividend trades on nothing more than hype since there is no discounted cash flow to you as a holder, ever, and no expectation there will be.
That’s the dirty little secret that nobody wants to talk about when it comes to the stock market.
And that is why you can have a market that trades at 666 one year and a few years later trades at 3,700. Did the economy expand by a factor of five over that period? Did it even double? Not even close.
The sort of short squeeze that we’ve seen occurred due to fraud — but not by the people causing the squeeze.
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And don’t get your panties in a wad about this either; yes, the “at home” trading cadre has materially expanded with the pandemic lockdowns and such, and we’re sending “stimulus checks” to a lot of young adults with nothing to do with their time, so staring at a trading terminal attempting to make money sounds pretty good, especially if you win a few times. But that’s not the whole story — not even close.
If you want to short a stock you are supposed to first borrow it.
That is, ordinary people cannot sell what they don’t have, so if you wish to short you must first borrow that which you want to sell. This is one of the ways brokers make money; they keep all the stock their customers have in “street name” and keep track of who has what.
They can (and if supply is limited do) charge you to borrow that stock.
There’s nothing wrong with this, provided the stock borrowed is real.
It’s one of the things you agree to allow if you have a margin account; as part of the “price” of that privilege the broker can loan your stock to others for the purpose of shorting it. However, since you own it if you demand it back because you wish to sell it the broker either has to find some other set of shares to replace what he lent out of yours or the short-seller is forcibly bought-in at the market because they have to return your shares.
If that causes to take a loss, tough crap.
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There is an exception to this rule:
If you are a market maker then you can short naked, that is, without borrowing first.
Why? Because a market maker’s job is, as the name implies, to make the market — that is, to take the other side of whatever the customer wants to do. If I want to be long something in order to do it someone else has to sell it. Now in the physical security market this is easy; there either is or is not what I want to buy out there on the sheet offered by someone else.
But in the options market there is no physical security; the entirety of it is synthetic. This means if someone wishes to buy a CALL someone else has to sell one.
Well, that’s dangerous because naked short options positions are obligations to deliver.
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Specifically if you are short an IBM CALL @ $100 (for example) then you are obligated to deliver 100 shares of IBM stock on demand at any time before expiration for $100 each.
It does not matter what IBM’s stock is worth; if the holder of the CALL exercises their option you must deliver them. If the shares cost $500 at that time you’re fucked.
Likewise I can buy a $20 PUT on some stock. This gives me the right to PUT that stock on the other person for $20/share up until expiration.
IF the price is under $20 I of course have every reason to do that -- I can buy the shares for $10 and make you pay me $20!
Who doesn't like that deal?
Likewise, the market maker never wants that directional bet either since on the short side of an options trade you're obligated to perform if demanded by the long side.
Nobody would stay in business being a market maker if this sort of thing could happen to them, so as soon as they take the opposing side they execute a balancing trade on the other side.
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In short if you’re a market maker you always want to be neutral on every security you make a market in; you make a (very) small profit on each transaction but you never, ever want to be exposed directionally because the amount you get paid is tiny compared to the risk, and one mistake will bankrupt you.
Therefore if you’re a market maker you can short without locating first for this explicit reason. This doesn’t lead to a problem generally because nobody in their right mind as a market maker wants a directional exposure, ever. As a result the failure to locate is transient and does not accumulate; you will lay that risk off and remove the imbalance if you have to since you can construct synthetic positions that perform financially the same as real ones.
So how do you get 140% of the available shares short?
It would seem impossible and is…
…. unless someone cheats.
There are some players in the market who have “market maker” status but also trade their own books or have cross-interests with those who do.
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Allegedly there are “Chinese walls” between those pieces (or interconnected entities.) Quite obviously that is a load of crap because otherwise what you’ve seen would be impossible but it clearly not only has happened before but is still happening to this day.
These entities are how you wind up with short sales where the locate and borrow hasn’t happened first and the position remains open across time. This is supposed to be illegal but other than a few hand-slaps in the futures markets for physical commodities I’m not aware of any criminal prosecution for doing it.
And let’s be clear here: This practice is counterfeiting.
There is nothing wrong with borrowing a share of stock from someone and selling it, provided that if the person who you borrowed it from wants it back you are forced to deliver it. That is, if there are 100 shares of stock in the world the only entity who have the right to control how many total shares there are is the company itself. Provided there are 100 shares who loans them and on what terms is nobody’s business; that’s a private transaction and it’s perfectly legal. If I own something I have the right to lend or sell it to someone on whatever terms I choose.
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But if you sell something without locating it first you are counterfeiting because you are now representing that there are 110 shares in the marketplace but the company never authorized the other 10.
You thus are in fact diluting every one of the existing and real shares by 10% and pocketing the money from those sales. In short you are stealing by partially destroying the value of everyone else's holdings in that stock.
Counterfeiting is a criminal offense — always and everywhere.
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So now you have some folks who have discerned that in fact there is more than 100% of the public float out short. This cannot happen through lawful trading activity, but it leads to an interesting conundrum: If you drive the price up you force those who committed that offense to cover their bets and there aren’t enough shares to do it. Oh, someone will eventually fork up their shares at ever-increasing prices to unwind the fraud but in the process the people who shorted naked get a telephone pole up their ass in terms of losses.
There is nothing illegal about targeting people who do this; you are not lying about your intentions and ramming someone’s criminal conduct up their ass is not only legal it’s what they deserve to have happen to them. Remember that no company stock is actually worth anything beyond liquidation value at any instant in time when it comes to hard valuation; the entire remainder of the price is speculative premium — that is, the expression of belief in future prospects.
Further, the folks on Reddit aren’t the whole story of the pressure either.
There appears to be a "gentleman's agreement" among hedgies that they don't go after this when done by their "friends." The practice would never survive a day otherwise; competition is like that if it's honest competition. The reason we ban collusion generally is because it destroys honest competition and that is bad.
But as with any thieves guild breaking ranks can make you a lot of money and when something like this gets going you can bet there are folks with lots of money happy to jump on the bandwagon and add a few telephone poles — or a few hundred — to the pile being shoved up the short side’s ass. Why not if they can profit from it especially if they don’t get identified to the other guild members as the ones who broke ranks?
.
So cry me a river, hedge fund mavens and screamers like Cramer — who, by the way, admitted on video many years ago how he used to manipulate markets before he had his own TV show. He never went to jail for that, did he?
What’s the difference?
These folks on WSB are telling you exactly why they're doing what they're doing -- they intend to shove a telephone pole up some cheater's asses and break it off, making a profit at the same time, which is the truth. That's legal. There's no deception at all; every one of their "buy" orders is in fact a bona-fide intent to purchase and they're being entirely transparent as to why.
That their intent has nothing to do with their view of the underlying company’s value in its present state means nothing; basically zero of the stock and option trades on the market, ever, are about today’s state of a given firm — they’re all about tomorrow’s beliefs which by the very nature of that being tomorrow are speculative.
.
Now one more thing: Why would Robinhood and others halt buys in a stock?
Not crank margin to 100% (or some multiple of it for a short), stop it entirely irrespective of cash in your account?The broker does not care what the buyer and seller transact at and further, if there is no margin involved the broker also does not care if you grossly overpay and wind up with zero. He loses nothing and this was your own self-directed decision, not his recommendation. All an actual broker does is match buyers and sellers; they are not involved directionally. Well, not legally anyway.....Further, there are claims that people not on margin were force-liquidated. On what basis? Legally, maybe you signed something saying they could liquidate you "if they believed you were placing at risk" or even "if they're at risk" (without you being the cause.) However the question still stands: Why did they liquidate the accounts if in fact they did?
Robinhood makes money by routing trades from its platform to large brokers, who compensate the company for its order flow. The larger the trading volume, the better for Robinhood. But Robinhood also makes money through various forms of lending, primarily margin lending to customers.
Which is immaterial, as they had already set margin to 100%. In other words, there were no margin loans on GME stock. You put up cash before you buy, or you don’t buy. If you have an existing position you can’t borrow against it. That’s perfectly legit and brokers do that all the time when things get volatile.
That generates no exposure for the brokerage.
From Robinhood’s perspective, the GameStop rally is beneficial insofar as it generates revenue from increased trading activity, but it is also extremely risky, because the brokerage platform is lending millions of dollars to retail investors buying a world-historically volatile stock. As more and more buyers have flocked to GameStop, Robinhood has lent out more and more money.
That’s a lie since they had already set margin to 100%. They’re not lending money against those positions; those are cash transactions and, allegedly and if nobody is cheating, all Robinhood is doing is matching buyers and sellers.
It’s unclear how much GameStop stock Robinhood has lent to hedge funds, but whatever the amount, they’ve been lucrative, commanding as much as 80 percent in interest due to the massive amount of money betting against the stock.
Ah…. now we’re getting somewhere.
You see, brokers do that; they lend out stock and, in cases of hard to borrow shares there is often a fee that can get quite steep.
The brokerage would lose that income stream if the short was closed.
.
But….
…so what? There’s no existential risk here — just lost opportunity. Which doesn’t explain the clamp-down, does it?
NR goes on to try to excuse this as being the “adults in the room.”
Nope. Once you have margin set to 100% of a long position (and, I remind you, if there is no available float then you can’t short without breaking the law) then there is no risk to the brokerage. If the bubble pops, it pops. Your job is to match buyers and sellers and so long as you’re doing that and not doing something you shouldn’t be there is no problem. The customer may lose his or her shirt but in a self-directed account with no margin loan outstanding against the position there is no risk to the firm provided everything you’re doing on the up and up.
THERE ARE ANSWERS TO THE “WHY” QUESTION and I’d love to hear one that doesn’t implicate criminal activity. National Review is, to be blunt, playing cover for people; their “explanation” makes no sense. So why publish it at all until and unless they can get the answer to the actual question: Why?
So why did certain platforms do what they did?
I’ll bet there’s a common thread in all of this, and you won’t like it if and when it comes out into public view….
Um. Maybe. More than likely, however, nothing is going to happen.
A little review.
But so what?
Some teenagers found a missing clink in Smaug’s armor.
Smaug is portrayed as being psychopathic, extremely sadistic, confident, violent, cruel, arrogant, intelligent and greedy, possessing an unquenchable desire for gold.
His most distinguishing characteristic (aside from his greed) is his arrogance, as Smaug proudly boasts of his superiority and impregnability to Bilbo during their encounter.
However, this proves to be his downfall, as he unwittingly reveals the weak spot in his chest to Bilbo when showing the Hobbit how he had willfully coated…
-Smaug | The One Wiki to Rule Them All
Smaug roared back, and burnt them all to a dark crisp. A lesson will be made of them, and business will continue as normal. Right?
…
Perhaps a little review about what we have been dealing with is in order.
Let’s consider the fantastic “stimulus” check that the US government ave Americans. This stimulus check per person was $600 dollars. And was intended to “help” Americans deal with being unemployed for nine months. The cost of this stimulus was $900 billion and it was labeled the ” coronavirus relief package“. The United States population is 329.45 million people. Thus, the actual and real amount that should have gone to each American should have been $2,735,000.
So, if you simply take the total amount of money allocated to helping Americans out, and divide it by the number of Americans...
...each American should get a check for $2.7 million dollars.
But truthfully, an stimulus should go to each family. Not to each individual. THis was, after all, how the United States was first intended to operate.
So, if you simply take the total amount of money allocated to helping Americans out, and divide it by the number of American families...
...each American family should get a check for $10.8 million dollars.
So why do Americans only get a fraction of that amount?
$600.
What. The. Fuck.
.
Well, it’s all fun and games.
Now, heads up, when historians write about the collapse of the United States, you can be quite sure that they will list this event as one of the signs of the eventual downfall. The sign of the pathetic attempts of the “little guys” to “take down” the massive fraud and corruption that runs rampant inside of America today.
No matter what…
Keep in mind that everyone is rooting for the little “normal” people, and enjoy seeing the oligarchy hurt. That is, everyone except the oligarchy themselves. Depending on how the government reacts, you can see this as either…
A minor skirmish of class warfare.
A pivot point that enacts some much needed change.
Or, a spark that contributes to a major event to follow.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my Front Row Seat Index here…
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It’s difficult to measure the damage that an ideology can do on a society. Often you don’t realize what a mess things are until long after the great looting, and destruction. But you can notice events. Often singular events, and often whispered about quietly. And one such event is the purging of art in favor of the formless and meaningless.
Look at the painting above. It is titled “Consulting the Oracle” and was painted by John William Waterhouse. It’s great right? It’s large. It would occupy the wall in a nice sized living room. It’s 77 inches long and 46 inches high. And it’s beautiful. Right?
This painting was very quietly sold by the museum that held it for £5 ($7.50) to a private individual.
I’ve seen cups of coffee that cost more.
The excuse is that the museum needed the money. Bills needed to be paid, and new works of art needed to be purchased to “keep the museum alive and vibrant”. Of course that old “song and dance”. The excuse, a progressive excuse, that you must destroy the old to make room for the new.
Ok.
I’ll bite.
What “new” art was worthy of purchase. How about millions of dollars for this magnificent piece…
Willem de Kooning’s Woman III
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This undeniably strange-looking painting of a woman made Willem de Kooning and his estate a few millions richer. The painting recently changed hands to the tune of $137.5 million. This abstract painting was finished by Kooning in 1953. The painting became rather controversial in the 1970s, because it was refused for exhibit at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. This painting is currently privately owned. It spans 68 inches in height and 48.5 inches in width.
Yes. I cannot believe it. Can you?
And we are not alone either…
This painting is awful.
I get that it’s an abstract expressionist painting, but it is so hideous to look at. You honestly couldn’t convince me to take it if I was walking down the street and saw that laying on the grass. Clearly that means I have no taste because it sold for a ridiculous $137.5 million in 2006. This made it the 4th most expensive painting ever sold.
It was created by painter Williem de Kooning in 1953.
The buyer, David Geffen, is worth $6.5 billion, so nobody is going to step in and tell him how to spend his money… but are you kidding me?
-10 Ugly Pieces Of Art You Won't Believe Sold For Millions
Who in their right mind made this decision?
The Art Renewal Center chimes in…
From the Art Renewal Center…
Works of art worth tens of millions of pounds today have been sold off quietly by museums over the past 50 years for a few pounds. British art institutions such as the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the Exeter City Museum have disposed of pictures by masters such as Van Dyck and Henri Fantin Latour . They were sold without public notice, dismissed as too unimportant to keep. Among the most serious cases is a painting by the 19th-century master, John William Waterhouse . In 1965, the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro sold it for £200 ($300) to a private collector; today it is worth more than £5 million ($7.5 million).
"Most of the works were sold off as they were deemed to be artistically worthless", Christopher Wright, a leading Old Masters scholar, said. He discovered evidence of the sales while preparing a nationwide study of British art for Yale University Press. "They have been sold off without public notice," he said. "Many of the museums didn't dare make it public. They've all been proved wrong."
Mr Wright expressed disbelief at the decision of the Exeter museum to "rape" its collection of 160 works - "there is no other word to describe the destruction of an entire museum collection". The auctions, which involved selling works for as little as £5 ($7.50), included Waterhouse's Consulting the Oracle, four paintings by Fantin-Latour and one by Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema . Caroline Worthington, fine art curator at Exeter, said that the sale took place at Christie's in 1954, "when High Victorian art was deeply unfashionable ... We would like them back, most definitely." "We're talking household names", Mr Wright said, adding that many were bought by the heavyweight dealers Agnews and Colnaghi, who clearly appreciated the importance of the artists, even if the museums did not.
Tamsin Daniel, Truro's curator of art and exhibitions, said that the museum had needed money for storage and a lift. She conceded that the loss was painful. The Waterhouse went to a private collector bidding at Christie's. The £200 ($300) it cost him, she said, was "a bit different to what Andrew Lloyd Webber paid recently for a Waterhouse": £6.6 million ($9.9 million).
Leeds City Art Gallery and Museum, Mr Wright was told by an insider, actually disguised the provenance of works when selling them through an auction house. "They were described as property of Madame X," he said. "The sales were clandestine. They didn't say Leeds was de-accessioning. They were all Victorian pictures purchased from the Royal Academy. They got rid of dozens." Nigel Walsh, curator of exhibitions, expressed surprise at the news, denying that the gallery had sold anything. Nor did Evelyn Silber, its director, know anything about it until contacted by The Times. She later discovered that 37 paintings (nearly all Victorian) had been sold in 1939 under the then director, Philip Hendey, who went on to head the National Gallery in London. The Fitzwilliam in Cambridge sold more than 200 works in the 1950s. Although they were marked "property of the Fitzwilliam" in the catalogs, they were mixed up with hundreds of other lots, Mr Wright said. "They put them through the salerooms in dribs and drabs."
Mr Wright said that the Fortune-teller with Soldiers "was sold off as a copy, but it has since been published as the real thing worth millions".
Craig Hartley, a Fitzwilliam curator, said: "In retrospect, this seems a horrific thing to have done." Among other institutions to have sold off paintings, Mr Wright said, were the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich; the Cooper Art Gallery in Barnsley; the Holbourne Museum of Art in Bath; and the Birmingham City Art Gallery.
-Art Renewal Center article by Dalya Alberge
I am horrified.
Just beyond my self.
So who ended up getting these magnificent works of art?
"They were described as property of Madame X," he said. "The sales were clandestine. They didn't say Leeds was de-accessioning. They were all Victorian pictures purchased from the Royal Academy. They got rid of dozens."
Well, you must understand that a museum collects works of art for pubic display and enjoyment. If they no longer wants to display that art to the public, they take if off display and put it in storage. Apparently these works took up too much space, so they sold them to “Art Dealers”. And these art dealers held auctions and auctioned them off to wealthy attendees.
Yes.
That’s right. The art was taken away from public display and sold off to the oligarchy for their own personal use.
Ladies and Gentlemen ... Artists,
The art of painting, one of the greatest traditions in all of human history has been under a merciless and relentless assault for the last one hundred years. I'm referring to the accumulated knowledge of over 2500 hundred years, spanning from Ancient Greece to the early Renaissance and through to the extraordinary pinnacles of artistic achievement seen in the High Renaissance, 17th century Dutch, and the great 19th century Academies of Europe and America. These traditions, just when they were at their absolute zenith, at a peak of achievement, seemingly unbeatable and unstoppable, hit the twentieth century at full stride, and then ... fell off a cliff, and smashed to pieces on the rocks below. Since World War I the contemporary visual arts as represented in Museum exhibitions, University Art Departments, and journalistic art criticism became little more than juvenile, repetitive exercises at proving to the former adult world that they could do whatever they damn well wanted ... sadly devolving ever downwards into a distorted, contrived and contorted notion of freedom of expression. Freedom of expression? Ironically, this so-called "freedom" as embodied in Modernism, rather than a form of "expression" in truth became a form of "suppression" and "oppression." Modernism as we know it, ultimately became the most oppressive and restrictive system of thought in all of art history.
Every reasonable shred of order and any standards with which it was possible to identify, understand and to create great paintings and sculpture, was degraded ... detested ... desecrated and eviscerated. The backbone of the painters' craft, namely drawing, was thrown into the trash along with modeling, perspective, illusion, recognizable objects or elements from the real world, and with it the ability to capture, exhibit, and poetically express subjects and themes about mankind and the human condition and about man's trials on this speck of stardust called Earth ... Earth, hurtling through infinity with all of us along on board, along with everything we know and everything we hold dear.
Reason ... philosophy ... religion ... literature ... fantasy ... dreams, and all of the feelings, emotions and pathos of our every day lives ... all of it was no longer worthy of the painter's craft. Any hint by the artist at trying to portray such things was branded as banal, maudlin, photographic, illustration, or petty sentimentality.
Our children, going supposedly to the finest universities in the world, being taught by professors with Bachelors or Arts, Masters of Arts, Masters of Fine Arts, Masters of Art Education ... even Doctoral degrees, our children instead have been subjected to methodical brain-washing and taught to deny the evidence of their own senses. Taught that Mattisse, Cézanne, and Picasso, along with their followers, were the most brilliant artists in all of history. Why? Because they weren't telling us lies like the traditional painters, of course. They weren't trying to make us believe that we were looking at scenes in reality, or at scenes from the imagination, from fantasy or from dreams. They were telling us the truth. They were telling it like it is. They spent their lives and careers on something that was not banal, and not silly, insipid or inane. They in fact provided the world with the most ingenious of all breakthroughs in the history of artistic thought. Even the great scientific achievements of the industrial revolution paled before their brilliant discovery. And what was that discovery for which they have been raised above Bouguereau , exalted over Gérôme , and celebrated beyond Ingres , David , Constable , Fragonard , Van Dyck , and Gainsborough or Poussin ? Why in fact were they heralded to the absolute zenith ... the tiptop of human achievement ... being worthy even of placement shoulder to shoulder on pedestals right beside Rembrandt , Michelangelo , Leonardo , Caravaggio , Vermeer and Raphael ? What did they do? Why were they glorified practically above all others that ever went before them? Ladies and gentleman, they proved ... amazing, incredible, and fantastic as it may seem, they proved that the canvas was flat ... flat and very thin ... skinny ... indeed, not even shallow, lacking any depth or meaning whatsoever.
And the flatter that they proved it to be the greater they were exalted. Cézanne collapsed the landscape, Matisse flattened our homes and our families, and Pollock, Rothko and de Kooning placed it all in a blender and splattered it against the wall. They made even pancakes look fat and chunky by comparison. But this was only part of the breathtaking breakthroughs of modernism ... and their offshoots flourished. Abstract expressionism, Cubism, Fauvism, minimalism, ColorField, Conceptual, op-art, pop-art and post modernism ... and to understand it all ... to understand, took very special people indeed, since the mass of humanity was too ignorant and stupid to understand. Like that famous advertisement in the NY Times said so many years ago ... Bad art ... or Good art? You be the judge, indeed.
Of course, to justify this whole theoretical paradigm, all the artists that painted recognizable scenes with depth and illusion had to be discredited ... and discredited they were, with a virulence and vituperation so scathing and merciless that one would think they must have been messengers of the devil himself to deserve such abuse. And to put the final nail in their coffins, all of their art was banished and their names and accomplishments written right out of history. I graduated with a Master's in art education from Columbia University, and I'd never heard of Bouguereau , much less that he was President of the Academy and head of the Salon ... the most celebrated artist of his time who single handedly, using all of his influence as the most respected leader of art world, opened up L'Ecole Des Beaux Arts and the Salons to women artists for the first time in history.
During most of the 20th century, the type of propaganda that has been hurled at academic artists is so insidious that people have been literally trained to discredit, out-of-hand, any work containing well-crafted figures or elements, or any other evidence of technical mastery. All the beauty and subtlety of emotions, — interplay of composition, design and theme, — the interlacing of color, tone and mood, — are never seen. The viewer has been taught that academic painting on a prima facie basis is bad by definition — bad by virtue of its resorting to the use of human figures, themes or stories and objects from the real world.
Prestige suggestion causes them to automatically assume that a work must be great if it's by any of the "big names" of modern art, so they at once start looking for reasons why it must be proclaimed great. Any failing to find greatness is not considered a failing in the art but in the intelligence and sensibilities of the viewer. Students operating under that kind of intimidating pressure, you can be sure, will find greatness - no matter what they are looking at.
The reverse of this has been trained into them when they view academic paintings. They have been taught that works exhibiting realistic rendering are "bad art" and therefore any good that is seen is not due to qualities inherent in their artistic accomplishments, but are rather due to a lack of intelligence and taste in the viewer. The same intimidating pressure works in reverse to ensure that a work by Bouguereau , Lord Leighton , Burne-Jones , Gérôme , Frederick Hart , or any of the rest of you here, will not be seen as anything other than bad by definition.
No student in a school with this kind of dictatorial brain-washing will ever risk exploring or even listening to opposing views, for fear of being stigmatized from that point on, with some undesirable label and being universally despised ... sadly, a very effective deterrent to independent thought. Thus the visual experience of well-drawn representational elements is perceived as a negative, ad hominem, that proves with knee-jerk automaticity the presumed "badness" of the art and its creator.
It is especially ironic that these are the same people who trumpet the virtues and inalienable right to freedom of speech, while they surreptitiously and steadfastly conspire to remove that freedom from those with whom they disagree.
Equally ironic is the charge that academic painting is "uninspired," a proclamation issued by critics who are unable to see beyond the technical virtuosity for which they condemn it, to see what is being said. This rich visual language is wasted on eyes that will not see. It would be no different than dismissing out-of-hand a piece of music as soon as it was determined that notes, chords and keys were used, or dismissing any work of literature upon noticing words arranged in grammatically correct sentences.
That is not to say that all academic art is great, or above criticism - certainly, it is not. It would be no less fallacious to issue blanket praise to an entire category than to condemn it. Academic painting ranges from brilliantly conceived and deeply inspired, to trite and silly, depending on the subject and the artist.
That being said, I find even the worst of it more meaningful than art based on the ridiculous notion that it is somehow important to prove the canvas is flat, and/or that one needs no skill or technique to be an artist - views generally embraced by those who condemn the entire category of academic art. Their point seems to be to elevate to legitimacy that which has removed all standards and prior defining characteristics of art. In other words, by defining non-art as art, the logical conclusion is that art is non-art.
Modern artists are told that they must create something totally original. Nothing about what they do can ever have been done before in any way shape or form, otherwise they risk being called "derivative". How utterly absurd.
These critics like to say Bouguereau's work is really only derivative, harking back to earlier artists. Only in the 20th century has such a thing ever been scorned. To this I have one thing to say:
What, dear friends, is wrong with being derivative?
That's one of the core beliefs of modernism that must be soundly vanquished by common sense and logical analysis. Nobody can accomplish anything of merit if they are in fact not derivative. Only by mastering the accomplishments of the past and then adding to it can we go still further. Every other field of endeavor recognizes this truth. Without the knowledge of the past we are doomed to everlasting primitivism.
And, as far as holding our works up to the old masters, that's what we want to have happen. If we are to accomplish things of true merit and excellence, we must germinate and nurture great masters in the next millennium, too. Bouguereau was quite aware that his work would be compared on the altar of past accomplishments, as did his contemporaries. It was precisely because they mastered the techniques of the past, built upon them and then opened them up to an avalanche of new subject matter and Enlightenment ideals, that they accomplished the greatest half-century of painting in art history.
And when we talk about the basic criteria and parameters of the academic tradition that built from the 14th through 19th centuries, Bouguereau , Lord Leighton and Alma-Tadema were second to none.
Could Bach and Beethoven and Mozart have achieved their masterpieces if someone before had not discovered scales and the circle of fifths? Does that mean these musical giants were nothing but derivative too? In fact all great literature exists due to the existence of advanced language. This upside down thought process would make Dosteovsky, Balzac, Chekhov, Shakespeare and the Brontë sisters derivative as well. If you think about it a bit you will see that these are exact analogies. There is nothing any more derivative about these 19th century Traditional-Humanist-Academic masters.
Being derivative is entirely different from copying. Copying itself can have value, but only for the purposes of instruction. Obviously, a copied work is not original art. But modernist ideologues have disingenuously dismissed all realist art as "derivative" as if that were the same as copying.
Additionally, students today are taught that every parameter upon which any standard for quality and excellence can be deduced is improper, because it's "limiting to freedom of expression."
There can be no story, for then you have to stay within the "tight boundaries" of the tale.
There can be no illusion, for then you are "chained" by the need to recreate a sense of three dimensions.
There can be no drawing, as that can be "limiting" to objects or people or things taken from the real world.
They want to remove the "shackles" of modeling, perspective, or subject matter of any sort.
There certainly can be no attempt at harmonizing of the above parameters with composition, color and tonality, for that would "restrict" one to making everything work together.
On the contrary, they have been propagandized by modernism into believing that only those works that break boundaries, ignore standards, and show no interest in skill or technique can be truly "original" or "inspired." In fact originality of methods take precedence over all else. If something has been done before, or is derivative in any way of anything that was done before, it thereby loses value proportionate to those similarities. In such a "Through the looking glass" world, every would-be "artist" is placed in the untenable position of trying to create an entirely new art form in order to be considered relevant. The sheer glaring reality is that nothing could be more imprisoning, binding, restricting, chaining and shackling than the impossible limitations of modernism and post-modernism, that remove from the would-be artist every tool (including training) that could give him or her the ability to create great works of art. The simple truth is that each and every one of us (and I mean nearly every human being), is capable of thinking of something that has never been done before. Does that make it worth doing and the work of genius?
For example:
(1) I could carefully (with enough money) dig up an old bombed out tenement building in the Bronx, and have it transported to a special slab built for it in Central Park. Rope off the structure and aim lights at it at night and give it a title, and with enough pomp and circumstance think of twenty reasons why this is sheer brilliance and genius.
(2) I could boil the entrails of several different animals and then preserve them by imbedding them in clear plastic. I could then hang them from a mobile with similarly preserved body parts of cadavers, and have critics claim that this is the greatest artistic statement about the horrors of war since Guernica
(3) I could imbed into the walls, ceiling and floors of a small room, pieces of neon lights, parts from broken machines and engines, and broken pieces of structural building materials like bricks, beams and cinder blocks. Then I could glue between everything millions of nails, nuts and bolts, and have clever writers and critics point out how this room (which could be installed at MOMA or the Guggenheim) is the quintessential statement of the effects of the industrial age on human psychology.
Well, those three ideas took all of 3 minutes to think of. MY GOD! This must mean I'm three geniuses rolled into one. Why, at this rate I could come up with more brilliant ideas for Modernism than all of the modernist geniuses put together, if I just would put aside a week or two.
The thing here that really is interesting is not their art at all, but the statement it makes about the nature of our species — that so many seemingly intelligent people have been so easily snookered by the tongue-twisting, convoluted illogic of modernist rhetoric. Clearly for many people it is more important to feel that they are some part of an elitist in-group that is endowed with the special ability to see brilliance where the bulk of humanity sees nothing and is afraid to say so.
Since most people aren't devoted to or educated in fine art, they have successfully intimidated the bulk of humanity into cowering away in silence, feeling foolish for their inability to understand. The average person shrinks away from believing the reality of his or her own senses in the face of seemingly overwhelming numbers of people in this 20th century "establishment" who authoritatively dictate what is great art and what everyone should be seeing.
Modern and Post-modern Art is nihilistic and anti-human. It denigrates humanity along with our hopes, dreams, desires and the real world in which we live. All reference to any of these things is forbidden in the canonistic halls of modernist ideology. We can see that their hallowed halls are a hollow shell, a vacuous, vacant vault that locks their devotees away from life and humanity. It ultimately bores the overwhelming bulk of its would-be audience, who can find nothing with which to relate.
It has been called exciting and cutting-edge, but the sad truth is that it is incredibly humdrum and monotonous. Whether you glue together pieces of plastic or shards of glass, assemble metal scraps or piles of feathers. Whether you dribble little dollops of colors or drag fat uneven slashes of black. Whether you compile a mountain of paper or wrap the Statue of Liberty. The effect is always the same. MEANINGLESS PRIMITIVISM.
Modernism is art about art. It endlessly asks the question, ad nauseam: What is art? What is art? Only those things that expand the boundaries of art are good; all else is bad. It is art about art. Whereas all the great art in history, my friends, is ART ABOUT LIFE.
Of course, this isn't exactly the first time in history that ideas which were complete shams managed to engulf the belief systems of entire cultures and civilizations. In many of those in the past, the lunacy was enforced by the severest of punishments for anyone who would dare to speak out.
At least we live in a time and place where it's possible to speak against this consummate con that has been perpetrated against the greatest period of artistic development and achievement in the history of Western Civilization and culture over the last 500 years.
Three-quarters of the 20th century will go down in art history as a great wasteland of insanity — a nightmarish blip in the long road of the development of human logic and reason and art, from which we are only just starting to awake.
The artists of the 19th century exhibited a deep, abiding respect for humanity and human feelings. A respect for our minds, our spirits and our reason, and a love of beauty, grace and true excellence and accomplishment. Bouguereau , Lord Leighton , Waterhouse , Burne-Jones and the other giants of the 19th C. tried to capture those things that are good and decent in our species. Their accomplishments are the quintessential high point of hundreds of years of human study and development in the art of painting. They are arguably the greatest painters that history has ever produced. Bouguereau especially fits this description. How fitting and sadly obvious that he should be characterized as the chief villain by those who would destroy rather than build — who celebrate chaos rather than order and beauty.
He continues…
Recently, a contributor to an on-line art forum I subscribe to made the following comments about Picasso,
I love the way Picasso did that woman all shards and angles. I don't recall the name of the work. But, he painted the woman in her turmoil how she tore herself apart within, and how he saw what her turmoil did to her. He painted the way he saw her, as fragmented as he saw her. She was a beauty on the outside. Yet, he painted the ugly face of her turmoil, and in so doing painted his turmoil as well.
Picasso worked in a turbulent time. I think it's why some of his works appeared to be reflections in a broken mirror. Shards, impressions all cut up and each with a voice about his subjects and of Spain. His work shows a deeply sensitive artist and was a pivotal point for the Russian avant garde school that said it was okay to feel in paint, to get all the chaos out in paint ... I didn't love him until I studied him ...
- Laurie
And he continues…
I thought it fitting to read here my response to her.
Laurie and Goodart subscribers,
I really need to address these ebullient expressions of praise for Picasso a bit more precisely.
Laurie, this is not to fault you at all, but to analyze the description you have made which reflects the gospel that is taught about him in most art history courses. His name and "achievements" have become so "untouchable" within the sacrosanct walls of modernist cathedrals, that to do any other than you have stated here would be like criticizing the cross or the bible in the College of Cardinals.
Let's look at this one idea at a time.
You said that, "He painted the woman in her turmoil how she tore herself apart within, and how he saw what her turmoil did to her".
I
n fact, all that he painted was a messy characterization of a woman in which the forms and shapes don't align or create any cohesive form. The drawing is virtually non-existent, and the disintegration of all artistic elements are self-consciously laid out for the express purpose of rejecting prior artistic standards.
There is no beauty in her face, or for that matter, ugliness. There isn't even a face ... but elements thrown together with just enough evidence to let the viewer know that it was meant to suggest a face.
Everything about the finished product is utterly awful and would be beneath the capabilities of a talented 12 year old.
Now, what if you are a theorist who needs to justify this hodge-podge of sloppy color and form? What can you creatively think of to place value and meaning, where none exists ... especially, if you are being paid to do just that?
It's simple: you need but approach the work as you would a Rorschach inkblot test, where anyone can use creative ability to make up a story, suggested by little, if any, information. If you want this man's work to be valued highly, you must create a tale of great importance, with meaning, which, when discussed or analyzed in intellectual circles, will be considered profound and meaningful.
The idea of a lady being ugly on the inside is a concept from literature, psychology, and in fact all of human history. Ugliness, mean-spiritedness, and turmoil are major concepts that tint all of human experience. So you simply say that the messiness represents that, and look how brilliant he is to have captured it.
But in truth he has done nothing of the kind. The writers who said that was what it means were the one who did it, and not the artist. Inner turmoil and ugliness on the inside is far more difficult to capture, and takes intense, subtle handling of story telling, composition, drawing, and realistic rendering to successfully convey so that it can be recognized without any words. Waterhouse's Lady of Shalott and Bouguereau's Divideuse both capture beautiful women loaded with inner turmoil, and Cabanel's Cleopatra testing poisons on slaves portrays intense inner ugliness within a beautiful face and figure infinitely better than these broken blotchy messes on canvas by Picasso.
But when the modernist professors say that's what it means, then implicit in their words is that if you don't see it too you're stupid and tasteless. Also to not see it becomes associated with not seeing how wonderful that subject matter would be. And it is after all truly wonderful subject matter. Only one problem; Picasso didn't paint it.
You say, "his work shows a deeply sensitive artist," but I don't conclude any sensitivity whatsoever. What is there is the sensitivity of a bull in a china shop, who stomps around breaking all the beautiful porcelain, and then with an army of critics lined up with their nostrils flaring dares anyone to criticize the dump he just left in the your living room.
"Either you love my turds or you are against freedom of expression."
If you don't want it in your museum, you're the enemy of freedom of speech. Faced with such intimidation surely many would rather line up in support. But there is truly nothing there. It's a trick of words and intimidation. An Illusion of social pressure and fearful conformity.
His school, "... said it was okay to feel in paint, to get all the chaos out in paint ... I didn't love him until I studied him."
Of course you didn't love him until you studied him. What you learned to love was all the explanations about worthwhile concepts and subjects. And with a training right out of Pavlov, you were taught to salivate when you were shown things that caused associations to those worthwhile ideas.
But Laurie, WHERE'S the BEEF? You're salivating at a symbol much the way people react to their country's flag. The flag comes to be seen as beautiful because it represents family, home and hearth, friends, loyalty, and the things we love. You've been taught to react to symbols instead of responding with the freedom of independent thought to works of art that are not supposed to be flag-like-symbols of great artistic ideas, but the great works of art themselves, which communicate, through a readily discernable visual language, some aspect of the human condition.
You had to be taught to love Picasso, because nobody would love him otherwise. But people don't need to be taught to love Rembrandt , Michelangelo , Bouguereau , or for that matter Chopin, Beethoven, Bach, or Tom Sawyer, The Grapes of Wrath, Alice in Wonderland, or The Christmas Carol.
Teaching and information can add to the depth of understanding of great works of art, but they are great initially by their ability to capture the soul and imagination of the viewer, without thousands of words to instruct us on how to deny the evidence of our own senses and to deny our innate sense of truth and reason.
Of course, what tends to happen to people who have allowed themselves to be convinced that the emperor is wearing beautiful clothes, is that they have become "ego invested" due to years of having parroted the same falsehoods ... and the associated humiliation that goes with acknowledging that one has been had. The more years, and the more said in support of Modernism, the greater the difficulty in breaking through the gestalts, and taking off the iconic blinders, shedding all the preconceptions and looking again with "innocent eyes" and describing what is really there (at least to yourself), and then comparing it to the maligned academics like Waterhouse , Bouguereau , Lord Leighton , Burne-Jones , Gérôme , and Alma-Tadema , and deciding with freedom of thought and an honest wish to find the truth, which of them indeed are works of art, and which are snake oil salesmen."
He continues…
And so I ended that letter.
The change in people's perceptions about this is happening now very quickly. Even this austere institution, probably the greatest museum in the Western Hemisphere, just a couple of summers ago had a major retrospective of one of these maligned 19th century masters, Edward Coley Burne-Jones.
And in their literature on the show declared him one of the three greatest English artists of the last century, along with Constable and Turner. In fact, the Metropolitan Museum deserves great credit for being one of the first great institutions to once again hang their Bouguereaus and Gérômes, Meissonnier and Burne-Jones, on permanent exhibit in the face of scathing criticism from the press back in 1980.
Soon after, Laurie followed this with a good-natured post saying that although she felt that I may have insulted her intelligence, she loved me all the same. To which I responded:
And …
Laurie,
It was not my wish to insult your intelligence. The very brightest of people are just as vulnerable. It is in human nature to go along to get along. I certainly did it too when I was in college and grad school in fine art. Even when I was finally willing to speak my mind about Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko and Warhol .... Picasso was somehow sacrosanct, and I would pay lip service to his brilliance while the works of the other modernists I allowed myself to see as they were.
It wasn't until I hit about 40 years old that I started to more fully recognize the power of prestige suggestion and social intimidation in forming opinions.
To truly judge your own feelings and opinion about a work of art, you need to look at it as if it were painted by a complete unknown, perhaps some student in another town, and then ask yourself what your opinion of that work would be then. Would you think it was one of the greatest works in the history of civilization, would it even be great ... or good ... or mediocre .... or just plain bad?
So true.
He continues further…
I know now absolutely that nearly all the works by most of the famous Modernists are truly awful on all fronts.
I also know that the best works by Bouguereau and Waterhouse would thrill me to my bones even if they had been painted by complete unknowns. When I saw a Bouguereau for the first time, I had never heard of him, but my response was immediate unambiguous and self-validating. I needed no books or texts or convoluted explanations. The strength of the work was powerful, unique, immediate and overwhelming.
It was exactly as I had felt in the presence of Michelangelo's David. Ah, but when I saw the David I was already predisposed to see what history considered one of humanity's greatest masterpieces. However, it was that seminal experience at 18 that excited my interest in art. The Bouguereau that I saw, Nymphs and Satyr, was when I was 32 years old, and it's effect was equally profound, changing the course of my life, ultimately leading me to this podium here today.
Don't let pride get involved here. Don't even answer me. Just ask yourselves and answer honestly.
One common claim that you hear repeatedly is that the proof that some abstract expressionists were great artists, can be found in their high quality academic student drawings. My answer to this is that it's really irrelevant whether or not they could do a decent student drawing. If anything it only makes it sadder that promising young talent was wasted. The quality and value of their "mature" work is not helped a bit by showing that they could draw decently when young.
The best way to prove that is to consider the inverse.
Would Raphael or Bouguereau's mature work be somehow made the worse if their student drawings from decades earlier had been of poor quality? Their great paintings would still be just as great, and de Kooning's hideous smears for which he is so famous are still just as awful.
I am quite certain that every artist in this audience paints better than all of the famous modernists and post modernists, and is more deserving of societal attention and praise. Yet still, so-called "major works" of theirs can sell for between 2 and 25,000,000 dollars at auction. The dirty little secret, however, that the modernist establishment and the press has been hiding, is that those same works sold for two to three times those prices back in 1988 and 1989. While the prices of all the icons of modernism peaked at that time, and any money invested then has declined a whopping 50 to 80%, the market for Gérôme , Waterhouse , Bouguereau , Alma-Tadema , Burne-Jones , Rossetti , Millais and Lord Leighton , has increased between 2000 and 10,000 percent since 1975.
Every year, records are being broken again and again.
In 1977, the world record price for a Bouguereau was $17,000. Now, in the past 3 years, the world records for his work first topped a million dollars in 1997, then a million and a half in 1998, two and a half million in 1999, and last May, Charity sold for over $3,500,000. Additionally, last June the world record for any Victorian painting was completely trampled when Saint Cecilia, by John William Waterhouse, sold for just over $10,000,000 in London to Andrew Lloyd Weber.
There are only 826 Bouguereaus and about 465 Tademas in the world. Do you know how many Picassos there are? Can anybody here guess? There are 80,000 of them, and the balance between supply and demand has faltered, and like the dot com stocks of last year they will soon come crashing down along with hundreds of billions of paper profits lost in the dust of history. Like the tulip bulbs in the 17th century, or Tokyo Real estate in the 1980's, investors will be decimated. If I owned a work by any of those "Abstract artists" I would be racing to cash it in before the fall, and that has been my recommendation to dozens who have asked me.
Many of my friends in and out of ARC have told me that I shouldn't talk so much about the modernists. One of them recently wrote to me saying, "I really don't think we help our cause by helping talentless modernists get press coverage." Another fearfully said, "Don't criticize the modernists, just focus on what's good."
I replied as follows:
His reply…
When have the modernists ever held back from criticizing traditional and academic art? The problem with this attitude, while I also find it very appealing, is that our not talking about the modernists doesn't really mean much.
The fact is that they are being talked about with high praise, in nearly every university art department and art history course in the western world ... parroting the same things that they were taught. They are also being constantly celebrated and exhibited by the biggest and most prestigious museums and getting rave reviews in the newspapers as often as not.
If somebody doesn't explain to everybody why they're not really any good, and why they're not really even artists, and how the whole thing is a hoax, then they will continue their propaganda and continue brainwashing our children and intimidating them into feeling stupid if they don't go along to get along ... and they'll do it unopposed.
If we don't speak up and tell the world that the Emperor's naked, nobody else will. We may not want to talk about them, but we have to if we are going to have any chance of turning things around. We have to provide a theoretical and philosophical context for the feelings of the tens of millions of people out there who are disgusted and feel an aversion for Modernism ... but feel afraid to say so. They need to know that they are not alone and they need to have their feelings validated. And at the same time, we need to provide alternatives ... rich alternatives with great traditional art and with countless images of the greatest paintings in history.
So well put…
And now ladies and gentlemen ... artists ... portrait artists ... I come at this point ... to you. Who are you? Who do you think yourselves to be? Well let me tell you how I see you. You are beyond doubt, the true artistic heroes and heroines of the 20th century.
Many of you know that I am the chairman of the Art Renewal Center, which you can find at http://www.artrenewal.org. The Art Renewal Center is building the largest on-line museum on the internet, and is completely devoted to the return of standards, training and human themes and subjects in the visual arts. Modern Art is about expanding the definition of art.
They believe that "everything is art", or, "Whatever the artist says is art, is art."
Well, if everything is art, then nothing is art.
Any definition that includes everything is not a definition at all. As I said, Modern art is "art about art", while all the great art and literature and theatre throughout history is "Art about life."
I wrote about all of you, and your teachers, in the published Philosophy of the Art Renewal Center. Here's what I said:
Against all odds, and in the face of the worst kind of ridicule and personal and editorial assault, only a small handful of well-trained artists managed to stay true to their beliefs. Then, like the heroes and heroines who protected a few rare manuscripts during inquisitional book-burnings of the past, these 20th Century art world heroes managed to protect and preserve the core technical knowledge of western art. Somehow, they succeeded in training a few dozen determined disciples. Today, many of those former students, have established their own schools or ateliers, and are currently training many hundreds more. This movement is now expanding exponentially. They are regaining the traditions of the past, so that art may once again move forward on a solid footing. We are committed in every way possible to record, preserve and perpetuate this priceless knowledge.
That's who you are. So if some of you are having trouble selling your work, or haven't been able to command the prices you deserve ... if you feel infuriated at piles of bricks and elephant dung filling museum galleries, while you can only pay to have space allotted to you for an evening in a great museum like this ... don't despair.
Your time is coming. You have done humanity a service of such magnitude, that sadly you will never be properly repaid. Keep painting your great portraits, and when you can find the time, paint what your heart tells you to paint, too.
The modern world is a boiling cauldron of all sorts of great and absurd ideas, feelings, pathos, pathologies, psycho pathologies, humiliation, and dehumanizing ideas ... and yet ... yet even beauty, too, is still here amongst us, here in this hall and throughout the world, and her manifestations in modern times have been insufficiently expressed. So, find her in your homes, find her in the streets, find her in your communities and in nature, and especially, find her in each other ... and save her ... save her ... protect and cherish her ... and exalt her back to her rightful place ... a place of supreme prominence, and bring her back into these our greatest institutions and our highest citadels of society and culture.
Thank you.
So inspiring.
Here’s one of my lost paintings. Destroyed by the “new” America that exists for the few; the oligarchy that controls all.
I am not a master, but I like to believe that I could have been one. The idea that the oligarchy controlled government can destroy your life’s work, your purposes, and everything that you have created so that they can implement some kind of selfish utopia is distrubing. It show that they are, and the systems that they have created, are pure psychopaths and psychopathic in nature.
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Psychopathic systems do not lend longevity to society. Instead they offer a means of destruction.
I aruge that the oligarchy can only continue upon this path that they tred upon by converting everyone to adopt their methodology, or to convert everyone into mindless, emotionless followers.
How about other examples…
"In retrospect, this seems a horrific thing to have done."
Ya. Think?
There are so many examples of great works of art that used to be owned by museums for public enjoyment, but that have been sold off to private collectors. And while some have been repurchased by other museums and are now available for viewing, the battle to obtain these “lost works” was contentious in many cases. We are , and should consider ourselves, to be lucky. Lucky that the oligarchy has allowed us to be able to view these works on the internet. Lucky to be able to recognize that they existed and still exist, and lucky that they were not burned in bonfires of progressive revisionism and fashion.
Examples of artworks that have been sold off…
Let’s look at just some of the art; the paintings that the museums around the world has sold off for the price of a cup of coffee…
Constant Afternoon Langour by Jean-Joseph Constant (Benjamin-Constant) (1845-1902, France)
And…
Bramley Frank – A Hopeless Dawn
And…
Herbert Draper – Lament for Icarus
Draper's vision of Icarus, crashed and dead on the rocks, stays true to the myth and yet has a drama to it that is definitely the making of a more contemporary mind. Nearly 50% of the canvas is covered by the image of Icarus' gigantic, broken, dark wings. The wings are so huge they are cut off at the top left of the canvas and at the middle right.
This makes the image seem even larger than life. It is as if we look through a window that is not large enough to hold the view. It is possible that the advent of the camera influenced the artist's eye in choosing this unusual perspective.
But the impact is successful, dramatic and highly emotional because of the skill in which the wings are painted.
They are so huge, in fact, that they make shadows on much of what remains of the canvas. They are so immense and yet they have failed poor Icarus so completely.
Icarus lies dead; a darkening figure still strapped to the useless wings, as a sorrowful and sensual nymph pulls his upper torso gentle towards her. Two other nymphs look on woefully. The canvas creates a heart breaking darkness with small splashes of gold light falling on the nymphs and the far rock wall. The golden light is reminiscent of the hope for freedom that Dadelus had once had for his son Icarus.
All life, beautiful or not, comes to an end, and all our grand strivings lead us to the same end. The power in this work of art is the sense of loss it projects. If you read the text in the catalogue, it mentions other layers of possible meaning. Simon Toll makes note that Draper's father died shortly before this painting was executed and he suggests that this painting "may also be a private statement of loss." The text also suggests that the painting may be a tribute to the artist Leighton, who died two years earlier.
-ARC
And…
Lady Godiva by Lefevbre Claude Gheerbrant – Musée de Picardie
Examples of “art” that have been purchased by museums afterwards…
Let’s have a look at the kinds of art that the museums (all over the world) purchased once they discarded the “old” and “outmoded” art…
White Fire I by Barnett Newman
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Would you believe that this ridiculous-looking canvas was sold for $3.8 million? This abstract painting, which is comprised of two straight lines, was created in 1954. Barnett is an American artist who is a strong follower of abstract expressionism.
Abstract Expressionism, broad movement in American painting that became a dominant trend in Western painting during the 1950s. The movement comprised many styles varying in both technique and quality of expression. Artists include Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler.
-Abstract Expressionism | Definition
This painting, which follows the color field painting style, is one of the few pieces that he has created during his lifetime. Barnett is considered the greatest color field painters of his time. That is the reason why this expensive painting is very popular now.
Or how about a museum considering this to be a worthwhile addition…
Royal Red and Blue
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This is one of the most basic paintings to date but don’t let its simplicity fool you. It was sold for a whopping $75.1 million during a Sotheby’s auction in November of 2012.
The painter, Mark Rothko, is a known abstract expressionist.
This painting date back 1954 and basically has three blocks of color – and that’s it. Rothko is an American painter with Russian and Jewish Roots. He is known for the color field method style of painting which was popular in New York during the 50’s.
Summary of Color Field Painting
Color Field Painting is a tendency within Abstract Expressionism, distinct from gestural abstraction, or Action Painting. It was pioneered in the late 1940s by Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Clyfford Still, who were all independently searching for a style of abstraction that might provide a modern, mythic art and express a yearning for transcendence and the infinite.
To achieve this they abandoned all suggestions of figuration and instead exploited the expressive power of color by deploying it in large fields that might envelope the viewer when seen at close quarters. Their work inspired much Post-painterly abstraction, particularly that of Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and Jules Olitski, though for later color field painters, matters of form tended to be more important than mythic content.
-The Art Story
The idea is to paint the canvas with large blocks of solid colors giving off an impression of an uneven surface and a flat plane. This painting pretty much depicts that, although very simplistic that you can imagine a toddler painting this art piece, it has a surprisingly outrageous value.
Interchange
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To a lot of people, this can be viewed as a real abstract painting with a lot of character in it. There is no doubt about it- but to be valued at $300 million sparks a different kind of conversation.
As with all abstract art, most people can claim they can paint something similar, but in fact, there is more to this painting that meets the eye.
William de Kooning is a New York painter, but is originally from Netherlands. This artwork is an example of ‘action painting’ which is a technique where the artist spontaneously splash paint on canvas versus the traditional painting style that is meticulous and takes time to complete.
Action painting, direct, instinctual, and highly dynamic kind of art that involves the spontaneous application of vigorous, sweeping brushstrokes and the chance effects of dripping and spilling paint onto the canvas. The term was coined by the American art critic Harold Rosenberg to characterize the work of a group of American Abstract Expressionists who utilized the method from about 1950.
-Action painting | art | Britannica
It is somehow a form of physical art.
This technique is made popular during the 40’s to 60’s and has coined the concept of abstract expressionism. This painting was made in 1955 and is now housed in the private collection of Kenneth C. Griffin.
Onement VI
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This is one of the most boring paintings that you will ever see but you will be surprised to know that this blue colored canvas sold for over $43 million in 2013. It is one of the works of Barnett Newman, a known abstract expressionist. He has done a number of similar paintings such as this and has an entire “Onement” collection, which is basically composed of one dominant color and a division (what he calls a ‘zip’) right smacked in the middle. The zip is used to define the space of his paintings. This New York artist was born in 1905 and has made a following because of his color field art.
Birthday by Paul Klee
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If you don’t know better, you might mistake this for a preschooler’s art project. This is actually a painting from the famed painter Paul Klee. It starts off with an odd old maroon color with asymmetrical and disorganized images of triangles and squares, and oh yes, an odd orange circle in off center. One can maybe make this out as a series of houses or even a castle- but, hey, what do we know. Paul Klee is a Swiss-German painter born in 1879. Most of his works are now housed in varied museums all over the globe.
Blue Rectangle Over The Red Beam
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If you hear the word ‘painting’ you might be imagining something with a lot of imagination, color gradients and creative imagery. This painting from Kazimir Malevich is far from being complicated or deep but it is one of the most significant work of art to date.
Malevich is actually the pioneer of geometric abstraction- that is pretty obvious with his love of squares and rectangles.
Geometric abstraction, through the Cubist process of purifying art of the vestiges of visual reality, focused on the inherent two-dimensional features of painting. This process of evolving a purely pictorial reality built of elemental geometric forms assumed different stylistic expressions in various European countries and in Russia.
-Geometric Abstraction | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of ...
This artwork was sold in Sotheby’s auction for a staggering $60 million and is the most expensive piece of Russian artwork of all time.
No. 5, 1948
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To the naked eye, this painting may simply look like a piece of stringy lines splashed around using a yarn, just like those kindergarten art projects kids use to make. This is an artwork done by Jackson Pollock in the year 1948. It is quite a large piece of artwork measuring 8 ft by 4 ft. He is a known abstract expressionist.
This painting in fibreboard uses brown, yellow, white and grey paint. It is often tagged as a dense bird’s nest because of the way the strips of paint overlap each other. This artwork was reported to be sold for over $140 million to a private collector.
Black Square
This oil painting was done in oil on linen and is now housed at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. As you would have realized by now, the painting is a mere black square. But there is a lot of philosophy and history behind this seemingly plain and dull painting. This piece is dubbed as the ‘zero point of painting’ and a combination of various art methods including futurism and constructivism. This is one of the prime works of Kazimir Malevich, who is the leader in Russian avant-garde art and has several pieces of similar works under this collection. He described this artwork as ‘liberated nothing’.
Conclusion(s)
One afternoon I toured an art museum while waiting for my husband to finish a business meeting.I was looking forward to a quiet view of the art works.
A young couple viewing the paintings ahead of me chatted nonstop between themselves.I watched them a moment and decided the wife was doing all the talk.I admired the husband's patience for putting up with her continuous talk.Distracted by their noise,I moved on.
I met with them several times as I moved through the different rooms of art.Each time I heard her constant burst of words,I moved away quickly.
I was standing at the counter of the museum gift shop making a purchase when the couple came near to the exit.Before they left,the man reached into his pocket and pulled out a white object.He extended it into a long stick and then tapped his way into the coatroom to get his wife's jacket.
"He's a brave man."The clerk at the counter said,"Most of us would give up if wewere blinded at such a young age.During his recovery he made a promise that his life wouldn't change.So ,as before,he and his wife come in whenever there's a new art show."
"But what dose he get out of the art?"I asked,"He can't see."
"Can't see?You're wrong.He sees a lot.More than you or I do."The clerk said,"His wife describes each painting so he can see it in his head."
I learned something about patience,courage and love that day.I saw the patience of a young wife describing paintings to a person without sight and the courage of a husband who would not allow blindness to change his life.And I saw the love shared by two people as I watched this couple walk away hand in hand.
-MoFanGe
If you were in the role of the wife (as described above – explaining each painting to her husband), how would you go about describing the more traditional artworks that the museums have sold off? How long would each painting take to describe?
Likewise, how would you describe the new progressive artworks? How long do you think it would take to describe them?
Perhaps this simple measurement, this idea in how to describe the impressions of art that is presented to you, is an element of it’s value and worth. Not that of the amount of currency that is used to purchase it, but rather the emotions and feelings that are generated upon viewing it.
I have argued HERE that the oligarchy is populated with psychopathic individuals that not only are unable to emote, but are unable to feel or express real emotions. Instead they only mimic actions and facial expressions to manipulat others to follow and believe them. As such, these psychopathic individuals see no value in art. Their only value is how they can be used as an element in financial exchange and commerce.
And thus, the study of art, is the study of the oligarchy that rules us.
The oligarchy that rules 99.9% of humans have evolved into a new KIND of human.
They are in possession of a service-for-self sentience, and are extremely good at manipulation, creation and generation of money and currency, as well as the accusition of power as well as the control over others. They are weak in the ability to express emotions and cannot emote. Medically they are known as psychopathic personalities and a healthy society cannot afford to have individuals of this disposition near any positions of power.
As they see no value in the art like “normal” people, they have subverted the institutions that they control; the libraries, the museums, and the art world into something that they understand. They understand money and using objects as trade mediums. They do not conderstand or emote the value of art.
And finally…
This movement towards progressive revisionism can only originate from those that are unable to understand art. They have no idea or concept of evoked emotion via visual stimulation. It is alien to them. They couldn’t understand it in any of it’s myrid forms. Thus…
Indeed, thus…
The entire progressive revisionism movement from art, to culture to society is driven from the oligarchy downward. It is their efforts to redraw the world into a “utopia” that they can understand and embrace.
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Phew! Another title that you will not find anywhere else in your “Google” searches.
"Everything has an end, so do empires, both the United States and the Soviet Union. Washington has outrageously favoured a small camarilla of ultra-billionaires. Now it has to face its old demons, prepare for secession and civil war..."
"...Part of the power has already tipped democratic institutions into the hands of a few ultra-billionaires. The United States that we knew no longer exists. Their agony has begun."
-https://www.voltairenet.org/article211982.html
The following is a most excellent article. And the commentary by MM is just pure gold, if I must say so myself. It’s a long read, but well worth it. In it, it compares the two forms of capitalism; [1] a Chinese form, and [2] an American form. Then argues that the American form is at an advanced state of development, whereas the Chinese form is in an infantile stage.
According to the thought process, industrial capitalism – earning money through making things is an early step that growing nations adopt. While earning money through taxation, rent, regulation and interest is a late-stage step that advanced nations evolve into.
The discussion behind all this is interesting. It starts off great and then kind of meanders about, but the content is very curious. And we provide this article here for people to consider. In all of it’s imperfections and curiosities.
Personally, I find the late-stage step; capitalism through non-physical activities to be a wasteful endeavor and a cancer upon society. As such, it is the major driver behind all the problems that the United States is currently dealing with at this moment. Please kindly read the article below. It is a full reprint, with little editing and all credit to the author.
The Consequences of Moving from Industrial to Financial Capitalism
By Michael Hudson and Pepe Escobar
January 17, 2021 “Information Clearing House” – Michael Hudson: Well, I’m honored to be here on the same show with Pepe and discuss our mutual concern. And I think you have to frame the whole issue that China is thriving, and the West has reached the end of the whole 75-year expansion it had since 1945.
So, there was an illusion that America is de-industrializing because of competition from China. And the reality is there is no way that America can re-industrialize and regain its export markets with the way that it’s organized today, financialized and privatized and if China didn’t exist. You’d still have the Rust Belt rusting out. You’d still have American industry not being able to compete abroad simply because the cost structure is so high in the United States.
The wealth is no longer made here by industrializing. It’s made financially, mainly by making capital gains. Rising prices for real estate or for stocks and for bonds. In the last nine months, since the coronavirus came here, the top 1 percent of the U.S. economy grew by $1 trillion. It’s been a windfall for the 1 percent. The stock market is way up, the bond market is up, the real estate market is up while the rest of the economy is going down. Despite the tariffs that Trump put on, Chinese imports, trade with China is going up because we’re just not producing materials.
America doesn’t make its own shoes. It doesn’t make some nuts and bolts or fasteners, it doesn’t make industrial things anymore because if money is to be made off an industrial company it’s to buy and sell the company, not to make loans to increase the company’s production. New York City, where I live, used to be an industrial city and, the industrial buildings, the mercantile buildings have all been gentrified into high-priced real estate and the result is that Americans have to pay so much money on education, rent, medical care that if they got all of their physical needs, their food, their clothing, all the goods and services for nothing, they still couldn’t compete with foreign labor because of all of the costs that they have to pay that are essentially called rent-seeking.
America
Housing in the United States now absorbs about 40 percent of the average worker’s paycheck. There’s 15 percent taken off the top of paychecks for pensions, Social Security and for Medicare. Further medical insurance adds more to the paycheck, income taxes and sales taxes add about another 10 percent. Then you have student loans and bank debt. So basically, the American worker can only spend about one third of his or her income on buying the goods and services they produce. All the rest goes into the FIRE sector — the finance, insurance and real estate sector — and other monopolies.
And essentially, we became what’s called a rent-seeking economy, not a productive economy. So, when people in Washington talk about American capitalism versus Chinese socialism this is confusing the issue. What kind of capitalism are we talking about?
America used to have industrial capitalism in the 19th century. That’s how it got richer originally but now it’s moved away from industrial capitalism towards finance capitalism. And what that means is that essentially the mixed economy that made America rich — where the government would invest in education and infrastructure and transportation and provide these at low costs so that the employers didn’t have to pay labor to afford high costs — all of this has been transformed over the last hundred years.
And we’ve moved away from the whole ethic of what was industrial capitalism. Before, the idea of capitalism in the 19th century from Adam Smith to Ricardo, to John Stuart Mill to Marx was very clear and Marx stated it quite clearly; capitalism was revolutionary. It was to get rid of the landlord class. It was to get rid of the rentier class. It was to get rid of the banking class essentially, and just bear all the costs that were unnecessary for production, because how did England and America and Germany gain their markets?
They gained their markets basically by the government picking up a lot of the costs of the economy. The government in America provided low-cost education, not student debt. It provided transportation at subsidized prices. It provided basic infrastructure at low cost. And so, government infrastructure was considered a fourth factor of production.
And if you read what the business schools in the late 19th century taught like Simon Patten at the Wharton School, it’s very much like socialism. In fact, it’s very much like what China is doing. And in fact, China is following in the last 30 or 40 years pretty much the same way of getting rich that America followed.
It had its government fund basic infrastructure. It provides low-cost education. It invests in high-speed railroads and airports, in the building of cities. So, the government bears most of the costs and, that means that employers don’t have to pay workers enough to pay a student loan debt. They don’t have to pay workers enough to pay enormous rent such as you have in the United States. They don’t have to pay workers to save for a pension fund, to pay the pension later on. And most of all the Chinese economy doesn’t really have to pay a banking class because banking is the most important public utility of all. Banking is what China has kept in the hands of government and Chinese banks don’t lend for the same reasons that American banks lend.
(When I said that China can pay lower wages than the U.S., what I meant was that China provides as public services many things that American workers have to pay out of their own pockets – such as health care, free education, subsidized education, and above all, much lower debt service.
When workers have to go into debt in order to live, they need much higher wages to keep solvent. When they have to pay for their own health insurance, they have to earn more. The same is true of education and student debt. So much of what Americans seem to be earning — more than workers in other countries — goes right through their hands to the FIRE sector. So, what seems to be “low wages” in China go a lot further than higher wages in the United States.)
Eighty percent of American bank loans are mortgage loans to real estate and the effect of loosening loan standards and increasing the market for real estate is to push up the cost of living, push up the cost of housing. So, Americans have to pay more and more money for their housing whether they’re renters or they’re buyers, in which case the rent is for paying mortgage interest.
They only lend against collateral that’s already in place because they won’t make a loan if it’s not backed by collateral. Well, China creates money through its public banks to create capital, to create the means of production. So, you have a diametric opposite philosophy of how to develop between the United States and China.
The United States has decided not to gain wealth by actually investing in means of production and producing goods and services, but in financial ways. China is gaining wealth the old-fashioned way, by producing it. And whether you call this, industrial capitalism or a state capitalism or a state socialism or Marxism, it basically follows the same logic of real economics, the real economy, not the financial overhead. So, you have China operating as a real economy, increasing its production, becoming the workshop of the world as England used to be called and America trying to draw in foreign resources, live off of foreign resources, live by trying to make money by investing in the Chinese stock market or now, moving investment banks into China and making loans to China not actual industrial capitalism ways.
So, you could say that America has gone beyond industrial capitalism, and they call it the post-industrial society, but you could call it the neo-feudal society. You could call it the neo-rentier society, or you could call it debt peonage but it’s not industrial capitalism.
And in that sense, there’s no rivalry between China and America. These are different systems going their own way and I better let Pepe pick it up from there.
Pepe Escobar: Okay. Thank you, Michael, this is brilliant. And you did it in less than 15 minutes. You told the whole story in 15 minutes. Well, my journalistic instinct is immediately to start questions to Michael. So, this is exactly what I’m gonna do now. I think it is much better to basically illustrate some points of what Michael just said, comparing the American system, which is finance capitalism essentially, with industrial capitalism that is in effect in China. Let me try to start with a very concrete and straight to the point question, Michael.
Okay. let’s says that more or less, if we want to summarize it, basically they try to tax the nonproductive rentier class. So, this would be the Chinese way to distribute wealth, right? Sifting through the Chinese economic literature, there is a very interesting concept, which is relatively new (correct me if I am wrong, Michael) in China, which they call stable investment. So stable investment, according to the Chinese would be to issue special bonds as extra capital in fact, to be invested in infrastructure building all across China, and they choose these projects in what they call weak areas and weak links. So probably in some of the inner provinces, or probably in some parts of Tibet or Xinjiang for instance. So, this is a way to invest in the real economy and in real government investment projects.
Right? So, my question in fact, is does this system create extra local debt, coming directly from this financing from Beijing? Is this a good recipe for sustainable development, the Chinese way and the recipe that they could expand to other parts of the Global South?
Michael: Well, this is a big problem that they’re discussing right now. The localities, especially rural China, (and China is still largely rural) only cover about half of their working budget from taxation. So, they have a problem. How are they going to get the balance of the money? Well, there is no official revenue sharing between the federal government and its state banks and the localities.
So, the localities can’t simply go to central government and say, give us more money. The government lets the localities be very independent. And it is sort of the “let a hundred flowers bloom” concept. And so, they’ve let each locality just go the long way, but the localities have run a big deficit.
What do they do? Well in the United States they would issue bonds on which New York is about to default. But in China, the easiest way for the localities to make money, is unfortunately they will do something like Chicago did. They will sell their tax rights for the next 75 years for current money now.
So, a real estate developer will come in and say; look we will give you the next 75 years of tax on this land, because we want to build projects on this (a set of buildings). So, what this means is that now the cities have given away all their source of rent.
Let me show you the problem by what Indiana and Chicago did. Chicago also was very much like China’s countryside cities. So, it sold parking meters and its sidewalks to a whole series of Wall Street investors, including the Abu Dhabi Investment Fund for seventy-five years. And that meant that for 75 years, this Wall Street consortium got to control the parking meters.
So, they put up the parking meters all over Chicago, raised the price of parking, raised the cost of driving to Chicago. And if Chicago would have a parade and interrupt parking, then Chicago has to pay the Abu Dhabi fund and Wall Street company what it would have made anyway. And this became such an awful disaster that finally Wall Street had to reverse the deal and undo it because it was giving privatization a bad name here. The same thing happened in Indiana.
Indiana was running a deficit and it decided to sell its roads to a Wall Street investment firm to make a toll road. The toll on the Indiana turnpike was so high that drivers began to take over the side roads. That’s the problem if you sell future tax revenues in advance.
Now what China and the localities there are discussing is that we’ve already given the real estate tax at very low estimates to the commercial developers, so what do we do? Well, I’ve given them my advice. I’m a professor of economics at the Peking University, School of Marxist studies and I’ve had discussions with the Central Committee. I also have an official position at Wuhan University. There, we’re discussing how China can put an added tax for all of the valuable land, that’s gone up. How can it be done to let the cities collect this tax? Our claim is that the cities, in selling these tax rights for 75 years, have sold what in Britain would be called ground rent (i.e. what’s paid to the landed aristocracy).
Over and above that there’s the market rent. So, China should pass a market-rent tax over and above the ground rent tax to reflect the current value. And there they’re thinking of, well, do we say that this is a capital gain on the land? Well, it’s not really a capital gain until you sell the land, but it’s value. It’s the valuation of the capital. And they’re looking at whether they should just say this is the market rent tax over and above the flat tax that has been paid in advance, or it’s a land tax on the capital gain for land.
Now, all of this requires that there be a land map of the whole country. And they are just beginning to create such a land map as a basis for how you calculate how much the rent there is.
What I found in China is something very strange. A few years ago, in Beijing, they had the first, International Marxist conference where I was the main speaker and I was talking about Marx’s discussion of the history of rent theory in Volume II and Volume III of Capital where Marx discusses all of the classical economics that led up to his view; Adam Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, John Stuart Mill, and Marx’s theory of surplus value was really the first history of economic thought that was written, although it wasn’t published until after he died. Well, you could see that there was a little bit of discomfort with some of the Marxists at the conference. And so, they invited for the next time my colleague David Harvey to come and talk about Marxism in the West.
Well, David gave both the leading and the closing speech of the conference and said, you’ve got to go beyond volume I of Capital. Volume I was what Marx wrote as his addition to classical economics, saying that there was exploitation in industrial employment of labor as well as rent seeking and then he said, now that I’ve done my introduction here, let me talk about how capitalism works in Volumes II and III. Volumes II and III are all about rent and finance and David Harvey has published a book on Volume III of Capital and his message to Peking University and the second Marxist conference was – you’ve got to read Volume II, and III.
Well, you can see that, there’s a discussion now over what is Marxism and a friend and colleague at PKU said Marxism is a Chinese word; It’s the Chinese word for politics. That made everything clear to me. Now I get it! I’ve been asked by the Academy of Social Sciences in China to create a syllabus of the history of rent theory and value theory. And essentially in order to have an idea of how you calculate rent, how do you make a national income analysis where you show rent, you have to have a theory of value and price and rent is the excess of price over the actual cost value. Well, for that you need a concept of cost of production and that’s what classical economics is all about. Post-classical economics denied all of this. The whole idea of classical economics is that not all income is earned.
Landlords don’t earn their income for making rent in their sleep as John Stuart Mill said. Banks don’t earn their income by just sitting there and letting debts accrue and interest compounding and doubling. The classical economists separated actual unearned income from the production and consumption economy.
Well, around the late 19th century in America, you had economists fighting against not only Marx, but also even against Henry George, who at that time, was urging a land tax in New York. And so, at Columbia University, John Bates Clark developed a whole theory that everybody earns whatever they can get. That there was no such thing as unearned income and that has become the basis for American national income statistics and thought ever since. So, if you look at today’s GDP figures for the United States, they have a figure for 8 percent of the GDP for the homeowners’ rent. But homeowners wouldn’t pay themselves if they had to rent the apartment to themselves, then you’ll have interest at about 12 percent of GDP.
And I thought, well how can interest be so steady? What happens to all of the late fees; that 29 percent that credit card companies charge? I called up the national income people in Washington, when I was there. And they said well, late fees and penalties are considered financial services.
And so, this is what you call a service economy. Well, there’s no service in charging a late fee, but they add all of the late fees. When people can’t pay their debts and they owe more and more, all of that is considered an addition to GDP. When housing becomes more expensive and prices American labor out of the market, that’s called an increase in GDP.
This is not how a country that wants to develop is going to create a national income account. So, there’s a long discussion in China about, just to answer your question, how do you create an account to distinguish between what’s the necessary cost to production and what’s an unnecessary production cost and how do we avoid doing what the United States did.
So again, no rivalry.
The United States is an object lesson for China on what to avoid, not only in industrializing the economy, but in creating a picture of the economy as if everybody earns everything and there’s no exploitation, no earned income, nobody makes money in their sleep and there’s no 1 percent.
Well, that’s what’s really at issue and why the whole world is splitting apart as you and I are discussing in what we’re writing.
Pepe: Thank you, Michael. Thank you very much. So just to sum it all up, can we say that Beijing’s strategy is to save especially provincial areas from leasing their land, their infrastructure for 60 years or 75 years? As you just mentioned, can we say that the fulcrum of their national strategy is what you define as the market rent tax? Is this the No. 1 mechanism that they are developing?
Michael: Ideally, they want to keep rents as low as possible because rent is a cost of living and a cost of doing business. They don’t have banks that are lending to inflate the real estate market.
However, in almost every Western country — the U.S., Germany England — the value of stocks and bonds and the value of real estate is just about exactly the same. But for China, the value of real estate is way, way larger than the value of stocks.
And the reason is not because the Chinese Central bank, the Bank of China lends for real estate; it’s because they lend to intermediaries and the intermediaries have financed a lot of housing purchases in China. And, this is really the problem for if they levy a land tax, then you’re going to make a lot of these financial intermediaries go bust.
That’s what I’m advocating, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. These financial intermediaries shouldn’t exist, and this same issue came up in 2009 in the United States. You had the leading American bank being the most crooked and internally corrupt bank in the country, Citibank making junk mortgage, and it was broke.
Its entire net worth was wiped out as a result of its fraudulent junk mortgages.
Well, Sheila Bair, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) wanted to close it down and take it over. Essentially that would have made it into a public bank and that would be a wonderful thing. She said, look Citibank shouldn’t be doing what it’s doing. And she wrote all this up in an autobiography. And, she was overruled by President Obama and Tim Geithner saying, but wait a minute, those are our campaign contributors. So, they were loyal to the campaign contributors, but not the voters; and they didn’t close Citibank down.
And the result is that the Federal Reserve ended up creating about $7 trillion of quantitative easing to bail out the banks. The homeowners weren’t bailed out. Ten million American families lost their homes as a result of junk mortgages in excess of what the property was actually worth.
All of this was left on the books, foreclosed and sold to a private capital companies like Blackstone. And the result is that home ownership in America declined from 68 percent of the population down to about 61 percent. Well, right where the Obama administration left off, you’re about to have the Biden administration begin in January with an estimated 5 million Americans losing their homes.
Decline in home ownership in the United States prior to the Coronavirus.
They’re going to be evicted because they’ve been unemployed during the pandemic. They’ve been working in restaurants or gyms or other industries that have been shut down because of the pandemic. They’re going to be evicted and many homeowners and, low-income homeowners have been unable to pay their mortgages.
There’s going to be a wave of foreclosures. The question is, who’s going to bear the cost? Should it be 15 million American families who lose their homes just so the banks won’t lose money? Or should we let the banks that have made all of the growth since 2008? Ninety five percent of American GDP of the population has seen its wealth go down. All the wealth has been accumulating for the 5 percent in statistics. Now the question is should this 5 percent that’s got all the wealth lose or should the 95 percent lose?
The Biden administration says the 95 percent should lose basically. And you’re going to see a wave of closures so that the question in China should be that, these intermediate banks (they’re not really banks they are sort of like payday loan lenders), should they come in and, bear the loss or should Chinese localities and the people bear the loss?
Somebody has to lose when you’re charging, you’re collecting the land’s rent that was paid to the creditors, and either the creditors have to lose or, the tax collector loses and that’s the conflict that exists in every society of the world today. And, in the West, the idea is the tax collectors should lose and whatever the tax collector relinquishes should be free for the banks to collect.
In China obviously, they don’t want that to happen and they don’t want to see a financial class developing along US lines.
Pepe: Michael, there’s a quick question in all this, which is the official position by Beijing in terms of helping the localities. Their official position is that there won’t be any bailouts of local debt. How do they plan to do that?
Michael: What they’re discussing, how are you not going to do it? They think they sort of let localities go their own way. And they think, well you know which ones are going to succeed, and which ones aren’t, they didn’t want to have a one-size-fits all central planning. They wanted to have flexibility. Well, now they have flexibility. And when you have many different “let a hundred flowers bloom,” not all the flowers are going to bloom at the same rate.
And the question is, if they don’t bail out the cities, how are the cities going to operate? Certainly, China has never let markets steer the economy, the government steers the markets. That’s what socialism is as opposed to finance capitalism. So, the question is, you can let localities go broke and yet you’re not going to destroy any of the physical assets of the localities, and all of this is going to be in place. The question is how are you going to arrange the flow of income to all of these roads and buildings and land that’s in place? How do you create a system?
Essentially, they’re saying well, if we’re industrial engineers, how do we just plan things? Forget credit, forget property claims, forget the rentier claims. How are we just going to design an economy that operates most efficiently? And that’s what they’re working on now to resolve this situation because it’s gotten fairly critical.
Pepe: Yes, especially in the countryside. Well, I think, a very good metaphor in terms of comparing both systems are investment in infrastructure. You travel to China a lot so, you’ve seen. You’ll travel through high-speed rail. You’ll see those fantastic airports, in Pudong or the new airport in Beijing. And then you’ll take the Acela to go from Washington to New York City, which is something that I used to do years ago. And the comparison is striking. Isn’t it?
Chinese high speed rail.
Or if you go to France, for instance, when France started development of the TGV, which in terms of a national infrastructure network, is one of the best networks on the planet. And the French started doing this 30 years ago, even more. Is there……, it’s not in terms of way out, but if we analyze the minutia, it’s obvious that following the American finance utilization system, we could never have something remotely similar happening in United States in terms of building infrastructure.
So, do you see any realistic bypass mechanism in terms of improving American infrastructure, especially in the big cities?
Michael: No, and there are two reasons for that. No. 1, let’s take a look at the long-term railroads. The railroads go through the center of town or even in the countryside, all along the railroads, the railroads brought business and all the businesses had been located as close to the railroad tracks as they could. Factories with sightings off the railroad, hotels and especially right through the middle of town where you have the railway gates going up and down. In order to make a high-speed rail as in China, you need a dedicated roadway without trucks and cars, imagine a car going through a railway gate at 350 miles an hour.
Railroad station in China.
So, when I would go from Beijing to Tianjin, here’s the high-speed rail, there’s one highway on one side, one highway on the other side. There’ll be underpasses. But there it goes straight now.
How can you suppose you would have a straight Acela line from Washington up to Boston when all along the line, there’s all this real estate right along the line that has been built up? There’s no way you can get a dedicated roadway without having to tear down all of this real estate that’s on either side and the cost of making the current owners whole would be prohibitive. And anywhere you would go, that’s not in the center of the city, you would also have to have the problem that there’s already private property there.
And there’s no legal, constitutional way for such a physical investment to be made. China was able to make this investment because it was still largely rural. It wasn’t as built up along the railways. It didn’t have any particular area that was built up right where the railroad already was.
So certainly, any high-speed rail could not go where the current railways would be, and they’d have to go on somebody’s land. And, there’s also, what do you do if you want to get to New York and Long Island from New Jersey?
Sixty years ago, when I went into Wall Street, the cost of getting and transporting goods from California to Newark, New Jersey, was as large as from Newark right across the Hudson River to New York, not only because of the mafia and control of the local labor unions, but because of the tunnels.
Right now, the tunnels from New Jersey to New York are broke, they are leaking, the subways in New York City, which continually break down because there was a hurricane a few years ago and the switches were made in the 1940s. The switches are 80 years old. They had water damage and the trains have to go at a crawl. But the city and state, because it is not collecting the real estate tax and other taxes and because ridership fell on the subways to about 20 percent, the city’s broke. They’re talking about 70 percent of city services being cut back. They’re talking about cutting back the subways to 40 percent capacity, meaning everybody will have to get in — when there’s still a virus and not many people are wearing masks, and there was no means of enforcing masks here.
So, there’s no way that you can rebuild the infrastructure because, for one thing the banking system here has subsidized for a hundred years junk economics saying you have to balance the budget. If the government creates credit it’s inflationary as if when banks create credit, it’s not inflationary. Well, the monetary effect is the same, no matter who creates the money. And so, Biden has already said that President Trump ran a big deficit, we’re going to run a bunch of surpluses or a budget balance. And he was advocating that all along.
Essentially Biden is saying we have to increase unemployment by 20 percent, lower wages by 20 percent, shrink the economy by about 10 percent in order to, in order for the banks not to lose money.
And, we’re going to privatize but we are going to do it by selling the hospitals, the schools, the parks, the transportation to finance, to Wall Street finance capital groups. And so, you can imagine what’s going to happen if the Wall Street groups buy the infrastructure.
They’ll do what happened to Chicago when it sold all the parking meters, they’ll say, OK, instead of 25 cents an hour, it’s now charged $3 an hour. Instead of a $2 for the subway, let’s make it $8.
You’re going to price the American economy even further out of business because they say that public investment is socialism. Well, it’s not socialism. It’s industrial capitalism. It’s industrialization, that’s basic economics. The idea of what, and how an economy works is so twisted academically that it’s the antithesis of what Adam Smith, John Stewart Mill and Marx all talked about. For them a free- market economy was an economy free of rentiers. Free of rent, it didn’t have any rent seeking. But now for the Americans, a free-market economy is free for the rentiers, free for the landlord, free for the banks to make a killing. And that is basically the class war back in business with a vengeance. That blocks and is preventing any kind infrastructure recovery. I don’t see how it can possibly take place.
Pepe: Well, based on what you just described, there is a process of turning the United States into a giant Brazil. In fact, this is what the Brazilian Finance Minister Paulo Guedes, a Pinochetista, as you know Michael, has been doing with the Brazilian economy for the past two years, privatizing everything and selling everything to big Brazilian interests and with lots of Wall Street interests involved as well. So, this is a recipe that goes all across the Global South as well. And it’s fully copied all across the Global South with no way out now.
Michael: Yes, and this is promoted by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. And when I was brought down to Brazil to meet with the council of economic advisers under Lula, [Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, former president of Brazil], they said, well the whole problem is that Lula’s been obliged to let the banks do the planning.
So, basically free markets and libertarianism is adopting central planning, but with central planning by the banks. America is a much more centrally planned economy than China. China is letting a hundred flowers bloom; America has concentrated the planning and the resource allocation in Wall Street. And that’s the central planning that is much more corrosive than any government planning, could be. Now the irony is that China’s sending its students to America to study economics. And, most of the Chinese I had talked to say, well we went to America to take economics courses because that gives us a prestige here in China.
I’m working now, with Chinese groups trying to develop a “reality economics” to be taught in China as different from American economics.
Pepe: Exactly, because of what they study at Beijing University, Renmin or Tsinghua
is not exactly what they would study in big American universities. Probably what they study in the U.S. is what not to do in China. When they go back to China, what they won’t be doing. It’s an object lesson for what to avoid.
Michael, I’d like to go back to what the BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] had been discussing in the 2000s when Lula was still president of Brazil and many of his ideas deeply impressed, especially Hu Jintao at the time, which is bypassing the U.S. dollar. Well, at the moment obviously we’re still at 87 percent of international transactions still in U.S. dollars. So, we are very far away from it, but if you have a truly sovereign economy, which is the case of China, which we can say is the case of Russia to a certain extent and obviously in a completely different framework, Iran. Iran is a completely sovereign, independent economy from the West. The only way to try to develop different mechanisms to not fall into the rentier mind space would be to bypass the U.S. dollar.
Michael: Yes, for many reasons. For one thing the United States can simply print the dollars and lend to other countries and then say, now you have to pay us interest.
Well, Russia doesn’t need American dollars. It can print its own rubles to provide labor. There’s no need for a foreign currency at all for domestic spending, the only reason you would have to borrow a foreign currency is to balance your exchange rate, or to finance a trade deficit.
But China doesn’t have a trade deficit. And in fact, if China were to work to accept more dollars, Americans would love to buy into the Chinese market and make a profit there, but that would push up China’s exchange rate and that would make it more difficult for her to make its exports because the exchange rate would come up not because it’s exporting more but because it’s letting American dollars come in and push it up.
Well, fortunately, President Trump as if he works for the Chinese National Committee, said, look, we don’t want to really hurt China by pushing up its currency and we want to keep it competitive. So, I’m going to prevent American companies from lending money to China, I’m going to isolate it and so he’s helping them protect their economy. And in Russia he said, look Russia really needs to feed itself. And, there’s a real danger that when the Democrats come in, there are a lot of anti-Russians in the Biden administration.
They may go to war.
They may do to Russia what they tried to do to China in the ‘50s. Stop exporting food and grain. And only Canada was able to break the embargo. So, we’re going to impose sanctions on Russia. So immediately, what happened is Russia very quickly became the largest grain exporter in the world.
And instead of importing cheese from the Baltics, it created its own cheese industry.
So, Trump said look, I know that Russians followed the American idea of not having protective tariffs, they need protective tariffs. They’re not doing it. We’re going to help them out by just not importing from them and really helping them.
Pepe: Yeah. Michael, what do you think Black Rock wants from the Chinese? You know that they are making a few inroads at the highest levels? Of course, I’m sure you’re aware of that. And also, JP Morgan, Citybank, etc. What do they really want?
Michael: They’d like to be able to create dollars to begin to buy and make loans to real estate; let companies grow, let the real estate market grow and make capital gains.
The way people get wealthy today isn’t by making an income, it’s been by making a capital gain. Total returns are current income plus the capital gains. As for capital gains each year; the land value gains alone are larger than the whole GDP growth from year to year. So that’s where the money is, that’s where the wealth is. So, they are after speculative capital gains, they would like to push money into the Chinese stock market and real estate market. See the prices go up and then inflate the prices by buying in and then sell out at the high price. Pull the money out, get a capital gain and let the economy crash, I mean that’s the business plan.
Pepe: Exactly. But Beijing will never allow that.
Michael: Well, here’s the problem right now, they know that Biden is pushing militarily aggressive people in his cabinet. There’s one kind of overhead that China is really trying to avoid and that’s the military overhead because if you spend money on the military, you can’t spend it on the real economy.
They’re very worried about the military and they say, how do we deter the Biden administration from actually trying a military adventure in the South China Sea or elsewhere? They said well, fortunately America is multi-layered. They don’t think of America as a group. They realize there’s a layer and they say, who’s going to represent our interests?
Well, Blackstone and Wall Street are going to represent their interests.
Then I think one of the, Chinese officials last week gave a big speech on this very thing, saying look, our best hope in stopping America’s military adventurism in China is to have Wall Street acting as our support because after all, Wall Street is the main campaign contributor and the president works for the campaign contributors.
The politician works for the campaign contributors. They’re in it for the money! So fortunately, we have Wall Street on our side, we’ve got control of the political system and they’re not there to go to war so that helps explain why a month ago they let wholly-owned U.S. banks and bankers in. On the one hand, they don’t like the idea of somebody outside the government creating credit for reasons that the economy doesn’t need. If they needed it, the Bank of China would do it. They have no need for foreign currency to come in to make loans in domestic currency, out of China.
The only reason that they could do it is No. 1, it helps meet the World Trade Organization’s principles and, No. 2, especially during this formative few months of the Biden administration, it helps to have Wall Street saying; we can make a fortune in China, go easy on them and that essentially counters the military hawks in Washington.
Pepe: So, do you foresee a scenario when Black Rock starts wreaking havoc in the Shanghai stock exchange for instance?
Michael: It would love to do that. It would love to move things up and down. The money’s made by companies with the stock market going up and down; the zigzag. So of course, it wants to do a predatory zigzag. The question is whether China will impose a tax to stop this, all sorts of financial transactions. That’s what’s under discussion now. They know exactly what Black Rock wants to do because they have some very savvy billionaire Chinese advisers that are quite good. I can tell you stories, but I better not.
Pepe: Okay. If it’s not okay to tell it all, tell us part of the story then.
Michael: The American banks have been cultivating leading Chinese people by providing them enough money to make money here, that they think that, okay they will now try to make money in the same way in China and we can join in. It’s a conflict of systems again, between the finance capital system and industrial socialism. You don’t get any of this discussion in the U.S. press, which is why I read what you write because in the U.S. press, the neocons talk about the fake idea of Greek history and fake idea of the Thucydides’ problem of a country jealous of another country’s development.
There’s no jealousy between America and China.
They’re different, they have their own way. We are going to destroy them. And if you look at the analogy that the Americans draw —and this is how the Pentagon thinks — with the war between Athens and Sparta.
It’s hard to tell, which is which. Here you have Athens, a democracy backing other democracies and having the military support of the democracies and the military in these democracies all had to pay Athens protection money for the military support and that’s the money that Athens got to ostensibly support its navy and protection that built up all of the Athenian public buildings and everything else.
So, that’s a democracy exploiting its allies, to enrich itself via the military.
Then you have Sparta, which was funding all of the oligarchies, and it was helping the oligarchies overthrow democracies. Well, that was America too. So, America is both sides of the Thucydides war if the democracy is exploiting the fellow democracies and is the supporter of oligarchies in Brazil, Latin America, Africa and everyone else.
So, you could say the Thucydides problem was between two sides, two aspects of America and has nothing to do with China at all except, for the fact that the whole war was a war between economic systems. They’re acting as if somehow if only China did not export to us, we could be re-industrialized and somehow export to Europe and the Third World.
And as you and I have described, it’s over.
We painted ourselves into such a debt corner that without writing down the debts, we’re in the same position that the Eurozone is in. There’s so much money that goes to the creditors to the top 1 percent or 5 percent that there is no money for capital investment, there is no money for growth. And, since 1980 as you know, real wages in America have been stable. All the growth has been in property owners and predators and the FIRE sector, the rest of the economy is in stagnation.
And now the coronavirus has simply acted as a catalyst to make it very clear that the game is over; it’s time to move away from the homeowner economy to rentier economy, time for Blackstone to be the landlord. America wants to recreate the British landlord class and essentially what we’re seeing now is like the Norman invasion of England taking over the land and the infrastructure.
That’s what Blackstone would love to do in China.
Pepe: Wow. I’m afraid that they may have a lot of leeway by some members of the Beijing leadership now, because as you know very well, it’s not a consensus in the political arena.
Michael: We’re talking about Volume II and III of Capital.
Pepe: Exactly. But you know, you were talking about debt. Coming back to that, in fact I just checked this morning, apparently global debt as it stands today is $277 trillion, which is something like 365 percent of global GDP. What does that mean in practice?
Michael: Yeah, well fortunately this is discussed in the 19th century and there was a word for that — fictitious capital — it’s a debt that can’t be paid, but you’ll keep it on the books anyway. And every country has this. You could say the question now, and The Financial Times just had an article a few days ago that China’s claims on Third World countries on the Belt and Road Initiative is fictitious capital, because how can it collect?
Well, China’s already thought of that. It doesn’t want money. It wants the raw materials. It wants to be paid in real things. But a debt that can’t be paid, can only be paid either by foreclosing on the debtors or by writing down the debts and obviously a debt that can’t be paid won’t be paid.
And so, you have not only Marx using the word fictitious capital. At the other end of the spectrum, you had Henry George talking about fictive capital. In other words, these are property claims that have no real capital behind them. There’s no capital that makes profit. That’s just a property claim for payment or a rentier claim for payment.
So, the question is, can you make money somehow without having any production at all, without having wages, without having profits, without any capital? Can you just have asset grabbing and buying-and-selling assets? And as long as you have the Federal Reserve in America, come in, Trump’s $10 trillion Covid program gave $2 trillion to the population at large with these $1,200 checks, that my wife and I got, and $8 trillion all just to buy stocks and bonds.
None of this was to build infrastructure. None of this $8 trillion was to build a single factory. None of this 8 trillion was to employee a single worker. It was all just to support the prices of stocks and bonds, and to keep the illusion that the economy had not stopped growing. Well, it’s growing for the 5 percent. So, it’s all become fictitious. And if you look at the GDP as I said, it’s fictitious.
Pepe: And the most extraordinary thing is none of that is discussed in American media. There’s not a single word about what you would have been describing.
Michael: It’s not even discussed in academia. Our graduates at the university of Missouri at Kansas City, we’re all trained in Modern Monetary Theory. And as hired professors they have to be able to publish in the refereed journals and the refereed journals are all essentially controlled by the Chicago School. So, you have a censorship of the kind of ideas that we’re talking about. You can’t get it into the economic journals, so you can’t get it into the economics curriculum. So, where on earth are you going to get it? If you didn’t have the internet you wouldn’t be discussing at all. Most of my books sell mainly in China, more than in all the other countries put together so I can discuss these things there. I stopped publishing in orthodox journals so many years ago because it’s talking to the deaf.
Pepe: Absolutely. Yeah. Can I ask you a question about Russia, Michael? There is a raging, debate in Russia for many years now between let’s say the Eurasianists and the Atlanticists. It involves of course, economic policy under Putin, industrial capitalism Russian style. The Eurasianists basically say that the central problem with Russia is how the Russian central bank is basically affiliated with all the mechanisms that you know so well, that it is an Atlanticist Trojan Horse inside the Russian economy. How do you see it?
Michael: Russia was brainwashed by the West when the Soviet Union broke up in 1991. First of all, the IMF announced in advance that there was a big meeting in Houston with the IMF and the World Bank. And the IMF published all of its report saying, first you don’t want inflation in Russia so let’s wipe out all of the Russian savings with hyperinflation, which they did. They then said, well now to cure the hyperinflation the Russian central bank needs a stable currency and you need a backup for the currency. You will need to back it with U.S. dollars.
So, from the early 1990s, as you know, labor was going unpaid. The Russian central bank could have created the rubles to pay the domestic labor and to keep the factories in place. But, the IMF advisers from Harvard said, no you’ll have to borrow U.S. dollars. I met with people from the Hermitage Fund and the Renaissance Fund and others.
We had meetings and I met with the investors. Russia was paying 100 percent interest for years to leading American financial institutions for money that it didn’t need and could have created itself. Russia was so dispirited with Stalinism that, essentially, it thought the opposite of Stalinism must be what they have in America.
They thought that America was going to tell it how America got rich, but America didn’t want to tell Russia how it got rich, but instead wanted to make money off Russia. They didn’t get it. They trusted the Americans. They really didn’t understand that, industrial capitalism that Marx described had metamorphosized into finance capitalism and was completely different.
Finance capitalismFinance capitalism or financial capitalism is the subordination of processes of production to the accumulation of money profits in a financial system. Financial capitalism is thus a form of capitalism where the intermediation of saving to investment becomes a dominant function in the economy, with wider implications for the political process and social evolution. Since the late 20th century, in a process sometimes called financialization, it has become the predominant force in the global economy, whether in neoliberal or other form.Wikipedia
And that’s because Russia didn’t charge rent, it didn’t charge interest. I gave three speeches before the Duma, urging it to impose a land tax. Some of the people I noticed, Ed Dodson was there with us and we were all trying to convince Russia, don’t let this land be privatized. If you let it be privatized, then you’re going to have such high rents and housing costs in Russia that you’re not going to be able to essentially compete for an industrial growth. Well, the politician who brought us there, Viatcheslav Zolensky was sort of maneuvered out of the election by the American advisers.
The Americans put billions of dollars in to essentially finance American propagandists to destroy Russia, mainly from the Harvard Institute of International Development. And essentially, they were a bunch of gangsters and the prosecutors in Boston were about to prosecute them.
The attorney general of Boston was going to bring a big case for Harvard against the looting of Russia and the corruption of Russia. And I was asked to organize and to bring a number of Russian politicians and industrialists over to say how this destroyed everything. Well, Harvard settled out of court and essentially that made the perpetrators the leading university people up there. (I’m associated with Harvard Anthropology Department, not the Economics Department.)
So, we never had a chance to bring my witnesses, and have our report on what happened, but I published for the Russian Academy of Sciences a long study of how all of this destruction of Russia was laid out in advance at the Houston meetings by the IMF. America went to the leading bureaucrats and said; look, we can make you rich why don’t you register the factories in your own name, and if you’re registered in your own name, you know, then you’ll own it. And then you can cash out. You can essentially sell, but obviously you can’t sell to the Russians because the IMF has just wiped out all of their savings.
You can only cash out by selling to the West. And so, the Russian stock market became the leading stock market in the world from 1994 with the Norilsk Nickel and the seven bankers in the bank loans for shares deal through 1997. And, I had worked for a firm Scutter Stevens and, the head adviser, a former student of mine didn’t want to invest in Russia because she said, this is just a rip off, it’s going to crash. She was fired for not investing. They said look, we know that’s going to crash. That’s the whole idea it’s going to crash. We can make a mint off it before the crash. And then when it crashes, we can make another mint by selling short and then all over again. Well, the problem is that the system that was put in with the privatization that’s occurred, how do you have Russia’s wealth used to develop its own industry and its own economy like China was doing. Well, China has rules for all of this, but Russia doesn’t have rules, it’s really all centralized, it’s President Putin that keeps it this way.
Well, this was the great fear of the West. When you had Mikhail Gorbachev beginning to plan to do pretty much what is done today, to restrain private capital, the IMF said hold off. We’re not going to make any loans to stabilize the Russian currency until you remove Mr. Primakov.
The U.S. said we won’t deal with Russia until you remove him. So, he was pushed out and he was probably the smartest guy at the time there. So, they thought [President Vladimir] Putin was going to be sort of the patsy. And he almost single-handedly, holding the oligarchs in and saying, look, you can keep your money as long as you do exactly what the government would do. You can keep the gains as long as you’re serving the public interest.
But none of this resulted into a legal system, a tax system, and a system where the government actually does get most of the benefits. Russia could have emerged in 1990 as one the most competitive economies in Eurasia by giving all of the houses to its people instead of giving Norilsk Nickel and the oil companies to Yukos. It could have given everybody their own house and their own apartment, the same thing in the Baltics. And instead it didn’t give the land out to the people. And Russians were paying 3 percent of their income for housing in 1990. And rent is the largest element in every household’s budget.
So, Russia could have had low-price labor. It could have financed all of its capital investment for the government by taxing, collecting the rising rental value. Instead, Russian real estate was privatized on credit and it was even worse in the Baltics.
In Latvia, where I was research director for the Riga Graduate School of Law, Latvia borrowed primarily from Swedish banks. And so, in order to buy a house, you had to borrow from Swedish banks. And they said, well, we’re not going to lend in the Latvian currency because it can go down. So, you have a choice; Swiss Francs or German Marks or U.S. Dollars. And so, all of this rent was paid in foreign currency. There came an outflow that essentially drained all the Baltic economies. Latvia lost 20 percent of its population. Estonia and Lithuania followed suit.
And of course, the worst hit by neo-liberalism was Russia. As you know, President Putin said that neo-liberalism cost Russia more of its population than World War II.
And you know that to destroy a country, you don’t need an army anymore. All you have to do is teach it American economics.
Pepe: Yes, I remember well, I arrived in Russia in the winter of 91 coming from China. So, I transited from the Chinese miracle. In fact, a few days after Deng Xiaoping’s famous Southern tour when he went to Guangzhou and Shenzhen. And that was the kick for the 1990s boom, in fact a few years before the handover, and then I took the Trans-Siberian and I arrived in Moscow a few days after the end, in fact, a few weeks after the end of the Soviet Union.
But yeah, I remember the Americans arrived almost at the exact minute, wasn’t it, Michael? I think they already were there in the spring of 1992. If I’m not mistaken.
Michael: The Houston meeting was in 1990. But all before that already in, 1988 and 1989, there was a huge outflow of embezzlement money via Latvia. The assistant dean of the university who ended up creating Nordex, essentially the money was all flying out because Ventspils in Latvia, was where Russian oil was exported and it was all fake invoicing. So, the Russian kleptocrats basically made their money off false export invoicing, ostensibly selling it for one price and having the rest paid abroad and, this was all organized through Latvia and the man who did it later moved to Israel and finally gave a billion dollars back to Russia so that he went on to live safely for the rest of his life in Israel.
Pepe: Well, the crash of the ruble in 1998 was what, roughly one year after the crash of the baht and the whole Asian financial crisis, no? It was interlinked of course, but let me see if I have a question for you, in fact, I’m just thinking out loud now. If the economies of Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, the case of South Korea and Russia, were more integrated at the time as they are trying to integrate now, do you think that the Asian financial crisis would have been preventable in 1997?
Michael: Well, look at what happened in Malaysia with Mohammad Mahathir. Malaysia avoided it. So of course, it was preventable, and they had the capital controls. All you would have needed was to do what Malaysia did. But you needed an economic theory for that.
And essentially the current mode of warfare is to conquer the brains of a country to shape how people think and how they perceive the economy.
And if you can twist their view into an unreality economics, where they think that you’re there to help them not to take money out of them, then you’ve got them hooked. That was what happened in Asia. Asia thought it was getting rich off the dollars inflows and then the IMF and all the creditors pulled the plug, crash the industry. And now that all of a sudden you had a crash, they bought up Korean industry and other South Asian industries at giveaway prices.
That’s what you do. You lend the money; you pull the plug. You then let them go under and you pick up the pieces. That’s what Blackstone did after the Obama depression began, when Obama saved the banks, not the constituency, the mortgage borrowers. Essentially that’s Blackstone’s modus operandi to pick up distressed prices at a bankruptcy sale, but you need to lend money and then crash it in order to make that work.
Pepe: Michael, I think we have only five minutes left. So, I would expect you to go on a relatively long answer and I’m really dying for it. It’s about debt, it about the debt trap. And it’s about the New Silk Roads, the Belt and Road Initiative, because I think rounding up our discussion and coming back to the theme of debt and global debt.
The No. 1 criticism apart from the demonization of China that you hear from American media and a few American academics as well against the Belt and Road is that it’s creating a debt trap for Southeast Asian nations, Central Asian nations and nations in Africa, etc…. Obviously, I expect you to debunk that, but the framework is there is no other global development project as extensive and as complex as Belt and Road, which as you know very well was initially dreamed up by the Ministry of Commerce. Then they sold it more or less to Xi Jinping who got the geopolitical stamp on it, announcing it, simultaneously, (which was a stroke of genius) in Central Asia in Astana and then in Southeast Asia in Jakarta. So, he was announcing the overland corridors through the heartland and the Maritime Silk Road at the same time.
At the time people didn’t see the reach and depth of all that. And now of course, finally the Trump administration woke up and saw what was in play, not only across Eurasia but reaching Africa and even selected parts of Latin America as well. And obviously the only sort of criticism, and it’s not even a fact-based criticism, that I’ve seen about the Belt and Road is it’s creating a debt trap because as you know Laos is indebted, Sri Lanka is indebted, Kyrgyzstan is indebted etc. So, how do you view Belt and Road within the large framework of the West and China, East Asia and Eurasia relations? And how would you debunk misconceptions created, especially in the U S that this is a debt trap.
Michael: There are two points to answer there. The first is how the Belt and Road began. And as you pointed out, the Belt and Road began, when China said, what is it we need to grow and how do we grow within our neighboring countries so we don’t have to depend upon the West, and we don’t have to depend on sea trade that can be shut down? How do we get to roads instead of seas in a way that we can integrate our economy with the neighboring economies so that there can be mutual growth?
So, this was done pretty much on industrial engineering grounds. Here’s where you need the roads and the railroads. And then how do we finance it? Well, The Financial Times article, last week, said didn’t the Chinese know that [with past] railroad development, they’ve all gone broke? The Panama Canal went broke, you know, the first few times there were European railway investment in Latin America in the 19th century, that all went broke.
Well, what they don’t get is China’s aim was not to make a profit off the railroads. The railroads were built to be part of the economy. They don’t want to make profit. It was to make the real economy grow, not to make profits for the owners of the railroad stocks. The Western press can’t imagine that you’re building a railroad without trying to make money out of it.
Then you get to the debt issue. Countries only have a debt crisis if their debt is in a foreign currency. The first way that the United States gained power was to fight against its allies. The great enemy of America was England and it made the British block their currency in the 1940s. And so, India and other countries, that had all these currencies holdings in sterling, were able to convert it all into dollars.
The whole move of the U.S. was to denominate world debt in dollars. So that No. 1, U.S. banks would end up with the interest in financing the debt. And No. 2, the United States could, by using the debt leverage, control domestic politics.
National debt as a function of GDP.
Well, as you’re seeing right now in Argentina, for instance, Argentina is broke because it owes foreign-dollar debt. When I started the first Third World bond fund in 1990 at Scutter Stevens, Brazil and China and Argentina were paying 45 percent interest per year, 45 percent per year in dollars debt.
Yet we tried to sell them in America. No American would buy. We went to Europe, no European buy this debt. And so, we worked with Merrill Lynch and Merrill Lynch was able to make an offshore fund in the Dutch West Indies and all of the debt was sold to the Brazilian ruling class in the central bank and the Argentinian bankers in the ruling class, we thought oh, that’s wonderful.
We know that they’re going to pay the foreign Yankee Dollars debt because the Yankee Dollars debt is owed to themselves. They’re the Yankees! They’re the client oligarchy. And you know, from Brazil client oligarchy is, you know, they’re cosmopolitan, that’s the word. So, the problem is that on the Belt and Road, how did these other countries pay the debt to China?
Well, the key there again is the de-dollarization, and one way to solve it is since we’re trying to get finance out of the picture, we’re doing something very much like, Japan did with Canada in the 1960s. It made loans to develop Canadian copper mines taking its payment, not in Canadian dollars, that would have pushed up the yen’s exchange rate, but in copper.
So, China says, you know you don’t have to pay currency for this debt. We didn’t build a railroad to make a profit and you want, we can print all the currency we want. We don’t need to make a profit.
We made the Belt and Road because it’s part of our geopolitical attempt to create what we need to be prosperous and have a prosperous region. So, these are self-reinforcing mutual gain. Well, so that’s what the West doesn’t get — mutual gain? Are we talking anthropology? What do you mean mutual? This is capitalism!
So, the West doesn’t understand what the original aim of the Belt and Road was, and it wasn’t to make a profitable railroad to enable people to buy and sell railway stocks. And it wasn’t to make toll roads to sell off to Goldman Sachs, you know.
We’re dealing with two different economic systems, and it’s very hard for one system to understand the other system because of the tunnel vision that you get when you get a degree in economics.
Pepe: Belt and Road loans are long-term and at very low interest and they are renegotiable. They are renegotiating with the Pakistanis all the time for instance.
Michael: China’s intention is not to repeat an Asia crisis of 1997. It doesn’t gain anything by forcing a crisis because it’s not trying to come in and buying property at a discount at a distressed sale. It has no desire to create a distressed sale. So obviously, the idea is the capacity to pay. Now, this whole argument occurred in the 1920s, between [John Maynard] Keynes and his opponents that wanted to collect German reparations and, Keynes made it very clear. What is the capacity to pay? It’s the ability to export and the ability to obtain foreign currency. Well, China’s not looking for foreign currency. It is looking for economic returns but the return is to the whole society, the return isn’t from a railroad. The return is for the entire economy because it’s looking at the economy as a system.
The way that neoliberalism works, it divides the economy in parts, and it makes every part trying to make a gain, and if you do that, then you don’t have any infrastructure that’s lowering the cost for the other parts. You have every part fighting for itself. You don’t look at in terms of a system the way China’s looking at it. That’s the great advantage of Marxism, you’ll look at the system, not just the parts.
Pepe: Exactly and this is at the heart of the Chinese concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, which is the approximate translation from Mandarin. So, we compare community with a shared future for mankind, which is, let’s say the driving force between the idea of Belt and Road, expanded across Eurasia, Africa and Latin America as well with our good old friends’, “greed is good” concept from the eighties, which is still ruling America apparently.
Michael: And the corollary is that non-greed is bad.
Pepe: Exactly and non-greed is evil.
Michael: I see. I think we ran out of time. I do. I don’t know if Alanna wants to step in to wrap it up.
Michael: There may be somebody who has a question.
Pepe: Somebody has a question? That’ll be fantastic.
Alanna: There is a question from Ed Dodson. He wanted to know why there are these ghost cities in China? And who’s financing all this real estate that’s developed, but nobody’s living there? We’ve all been hearing about that. So, what is happening with that?
Michael: Okay. China had most of its population living in the countryside and it made many deals with Chinese landholders who have land rights, and they said, if you will give up your land right to the community, we will give you free apartment in the city that you could rent out.
So, China has been building apartments in cities and trading these basically in exchange to support what used to be called a rural exodus. China doesn’t need as many farmers on the land as it now has, and the question is how are you going to get them into cities? So, China began building these cities and many of these apartments are owned by people who’ve got them in exchange for trading their land rights. The deals are part of the rural reconstruction program.
Alanna: Do you think it was a good deal? Vacant apartments everywhere.
Pepe: You don’t have ghost cities in Xinjiang for instance, Xinjiang is under-populated, it’s mostly desert. And it’s extremely sensitive to relocate people to Xinjiang. So basically, they concentrated on expanding Urumqi. When you arrive in Urumqi it is like almost like arriving in, Guangzhou. It’s enormous. It’s a huge generic city in the middle of the desert. And it’s also a high-tech Mecca, which is something that very few people in the West know. And is the direct link between the eastern seaboard via Belt and Road to Central Asia.
Urumqi, China.
Last year I was on an amazing trip. I went to the three borders, the Tajik-Xinjiang border, Kyrgiz-Xinjiang border and the Kazakh-Xinjiang border, which is three borders in one. It’s a fascinating area to explore and specially to talk to the local populations, the Kyrgiz, the Kazakhs and the Tajiks.
How do they see the Belt and Road directly affecting their lives from now on? So, you don’t see something spectacular for instance, in the Xinjiang – Kazakh boarder, there is one border for the trucks, lots of them like in Europe, crossing from all points, from Central Asia to China and bringing Chinese merchandise to Central Asia.
There’s the train border, which is a very simple two tracks and the pedestrian border, which is very funny because you have people arriving in buses from all parts of Central Asia. They stop on the Kazakh border. They take a shuttle, they clear customs for one day, they go to a series of shopping malls on the Chinese side of the border. They buy like crazy, shop till it drops, I don’t know for 12 hours? And then they cross back the same day because the visa is for one day. They step on their buses and they go back.
So, for the moment it’s sort of a pedestrian form of Belt and Road, but in the future, we’re going to have high-speed rail. We’re going to have, well the pipelines are already there as Michael knows, but it’s fascinating to see on the spot. You see the closer integration; you see for instance Uyghurs traveling back and forth.
You know, Uyghurs that have families in Kyrgizstan for instance, I met some Uyghurs in Kyrgyzstan who do the back-and-forth all the time. And they said, there’s no problem. They are seen as businessmen so there’s no interference. There are no concentration camps involved, you know, but you have to go to these places to see how it works on the ground and with Covid, that’s the problem for us journalists who travel, because for one year we cannot go anywhere and Xinjiang was on my travel list this year, Afghanistan as well, Mongolia.
Urumqi, China.
These are all parts of Belt and Road or future parts of Belt and Road, like Afghanistan. The Chinese and the Russians as well; they want to bring Afghanistan in a peace process organized by Asians themselves without the United States, within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, because they want Afghanistan to be part of the intersection of Belt and Road and Eurasian Economic Union. This is something Michael knows very well. You don’t see this kind of discussions in the American media for instance, integration of Eurasia on the ground, how it’s actually happening.
Michael: That’s called cognitive dissonance.
Alanna: To try to understand it gets you cognitive dissonance.
Pepe: Oh yeah, of course. And obviously you are a Chinese agent, a Russian agent. And so, I hear that all the time. Well, in our jobs we hear that all the time. Especially, unfortunately from our American friends.
Alanna: Okay. I know you have other things to do. This has been fabulous. I want to thank you so much, both of you, uh, with so easy to get attendance for this webinar. There were 20 people in five minutes enrolled and in two days we were at capacity. So, I know there are many more people who would love to hear you talk another time, whenever you two are so willing. And I think you both got much out of your first conversation in person. Everybody listening knows these two wonderful gentlemen, they have written more than 10 books, and they have traveled all over the world. They are on the top of geopolitical and geoeconomic analysis, and they are caring, loving people. So, you can see that these are the people we need to be listening to and understanding all around the world.
So, thank you so much. Ibrahima Drame from the Henry George School is now going to say goodbye to you and will wrap this up. Thank you again.
Pepe: Michael it was a huge pleasure. Really, it was fantastic. Really nice, we’re on the same website. So, let’s have a second version of this.
Ibrahima: So, let’s have a second version of this two months from now. Thank you very much for participating and I really hope you liked this event. And, we also want to ask for your support by making a tax-deductible donation to the Henry George School. I believe I shared the link on the chat. Thank you. And see you soon.
Pepe: Thank you very much. Thanks Michael. Bye!
Attributions
Michael Hudson is an American economist professor of economics at the university of Missouri Kansas City and a researcher at the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College. He’s a former Wall Street analyst political consultant commentator and journalist. He identifies himself as a classical economist. Michael is the author of J is for Junk Economics,Killing the Host, The Bubble and Beyond, Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire, Trade Development and Foreign Debtand The Myth of Aid, among others. His books have been published translated into Japanese, Chinese, German, Spanish and Russian.
Pepe Escobar, born in Brazil, is a correspondent and editor-at-large at Asia Times and columnist for Consortium News and Strategic Culture in Moscow. Since the mid-1980s he’s lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Singapore, Bangkok. He has extensively covered Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia to China, Iran, Iraq and the wider Middle East. Pepe is the author of Globalistan – How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War;Red Zone Blues: A Snapshot of Baghdad during the Surge. He was contributing editor toThe Empire and The Crescent and Tutto in Vendita in Italy. His last two books are Empire of Chaos and 2030. Pepe is also associated with the Paris-based European Academy of Geopolitics. When not on the road he lives between Paris and Bangkok.
Just a couple of guys chatting away about America and China and the theories behind capitalism; meaning …
CapitalismCapitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, a price system, private property and the recognition of property rights, voluntary exchange and wage labor. In a capitalist market economy, decision-making and investments are determined by every owner of wealth, property or production ability in capital and financial markets whereas prices and the distribution of goods and services are mainly determined by competition in goods and services markets.Wikipedia
Ugh.
No. No. No.
Meaning;
Using money as a medium of exchange for products or services. And the idea of private ownership of the things that you can exchange it for.
I found the discussion interesting in that it validated my belief. Which is a belief that China is growing and is successful today, while the USA is apparently collapsing upon itself.
They came at it from a very interesting angle.
In their mind, the state of America today (and other leading Western nations) is because the medium of exchange differs.
China – exchanges – products & services for money.
USA – exchanges – interest on debt to generate money.
Looking at the world from this lens, or with this set of crystal-clear glasses you can see that no matter what the USA does, China will overtake it.
Not by it’s enormous size, or the great number of STEM graduates, or it’s philosophical drivers or social engineering advances…
…but rather through the nature of the capitalism that it employs.
The United States debt is over 20 trillion dollars and climbing. Those that enjoy this debt, those that make money off of it are bankers, and speculators such as the Stock Market. They are a small minority of people. A very, very, very tiny group of people.
According to this article, half the world's wealth (!) was controlled by 62 individuals in 2016. In 2017 (see here) this number drops substantially. From only these two articles, these are the numbers.
2011 - 388 people
2012/13 - 177 people
2014 - 80 people
2015/16 - 62 people
2017 - 8 people!
Meanwhile, China not only makes products and provides services, but also has a philosophy where the community REQUIRES everyone to participate making products, and providing services.
The United States has a different philosophy. Be the best, capture all the money, sit at the top. Let the rest of the world flounder.
…
Where I am getting to on all this is simple…
Imagine three hundred years in the future.
China
Everyone is either making things or providing services for others. Milk is being delivered; new gizmos and gadgets are being designed and sold. People are learning and striving. Extreme poverty is gone. But so is extreme wealth. All people have a comfortable life. But extremes in poverty and wealth do not exist.
And the United States…
United States
There is only one oligarchy running things. It is a family where the oldest member is tremendously old and is on advanced life support. He is fawned over by his family.
The rest of the world lives in extreme poverty with electronic tracking of actions and behaviors. Few own anything. They rent it all to others who funnel the money to this lone individual. These poorer people, the vast majority of them provide maintenance and protection services. No one is skilled at reason or fabrication. The most skilled are those that count the money that the wealthy own.
Oh for certain, the “citizens” of the United States will loudly and most vociferously proclaim their “freedom”! And you know what, they will probably still be able to own guns too. They will proudly take the bullets out of the display case and shine then up every Fourth of July as a symbol of how exceptional they are.
…
As I see it, the American system is not sustainable. It is not healthy and it is a waste of time. It is one that converts the citizens of the United States into a caste system of two types of people; the Rulers and the Servants.
This is a battle for the potential future of the sentience of the human species;
Service to Self society with a two-tiered caste system This is the American / Western model.
While the Chinese model, is sustainable. It is doable, and it is workable, and it will provide advantage to the vast bulk of society, not just one singular family and their psychopathic leeches.
Service to Others society, with no class distinction, only individual merit.
I strongly believe that anyone in support of the current way that the United States is and how it operates and who is desirous of continuing this path is either evil, not thinking properly, or has some kind of selfish agenda.
And this, boys and girls, is what the big “sentience selection” event(s) are all about. Our benefactors want us humans to select the pathways for our species. And you can rest assured that there are individuals on both sides of this issue that are willing to fight to the death for their vision of utopia.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
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It’s been one Hell of a year, eh? 2020 sucked big time. And I am sure that I am not the only person to feel this way either. My personal trials and issues were just one headache after the other.
For instance, my little dog is now 13 years old. Which is old for a dog, but not ancient. He’s maybe in his doggie 70’s. He’s an old dog. Well, he’s acting old. And this year it’s gotten really bad. First he lost his teeth, and now his eyesight is on the way out. Which pretty much sucks.
Why?
Well, he just cannot find anything. So he doesn’t know how to get around. And he figured out a work-around. You see, he’s figured out that if he pee’s everywhere that he can smell his way and orient himself in the house
So he’s been peeing everywhere.
Everywhere.
But then he figured out that I’ll pretty much mop up his messes when I discover them. So he’s been getting sneaky about where he pees. He now stealth-pees. He sniffs around and tried to find hard to find, and difficult to reach areas to pee.
But I’ve been finding them out also.
So he’s got a new technique. He has started peeing on things that’s really difficult to clean up. You know, like seat cushions, pillows, blankets, comforters, clothing (especially freshly cleaned clothes), and boxed up food that he can jump on top of.
Ugh!
Yessur! It’s been one fuck of a year.
The last straw was when he liberally saturated my baby’s Coronavirus plushie toy with dog pee. Jeeze! Can I get a break?
.
Any ways, trying to deal with shortfalls in income, raising taxes that Trump has levied on all expats (especially those in China – BTW, what is his fucking problem?), and the other issues that are magnified during a pandemic is just a real headache. And the answer is to start looking for alternative ways to earn a few extra dollars.
So the wife looks on the internet and low and behold are these other chicks. Perfect mothers all. Living in McMansions. Their children all perfectly behaved, and experts playing on the living room grand pianos and other bull shit. I tell her that it’s really obscene and ill-advised to flaunt your wealth, good fortune, or advantage when the entire fucking rest of the world is trying to pull through difficult times.
But she doesn’t care. She looks at me and say’s “why can’t we live like that?“
Sigh.
2020 really sucked.
Anyways. It got me to thinking. Why is everything so fake? Why is there this driving force that says that you MUST climb up to the top of the pile of money and then flaunt it to the rest of your peers? It really pisses me off.
Why is everything so difficult?
Why is it so hard just to make a “getting by” income?
Why did out parents, and our grandparents get by with a single breadwinner, a stay-at-home wife, a mortgage paid off in ten years, with only a high school diploma? What happened?
What the Hell happened?
…
Greed happened.
You too can be RICH!
It’s all over America. “You too can become a Bill Gates, or a Steve Jobs, or start Amazon, or use Kickstarter to become a multi-millionaire.
But it’s just bullshit.
Having patents won’t make you rich. Nor will blogging. Writing books, or being an artist won’t make you rich. Having a pretty set of boobs won’t make you rich, bitcoin won’t make your rich, and having a great APP won’t make you rich either.
Well I am here to pop your bubble and tell you the truth.
You see, the United States today (not what it was founded as) relies on a myriad of lies to exist. These lies are promoted through a government / oligarchy controlled propaganda organization. This organization has three main branches. All of which are controlled, and construct the narratives, that Americans are exposed to. They are…
Alt-Left
Mainstream
Alt-Right
It’s an enormous subject, and understanding it will help to explain why Americans are they way they are and the actions of the American government. But that is not really our focus at this time. Instead, we will discuss a MAJOR lie or theme that is propagated over and over inside of America which is…
“You can become rich all by yourself, alone. It just takes a little bit of work, some effort, and a pinch of luck.“
Now…
Well, we have all heard the stories, haven’t we?
How Steve Jobs started his “shoe string” business in a garage. We hear about Steve Jobs, about Google, about Amazon. We hear all these stories about the small guy, the little guy, who through hard work and scrimping and saving that he (or she) was able to make it BIG!
And I am going to bust your bubble.
Our Society, not our Government, is the driving force behind this kind of action…
If you look at all the lone individuals who became a success, you will notice that they have one thing in common.
They grew during a time of very little government oversight and regulation.
When the computer moguls (Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates) started, the local, state and federal governments didn’t even know what computers were. Let alone regulate them. And in the period of time, their small business enterprises grew…
…and as they grew, so did the need for the government to grow. And to make laws and regulations to control those new enterprises.
Look at how the “Railroad Barons” came into being in the last century. Or look at how the early investors in Fast Food franchises became rich.
Look at the software moguls (Google, Amazon), the same is true for them as well. They became large before the government had time to regulate them and stymie their growth (inadvertently, of course).
Then as soon as the slow sluggish government regulatory agencies, and the slow moving bureaucratic arm of the government got moving, they had all ready established a “home” for themselves in the business world. And the resulting regulations and laws served to keep their franchises alive, while making it extraordinarily difficult for any different new-comers to create competitive alternatives.
…
Ok, well this dynamic is also well understood.
It’s difficult, but not impossible, to create new software alternatives. And the same is true with other industries as well. It’s not not impossible, just difficult.
But the difficulty that one experiences today, in setting up their own business, is quite different than one of the “early pioneers” setting up a new business. And that is the BIG LIE that is functionally omitted by the government propaganda outlets. Instead, they constantly promote the idea that you too can become a mega wealthy oligarch.
You too, can be another Steve Jobs.
It’s not true.
The fundamental structure of the USA government is the culprit
I think the main problem are the two different approaches taken by the US or Chinese, which are diametrically different. The Chinese seem to use a "Cumulative" approach, while the US is based on what I call "Winnowing" as a state. Take their respective attitudes towards the poor.
First the Chinese; Cumulative, we are all in this together. If everyone has a "job" be it ever-so lowly, selling food on a street corner for example, then for the Chinese this is a "plus". The person is more or less responsible for his own well being, is not a burden on the State for handouts, and could be (potentially) taxable etc. The object being that ALL Chinese then become positive factors in the society. They are also more motivated because they have a "place" in society. The recent case of Jack Ma and an IPO is not the opposite, but he was trying to get ahead by means that would have led to more unemployment - on the back of the Chinese Government. He was not adding to the cumulative good of the country. Only his own riches. (The Chinese do have billionaires and riches - but are constrained by Corporate credit ratings as explained on a previous - very interesting - thread. Thanks to: psychohistorian | Jan 5 2021 2:08 utc | 162. The MoA Week In Review - OT 2021-001)
The US. The attitude is to beat out the chaff leaving only the "kernel". To "Winnow" the population leaving only the top. ie the poor are sidelined, they become a problem for the Government (needing support, food etc.). A net negative value to US society. (The Rich also get handouts from the Fed. as free money has become an habitude, but that is an another way of winnowing out the chaff - as others do NOT get the trillion dollar handouts) The poor have no "place" in a society that has rejected them and so are less motivated. They must fend for themselves and are expected to obey. If they do not there are always the police to enforce obedience.
"Cumulative = win-win", and "Winnowing = Only the top win".
Posted by: Stonebird | Jan 5 2021 20:26 utc | 11
I argue that the United States has become something else other than what it was intended to be, and like a the big monstrosity that it is has created all sorts of safeguards to keep the people separate. The super wealthy lives a life of protected ease, and the rest, live below in a caste system where everything has a price.
From having to pay for water, to taxes and regulations on your abode, to what you do when you are off work and in the privacy of your home, to even what you think about and read. To watch television to listen to music, there is always a price.
In the 1960’s, and 1970’s watching television, listening to music, and making tapes of what you listen to and watch, were all FREE!
Water fountains might be free, but are typically not filtered. But neither is the bottled water that you buy at the local convenience store either.
.
In the 1970’s water fountains were everywhere. Now if you want a drink of water, you have to buy a bottle of water. In the 1980’s if you wanted to send out a message to a friend you sent out a letter in the mail, and it’s privacy was protected by law. Today, if you want to do the same thing, you use either a “free” email service that collects all your personal information and tracks you, or you pay a yearly fee for that service. A fee mind you, many, many times larger than the cost of a postage stamp. And none of the aforementioned protections of privacy are provided.
This is not “freedom” by any stretch of the imagination. Nor, is it an “improvement”.
It’s the worst form of slavery.
I would add that Chinese Communist Party was great mostly because Mao Zedong and his comrades created a new culture not only for China in the past, but most probably will be for future humanity.
That new culture empowered the ordinary people and created a new social climate in which the officials were supposed to live and work with common people, which is what real democracy should be.
People would eventually realize what has enabled China to develop better is democracy rather than what the western press and politicians called authoritarianism.
-Mr Pan
…
Anyways, we are going to discuss my argument that…
The idea that anyone can become a rich and wealthy person through “hard work” and a little bit of luck, is a fantasy inside of America today.
The basics of this post is what is known as “the bell curve”. And we are going to overlay upon that curve a concept that I like to call “the big lie”.
The Bell Curve.
.
Essentially, people and their abilities (when plotted on a graph) form a nice bell-shaped curve, and you and your friends are somewhere on that curve. This curve is very well known and it is an important indicator on where individuals lie within a group setting.
The “big lie” is that the top 0.1% position on that curve is attainable by everyone. And it is simply not true. Particularly in the United States where there are nine levels of social strata or classes of people.
The “big lie” is the believe that you can duplicate the luck, conditions, skills, and environment of another to achieve their same results.
Here we are going to discuss some stories about all those “rich and wealthy” people that we read about in the internet, the social media and on television.
Confessions Of An Instagram Model
Reprinted as found. Originally titled “Confessions Of An Instagram Model” and written on November 24, 2020. All credit to the authors. Edited to fit this venue.
I am a fitness model with a big Instagram following (no I will not be sharing my IG or other accounts here, please don’t ask). Most people think we make most of our money from sponsorships and affiliate posts – we do make some money that way – but you’d still need a 9 to 5 to make ends meet unless you’re one of the top accounts. The open secret in the industry is that we get hired to spend time with really wealthy men overseas.
A typical Instagram girl. This one has a big chest and extra big pouty lips.
This happens almost entirely with rich men in Dubai, although I’ve been all over the world. Bali is another hot spot for meet ups. Basically they contact you directly offering a price and make sure you agree to what they want ahead of time. You always check their accounts to make sure they’re legit and lots of times they have other models who have already met them verify in case you have any doubts, but I’ve never had an issue.
They want all kinds off different things. The first ones I agreed too were just casual vanilla sex. But once I got comfortable with it and saw how much the money went up, I started doing crazier stuff and soon after that there were no more limits for me, the money was always worth it. I struggled with it at first but the money was so good and there is something liberating about being totally disgusting for someone. I went from an everyday promiscuous but mostly standard sex life to living a life that rivals porn stars. It’s easier to list things I haven’t tried at this point than what I have!
Dubai Rich.
.
How old are you and how long have you been doing this?
I’m in my 20s been doing this about 4 years
Are you one of those big booty instagram models, or the workout in yoga pants one?
I have a booty but I do all around fitness modeling
How much money are we talking?
I made 5k my first time. I made 20k my most recent. I’ve made up to 35k for a week
How much do the men generally pay for different acts? Does the donation matter with the attractiveness/popularity of the model?
It depends on how popular you are and what you do.
What is the craziest thing you’ve done, sexually, that you wouldn’t have even considered before escorting?
Group sex and orgy type of stuff. I’m glad I was exposed to it because it’s beautifully intense and hot, but I was closed minded to it before. There are more extreme things that would be considered crazy too that I liked like BDSM, so it’s hard to pick one. But the one I’m most grateful for being exposed to is the group.
Most guys at once?
Most guys at once was 6
Most surprising interaction (whatever that means to you)?
Most surprising was a young, very short, very skinny guy – when he dropped his pants he was packing a horse dick LOL.
Who are these men?
Some are very wealthy businessmen, some are from wealthy families. Some are related to royalty and occasionally even a well known celebrity
Who was the celebrity?
An American actor staying in Dubai. I can’t share his name but I was totally starstruck!
Was he one of the vanilla ones or one of the disguisting ones?
Not disgusting but he was not vanilla either. He liked being a little rough and kinky
Are you picky with your clientele?
I was at first but not so much now unless what they want is totally off limits to me or if they come across as super weird.
Is there anything that is off limits for your clients no matter the price tag?
Anything that would involve blood, defecation, or being seriously hurt. Other than that I would probably negotiate most things
How do you find the interaction is with most of your clients? By this I mean do then tend to take you out and treat you like there girlfriend showing you off as arm candy or are you generally kept away at a house or resort and used more for sex?
It’s rarely being taken out. You kind of do that on your own time but on their dime
What was your most (positive) exciting experience on these adventures so far?
The overall experience is the most positive. I travel the world getting spoiled making tons of money and having wild sex while enjoying some internet fame. I did get to go skydiving in Dubai for the first time which was crazy exciting
Worst situation you ever found yourself in (in regards to being an escort) and how you handled it?
I was never in a truly bad situation, but some kind of were terrible in other ways. For example, I was booked at the same time as another girl for the same two guys. When I get there, it’s another model I know and we hated each other. It sucked and I wanted to bail because she’s such a bitch. But that would’ve caused issues so I stayed. The funny thing is though, these guys were brutally rough with us, and at one point we were holding each other’s hands as we grit our teeth through some painful rough anal and even cuddled each other for a little bit after. So we aren’t friends now but we kind of bonded.
What causes beef between Instagram models/escorts?
It’s not because of that it’s just because she has a terrible personality and attitude and makes rude comments about people that are supposed to be friends
Where you ever put in a situation where you didn’t feel safe?
It always feels a bit unsafe to tell you the truth, there’s no way to know you’re safe unless it’s someone you’ve been with a bunch of times. Even then, if they’re rough or into really kinky stuff you get nervous. But that makes it exciting too.
Besides talking to other models, how is a potential client vetted?
Honestly the person I pay to run my IG account verifies them for me so idk what goes into it exactly but I know that in some cases it’s an online presence or proof that they are who they say they are.
You’re going to want to contact via email or their managers email or something similar. DMs are rarely even checked when you have a huge account. And we won’t answer directly from our accounts either becuse a single screenshot can ruin our reputation.
How do you funnel the money? Isn’t it suspicious to receive 35k just for a weekend or is it deemed a “shoot” as a model even if nothing takes place?
My manager handles everything
How much do you pay your manager?
He gets 10 percent
How much were you making in your day job?
I was making like 30k a year before I started doing this with my day job.
What do you tell your family?
I just tell my friends and family it’s from my Instagram business
Sounds like you make loads of cash….. the gig wont last for ever, are you investing?
I definitely invest and take care of my money! Remember too that I don’t really pay for anything myself on these trips
Do you have simpler plans, like marrying and stuff?
I would love to get married and have a family one day but I don’t feel ready to settle down yet.
My Metallicman comments on this dialog.
So, here’s a young girl in her 20’s, making wads of cash. Is it really from just posting nice pictures on social media?
No.
She uses social media to advertise her body for sexual liaisons. In other words, she’s a courtesan. And throughout history, courtesans have been known to make good money.
CourtesanCourtesan, in modern usage, is a euphemism meaning a sugar baby, escort, concubine, mistress or a prostitute, for whom the art of dignified etiquette is the means of attracting wealthy, powerful, or influential clients. The term originally meant a courtier, a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.Wikipedia
She’s no different than this…
Blake
.
I am not judging her.
If you are beautiful and you have the ability and skills necessary to become a courtesan, I say go for it. But realize that the amount of money that they get is from sexual activity, and not from pictures on Instagram.
Which is the point in all of this.
For us to grow and live, we need to realize the reality of the world that we live in. Because inside of America is is one lie on top of the other, on top of another, and another… and yet another.
And this all cause people to behave very strangely compared to the rest of the world.
Not quite. You are not going to have people throw money at you because they like your personal stories. Oh, you might make a few dollars, but from your articles alone. No. The money comes from other sources that you advertise from your blog.
These other sources can be…
The sales of books.
Sales of vitamin or herbal supplements (Alex Jones)
Speaking engagements
Paid subscriptions
Videos
Anyways, blogging or having a website as MM can be used as PART of a mechanism for a for-profit venture. Must like the Instagram chick above, the internet is used as a tool to derive profits from.
Hey! You guys, do you see me using MM to sell books, videos, or products? Eh?
Well, truthfully I have been asked to write some books. And truthfully I am considering it. But the books will have to provide more than what I offer for free here. Otherwise I will feel like I am taking advantage of my readership. This is complicated by the fact that there are some things that I am simply not permitted to discuss. Anyways, I am considering it. Maybe something about Prayer and Affirmation Campaigns. Or maybe about one of our benefactor species. Something unique and very different.
Which brings me up to the next subject.
Writing a book
Yes you can make a handful of change; a few dollars writing a book. It’s not much, and it is not going to be something that you can rely upon for a steady source of income.
.
So, unless you are big and famous, and can use it as a method to “launder money”, the odds of you getting wealthy are very slim. Oh, sure there are exceptions. Like the author of the Harry Potter series. But again, the exceptions do not describe the norm.
Oh Vey! What a big lie this one is. You will never get rich on having a patent. Oh sure there are all sort of stories about people who had this patent and became filthy rich. And there might just be one or two guys, but in general forget it.
Heck, I have 11 design patents to my name, and I haven’t even got the mandatory $1 transfer fee from the company. So forgetaboutit.
.
It’s one of those bullshit stories about a friend who knows a guys who… or an article that you once read about a guy who invented…
Just forget about this entire route. It’s a dead-end.
Painting or creating art
Oh, art is a great way to “launder money” because there are no restrictions on the amount and the value of art is subjective. But if you want to become rich doing it, then dream on. It’s a long tall mountain to climb. You must…
…guess what?
Paint because you love painting, and if someone pays you money for it, then that is a big plus. But expect to starve and live at the poverty level while you do so.
How do I know? It’s also one of my loves. And yes, I can paint, in oils. I paint figurines using the Flemish technique. And no. I haven’t made any money of significance out of this love of mine. At best, I broke even. Meaning the cost of the materials equaled the selling price. Labor costs were a loss.
Art is how the oligarchy moves enormous amount of money about legally.
Check out these following examples of using art to launder money. Obviously the oligarchy has been ridiculing the rest of us folk for decades if not much longer. It’s, well, insulting.
Some examples of using art to launder money
So how much money is transferred in this money laundering technique? Let’s start at the low end. You know, “pocket change” for the oligarchy…
Blood Red Mirror by Gerhard Richter – $1.1 Million
Concetto spaziale, Attese by Lucio Fontana – $1.5 Million
Green White by Ellsworth Kelly – $1.6 Million
.
Now, let’s go into the mid-range transactions. Say $2 million to $80 million pop.
Untitled (1961) by Mark Rothko – $28 Million
Untiled (Stoffbild) by Blinky Palermo – $1.7 Million
Peinture (Le Chien) by Joan Miro – $2.2 Million
Untitled (1970) by Cy Twombly – $69.6 Million
Cowboy by Ellsworth Kelly – $1.7 Million
Blue Fool by Christopher Wool – $5 Million
.
All in all, it’s a very common way for the oligarchy to move money around.
Riot (1990) by Christopher Wool – $29.9 Million
Onement Vi By Barnett Newman – $43.8 million
Black Fire 1 by Barnett Newman – $84.2 Million
Orange, Red, Yellow by Mark Rothko – $86.9 Million
Anna’s Light by Barnett Newman – $105.7 Million
.
Disgusted?
Well, you should be.
Well, unless you are a super wealthy oligarchy, painting and selling paintings for hundreds of millions of dollars isn’t in your future.
Well, what is?
Get rich with bitcoin!
Um. Sure.
.
Ugh. maybe if you bought bitcoin in the first couple of months when it was young and just being developed. Today… it is a potential, but highly risky venture. I would mark it as unlikely.
Like anything. There are potentials and avenues of success.
.
Is that part of your pre-birth world-line template? Are you destined to become filthy wealthy?
Only you know.
Selling Snake-oil
In a nation where a person’s value is determined by the size of their bank account, and success is measured in dollar signs and spreadsheet, it’s very difficult for good and stable people to make a difference.
Only those who are adept at making money, manipulating money, stealing money, or getting money become powerful and are considered meaningful.
And in this environment, ONLY those people will obtain positions of power and importance.
I need three hands to count the number of times myself and my design teams were let go from American companies simply because the company wanted to sell a division, down-size to make the value of a company attractive to investors, or discarded good robust designs in favor or low cost, disposable “improvements”. All for money. None for the great breakthroughs and technical innovations that we were working on.
That is the reality.
And it sucks.
There is something fundamentally wrong with exchanging tokens to represent labor, and then using that system to generate debt. I know it’s a difficult thing to consider. It will change your entire world-view upside down.
The United States is currently $25 trillion dollars in debt.
In the American culture, you must be the “lone wolf” and climb up that mountain of success alone. “You can do it” we are told. It’s just a matter of hard work, perseverance and maybe a little luck.
Maybe.
Maybe.
But you know, in the American society (and the other societies in the West who have adopted this kind of culture) it’s difficult to break out and through the class barriers that surround your social class. It’s true and YOU KNOW IT. So let’s forget about the government’s propaganda narrative.
Instead let’s focus on looking at things from a completely different perspective. It’s a perspective that can be found in both China, Japan and Russia, as well as Brazil and parts of Europe. Which is…
…find your niche and become the best at it as you can.
Maybe you will get rich. Maybe you won’t.
But the issue about making money never enters the equation of the value of what you provide to your community or your society. And this is what is important.
Conclusion
The world needs, yes NEEDS, to move away from the primitive model of money for labor, and rather embrace the concept of participation within a society for the good of all. Instead of the selfish “me, me, me” of previous traditions.
Which is curiously…
…exactly the world as described by “time traveler” John Titor.
For he described a world (at least in America) where everyone was part of a community, and you needed to apply to become part of that community. Where no one was automatically a member, and once in a community, you needed to contribute to the good of all. No slackers, no welfare queens, and no lazy bums were permitted.
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If you try to find information on the stratification of America on the Internet, you will discover that the vast bulk of them claim that there are really just three classes of social stratification. This is incorrect. There are nine. Here we will discuss these nine social classes. This post is a prelude to another article that discusses how the United States is migrating from a class system towards a caste system. Buckle up, it’s going to be a real surprise.
First off, why nine?
I argue that many “experts” in this matter overlook the obvious, and classify distinctly separate classes with one of the three common classes. Perhaps this is due to force of habit, as the classes all pre-date the 1960s. But perhaps it is to conditioning. People, most especially Americans, have been accustomed to a new “normal”; an “ever changing normal”. This makes people, who are otherwise quite intelligent, ignore trends that lay there right in front of their eyes.
The three classes are, of course, the…
The Upper Class
The Middle Class
The Low Class
Additionally, one must take into account the 13th amendment which formally established…
The Slave Class
What? You say! The 13th Amendment banned slavery, not granted it.
Uh. No it did not. Read the text of the amendment…
Thirteenth Amendment. The full text of the amendment is: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.Thirteenth Amendment | United States Constitution ...
So yes, any one who is convicted of a crime, and becomes a felon becomes a member of the Slavery Class. And maybe that will help everyone understand why so many blacks and Negros were arrested after the American Civil War. It also explains the great saturation of laws in the 1920’s that banned the habits, and vices of the Negro population, turning many of them into felons.
So, yeah. There is a fourth class; the slavery class. And once you are in it, it is extremely difficult to leave it.
Ah, there’s another class as well…
The Untouchables class
This class is the “Sex Offender Class”, and it is even worse than the Slavery Class. Once you enter that class, you have very little rights, no freedoms, and pretty much will live in poverty for the rest of your life. You can describe this class by income, or demographics, but the reality is that this class is mandated by law.
It’s to take evil child molester “off the streets”. And everyone believes it. Though it’s been my experience that of those arrested and convicted only a very tiny number fit that public narrative. Most are thrown into that class for other reasons.
But wait! There’s more!
There’s the…
Gig class.
This class is a newly formed class where the workers float between Low Class and Middle Class. They use their skills, time and effort as opportunities come and go. Unlike the low class, they can periodically rise out of that class, but then sink right back down when their “gig” dries up. This class consists of Uber Drivers, and IoT designers.
Similarly there is the…
Per Diem Class
This is similar to the Gig Class except that the skill level is much higher, the monetary rewards are much higher, and the time period cycle between jobs is much longer. These workers are much in demand, and command high salary rates with supportive Per Diem costs covered by monthly bonuses.
And there is the exclusive class…
The Oligarchy class
This class is the territory of the super rich, the mega-billionaires. They are not only rich and powerful, but they control major segments of the governments as well. They are, in effect, the “untouchables”. These people, these families, are far more powerful, capable and “connected” than the upper class. They are in a group of their own, and it amazes me that modern day sociologists do not recognize this class at all.
Finally, we have the…
The undocumented class.
Which is much larger than anyone knows. It mostly concerns non-citizens who live within the United States, who often work and collect benefits, but do not officially exist. To ignore this enormous segment of the population is disingenuous.
Summary of the Classes
OK. So here is a summary…
The Oligarchy class
The Upper Class
The Per Diem Class
The Middle Class
The Gig Class
The Low Class
The Slave Class
The Untouchables
The Undocumented Class.
The basic rules
A “class” is similar to a caste. In that it is extremely difficult to move from one class to another. Movement can happen, it’s just that it is extremely rare.
The primary difference between “class” and “caste” is that a caste system keeps you locked into your caste. While in “class” downwards movement to a lower class is always possible. While upwards movement is outrageously difficult, and extremely rate.
My GOD! America is like an old game of “chutes and ladders”.
The game of chutes and ladders.
Introduction
Let’s get started.
Aaron grew up on a farm in rural Ohio, left home to serve in the Army, and returned a few years later to take over the family farm. He moved into the same house he had grown up in and soon married a young woman with whom he had attended high school. As they began to have children, they quickly realized that the income from the farm was no longer sufficient to meet their needs. Aaron, with little experience beyond the farm, accepted a job as a clerk at a local grocery store. It was there that his life and the lives of his wife and children were changed forever.
One of the managers at the store liked Aaron, his attitude, and his work ethic. He took Aaron under his wing and began to groom him for advancement at the store. Aaron rose through the ranks with ease. Then the manager encouraged him to take a few classes at a local college. This was the first time Aaron had seriously thought about college. Could he be successful, Aaron wondered? Could he actually be the first one in his family to earn a degree? Fortunately, his wife also believed in him and supported his decision to take his first class. Aaron asked his wife and his manager to keep his college enrollment a secret. He did not want others to know about it in case he failed.
Aaron was nervous on his first day of class. He was older than the other students, and he had never considered himself college material. Through hard work and determination, however, he did very well in the class. While he still doubted himself, he enrolled in another class. Again, he performed very well. As his doubt began to fade, he started to take more and more classes. Before he knew it, he was walking across the stage to receive a Bachelor’s degree with honors. The ceremony seemed surreal to Aaron. He couldn’t believe he had finished college, which once seemed like an impossible feat.
Shortly after graduation, Aaron was admitted into a graduate program at a well-respected university where he earned a Master’s degree. He had not only become the first from his family to attend college but also he had earned a graduate degree. Inspired by Aaron’s success, his wife enrolled at a technical college, obtained a degree in nursing, and became a registered nurse working in a local hospital’s labor and delivery department. Aaron and his wife both worked their way up the career ladder in their respective fields and became leaders in their organizations. They epitomized the American Dream—they worked hard and it paid off.
This story may sound familiar. After all, nearly one in three first-year college students is a first-generation degree candidate, and it is well documented that many are not as successful as Aaron.
According to the Center for Student Opportunity, a national nonprofit, 89 percent of first-generation students will not earn an undergraduate degree within six years of starting their studies. In fact, these students “drop out of college at four times the rate of peers whose parents have postsecondary degrees” (Center for Student Opportunity quoted in Huot 2014).
What is Social Stratification?
In the upper echelons of the working world, people with the most power reach the top. These people make the decisions and earn the most money. The majority of Americans will never see the view from the top.
Sociologists use the term social stratification to describe the system of social standing. Social stratification refers to a society’s categorization of its people into rankings of socioeconomic tiers based on factors like wealth, income, race, education, and power.
Social Stratification
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You may remember the word “stratification” from geology class. The distinct vertical layers found in rock, called stratification, are a good way to visualize social structure. Society’s layers are made of people, and society’s resources are distributed unevenly throughout the layers. The people who have more resources represent the top layer of the social structure of stratification. Other groups of people, with progressively fewer and fewer resources, represent the lower layers of our society.
In the United States, people like to believe everyone has an equal chance at success. It’s a hopeful narrative and a lively premise, but (for the most part) it is false.
To a certain extent, Aaron illustrates the belief that hard work and talent—not prejudicial treatment or societal values—determine social rank. This emphasis on self-effort perpetuates the belief that people control their own social standing. In fact, this narrative is played often and over in America. It creates the illusion that everyone can “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and make a life for themselves in America.
It has become a political rallying cry.
But it is false.
The data is as plain as day. It is as damning as it is clear. The rate of upward movement in the American class system is negligible at best, and completely absent for the vast majority of American citizenry.
Sociologists recognize that social stratification is a society-wide system that makes inequalities apparent. While there are always inequalities between individuals, sociologists are interested in larger social patterns. Stratification is not about individual inequalities, but about systematic inequalities based on group membership, classes, and the like. No individual, rich or poor, can be blamed for social inequalities.
The structure of society affects a person’s social standing.
Although individuals may support or fight inequalities, social stratification is created and supported by society as a whole. In America the rich people want to associate with other wealthy individuals, and shun the rest. Anyone who has tried to pledge in certain fraternities or sororities can well see this in action.
Likewise, the same holds true for the lower class strata as well.
. In America there is a stigma about association with a “lower” class than what you belong to. I cannot help but think that Donald Trump or Joe Biden would be loathe to help this poor woman up as she struggles to purchase a six-pack of Pepsi.
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Factors that define stratification vary in different societies. In most societies, stratification is an economic system, based on wealth, the net value of money and assets a person has, and income, a person’s wages or investment dividends. While people are regularly categorized based on how rich or poor they are, other important factors influence social standing.
For example, in some cultures, wisdom and charisma are valued, and people who have them are revered more than those who don’t. In some cultures, the elderly are esteemed; in others, the elderly are disparaged or overlooked. Societies’ cultural beliefs often reinforce the inequalities of stratification.
One key determinant of social standing is the social standing of our parents.
Parents tend to pass their social position on to their children. People inherit not only social standing but also the cultural norms that accompany a certain lifestyle. They share these with a network of friends and family members. Social standing becomes a comfort zone, a familiar lifestyle, and an identity.
. People inherit not only social standing but also the cultural norms that accompany a certain lifestyle. They share these with a network of friends and family members. Social standing becomes a comfort zone, a familiar lifestyle, and an identity. Therefore it is desirable for the parents to push their children to attend college and excel.
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This is one of the reasons first-generation college students do not fare as well as other students.
Other determinants are found in a society’s occupational structure. Teachers, for example, often have high levels of education but receive relatively low pay. Many believe that teaching is a noble profession, so teachers should do their jobs for love of their profession and the good of their students—not for money. Yet no successful executive or entrepreneur would embrace that attitude in the business world, where profits are valued as a driving force. Cultural attitudes and beliefs like these support and perpetuate social inequalities.
Recent Economic Changes and U.S. Stratification
As a result of the Great Recession that rocked the United States economy in the last few years, many families and individuals found themselves struggling like never before. The nation fell into a period of prolonged and exceptionally high unemployment.
While no one was completely insulated from the recession, perhaps those in the lower classes felt the impact most profoundly.
The Working Poor.
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Before the 1990’s, many were living paycheck to paycheck or even had been living comfortably. As the recession hit, they were often among the first to lose their jobs. Unable to find replacement employment, they faced more than loss of income. Their homes were foreclosed, their cars were repossessed, and their ability to afford healthcare was taken away. This put many in the position of deciding whether to put food on the table or fill a needed prescription.
But the Great Recession, like the Great Depression, has changed social attitudes.
Where once it was important to demonstrate wealth by wearing expensive clothing items like Calvin Klein shirts and Louis Vuitton shoes, now there’s a new, thriftier way of thinking. In many circles, it has become hip to be frugal. It’s no longer about how much we spend, but about how much we don’t spend.
Systems of Stratification
Sociologists distinguish between two types of systems of stratification.
Closed systems accommodate little change in social position. They do not allow people to shift levels and do not permit social relationships between levels.
Open systems, which are based on achievement, allow movement and interaction between layers and classes.
Different systems reflect, emphasize, and foster certain cultural values and shape individual beliefs. Stratification systems include class systems and caste systems, as well as meritocracy.
The Caste System – India
India used to have a rigid caste system until it was banned. The people in the lowest caste suffered from extreme poverty and were shunned by society. Some aspects of India’s defunct caste system remain socially relevant.
Caste systems are closed stratification systems in which people can do little or nothing to change their social standing. A caste system is one in which people are born into their social standing and will remain in it their whole lives.
People are assigned occupations regardless of their talents, interests, or potential. There are virtually no opportunities to improve a person’s social position.
The Indian caste system.
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In the Hindu caste tradition, people were expected to work in the occupation of their caste and to enter into marriage according to their caste. Accepting this social standing was considered a moral duty. Cultural values reinforced the system. Caste systems promote beliefs in fate, destiny, and the will of a higher power, rather than promoting individual freedom as a value. A person who lived in a caste society was socialized to accept his or her social standing.
Although the caste system in India has been officially dismantled, its residual presence in Indian society is deeply embedded. It still exists. It’s just that the government refuses to acknowledge it’s existence and provides “lip service” to any evidence of it’s existence.
In rural areas, aspects of the tradition are more likely to remain, while urban centers show less evidence of this past. In India’s larger cities, people now have more opportunities to choose their own career paths and marriage partners. As a global center of employment, corporations have introduced merit-based hiring and employment to the nation.
The Class System – United States, the UK, Australia
A class system is based on money, social factors, individual achievement, politics and law.
A class consists of a set of people who share similar status with regard to factors like wealth, income, education, and occupation.
Unlike caste systems, class systems are open. People are free to gain a different level of education or employment than their parents. They can also socialize with and marry members of other classes, which allows people to move from one class to another.
. In the United States, the Oligarchy class, and the upper Class have no concern for the United States citizenry. They run the nation, and make the laws so that only their class benefits.
In a class system, occupation is not fixed at birth. Though family and other societal models help guide a person toward a career, personal choice plays a role.
In class systems, people have the option to form exogamous marriages, unions of spouses from different social categories.
Marriage in these circumstances is based on values such as love and compatibility rather than on social standing or economics. Though social conformities still exist that encourage people to choose partners within their own class, people are not as pressured to choose marriage partners based solely on those elements. Marriage to a partner from the same social background is an endogamous union.
Meritocracy – China
Meritocracy is an ideal system based on the belief that social stratification is the result of personal effort—or merit—that determines social standing.
High levels of effort will lead to a high social position, and vice versa. The concept of meritocracy is considered an ideal in the West. It is believed that it is unobtainable. That is because the Western societies simply cannot understand a society based on Confucian thought. Therefore, they argue that a society has never existed where social rank was based purely on merit.
Those in the West argue this because of the complex structure of societies, processes like socialization, and the realities of economic systems, social standing is influenced by multiple factors—not merit alone.
In the West, inheritance and pressure to conform to norms, for instance, and disrupts the notion of a pure meritocracy. Yet, China comes as realistically close to that ideal than any other nation in history.
The difference between an oligarchy class run government, and a meritocracy are stark.
Status Consistency
Social stratification systems determine social position based on factors like income, education, and occupation. Sociologists use the term status consistency to describe the consistency, or lack thereof, of an individual’s rank across these factors. Caste systems correlate with high status consistency, whereas the more flexible class system has lower status consistency.
To illustrate, let’s consider Susan.
Susan earned her high school degree but did not go to college. That factor is a trait of the lower-middle class.
She began doing landscaping work, which, as manual labor, is also a trait of lower-middle class or even lower class.
However, over time, Susan started her own company. She hired employees. She won larger contracts. She became a business owner and earned a lot of money.
Those traits represent the upper-middle class. There are inconsistencies between Susan’s educational level, her occupation, and her income.
In a class system, a person can work hard and have little education and still be in middle or upper class, whereas in a caste system that would not be possible. In a class system, low status consistency correlates with having more choices and opportunities.
Social Stratification and Mobility in the United States
Most sociologists define social class as a grouping based on similar social factors like wealth, income, education, and occupation. These factors affect how much power and prestige a person has. Social stratification reflects an unequal distribution of resources.
In most cases, having more money means having more power or more opportunities.
Stratification can also result from physical and intellectual traits. Categories that affect social standing include family ancestry, race, ethnicity, age, and gender. In the United States, standing can also be defined by characteristics such as IQ, athletic abilities, appearance, personal skills, and achievements.
Additionally, in America, there are legal stratifications. That is, forced class membership by law.
All Felons enter the Slave Class.
All Sex Offender Felons enter the Untouchables Class.
All undocumented, or non-citizens, are in the Undocumented Class.
Standard of Living
In the last century, the United States has seen a steady rise in its standard of living, the level of wealth available to a certain socioeconomic class in order to acquire the material necessities and comforts to maintain its lifestyle.
The standard of living is based on factors such as income, employment, class, poverty rates, and housing affordability. Because standard of living is closely related to quality of life, it can represent factors such as the ability to afford a home, own a car, and take vacations.
In the United States, a small portion of the population has the means to the highest standard of living.
. The Upper class are insulated from the realities of life in the other class segments. As time moves forward they become more and more insulated from reality, and live trapped in a bubble that represents a life that does not exist.
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A Federal Reserve Bank study shows that a mere one percent of the population holds one-third of our nation’s wealth (Kennickell 2009). Wealthy people receive the most schooling, have better health, and consume the most goods and services. Wealthy people also wield decision-making power.
Many people think of the United States as a “middle-class society.” They think a few people are rich, a few are poor, and most are fairly well off, existing in the middle of the social strata.
But as the study mentioned above indicates, there is NOT an even distribution of wealth.
Millions of women and men struggle to pay rent, buy food, find work, and afford basic medical care. Women who are single heads of household tend to have a lower income and lower standard of living than their married or male counterparts. This is a worldwide phenomenon known as the “feminization of poverty”—which acknowledges that women disproportionately make up the majority of individuals in poverty across the globe.
In the United States, as in most high-income nations, social stratifications and standards of living are in part based on occupation (Lin and Xie 1988).
Aside from the obvious impact that income has on someone’s standard of living, occupations also influence social standing through the relative levels of prestige they afford.
Employment in medicine, law, or engineering confers high status.
Teachers and police officers are generally respected, though not considered particularly prestigious.
At the other end of the scale, some of the lowest rankings apply to positions like waitress, janitor, and bus driver.
The most significant threat to the relatively high standard of living that everyone is accustomed to in the United States is the decline of the middle class. The size, income, and wealth of the middle class have all been declining since the 1970s. This is occurring at a time when corporate profits have increased more than 141 percent, and CEO pay has risen by more than 298 percent (Popken 2007).
. The decline in the American middle Class parallels the decline in union organizations.
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G. William Domhoff, of the University of California at Santa Cruz, reports that “In 2010, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 35.4% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 53.5%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 89%, leaving only 11% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers)” (Domhoff 2013).
35.0% of wealth – Oligarchy Class.
53.5% of wealth – Upper Class
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89.0% of wealth – The top two classes
While several economic factors can be improved in the United States (inequitable distribution of income and wealth, feminization of poverty, stagnant wages for most workers while executive pay and profits soar, declining middle class), we are fortunate that the poverty experienced here is most often relative poverty and not absolute poverty.
Whereas absolute poverty is deprivation so severe that it puts survival in jeopardy, relative poverty is not having the means to live the lifestyle of the average person in your country.
Absolute poverty = Personal survival is difficult.
Relative poverty = Not having the means to live an average lifestyle.
As a wealthy developed country, the United States has the resources to provide the basic necessities to those in need through a series of federal and state social welfare programs. The best-known of these programs is likely the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is administered by the United States Department of Agriculture. (This used to be known as the food stamp program.)
The program began in the Great Depression, when unmarketable or surplus food was distributed to the hungry. It was not until 1961 that President John F. Kennedy initiated a food stamp pilot program. His successor Lyndon B. Johnson was instrumental in the passage of the Food Stamp Act in 1964. In 1965, more than 500,000 individuals received food assistance. In March 2008, on the precipice of the Great Recession, participation hovered around 28 million people. During the recession, that number escalated to more than 40 million (USDA).
However, for all practical purposes, the United States distribution of such aid is insufficient, spotty and fraught with fraud. It’s a “dead horse”, and fraught with inefficiencies, corruption and abuse.
Urban Dictionary: dead horse
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dead horse
dead horse Military term for an issue that has been addressed over and over and over again. Comes from the expression ”You’re beating a dead horse.”, meaning that talking about the issue is not going to change anything so drop it.
What to do when you are stuck riding a “dead horse”.
Social Classes in the United States
Does a person’s appearance indicate class? Can you tell a man’s education level based on his clothing? Do you know a woman’s income by the car she drives?
For sociologists, categorizing class is a fluid science.
While I have identified nine classes in America, I am the outlier. Sociologists generally identify three levels of class in the United States: upper, middle, and lower class. Within each class, there are many subcategories. Wealth is the most significant way of distinguishing classes, because wealth can be transferred to one’s children and perpetuate the class structure.
One economist, J.D. Foster, defines the 20 percent of U.S. citizens’ highest earners as “upper income,” and the lower 20 percent as “lower income.” The remaining 60 percent of the population make up the middle class. But by that distinction, annual household incomes for the middle class range between $25,000 and $100,000 (Mason and Sullivan 2010).
One sociological perspective distinguishes the classes, in part, according to their relative power and control over their lives. The upper class not only have power and control over their own lives but also their social status gives them power and control over others’ lives. The middle class doesn’t generally control other strata of society, but its members do exert control over their own lives. In contrast, the lower class has little control over their work or lives. Below, we will explore the major divisions of U.S. social class and their key subcategories.
The Oligarchy Class
The upper class is considered the top, and only the powerful elite get to see the view from there. In the United States, people with extreme wealth make up 1 percent of the population, and they own one-third of the country’s wealth (Beeghley 2008).
. The Oligarchy class use their wealth to control the rest of society.
The richest 1% know the secrets to building wealth, and nothing makes that more evident than the statistics about how they stack up to the 99% that most of us belong to. Additionally, once they reach a certain stage of wealth and income, they tend to use it to control the government, and thus create a bubble of isolation around themselves for protection. The laws do not apply to them.
1. It takes an annual income of $421,926 to join the 1% in the U.S.
When we think of the 1%, we often think of people raking in seven figures a year, but it only takes the comparatively modest figure of $421,926 to join the 1% in the U.S., according to data from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). That’s an average of about $35,161 per month or about $1,156 per day.
Being in the 1% of your state may cost more or less than this, though. Connecticut residents will need to earn a whopping $700,800 per year to join this elite group while Mississippi residents can join the 1% with a mere $254,362 in annual income.
2. The richest 1% earn 26.3 times more than the bottom 99%.
The average one-percenter can expect to earn almost $1,317,000 per year, according to the EPI study. By contrast, the average 99-percenter brings home just $50,107 per year. That puts the average 1% income about 26.3 times higher than the average income for the rest of the country.
This ratio also varies by state. New York has the largest income inequality gap with the top 1% taking home 44.4 times what the bottom 99% earn in that state. Alaska has the lowest income inequality gap. Its 1% only earns 12.3 times what its bottom 99% earn.
3. The top 1% holds 42.5% of the national wealth.
The wealthiest 1% of U.S. residents — about 3.29 million people — hold 42.5% of our national wealth, while the remaining 325.7 million people share the remaining 57.5%, according to Inequality.org.
No other country in the world has so much wealth concentrated in the hands of the few. In the Netherlands, which had the next-largest income inequality gap according to the Inequality.org survey, the 1% only holds 28% of the country’s wealth.
And how this manifests…
And, make no mistake, the Oligarchy Class IS the DE FACTO United States today…
As a fan of old movies in general and Sunset Boulevard in particular, I keep coming back to how the psychological profile of Norma Desmond’s character seems so reminiscent of the United States right now – or more precisely the political class that dictates its policies and the narrative used to maintain the illusion. After the end of the Cold War, Washington was the grand dame on the world stage, at the peak of her powers economically and militarily. And she wielded her power without apology for years, becoming entitled to wield it – making demands and bossing others around whom she perceived to be lesser lights.
She’s declining now but doesn’t accept it – continuing to bomb other nations without remorse, assassinating foreign military leaders, sanctioning 1/3 of the world’s population, dotting every corner of the globe with military bases, and engaging in brinksmanship – all while continuing to proclaim her greatness, exceptionalism and indispensability. Other players on the world stage seem to see through the masquerade, but still feel the need to tiptoe around her.
Having a population whose life expectancy is decreasing, an infrastructure that rates a D+ from civil engineers, doesn’t manufacture much of its essential needs, and who can’t even competently handle a public health crisis doesn’t upset the story that America continues to tell herself. Rather than accept her declining stature and use whatever influence she still has to engineer a soft landing domestically and work with the rest of the world toward a multi-polar order that values peaceful co-existence, America seems to have chosen the Norma Desmond path: very entitled, very narcissistic, and dangerously deluded.
-Is the US the Norma Desmond of the world stage?
Norma Desmond.
Upper Class
Money provides not just access to material goods, but also access to a lot of power.
Range is $200,000 to $420,000 / year.
These people are the direct subordinates reporting to the owners; the oligarchy.
As corporate leaders, members of the upper class make decisions that affect the job status of millions of people.
As media owners, they influence the collective identity of the nation. They run the major network television stations, radio broadcasts, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, and sports franchises.
As board members of the most influential colleges and universities, they influence cultural attitudes and values.
As philanthropists, they establish foundations to support social causes they believe in.
As campaign contributors, they sway politicians and fund campaigns, sometimes to protect their own economic interests.
. I used to hate cartoons like this. But I learned that this narrative is true. It is extraordinarily difficult to raise above and out of your social-economic class. While there are instances, from recent history of people who have climbed out, they are practically few, and far between. It is not as common as the “news” media wold lead you to believe.
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U.S. society has historically distinguished between “old money” (inherited wealth passed from one generation to the next) and “new money” (wealth you have earned and built yourself). While both types may have equal net worth, they have traditionally held different social standings.
People of old money, firmly situated in the upper class for generations, have held high prestige. Their families have socialized them to know the customs, norms, and expectations that come with wealth. Often, the very wealthy don’t work for wages. Some study business or become lawyers in order to manage the family fortune. Others, such as Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, capitalize on being a rich socialite and transform that into celebrity status, flaunting a wealthy lifestyle.
However, new-money members of the upper class are not oriented to the customs and mores of the elite. They haven’t gone to the most exclusive schools. They have not established old-money social ties. People with new money might flaunt their wealth, buying sports cars and mansions, but they might still exhibit behaviors attributed to the middle and lower classes.
The Per Diem Class
This is a relatively transient class, that came into being in the 1980’s. They flourished during the 2000’s and are now sliding into obscurity. The members mostly being replaced by gig class, and middle class technical workers on a rotating basis.
Per diem the noun, is an amount of money someone allots to you for daily expenditure, such as for business. Similarly, the adjective "per diem" means "daily" and is usually related to costs or expenses that happen on a daily basis. Lastly, "per diem" is also an adverb meaning literally "by the day." If you only work on days you are needed, you work "per diem."
This is a class of professionals that have both the skills, education and experience to perform highly specialized tasks for limited periods of time. They are often considered “rent a engineers” by industry.
It is often difficult to find the properly qualified expert in certain fields. This is most especially true in the United States.
As such, they are very specialized and thus often sit between job opportunities without bringing in any income. Then, when an opportunity arises, they can command enormous rates for short-term work. These people are employed in advanced defense technologies, on oil rigs and in difficult situations.
They “float” between having the income of Upper Class, and having no income at all.
Middle Class
Many people consider themselves middle class, but there are differing ideas about what that means.
People with annual incomes of $150,000 call themselves middle class, as do people who annually earn $30,000. That helps explain why, in the United States, the middle class is broken into upper and lower subcategories.
Upper middle class – $100, 000 to $200,000
Middle, middle class – $50,000 to $100,000
Lower Middle class – $25,000 to $50,000
Upper-middle-class people tend to hold bachelor’s and postgraduate degrees. They’ve studied subjects such as business, management, law, or medicine. Lower-middle-class members hold bachelor’s degrees from four-year colleges or associate’s degrees from two-year community or technical colleges.
Comfort is a key concept to the middle class.
Middle-class people work hard and live fairly comfortable lives. Uppermiddle- class people tend to pursue careers that earn comfortable incomes. They provide their families with large homes and nice cars. They may go skiing or boating on vacation. Their children receive high-quality education and healthcare (Gilbert 2010).
In fact, what you do with your one to two week vacation time pretty much is an indicator as to where you reside on the Middle Class scale.
Packaged vacations every year = Upper middle class.
One packaged vacation a decade = middle, middle class.
Vacation is a road trip to see relatives = Low middle class.
In the lower middle class, people hold jobs supervised by members of the upper middle class.
They fill technical, lower level management or administrative support positions. Compared to lower-class work, lower-middle-class jobs carry more prestige and come with slightly higher paychecks. With these incomes, people can afford a decent, mainstream lifestyle, but they struggle to maintain it. They generally don’t have enough income to build significant savings. In addition, their grip on class status is more precarious than in the upper tiers of the class system.
Conventional explorations of why the middle class is shrinking focus on economic issues such as the decline of unions and manufacturing, the increasing premiums paid to the highest-paid workers and the rising costs of higher education and healthcare.
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All of these factors have a role, but few comment on the non-economic factors, specifically the values that underpin the accumulation of capital that is the one essential project of middle class households.
"capitalism--and the culture it creates--harbors the seeds of its own downfall by creating a need among successful people for personal gratification--a need that corrodes the work ethic that led to their success in the first place."
I would phrase this in the language of values and capital: The primary cultural contradiction of the Great American Middle Class is the disconnect between the values needed to build capital and those of gratification via debt-based consumption.
Arrayed against these capital-accumulation-disciplined values are the consumerist values of instant gratification, short-term horizons, lack of long-term goals, self-indulgence, impulse buying, keeping up with the Joneses (i.e. competitive consumption), and an obsessive focus on the social/consumption pecking order of one’s peers, all of which incentivize debt-based consumption that spends future earnings today on non-essentials.
Which is true, if you sacrifice. Live in a van. Eat dumpster food while scrimping and saving every penny, and enjoying free soup kitchens, and making free iced tea from courtesy lemon packets in the fast food franchises.
I was astonished to read in $100,000 and up is not enough – even the ‘rich’ live paycheck to paycheck that busy couples spend $2,000 to $2,600 per month eating out. That’s roughly $30,000 a year, the equivalent of a brand-new vehicle plus a used car or one year of college–or a down payment on a rental home in a non-bubble locale.
The article contends that
"Many 'rich' people have problems accepting that they aren't really that wealthy and the money will not last forever."
This is an excellent summary of the consumerist mentality: income, wealth and financial security are all grossly over-estimated…
… while debt is under-estimated.
Conventional Americans may wonder how recent legal immigrants with modest-paying jobs buy homes and pay off the mortgage in a few years and then send their kids to university with zero student loans. In a conventional consumerist household earning two times as much annual gross income, this is viewed as “impossible.”
Perhaps if most American too, lived in multi-generational homes with thirty family members sharing the rent/mortgage and contributing to the collective they might do better.
But America is the land of the "Lone Wolf". You are kicked out on the street at 18 years old, and must fend for yourself. Unless you have strong supportive family...
Like the Oligarchy Class.
Like the Upper Class.
Like the Undocumented Class.
You will always be at a disadvantage. Especially in a nation that has comprised laws designed to keep you firmly planted in the role that it establishes for you.
The Gig Class
The term “gig economy” refers to a free market system in which traditional businesses hire independent contractors, freelancers, and short-term workers to perform individual tasks, assignments, or jobs. The term comes from the world of the performing arts in which musicians, comedians, etc. are paid for their individual appearances, called “gigs.”
In the gig economy, businesses hire independent contractors to perform individual jobs, called “gigs.”
Hired and assigned via internet and smartphone applications, gig employees work remotely.
While contract gig workers enjoy great scheduling flexibility and extra income, they suffer from relatively low pay, lack of benefits, and increased stress.
In 2018, about 57 million Americans—nearly 36% of the total U.S. workforce—were full or part-time gig workers.
While such temporary arrangements offer tremendous advantages, like freedom and flexibility, workers in the rapidly-evolving gig economy are finding they face an increased risk of financial hardship.
How?
Without any support structures such as medical, retirement, pension, and similar systems, they are off alone and are totally responsible for their own income and benefits.
Much like traditional jobs, gig economy jobs are great—until they’re not.
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In the “gig economy” or “freelance economy,” gig workers earn all or part of their incomes from short-term contracts under which they are paid for individual tasks, assignments, or jobs.
Typified by globally-recognized companies like Uber, and Lyft—which hire people to use their personal vehicles to provide taxi-like, on-demand ride services—gig economy companies use internet and smartphone-based applications to both hire and assign workers.
Each individual gig or assignment usually accounts for only a part of gig worker’s total income.
By combining several tasks for different companies, gig workers can realize cumulative earnings equal to those of conventional full-time jobs.
For example, some gig workers drive their cars for both Uber and Lyft, along with renting out rooms in their homes through Airbnb. Other people simply use gig jobs to supplement their regular income.
Another aspect of the gig economy involves so-called “digital earning platforms,” like eBay and Etsy, which allow people to earn money by selling their used items or personal creations, and online handyman services, like TaskRabbit.
In many ways, the gig economy reflects and facilitates the desire of millennial generation workers for greater flexibility in balancing their work-life demands, often changing jobs several times during their lifetimes. No matter what motives drive gig workers, the popularity of the internet, with its capability for remote work, has caused the gig economy to thrive.
But you all must be made aware... the idea that you can enter the Upper Class, or the Oligarchy Class from the Gig Class is a lie. It is not possible.
...You will NEVER become wealthy blogging.
...You cannot become a millionaire by posting sexy pictures in Instagram with 100 million followers.
...You are not going to enter the Upper class with an IoT invention.
All those ideas are fantastical lies promoted by the oligarchy class to keep the lower classes complaisant and content with their lot in life.
Lower Class
The lower class is also referred to as the working class. Just like the middle and upper classes, the lower class can be divided into subsets: the working class, the working poor, and the underclass.
Working Class
Working Poor
The Underclass
Compared to the lower middle class, lower class people have less of an educational background and earn smaller incomes. They work jobs that require little prior skill or experience and often do routine tasks under close supervision.
. Walter Williams advice is great, but terribly dated. It applies to China, Australia, Italy, Poland, Russia, but not to the United States. The best that this pre-1960’s advice can get you in the USA today is better placement within your social-economic class, nothing more.
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Working-class people, the highest subcategory of the lower class, often land decent jobs in fields like custodial or food service. The work is hands-on and often physically demanding, such as landscaping, cooking, cleaning, or building. Beneath the working class is the working poor. Like the working class, they have unskilled, low-paying employment.
However, their jobs rarely offer benefits such as healthcare or retirement planning, and their positions are often seasonal or temporary. They work as sharecroppers, migrant farm workers, house-cleaners, and day laborers. Some are high school dropouts. Some are illiterate, unable to read job ads.
How can people work full-time and still be poor?
Even working full-time, millions of the working poor earn incomes too meager to support a family. Minimum wage varies from state to state, but in many states it is approaching $8.00 per hour (Department of Labor 2014). At that rate, working 40 hours a week earns $320. That comes to $16,640 a year, before tax and deductions. Even for a single person, the pay is low. A married couple with children will have a hard time covering expenses.
Members of the underclass live mainly in inner cities. Many are unemployed or underemployed. Those who do hold jobs typically perform menial tasks for little pay. Some of the underclass are homeless. For many, welfare systems provide a much-needed support through food assistance, medical care, housing, and the like.
Many socialists confuse the Slave, destitute and undocumented classes due to the type of income producing work they can obtain.
Each class has it's own set of criteria that extends beyond income alone.
The Slave Class
This class is mandated by law.
The 13th amendment allowed slavery in the United States whenever someone is convicted of a felony. Thus, in the USA today, all Felons are members of the Slave Class.
As such, it is very difficult, if not impossible to get any employment outside the Low Class range, and this class distinction also places other Rights at risk. For instance owning a firearm, voting, or even boarding an airplane (with the no-fly list) can be impossible.
Professionals such as Doctors, and Engineers discover that they are forever barred from ever practicing their occupation. Whether it is through membership in a professional organization, or through the Human Resources department of a company, this class is persona non grata.
If you are arrested in America, you face entering the Slave Class.
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The only way out of this class is to have your felony expunged in a court of law. With a very small chance of this ever actually happening.
The Untouchable Class
This class is also mandated by law.
While the Slave Class has great hurtles, it is the untouchable class that lives within a real virtual prison. Every restriction possible by the local, state and federal governments apply. Where you live, where and how you travel, what you do, what you eat, and who you associate with are all regulated. Movement is redistricted if not curtailed, and all freedoms are absent.
Unable to work by law, and having housing restrictions, most end up trying to live in free-shelters or government housing. However new laws have made this impossible as any shelter that obtains federal funding is not permitted to accept members of this class.
The result is a destitute life.
It is extremely difficult to crawl out of the untouchable class.
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There is no exit from this class. In the United States, once you are on the “Sex Offender” list, you are on it for life.
The large number of illegal aliens can be attributed to a number of factors, including:
Unsecured borders.
An explosion in sanctuary jurisdictions throughout the United States, where local law enforcement authorities refuse to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The availability of jobs. Illegal aliens know they will find work because America has yet to put in place mandatory E-Verify for all employers.
The increasing number of social welfare programs, and other benefits, given to illegal aliens by states and local governments – including in-state college tuition and driver’s licenses.
Easily exploited asylum laws, flawed detention policies and a growing immigration court backlog that, for years, have allowed illegal aliens to obtain release from ICE custody and disappear into the interior of the United States.
The on-going promise of amnesty by members of Congress and powerful special interests.
These individuals are recognized by the government legally, why they are not recognized socially is a mystery to me. I guess that it is just laziness on the part of sociologists.
This class has become somewhat of a political “football” used for distraction purposes. This class isn’t really “stealing jobs” from Americans, though it is deleting and siphoning away from the health and human benefits organizations that the Low Class uses to live off of.
It is unrealistic to believe that this class will eventually disappear though legislation. It is in America permanently.
Social Mobility
Social mobility refers to the ability to change positions within a social stratification system. When people improve or diminish their economic status in a way that affects social class, they experience social mobility.
Social mobility. Like this, perhaps…
Social Mobility, American Style.
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Individuals can experience upward or downward social mobility for a variety of reasons. Upward mobility refers to an increase—or upward shift—in social class. In the United States, people applaud the rags-to-riches achievements of celebrities like Jennifer Lopez or Michael Jordan.
Bestselling author Stephen King worked as a janitor prior to being published. Oprah Winfrey grew up in poverty in rural Mississippi before becoming a powerful media personality. There are many stories of people rising from modest beginnings to fame and fortune.
But the truth is that relative to the overall population, the number of people who rise from poverty to wealth is very small.
Still, upward mobility is not only about becoming rich and famous. In the United States, people who earn a college degree, get a job promotion, or marry someone with a good income may move up socially. In contrast, downward mobility indicates a lowering of one’s social class. Some people move downward because of business setbacks, unemployment, marriage, or illness.
Dropping out of school, losing a job, or getting a divorce may result in a loss of income or status and, therefore, downward social mobility.
It is not uncommon for different generations of a family to belong to varying social classes. This is known as intergenerational mobility. For example, an upper-class executive may have parents who belonged to the middle class. In turn, those parents may have been raised in the lower class. Patterns of intergenerational mobility can reflect long-term societal changes.
Similarly, intragenerational mobility refers to changes in a person’s social mobility over the course of his or her lifetime. For example, the wealth and prestige experienced by one person may be quite different from that of his or her siblings. Structural mobility happens when societal changes enable a whole group of people to move up or down the social class ladder.
Structural mobility is attributable to changes in society as a whole, not individual changes. In the first half of the twentieth century, industrialization expanded the U.S. economy, raising the standard of living and leading to upward structural mobility. In today’s work economy, the recent recession and the outsourcing of jobs overseas have contributed to high unemployment rates. Many people have experienced economic setbacks, creating a wave of downward structural mobility.
When analyzing the trends and movements in social mobility, sociologists consider all modes of mobility. Scholars recognize that mobility is not as common or easy to achieve as many people think. In fact, some consider social mobility a myth.
Class Traits
Class traits, also called class markers, are the typical behaviors, customs, and norms that define each class. Class traits indicate the level of exposure a person has to a wide range of cultures. Class traits also indicate the amount of resources a person has to spend on items like hobbies, vacations, and leisure activities.
Class traits, also called class markers, are the typical behaviors, customs, and norms that define each class.
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People may associate the upper class with enjoyment of costly, refined, or highly cultivated tastes—expensive clothing, luxury cars, high-end fund-raisers, and opulent vacations.
People may also believe that the middle and lower classes are more likely to enjoy camping, fishing, or hunting, shopping at large retailers, and participating in community activities.
While these descriptions may identify class traits, they may also simply be stereotypes.
Moreover, just as class distinctions have blurred in recent decades, so too have class traits. A very wealthy person may enjoy bowling as much as opera. A factory worker could be a skilled French cook. A billionaire might dress in ripped jeans, and a low-income student might own designer shoes.
Eraser Head.
Models of Global Stratification
Various models of global stratification all have one thing in common: they rank countries according to their relative economic status, or gross national product (GNP).
Traditional Model
Traditional models, now considered outdated, used labels to describe the stratification of the different areas of the world.
Simply put, they were named “first world, “second world,” and “third world.” First and second world described industrialized nations, while third world referred to “undeveloped” countries (Henslin 2004).
When researching existing historical sources, you may still encounter these terms, and even today people still refer to some nations as the “third world.”
More vs Less Developed
Another model separates countries into two groups: more developed and less developed.
More-developed nations have higher wealth, such as Canada, Japan, and Australia.
Less-developed nations have less wealth to distribute among higher populations, including many countries in central Africa, South America, and some island nations.
GDP
Yet another system of global classification defines countries based on the per capita gross domestic product (GDP), a country’s average national wealth per person.
The GDP is calculated (usually annually) one of two ways: by totaling either the income of all citizens or the value of all goods and services produced in the country during the year. It also includes government spending. Because the GDP indicates a country’s productivity and performance, comparing GDP rates helps establish a country’s economic health in relation to other countries.
This method can be terribly skewed upwards by a wealthy oligarchy class, thus providing inaccurate comparative data.
But the thing is, the GDP is only a reflection of the general health of a nation as long as the wealth is shared in a linear manner through out the classes. When the oligarchy became super-wealthy and gobbled up all the wealth, they skewed the GDP into unrealistic and deceptive numbers.
GDP migration skewed by the enormous wealth of the oligarchy class.
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The solution to this problem, is to come up with a different way to determine the actual wealth of a nation. Thus we have the PPP.
Purchasing power parity (PPP)
GDP PPP refers to the GDP converted to US dollars using purchasing power parity rates and divided by total population. Purchasing power parity (PPP) is used to adjust the exchange rate differences among countries. This economic theory states that the exchange rate between two currencies is equal to the ratio of the currencies’ respective purchasing power. PPP provides an opportunity to compare countries that have different standards of living by recalculating the value of a country’s goods and services as if they were being sold at U.S. prices.
E.g. China and UK has a GDP of $200m and $175m respectively, where the GDP of China is more by $25m. Assuming a basket of goods cost $200 in China and $175 in the UK, 1 million baskets of goods can be purchased in China whereas 1.75 million baskets of goods can be purchased in the UK.
According to the above, a higher GDP does not necessarily make a country richer, the relative purchasing power is important. In order to make price comparisons across countries, a wide range of goods and services must be considered. This is a very exhausting exercise; however, this has been made convenient by the International Comparisons Program (ICP) founded by the United Nations and University of Pennsylvania. ICP generates purchasing power parity rates based on a worldwide price survey that compares the prices of hundreds of various goods. This information can be used to compare countries to arrive at GDP PPP.
What’s Next
Well, if America [1] doesn’t change internally, and there are [2] no (additional) external wars, we can expect a tenth social class to be added. That of Chinese-Americans…
Coming soon to America, if SHTF doesn’t happen. The new tenth class of stratification; Chinese-Americans.
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We can expect them to fit somewhere between the Slave Class and the Untouchables Class.
So what does this mean?
When you have a stratified class system, and…
When you have a small group of super wealthy people in control of most of the money, all of the government, and all of the services, media and policing actions you have a dictatorship by oligarchy.
When this organization is focused on external threats to the extent that wars are more desirable than repair of serious domestic emergencies, then you have an out-of-control military empire.
And with that, history has been very clear. They ALWAYS are destroyed catastrophically.
Summary
What Is Social Stratification?
Stratification systems are either closed, meaning they allow little change in social position, or open, meaning they allow movement and interaction between the layers.
A caste system is one in which social standing is based on ascribed status or birth.
Class systems are open, with achievement playing a role in social position. People fall into classes based on factors like wealth, income, education, and occupation.
A meritocracy is a system of social stratification that confers standing based on personal worth, rewarding effort.
Social Stratification and Mobility in the United States
There are nine main classes in the United States. Social mobility describes a shift from one social class to another. Class traits, also called class markers, are the typical behaviors, customs, and norms that define each class.
Conclusion
All this shit about stratification in the USA gives me a headache. You all don’t have to believe that it is stratified. You can believe that narrative that is being piped to you 24/7 by the “news” media… that anyone can become rich and wealthy and successful.
Just look at all those instagram models… for instance.
The truth is that the class that you inherited is pretty much the upper limit of where you will end up and retire into. All those articles about Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and the Jeff Bezos are just fantasies. They only apply to the 0.00001% of the population, and if you believe that you are part of that elite group then go for it.
Just realize that the “deck of cards” is all stacked up against you. Not just socially, and culturally, but also mandated by law. You are fucked.
If I sound like a grouchy old geezer, who is a little long in the tooth and disgruntled, then maybe I am. But I have good reason to be. So listen to me…
…the ONLY way that you can exit your birth class, as an American, is to leave America. Other than that, you are locked in place, and upward mobility is pretty much closed to you. As we used to say in Pennsylvania, “it’s a closed country club, and you ain’t in it.”
Overall, 2020 has been a God-damn shitty year!
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It’s so very true. No one has yet to disagree. And with that being said, this all pretty much says it all…
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Yah, but let’s end this post on a high note…
The Saturday Night Joke
Very heartwarming....read to the end. It's worth the read.
Every morning, the CEO of a large bank in Manhattan walks to the corner where a shoe shine is always located.
He sits on the couch, examines the Wall Street Journal, and the shoe shine gives his shoes a shiny, excellent look.
One morning the shoeshine asks the Executive Director:
"What do you think about the situation in the stock market?"
The Director asks in turn arrogantly:
"Why are you so interested in that - that topic?"
"I have a million dollars in your bank," the shoeshine says, "and I'm considering investing some of the money in the capital market."
"What your name? –"Asks the Director.
"John Smith."
The Director arrives at the bank and asks the Manager of the Customer Department:
"Do we have a client named John Smith?"
"Certainly –"answers the Customer Service Manager–, "he is a highly esteemed customer. He has a million dollars in his account."
The Director comes out, approaches the shoeshine, and says:
"Mr. Smith, I ask you this coming Monday to be the guest of honor at our board meeting and tell us the story of your life. I am sure we will have something to learn from you."
At the board meeting, the Executive Director introduces him to the board members:
"We all know Mr. Smith, who makes our shoes shine in the corner; But Mr. Smith is also our esteemed customer with a million dollars in his account. I invited him to tell us the story of his life. I am sure we can learn from him."
Mr. Smith began his story:
"I came to this country fifty years ago as a young immigrant from Europe with an unpronounceable name. I got off the ship without a penny. The first thing I did was change my name to Smith. I was hungry and exhausted. I started wandering around looking for a job but to no avail. Suddenly I found a coin on the sidewalk. I bought an apple. I had two options: eat the apple and quench my hunger or start a business. I sold the apple for two dollars and bought two apples with the money. I also sold them and continued in business. When I started accumulating dollars, I was able to buy a set of used brushes and shoe polish and started polishing shoes. I didn't spend a penny on entertainment or clothing, I just bought bread and some cheese to survive. I saved penny by penny and after a while, I bought a new set of shoe brushes and ointments in different shades and expanded my clientele. I lived like a monk and saved penny by penny. After a while I was able to buy an armchair so that my clients could sit comfortably while cleaning their shoes, and that brought me more clients. I did not spend a penny on the joys of life. I kept saving every penny. A few years ago, when the previous shoe shine on the corner decided to retire, I had already saved enough money to buy his shoeshine location at this great place. Finally, three months ago, my sister, who was a whore in Chicago, passed away and left me a million dollars."
-From Busted Knuckles
(Bless that ornery old' coot.)
Ah.
That’s all fun and games, but now for the REAL STORY…
A janitor making $4/hour walked into a Fortune 500 company boardroom. Shaking, he took a seat opposite the CEO. "So I had an idea..." he nervously began.
Years later, that idea would become an iconic consumer brand and make him worth ~$20M.
Here's how that meeting went:
1) Richard Montañez grew up in Cucamonga Valley, California, sharing a one-room cinderblock hut with 14 family members. He dreaded school. Barely able to speak English, he’d cry to his mother as she was getting him ready for class.
2) When asked, all other students in class would eagerly shout out their dream job: Astronaut, Doctor, Racecar driver. Richard had nothing to say. “There was no dream where I came from.”
3) He dropped out of school in 4th grade and took odd jobs at farms and factories to help make ends meet.
Some years later in 1976, a neighbor let him know of a job opening for a factory janitor at the Frito-Lay plant down the road. The $4/hour pay was more than he'd ever made.
4) As he was getting ready for his first day of work, his grandfather pulled him aside and said: “Make sure that floor shines. And let them know that a Montañez mopped it.”
5) Richard made it his mission to be the best janitor Frito-Lay had ever seen. He spent his off-time learning about the company's products, manufacturing, marketing and more. He even asked salesmen to tag along and watch them sell.
6) In the mid-1980s Frito-Lay started to struggle. The CEO announced a new initiative to all 300,000 employees. “Act like an owner” Trying to empower them to work more creatively and efficiently. Montañez listened.
7) Then, he called the CEO.
“Mr. Enrico’s office. Who is this?”
“Richard Montañez, in California”
“You’re the VP overseeing CA?”
“No, I work at the Rancho Cucamonga plant.”
“Oh, so you’re the VP of Ops?”
“No, I work inside the plant.”
“You’re the manager?”
“No. I’m the janitor.”
8) The CEO got on the line. Loving the initiative, he told Richard to prepare a presentation, and he set a meeting in 2 weeks time. Stunned, Richard ran to the library and picked up a book on marketing strategies. Then, he started prepping.
9) 2 weeks later, he entered that boardroom. After taking a moment to catch his breath, he started telling them what he'd learned about Frito-Lay and the idea he'd been working on.
10) “I saw there was no product catering to Latinos.”. On the sales trips he shadowed he saw that in Latino neighborhoods Lays, Fritos, Ruffles, and Cheetos, were stocked right next to a shelf of Mexican spices. Frito-Lay had nothing spicy or hot.
11) The Latino market was ready to explode, Monteñez explained. Inspired by elote - a Mexican street corn covered in spices - Richard had created his own snack. He pulled out 100 plastic baggies. He had taken Cheetos from the factory and coated them in his own mix of spices.
12) He’d even sealed the bags with a clothing iron, and had hand drawn a logo on each one.
The room went silent.
After a few moments, the CEO spoke, “Put that mop away, you’re coming with us”.
13) Flamin’ Hot Cheetos became one of the most successful launches in Frito-Lay history. They went on to become a viral, pop-culture sensation.
Richard became a VP and amassed a $20M fortune.
Not bad for a boy from Cucamonga.
-From Busted Knuckles
(Bless that ornery old' coot.)
As he said with open honesty and pluck…
“I can say with confidence that Mr. Monteñez has done more to help the human race than a hundred soy boys with bachelor’s degrees in Botswanian Lesbian Feminist Interpretive Tap-Dancing Studies with tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt who’ve graduated with nothing but an unwarranted sense of entitlement and a sour attitude.
I have nothing to add to this story, other than reading it was like a breath of fresh air, and why don’t we hear more stories like this? Then I recall the inclinations of the people who are running our media, and the answer is obvious.”
…
The United States might be segregated and stratified by class, and by law, but you still have two hands and a brain. Whether you have the spunk and pluck to climb to the top of the oligarchy class, or not. Whether you have sunk to the untouchable class or not, your life is in your hands.
Make your life special.
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Spoiler alert; America is the most pathetic of the bunch. But you all need not worry. Businessmen in Washington DC can now deduct their three-martini lunches from federal taxes. Dictators in Africa get billions of dollars, and there are decreased taxes for the super-wealthy. Aren’t you so very proud to be an American?
While the world is reeling from the pandemic, the oligarchy toiling away in Washington DC have been using this pandemic to push for structural changes to the tax code. Many of the changes are stealth changes. Changes that have been been implemented silently over the last four decades or so. All of which is tax the poorer, working level citizenry, while providing benefits and tax relief to the wealthier people.
Greater taxes on the vast bulk of citizenry.
Less taxes on the higher social-economic citizens.
This is pretty well understood, if not at all reported.
And now, in the midst of a serious emergency; a global pandemic that America has completely bungled (politely stated, America has truly FUCKED UP on this issue), the oligarchy have been focused on making taxpayers subsidize lavish lunches for wealthy executives.
And their work has paid off in the latest Covid relief deal. Buried in the details of this modest aid plan is a provision to give executives unlimited tax deductions for their business meals for two years.
No. Not enough money to pay rent. (The last time my rent was under $600 was in the 1980’s.)
No. There isn’t any free treatments or hospital services if you get the coronavirus illness, like the FUCKING REST OF THE WORLD. You have to pay for the medical service out of your own pocket.
But this idea of giving extra benefits is pretty much the “old normal”. A normal that pre-dated the Ronald Reagan Presidency.
That’s how it worked back in the 1970s, when Presidential candidate George McGovern had this to say about it: “There’s something fundamentally wrong with the tax system,” he said, “when it allows a corporate executive to deduct his $20 martini lunch while a workingman cannot deduct the price of his bologna sandwich.”
"There’s something fundamentally wrong with the tax system when it allows a corporate executive to deduct his $20 martini lunch while a workingman cannot deduct the price of his bologna sandwich."
-George Mcgovern
President Ronald Reagan, of all people, actually agreed with McGovern. His 1986 tax-code overhaul, best remembered today for lowering overall rates, reduced the deductibility of business meals from 100 to 80 percent. In 1993, the Clinton administration pushed that deductibility rate down to 50 percent, where it has stayed ever since.
Now corporate lobbyists have managed to restore that 1970s-era perk – claiming, of course, that bigger tax write-offs for business meals would help struggling restaurants and the people they employ. It’s a real stretch. But those in Washington DC live in their own bubble of reality.
This argument that giving deductions to the activities of the upper-class would “trickle down” to the working-level folk has been proven to be a fallacy. Yet, it was used in the opposition to the Clinton-era tax reform. It was flawed then and it’s even more preposterous now.
Hey! Do you want to help the people working in the restaurants? Really? Then how about stop taxing tips.
Duh!
Which solution would best serve waiters and waitresses?
[1] Allowing the patrons to have tax deductions for their business lunches and alcoholic beverages.
[2] Stop taxing the tips that the waiters and waitresses get.
Today, when the real problem is a public health crisis that’s keeping people at home. The justification that lowering taxes on business meals will do anything to help struggling restaurant owners and employees is just bullshit.
This is not a true relief package. Relief would mirror the economic response of other western industrialized nations, where working people either receive regular monthly payments or are guaranteed up to 80% of their pre-Covid income.
A real relief bill would have canceled mortgage and rental debt.
Real relief would have included the expansion of Medicare and Medicaid to cover all medical debt resulting from the crisis.
Congress knows that the bill won’t solve the problems of a household facing upwards of $6,000 in unpaid rent.
They just hope it’s enough to distract from the utter lack of care and compassion that they have shown to people.
In this time of crisis, any support for corporations should encourage executives to treat their workers well, trim their own fat paychecks, and pay for their own lunches.
It’s never going to happen though. No one ever listens to me.
Why are we not surprised that the peons will get a one time check for $600, but a billionaire CEO will get to write off his $600 “business lunch” each and every day, all year long. You know, I can’t help but figure that this was thrown in for one reason, and one reason only. A giant middle finger to the working class. A quick brutal reminder that they indeed own the political class, and they are in charge.
That the stratification of America into a caste system, along the lines of India, is in process and there is nothing that Americans can do about it.
How do we know?
That’s a pretty damning statement. How do we know that is this the case?
Well, if you compare how citizens are treated around the world by their governments during this global pandemic, you can see this all quite clearly.
In nations that have governments that care for their citizens and take on the role of protectors and actuators, you can see that there are very large outlays given to the citizenry. But in nations that have either a very repressive government, or that possess one that is socially stratified (either officially or unofficially) they pretty much resemble America.
A comparison between different coronavirus stimulus packages.
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The U.S. has passed a third stimulus bill Monday night and an international comparison shows that it has been high time. According to an analysis by think tank Bruegel, the U.S. is the country currently offering a much lower level of coronavirus financial aid and stimulus than other developed nations. The bill's $900 billion in aid will up the level of stimulus from previously 14 percent (of 2019 GDP) to approximately 18 percent.
While that will still leave the U.S. at the lower end of the comparison, the country's share of immediate fiscal impulse is higher than elsewhere. Since cash checks for citizens are once again included in the new bill, the high level of immediate spending will likely remain the same after the new bill is entered into the Bruegel calculation, which has last been update on Nov 24, 2020.
April's checks for $1,200 to all Americans in a certain income bracket came to US$600 billion, the biggest single item in the entire stimulus package, which consisted of almost $2 trillion in direct stimulus and $560 billion each in deferrals (of payroll tax and student loans) and in liquidity/guarantee measures.
All the details
Yeah. All the details are available on the internet. Though you would be hard-pressed to find them in any American “news”. If you want to check out the details, you can find a pretty comprehensive listing at the (American based) Tax Foundation.
For the most part, except for the United States and India, most (but not all) nations follow the following guidelines…
Tax relief should be broad-based.
Tax relief should be in keeping with good long-term policy.
Using refundable tax credits designed for future credits.
Repair distortive tax policies that could impede recovery efforts.
Compared to America, most other nations are very generous. Even if they are tiny, or are short in resources.
Consider Australia as an example…
Australia Coronavirus Tax Relief
Australia has announced federal relief proposals that total around $320 billion (AUD). State governments have also announced relief packages and in some cases deferrals of payroll tax payments (Australian Capital Territory, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia).
The federal relief package includes direct payments to citizens. For job seekers impacted by the downturn, there will be payments of $550 every two weeks in addition to current income support payments. The government expects these payments to cost $14.1 billion. There is also a broad-based, $750 one-time payment to eligible recipients—this is expected to cost $4 billion. Individuals will also be able to temporarily access up to $10,000 from certain retirement accounts.
Through a new wage-subsidy scheme, employers will be able to receive a $1,500 payment per retained worker every two weeks. Businesses qualify for the subsidy if their revenues have fallen by 30 percent (50 percent for businesses with revenues greater than $1 billion) in the relevant time period relative to a year earlier. The subsidy will be in place for six months.
The aid packages provide relief to businesses through subsidized loans and central bank lending, and temporary relief from insolvency laws, immediate expensing (instant asset write-off), and accelerated depreciation.
Immediate expensing will now be available for assets costing less than $150,000 on a per-asset class basis. Eligibility is expanded to include businesses with annual revenues of less than $500 million (the current cap is $50 million). This measure applies until the end of June.
Accelerated depreciation will be provided temporarily for businesses with less than $500 million in revenues. In addition to current depreciation deductions, the policy allows an additional 50 percent deduction but only applies to assets purchased after March 12, 2020 and put into service by June 30, 2021.
Businesses subject to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) can apply for deferred payments if they are facing cash-flow challenges. Also, businesses that receive credits or refunds under the GST can switch from quarterly to monthly filings to speed up their refunds. Importers may also apply for the deferred GST scheme.
Two states—South Australia and Western Australia—announced land tax relief for landlords who have provided rent relief to tenants in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Australia makes America look really, really bad.
It really does.
But you know what? It’s not just Australia. It’s just about every nation on the planet. And while there are certain differences between each and every plan, most nations are putting relief efforts for the day-to-day working-citizens of their nations FIRST, with consideration for the wealthy LAST, if at all. Not so in the United States.
A comparison between different coronavirus stimulus packages.
.
For I have been saying that the American “benefit package” is along the lines of what India has. It is a stratified system of benefits where the wealthiest get the most support, and the rest of the citizenry get token relief.
Wealthy get the greatest benefit from the “Coronavirus relief legislation”.
Average people get little relief, or token benefits.
So…
You don’t believe my narrative, eh? That this is a fundamental principle of stratified communities. Well…
Let’s look at India…
India Coronavirus Tax Relief
India has provided a fiscal support package of 150 billion rupees focused on the health system’s response to the outbreak. State-level fiscal support has also been announced. Tax filing has been postponed from March 31 to June 30 for income tax returns and goods and services tax returns. There is also a reduced interest rate for tax payments made by June 30, and late filing penalties are waived. Goods and services tax (GST) deadlines for March, April, and May are extended to the end of June.
India is also working on a relief package for the airline industry including deferring aviation fuel tax. Refunds for Goods and Services Tax and customs duties will be accelerated. Companies’ income tax refunds up to INR 500,000 will be accelerated. Deadline extended for FATCA and CRS returns from May 31 to June 30. The deadline for March’s provident fund contributions has been extended from April 16 to May 15.
But what does this matter?
You know, you all can slice and dice the data any which way that you want. You can make a pile of dog shit smell like roses if you want, and I am sure that there are many people in the MM audience that might think that I am too “salty” on this matter. That “America is number one and the best”, and yada, yada, yada…
My argument is rather simple.
Nothing shows how absolutely stratified the United States has become, than the comparisons in Coronavirus relief measures globally.
The only nations that share in the same type of American-style relief programs are those representative of severe social stratification. Like India.
And if you don’t want to believe it, that’s just fine.
Americans know this
You might not want to believe this, but most Americans (today) realize that the nation is a private club and they ain’t in it. There are two sets of laws, two sets, of rules, two sets of living areas, and two sets of people.
It’s just that most do not want to face the ugly truth.
So they fight back. You know, like sheep baa-ing in their pen, or monkeys howling in their cages. Modern Americans protest using meme’s. Most are far too timid to do anything more aggressive than that.
American protest memes
Here’s some “protest” meme’s regarding the grandiose coronavirus relief plan…
Seems strange – right?
Yes. Non-Americans won’t really understand the meme’s. So let me put this in perspective…
Those that do not rent, have a mortgage that has typically much larger monthly payments.
Combined means that the data is damning.
Why?
Because Congress has this information, and already knows this.
Knows what?
This…
Typical monthly rent for Americans all over the United States.
.
Which pretty much means that, for a nation where…
Most citizens live paycheck to paycheck.
Most citizens have no savings.
Will result in most citizens at a point of eviction from their homes, with little compensation, no savings, no cushion, and ZERO support from the American government.
This is setting up a “perfect storm”.
A perfect storm
It appears that the long-awaited “fork in the road” has arrived. Americans can either accept the role as destitute indentured-serfs or they can revolt against an uncaring, inefficient, and criminal government.
You have [1] a “clueless”, psychopathic American leadership, supported by [2] selfish minions that have [3] become blatant in their treatment of the 99% of the rest of America. You have [4] an oligarchy that is trying to create strife and discord for the sole purpose in obtaining personal advantage. [5] You have a completely disillusioned serf-citizenry that is [6] waking up to their reality, while [7] the government controls all the media that is fed to them, and [8] a government desirous of sparking a violent “hot” war in a “distant land” to unify the [9] balkanized Americans for a common goal.
And no one wants to do the “hard stuff”.
“Hard stuff” ?
Yeah. The “hard stuff” as described in this lengthy article (shown below) and pointed out at the end…
Across the political spectrum, there is widespread agreement that America must get serious about the threat posed by China. As the Trump administration comes to a close, the State Department has just released a document called ‘The Elements of the China Challenge’. A distillation of conventional wisdom among national security experts and government officials, it argues that the U.S. needs a concerted effort to push back against Beijing. On its first page, the document tells us that “the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has triggered a new era of great-power competition.” If there was a major intellectual thread running through Trump’s foreign policy, or at least that of the people he appointed, it was that confronting China was the national security issue of our time. America during the Trump era was single-minded in its focus on turning up the pressure on Beijing, including unprecedented support for Taiwan, sending ships more often through the South China Sea, and attempting to stop the spread of the telecom giant Huawei.
The idea of the China threat will not end with the Trump administration. Michèle Flournoy, once thought to be the frontrunner to become Biden’s Secretary of Defense, argued in Foreign Affairs that the U.S. has not been steadfast enough in its military commitments in East Asia. Sometimes, great power competition is presented as an imperative of history; in the formulation of Graham Allison, a former Pentagon official and the current professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the two powers are involved in a “Thucydides Trap.” Looking at the last 500 years of world history, Allison believes that when the ambitions of a rising power conflict with those of an established power, war becomes likely.
But what are we afraid of China actually doing? Reading foreign policy analysis can often be frustrating to those who believe arguments should proceed in a straight line, with clearly defined terms, and logical connections between ends being sought and the means being recommended. Once can read op-eds and government reports on “great power competition” or the “China challenge” and never understand clearly what the U.S. and China are actually competing for. ‘The Elements of the China Challenge’ from the State Department adopts a strategy of throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks, accusing China of everything from being too successful in trade, to trying to dominate the world, and being racist against African migrants.
This kind of ambiguity about what a conflict is actually about has not existed throughout most of history. The two world wars nominally centered around rivalries between Germany and its neighbors over specific territories one could locate on a map, such as Alsace-Lorraine. The Cold War was a struggle between the capitalist and communist systems. But why, exactly, are the U.S. and China rivals? Beneath the comparisons to any number of classical or modern conflicts, the reality is very different. China is not a threat in the way traditionally understood. There is nothing vital to American security or prosperity that China threatens. While the U.S. will be less powerful in the coming decades in relative global terms, that is inevitable with the rise of the developing world more generally, a trend Washington has encouraged.
China’s true menace is neither military nor geopolitical, but rather ideological. Its continuing success, even if it in no way harms the prosperity or security of most Americans, poses a major threat to the American political establishment, how it justifies its own power, and its understanding of the U.S. role in the world.
What is the China Threat?
In the last three decades, China has experienced a rate of economic growth unprecedented in modern history. Between 1990 and 2019, GDP per capita increased 32 times. In terms of total GDP, China may become wealthier than the U.S. in the next two decades—and by some measures, already is. For the sake of comparison, in 1980 the Soviet Union had a GDP that was about 40% that of the U.S., with the trendlines actually favoring the West. Recently, when the economist Branko Milanovic suggested that the Nobel Prize in his field should go to scholars who study the most important questions out there, he pointed to Chinese growth as an example, calling it “40 years of the most extraordinary increase in income for the largest number of people ever.”
This would be frightening if the U.S. and China coveted territory from one another. Azerbaijan’s recent military victory over Armenia in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh can be attributed to the former growing economically, and therefore militarily, stronger than the latter over the last two decades. Yet the two modern superpowers are on opposite sides of the world and have no similar dispute between them. It is true that the U.S. seeks to preserve the territorial integrity of allies and partners, such as Taiwan and Japan, that may be threatened by Beijing. The incoming Biden administration will likely have a policy of willingness to defend the Senkaku Islands, an uninhabited five rocks and three reefs that the U.S. considers part of Japan. But why America should risk nuclear war over this issue is rarely explained. To the extent such objections are addressed, they are buried under appeals to morality that forgo any kind of cost-benefit analysis, and buzzwords such as preserving an undefined sense of American credibility or the broad goal of reinforcing deterrence.
Another idea, popular among pundits and the general public, is that Chinese growth is necessarily bad for the U.S. But in reality, Chinese growth has so far directly benefited U.S. consumers: it is undisputed among economists that trade with China made America better off by lowering the price of goods. Despite the temptation to political amnesia, the fact is that U.S. policy privileged these economic gains for many years, and its relationship with China was explicitly informed by these political decisions.
While this has undermined U.S. economic capacity in important ways, the cause wasn’t cheating, trickery, or even growth on the part of China. Instead, the cause was the success of American policy priorities. If there is a problem, it is most immediately that those priorities were misguided. The U.S. has the right to conduct trade on its own terms. It can choose what kind of strategy it wants in trade negotiations, and is free to deal with the downsides of neglecting domestic industry and increased competition for jobs through whatever means it considers appropriate. To see China as a civilizational enemy over such issues, however, is bizarre.
The same is true regarding IP theft. While the practice has been estimated to cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars a year, it is nonetheless normal for developing economies, with South Korea and Taiwan having had similarly bad records as their economies began to grow. No other state was considered a fundamental threat to the U.S. over the issue, with a mix of external pressure and internal incentives leading them to ultimately develop more rigorous patent laws and enforcement. Many corporations, the parties most directly affected, treat the problem as the price of doing business.
Perhaps, then, the threat is that China seeks to remake the world in its own image? This is a popular trope among the national security establishment. H.R. McMaster, perhaps the quintessential representative of this class, says China is “leading the development of new rules and a new international order that would make the world less free and less safe.” When one scratches the surface of these arguments, it is clear that most of the indictment against China involves things that every country does, but only looks frightening if you completely ignore American behavior. Chinese loans to poor countries are said to trap them in debt, but the evidence doesn’t bear this out. The same criticisms don’t often extend to the sorts of loan programs offered by the International Monetary Fund, even though these have often been as controversial as, and much more comprehensive than, any Chinese financial aid.
But despite the growth of this position among the American establishment, still others accuse it of strategically respecting the sovereignty of other states. In March, Daniel Tobin of the Center for Strategic and International Studies testified to Congress that China continues to promote the normative principles of “mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual nonaggression, mutual noninterference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and cooperation for mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.” Ted Piccione of the Brookings Institution writes of China under Xi putting forth “orthodox interpretations of national sovereignty and noninterference in internal affairs…”
While China is not blameless, one could reasonably make the argument that, from an international perspective, it has had easily the most peaceful rise to great power status of any nation of the last several hundred years. While China has carried out the re-annexation of Tibet, blockaded Taiwan diplomatically, and launched internal colonization of territories like Xinjiang, such actions always occur under the ideologically important claim that they are internal to China. The U.S., conversely, undertook external colonial ventures during its rise and still regularly sanctions unquestionably sovereign nations. China’s territorial claims are naturally controversial internationally, but are modest compared to those sought by other powers—not least the U.S. itself, which early in its history declared the entire Western Hemisphere as off limits to the nations of Europe. Its interventionist policies since then have led to the overthrow of governments, the killing of leaders, and the economic sanctioning of entire nations.
Perhaps, as the McMasters of the world claim, this is all because Beijing is biding its time in hopes of world domination. Alternatively, China may be an inwardly focused civilization that, while it may have disputes with its neighbors, is not on a mission to fundamentally remake the world. While it would naturally prefer rules that favor it and resists any principles that would legitimize regime change supported from abroad, Beijing does not seek to fundamentally replace the U.N. or rewrite international law. Its strategy has mostly sought stability and growth within the rules of the system developed by Western democracies in the aftermath of the Second World War. While its current position of strength is recent, it has not yet broken from this precedent.
This interpretation is most consistent with past behavior and, given the costs of American militarism abroad, with common sense about how a rational actor should be expected to act. It is also consistent with the arguments of the most honest kind of “China hawk,” who argues that the real problem with Beijing is not that it wants to dominate the world, but that it might stop the U.S. from doing so in a unipolar manner.
The Threat to the National Security Elite
Given the incoherence of these arguments, one must look below the surface to see what motivates political hysteria towards China. To understand the motivations of analysts, think tank fellows, and generals, one must comprehend how they see themselves and the American role in the world. For decades, the ideology of the American government in its dealings abroad has been based on the necessity of creating a liberal democratic world—a necessity which, as the Soviet model proved an ineffective threat and the Cold War ultimately ended, became seen as ever more natural. The assumptions supporting this view have, in various ways, driven American leaders since the post-WWII era.
The collapse of the Berlin Wall increased this confidence. While the possibility of nuclear war had to be managed, and it was assumed that communists might hold on to their captive populations indefinitely, the spread had been contained. During the entire Cold War, the trend was towards more democratic governance and the opening of markets.
The 1990s saw the U.S. engage in what can be described as mop-up operations against the few holdouts against the trend towards democratic capitalism like Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic. Academics even before Francis Fukuyama saw democratization as a natural consequence of people demanding more of a voice in their governments, as incomes rose, and as they became more educated. Countries like Chile, South Korea, and Taiwan seemed to validate this view.
None of this meant that the U.S. was to stand back and let history unfold. An expansive military presence abroad was necessary for all these projects, and even after the Cold War to address WMD proliferation and protect civilians abroad from human rights violations, and to stop Islamic terrorism after 9/11. The assumption was that, while the move towards democratic capitalism was natural and maybe even inevitable, it could be delayed by communists, terrorists, or Baathists if the U.S. did not lead.
The result was a paradox. The greater the inevitability of this grand historical arc, the more urgently it had to be backed up by force, and the more unreasonable and deviant all resistance seemed. Even the language of a “clash of civilizations” as the War on Terror commenced did not radically depart from the larger story. This justified a large military establishment with costs that dwarfed those of every other potential rival combined. American global leadership was pushing on an open door.
China Versus Western Political Science
China is something completely new. The Soviet Union had military power and appealed to Western intellectuals, but was clearly an economic basket case that could not deliver on its promise of rising standards of living. Islamic terrorists could kill Westerners and destabilize countries, but had little overall effect on American security, and did not threaten either U.S. hegemony or its justifications. Modern day Russia can seek to have an influence on our culture and politics, but nobody looks to it as a model, and it nominally accepts the legitimacy of competitive elections.
China, however, rejects liberal democracy—the idea that leaders should be chosen on a one-person, one-vote basis—even as an ideal or ultimate destination. As Daniel Bell explains in The China Model: Political Meritocracy and the Limits of Democracy, Chinese leaders have implemented a system in which government officials are selected and promoted based on examinations, performance reviews, and the meeting of objective criteria at lower levels. Its political qualification is not electoral support, but party membership and loyalty. This system is not justified on the grounds simply that the Chinese people or their institutions are “not ready for democracy,” a line sometimes taken even by Middle Eastern dictators like Bashar al-Assad. Critiques of democracy certainly are not foreign to the West; Plato is possibly the most famous anti-democratic thinker in history, and today modern skeptics use the language of economics when they talk about concepts like the influence of interest groups and the “rational irrationality” of voters. Yet opposition to the principle of democracy as such is unthinkable for an American leader, and even for most prominent intellectuals.
What went wrong with political science models that generalized from a moderately large number of cases in which economic growth led to democratization? To see how they erred, one could imagine a social scientist at the end of the first millennium arguing that the whole globe would become Christian because princes across Europe had all adopted that religion. If statistical models existed then, one could have done a regression and “proved” this hypothesis. The most common statistical models used today rely on the assumed independence of observations. The logic of regression analysis and hypothesis testing as applied to political development says that if we see the same patterns across time and space, then we may be able to infer a causal chain of events.
But the spread of economic and social systems operates in the realm of path dependence and network dynamics. Under this view, the move towards democratization after the Second World War depended on the power and missionary zeal of the U.S. more than the laws of history. If American power declines, its focus on world affairs wanes, or democracy loses its luster due its perceived shortcomings, the connection between economic growth and democratization can break down.
China is not simply passing the U.S. in overall GDP. Other measures one might use to measure the health of society also indicate that leaders in Beijing have been doing a better job than those in Washington in recent years. Are dictatorships more conflict prone at home? China’s murder rate is a fraction of that of the U.S., and the country has practically none of the rioting and political violence Americans have gotten used to. Are dictatorships more likely to menace countries abroad? China has not been to war since 1979, while the U.S. has been at war almost every year since that date. Are dictatorships less innovative? In 2020, China passed the U.S. in publications in the natural sciences, and its children score higher than American students on IQ tests and international standardized exams. While in 2008, the U.S. recorded over 16 times as many international patents as China, already by 2018 the gap had shrunk to 2.4 times as many, with trend lines indicating that China could surpass the U.S. before long.
With the American post-war liberal consensus having staked much of its legitimacy on providing better results, China’s development is an ideological threat regardless of how benevolent its rulers might theoretically be. American elites can tolerate a more successful system on a smaller scale. Lee Kuan Yew, the founder and long-time leader of Singapore, was explicitly anti-democratic, and horrified American elites with stances like his belief in eugenics. Yet his nation’s population has never even approached that of the largest American cities, and Lee was happy to geopolitically align his country with the U.S.
China’s ideology, and the success it is achieving, is ultimately threatening because of its size. Of course, as a country moves from Third World status to the most powerful nation in the world, it should be expected to become more geopolitically confident. Recently, China has begun asserting its will in a century-old border dispute with Bhutan, a country of 800,000 people, after 24 rounds of previous talks. Such results in this dispute and others like it are inevitable.
So, what question should American leaders be asking? It is not whether China will become more powerful, which it certainly will, or whether it will democratize, which is out of American hands and not relevant to its security anyway. Rather, it’s whether China has ambitions beyond what the U.S. can live with. All else equal, a few rocks in the South China Sea are not worth the possibility of war, or even worth forgoing the benefits of trade and potential collaboration on issues of global importance like climate change and containing pandemics.
In that case, what about Chinese financing? What about IP theft? What about Taiwan? Rather than invoking concerns about ethereal leadership or precedent, it would behoove American leaders well to explicitly set out their red lines, and tie their arguments for action to why crossing them threatens America’s fundamental interests. This also requires honesty about why certain actions are provoking concern. If the real worry is ideological, it should not be cloaked in rumors about predatory debt.
The answer to the China question would therefore be easier if American leaders were simply looking after the economic or security interests of the nation, or even the concrete concerns of a formalized alliance. Unfortunately, they also have financial, bureaucratic, and ideological reasons for being opposed to China’s rise. If universal democratization is not the ultimate endpoint of history—or even an imperative for development, peace, and prosperity—how can the American role in the world be justified? What will it say about the American system if the U.S. is no longer the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world, having been surpassed by a country that became the dominant power in East Asia without even paying lip service to democratic ideals?
Ultimately, Americans themselves might begin asking themselves difficult questions about how well they have been served by their own system, including the sacrifices in blood and treasure they are regularly asked to make abroad.
How Will the U.S. Manage Its Decline?
The rise of China is based on long-term economic trends. Washington can no more stop or contain it than European powers in the mid-twentieth century could hope to hold on to their colonies in the midst of population growth in Asia and Africa, the rise of mass media, and their national declines relative to the U.S. and the Soviet Union. American leaders debate questions such as whether to reduce trade with China, call Beijing out on human rights violations, ban apps like TikTok, or undertake more naval missions through the South China Sea. Even if the hawks get their way on each of these issues—like they did under Trump and are unlikely to under Biden—none of these policies are going to significantly impede the rise of China.
At present, Beijing has demonstrated no desire for territory far from its borders; nor does it seem to want veto power over what governments do in distant lands, as the U.S. has exercised over large swaths of the world. Chinese leaders have always reasonably acted as if such entanglements are not worth the cost. While we cannot predict what future opportunists may attempt, it would be a mistake to craft our approach to the Chinese relationship as if this was not the case.
Understanding this, perhaps the most important question becomes the extent to which the U.S. is to play a game of chicken in the South China Sea. This is the real Thucydides Trap, though the concept only applies if both sides consider hegemony in an area important. China has built an impressive collection of fortified artificial islands in the South China Sea that will be useful in any dispute in Taiwan. Nonetheless, an all-out invasion is unlikely. Rather, Chinese economic strength should be enough to make most countries of the region take its side in any disputes and isolate Taiwan. At that point, various scenarios are imaginable, from an indefinite continuation of the status quo, to overwhelming economic pressure and attempts to force the island nation into submission, to a blockade or invasion. Only the very last of these risks war with the U.S. Assuming we avoid such a scenario, American leaders can be expected to easily forget about Taiwanese independence and democracy and move on.
Recent events in Hong Kong and Belarus demonstrate the limited nature of U.S. commitments to faraway nations most Americans know little about. Over the last two years, both of these places have seen pro-democracy protests that were given rhetorical support by the United States. In both situations, authoritarian governments were able to reassert authority and hold on to power. In the aftermath, the U.S. puts sanctions on the guilty parties, but the issue recedes from the headlines, and things go back to normal. Just as America lost interest in Tibet, it will eventually lose interest in Hong Kong and the Uighurs.
This quiet decline in the Asia-Pacific influence is the most likely scenario, even if the same military commitments remain. The U.S. can keep troops in Japan and South Korea as long as those two countries agree to host them, especially since China is unlikely to force this issue in the near future. Despite relying on the U.S. for defense, South Korea already aligns with China over the U.S. on a host of important geopolitical issues, from welcoming Huawei as a 5G provider to accepting the view of Hong Kong as an internal manner. Should political winds change direction in Japan, U.S. bases will not do anything to prevent better relations between Tokyo and Beijing. Just last month, China and Japan joined 13 other nations to sign the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a free trade agreement that will expand trade and cooperation throughout the Asia-Pacific. Nothing about the American military presence prevents the region from resisting any attempts to isolate China.
Ultimately, the danger for American elites is not that the U.S. may become less able to accomplish geopolitical objectives. Rather, it is that more Americans might begin to question the logic of U.S. global hegemony. Perhaps not every state is destined to become a liberal democracy, and nations with very different political systems can coexist peacefully, as many countries in East Asia do. Maybe the U.S. will not always be at the frontier of military and economic power, and the country that overtakes it may have completely different attitudes about the nature of the relationship between government and its citizens.
While most Americans will never experience a ride on a Chinese bullet train and remain oblivious in differences in areas like infrastructure quality, major accomplishments in highly visible frontiers like space travel or cancer treatment could drive home the extent to which the U.S. has fallen behind. Under such conditions, the best case scenario for most Americans would be a nightmare for many national security and bureaucratic elites: for the U.S. to give up on policing the world and instead turn inward and focus on finding out where exactly our institutions have gone wrong.
-Richard Hanania is the President of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology and a research fellow at Defense Priorities. He holds a PhD in political science from UCLA and JD from the University of Chicago. He tweets @RichardHanania.
Yes.
The article is comparative. And that comparison is damning.
America has long, long past the time needed to restructure it’s failing and corrupt institutions. It has long past the time when the “policing elements” of “democracy” (such as the media) have become corrupted to the point where they are no longer functional. It has long past the time when the American Military Empire needs to be scaled back…
…firstly wind back 20 years to just an oligarchy…
…then wind back 40 years to just a “federal democracy”…
…then wind back 100 years to a “democracy”
…then wind back 100 years again to go back to a republic…
…then on to individual fully autonomous States…
…but you know…
…that isn’t going to happen. At least not peacefully. Abrupt change is required at this late stage “in the game”. The cancer has metastasized. It’s eating the host and it is on life-support.
Someone needs to pull the plug…
…press the reset button…
…perform a CTRL – ALT – DEL…
…and reboot.
You all know this, right? You know that the roller coaster has no brakes, and that it is careening out of control on a shoddy track, rotten by termites, broken in places, and run by drunk madmen.
Keep calm and press ctrl-alt-del.
Conclusion
I would be very surprised if any of this is new to you the reader.
What I am just doing here is something that you will not see in the American news. NO alternative media, mainstream media or anyone else is comparing the American ‘stimulus” packages with the rest of the world. Only here. And the comparisons are damning.
Just horrific.
Do you want to see similar posts?
I hope that you found this post curious. Please take care. You can view other similar posts in my SHTF Index, here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
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.
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One of the “givens” that I pretty much have come to accept as normal is the belief that if you bought something, you owned it. If you bought a pair of shoes, it was yours and you could do what ever you wanted with it. If you bought a pack of cigarettes, you could smoke them or throw them away. It was your possession and you could do what you wanted with it. Unfortunately, this is no longer true in the United States.
It all began with housing. The days of full-ownership of a house in America are long, long over. And I am not talking about a mortgage either. I am talking about taxes, and regulations, and fees and requirements. If you have to ask permission, then you don’t own it. If you have to pay more money on it, you don’t own it. If someone can change it or alter it without your permission you don’t own it.
Ownership is the bedrock of freedom.
Unfortunately it no longer exists in the United States.
And what is much sadder is that all Americans don’t realize this loss; this loss in the ability to own things, and to use them as you feel fit. They see it as normal. “Of course, you need to ask the local Home Owners Association permission to remodel your house.” “Of course, you cannot smoke cigarettes in a restaurant, or on the street or in a park…” “Of course, you need to pay the upgrade fee on your software program. You don’t really own it, don’t you know.”
This encroachment is sickening to me.
People! If you cannot own things, you are not free. Do you know who else cannot own things?
Slaves.
That’s who.
Back in the day, I had a library of books. No, I am not exaggerating. I had my walls plastered floor to ceiling with books, and my entire house was cluttered with my tomes and books. I loved those things, and I lost them. This story of how they came to disappear is noteworthy in-itself, but, let’s not get sidetracked. With the advent of computerized software, you can have entire libraries that can fit inside an object no bigger than the palm of your hand. Great huh?
Maybe not so.
I once had a iPod with perhaps 10,000 songs on it. I had collected music from all over the internet, mostly “Limewire”, but I also used other services. Then one day, the system reset for a software update. It erased my entire collection! Why? Why in God’s name did this happen?
I will tell you why.
I did not buy the songs from iTunes. (Which is the monopoly that Apple has constructed around it’s iPod platform.)
Was the iPod my property?
Apparently not.
Now the purist might say that I needed to read the fine print in my purchaser’s agreement. And to that I must counter… with this…
You do not own anything that requires that you read “fine print” that defines how you must use that object.
Ah. Let that sink in.
Remember that personal ownership is a fundamental pillar of freedom. If you cannot own things, free and clear, you are just renting them on loan.
And it’s not just me speaking. The United States government and the courts have reinforced this belief. You don’t own much of anything. In fact, it is even against the law to collect rainwater! I mean there is something seriously wrong if you cannot own the rain that falls on you from the skies above.
Let’s talk about books.
Paper Books Can’t Be Shut Off from Afar
“The idea that the books I buy can be relegated to some kind of fucking software license is the most grotesque and awful thing I can imagine,” Doctorow said.
This is a reprint of the great article titled “Paper Books Can’t Be Shut Off from Afar”. Published on Jun 30, 2019 12:00PM EDT Maria Bustillos. All credit to the author.
Private ownership—in particular the private ownership of books, software, music and other cultural information—is the linchpin of a free society. Having many copies of works of art, music and literature distributed widely (e.g., many copies of the same book among many private owners, or many copies of the same audio files, torrents or blockchain ledger entries on many private computers) protects a culture against corruption and censorship. Decentralization strategies like these help to preserve press freedom, and individual freedom. The widespread private ownership of cultural artifacts guarantees civil liberties, and draws people into their culture immanently, persistently, giving it life and power.
Cory Doctorow’s comment on Friday at BoingBoing regarding private ownership of books is well worth reading; he wrote it because Microsoft is shutting down its e-books service, and all the DRM books people bought from them will thus vanish into thin air. Microsoft will provide refunds to those affected, but that isn’t remotely the point. The point is that all their users’ books are to be shut off with a single poof! on Microsoft’s say-so. That is a button that nobody, no corporation and no government agency, should be ever permitted to have.
“The idea that the books I buy can be relegated to some kind of fucking software license is the most grotesque and awful thing I can imagine,” Doctorow said.
At this very moment, governments are forbidding millions of people, Chinese people, Cubans, Belarusians and Egyptians and Hungarians and many, many others all over this world, from reading whatever they want.
So if there is to be a fear of the increasing adoption of e-books such as those offered by Microsoft, and to a far greater degree, Amazon, that’s by far the scariest thing about it. Because if you were to keep all your books in a remotely controlled place, some villain really could come along one day and pretty much flip the switch and take them all away — and not just yours but everyone’s, all at once. What if we had some species of Trump deciding to take action against the despicable, dangerous pointy-heads he is forever railing against?
Boom! Nothing left to read but The Art of the Deal.
I don’t intend on shutting up about this ever, and I’m sure Doctorow won’t either, bless him.
In 2010, techno-utopianism was in full swing, with e.g. Nick Negroponte going around saying that physical books would be mass-produced for only maybe another five years (yeah, sorry guy). His reasoning seems to have had something to do with the fact that books are hard to send to Africa.
Anyway my husband gave me a Kindle for my birthday that year, and I loved it a lot. Thousands and thousands of books fit on this pretty, if potentially sinister, little machine. I’d just go over to Project Gutenberg and vacuum stuff up every which way, because I have no literary discernment whatsoever and will gladly spend the afternoon reading Agatha Christie or really, literally almost anything.
Project Gutenberg is now up to more than 59,500 free e-books, all out of copyright and so classics, mostly. And no need to feel the least bit guilty as you might even at a thrift shop, where whatever you buy, it’s going to take up room on bookshelves that you know you don’t have; these books took up no extra room at all.
I bet you will be surprised to hear when Project Gutenberg first started. 1971 (!) is the true answer, and could they ever destroy every Final Jeopardy contestant with that one, I bet.
Its founder, Michael Hart, was a most unusual and interesting man. The ultimate anti-corporatist. Like Yoda, Mr. Hart doesn’t appear to have possessed much glamour or power on the outside, but he was brimming with these and other virtues on the inside.
He didn’t care two pins about money, wouldn’t take a salary for years and years, and acquired the few bits of stuff he seemed to need at garage sales.
In the 1970s, nobody knew that computers would eventually be used for the mass storage of culture. It hadn’t occurred to anyone yet that the computer would be useful for anything aside from just computation. It was so shockingly, incredibly good at that! There was such a lot of computation that needed doing, so computation was first in line.
Now it is clear as day that whoever controls computer storage will effectively control the media commons.
There are a lot of champions in this fight, but Michael Hart saw it all coming about half a century ago and started typing his fool head off, dozens and dozens of whole books, long before OCR was a gleam in a programmer’s eye.
Hart did more to secure the future of the public domain than anyone else in the world, I believe. Project Gutenberg’s widely distributed books cannot be taken away—and when they’re downloaded and stored on private devices and media, it’s like insurance for Western Civ.
My first few times on Project Gutenberg I downloaded a lot of rare early Wodehouse (highly recommended: The Swoop! or, How Clarence Saved England) and also a lot of Thackeray, Gibbon, pretty much all of Mrs. Gaskell and, just by accident, Émile Gaboriau’s La Vie Infernale — the fruitiest, most marvelous 19th-c. French melodrama (in two parts: The Count’s Millions and Baron Trigault’s Vengeance. I just love those.) Plus Shakespeare and the King James Bible and that sort of stuff.
I am no fan of Amazon, and even back then I resisted spending money there, but I did buy an e-book copy of Infinite Jest, which is far and away my favorite modern novel.
A few days later, I was having a little dispute with my husband over whether or not Wallace misuses the word “ilk” in that book, which with the Kindle’s search feature took about twenty seconds to settle (A: not really; the solecism appears just once, in the quoted speech of Madame Psychosis.)
It’s all thrillingly searchable, and browsable, plus once you get a book on your Kindle (or Nook, or equiv.) you can highlight things and also make your own notes. By now scholars, researchers, historians and journalists will want both a searchable ebook copy and a paper copy, I would think, of anything they’re really interested in.
I also learned that having an e-reader meant that one might quite easily wind up buying more books than before, if anything, because the getting of books was on one’s mind more.
So all that is the upside of owning e-books.
But my Fahrenheit-451-paranoia was fanned into a giant flaming ball of fear-napalm when I looked into the personal ownership of the files and books on my own Kindle. And things have only gotten a lot worse since then.
Almost exactly ten years ago, you may remember, Amazon came stealthily along and deleted e-copies of 1984 (no seriously, they did) and Animal Farm from people’s Kindles — copies they’d already paid for and downloaded — because it turned out that there was a rights problem with the e-publisher.
Jeff Bezos wound up apologizing all over himself and taking it all back and promising never to do that ever again, but the fact remains that Amazon has some kind of access to your Kindle files and can literally remove them, if they feel like it, which is downright creepy, and if it were your computer you would not like it one little bit.
Having learned this, I went along and had a closer look at the then-current Kindle License Agreement.
There was some simply petrifying stuff on there. For starters, then as now, you don’t “own” Kindle books, you’re basically renting them. (“Kindle Content is licensed, not sold, to you by the Content Provider.”)
Amazon’s current terms of use now specify explicitly that they can look over your shoulder while you read. Check this out!
Information Provided to Amazon. The Kindle Application will provide Amazon with information about use of your Kindle Application and its interaction with Kindle Content and the Service (such as last page read, content archiving, available memory, up-time, log files, and signal strength).
They can change the software on you whenever they like, or just shut it down completely, without so much as a by your leave:
Changes to Service; Amendments. We may change, suspend, or discontinue the Service, in whole or in part, including adding or removing Subscription Content from a Service, at any time without notice.
That is how a totalitarian state might go about confiscating books, if they wanted to. There is nothing in this agreement to stop Amazon from modifying the Kindle software to make it impossible for you to read any of your own files on the device.
Such a step is not forbidden to Amazon by this agreement; they are under no apparent obligation to protect any data you might be storing. That’s not to say that there aren’t laws, at least in some states, that might allow you to sue for damages; I don’t know. I’m just saying, this agreement doesn’t require Amazon to protect your data.
A bad government could just grab the controls from them and have at it.
Changes to Service; Amendments.We may change, suspend, or discontinue the Service, in whole or in part, including adding or removing Subscription Content from a Service, at any time without notice. We may amend any of this Agreement’s terms at our sole discretion by posting the revised terms on the Amazon.com website.
Or they might decide to shut just your account down:
Termination. Your rights under this Agreement will automatically terminate if you fail to comply with any term of this Agreement. In case of such termination, you must cease all use of the Service, and Amazon may immediately revoke your access to the Service without refund of any fees.
Keep in mind these are your books that you bought or collected. Can you imagine a bookseller or publisher asserting rights over the contents of your bookshelves in your house? That’s basically what we’re talking about, here.
After reading all this back in 2010, I rang the (excellent, and very polite) Kindle customer service up to learn more, especially about privacy issues. One thing I wanted to know was exactly how much access Amazon had to my private, personal Kindle files (such as .txt and .pdf files that I’d made myself.) But after being bumped up through a couple of layers of supervisors, I didn’t get very clear answers. For instance, on the question of Amazon’s remote access to my personal stuff. “We don’t have access to your files,” I was first told. But can you see my personal files? And if you wanted to delete my personal files, as was done with the Orwell books, could you do it?
“We don’t do that.”
Eight or nine years down the road, we can be pretty sure that if a tech behemoth suddenly feels like doing something horrible, they just will do it. Please buy paper books.
A portion of this piece appeared in somewhat different form in 2010 at The Awl.
Conclusion
I used to have an account on Tumblr. I enjoyed it for the strange and beautiful pictures that I would collect there, and when people started to use it to distribute some high quality porn, I collected those images as well. I really liked that webpage and social network.
Then it was bought up or sold to Yahoo!. Every assurance was made that promised that nothing would ever change and that the private collections of pictures would remain intact.
Then came the war on porn. Yahoo! suddenly, yes after saying that they wouldn’t, decided to wholesale delete images, accounts, data and histories. And all my lovely photos about America in the 1930’s, pictures of military conflicts, fantastic and unusual works of art, and yes my on-line porn collection was vaporized in a nanosecond.
Foolish me.
I believed that when a company promised to do something that they would at least try to keep their word.
Three years ago, was my twenty year anniversary of my membership on the Free Republic website. Over the twenty years that I was a member I was one of the most prolific posters with over 10,000 articles that I had posted (and which readied me for the role that this Metallicman venue provides). And then, one of my articles did not meet the desires of one of their censors, and without notice, and any kind of appreciation they deleted my entire account. Jim Robinson probably didn’t have any idea that they did it. But there it was. All my FR contacts, my notes, my articles (no backups either) and my opinions and comments, all deleted.
Poof.
Gone.
Look. I get it. I’m a “big boy”. I should have known better than to put my trust and faith in others. I should have made complete hard-paper backups, and had electronic versions in portable storage media. I was naive.
And when I was “retired” and saw what happened to my life, my possessions and my histories, I saw that I was a “big nothing”. I only existed at the pleasure of others. I only lived in whatever lifestyle that I could scrounge up at the pleasure of others, and what I owned, down to my underwear was all at the mercy of what others might decide to do.
The only way to change this course that the United States is on is to terminate it’s existence catastrophically. It needs to be sudden, and abrupt and a replacement government needs to take it’s place. This sounds so awful, but it need not be.
I advocate that the Federal government be abolished. And the individual states regain their original roles, and maintain their original existence as it was initially intended prior to 1776.
We can let the individual citizens of any given state decide what limits that they want to place on the ownership of property. Not those in California, or Washington DC. And people would no longer be citizens of the United States of America, but would be the sovereign citizen of Pennsylvania, or of Maryland, or of Colorado, or of Wyoming.
But, you know, it’s so easy to be misunderstood. And for me, it’s better not to “fight city hall”, or “beat a dead horse”. You live life to the best of your ability, and if you find that you are not able to live life to your satisfaction then you “move to greener pastures”.
Which is what I did.
I live in China, and I do own my houses. I don’t rent them. I don’t have mortgages on them. I never pay taxes on them, and I am not subject to any rules or regulations regarding them. Nor do I need to ask permission to renovate them.
That is what freedom is.
Stop.
Take a realistic appraisal of what you really own. Do not include anything that requires payments, fees, regulations that you must abide by, or that is subject to inspections, or random investigations. If you are an American you will discover that you actually own very little.
You own, functionally, just about the same as what a Roman slave would own.
Do you want to see similar posts?
I hope that you found this post curious. Please take care. You can view other similar posts in my SHTF Index, here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
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.
After a solid year of [1] hate-China spewing from all my feeds, [2] comments that I have made mysteriously being erased, and [3] the most contentious articles being flooded with “likes”… you have to wonder if you are in some kind of fake-mirror world.
It really seems that way.
We, as humans, have feelings and thoughts, ideas, and relationships. We have emotions, both good and bad, and we have desires, goals and yearnings. Yet, if we try to participate in any of the American forums… our opinions are often scrubbed and erased.
I’m not talking about swearing. Nor am I talking about being racist or making threats. I am talking about saying something innocuous like “I like hamburgers”, and then finding that you offended a vegan, who immediately pressed the “alert” button.
Yes, “safe” areas have sprung up all over the internet where people of “like minds” can communicate and put forth their opinions. Such as “Gab”. But even there, you risk banishment if your comments do not fit the appropriate target audience in the associated “news” venue.
Venue Example
Association
Non-compliance result
salon.com
Alt-Left
Ban
Yahoo.com
Mainstream
Ban
freerepublic.com
Alt-Right
Ban
Table of the three major venues for American discussion.
It’s pretty much evidence that people are being put into nice tidy boxes based upon their thoughts.
And this, boys and girls, are how governments isolate, control and manipulate people. Which should give everyone reason to pause and think.
Historically, this has resulted in people's names going onto lists. And then later on, the police and military rounding up people on those lists, and doing very, very bad things to them.
Now, I know it’s hard to absorb if you are right now sitting in the middle of all this. So, instead of looking at the American media reality, maybe take a gander at another nation.
Like India…
If you read (for example) the Indian news media, you would be convinced that India is ready to invade China, and walk straight into Shanghai and no one can stop them. If you read Alex Jones or Hall Turner, you will be convinced that Donald Trump will win next weeks election in a landslide, and if you read CNN you will be convinced of the absolute opposite. Nothing is moderate or neutral. It’s all just nonsense.
Or is it really?
Are we really reading “news articles” and listening to the “comments” by others like ourselves? Or, as I believe, we are reading “fake news” which are really articles designed to manipulate, with comments and opinions and “likes” generated by ‘bots and software algorithms.
No longer “news”; a reporting of events.
Let’s look at the morning Drudge Headliners.
Drudge Report 29OCT20
Instead, of “news”, we now see the generation of “articles of manipulation”. These articles are fully intended to change how the reader thinks. They are not designed to inform. You know, like these…
Oh, every six months of so, someone writes a book, draws a cartoon, makes a statement, writes a poem, and fundamentalist islamic's are enraged and demand death! Is this news?
Oh yeah. This debit clock thingy has been in the read for decades now. Why keep track? No one really cares, at least those who have the power to do anything about it.
The police shoot and kill a black man, and the black folk in ghettos riot. Black folk riot. It's what they do.
It's sort of a cause and effect kind of thing. But is this news? You all ever been to a black ghetto in Philly? Do you know him? Is Pennsylvania on your radar screen?
Seriously?
I think that the real interest in an article like this is how any one can train monkeys to do anything. Than how to create a for-profit model around it.
Of course Drudge must have the obligatory anti-China article. It's a thing in America, don't you know.
So any-day-now Beijing is gonna invade Taiwan! Taiwan is a state of China. Just like Texas is a state within America. The Taiwanese all have Chinese passports, speak the Chinese language, learn Chinese history, and so forth.
It's sort of like "any day now, Washington DC will invade Texas." Silly, I know. But the American audience has been so enormously dumbed-down that they just are not able to discern how ignorant they are.
To me, it looks a lot like a science fiction horror flick where the people haven’t a clue as to how badly they are being manipulated.
America today.
Let’s look at this.
Let’s look at (what I like to call) Internet Forum Manipulation…
Internet Forum Manipulation
Wouldn’t it be great if we could all innocently comment on articles that we read on the Internet, and then our thoughts can be read by others. Others could read our thoughts and there would be a free exchange of ideas and thoughts. Oh, wouldn’t it be nice…
Not so. It turns out that the control of thoughts and ideas is one of the most important tools in the arsenal of power and control. (Not to mention world-line alteration and redirection.)
As such, those in power, whether rich, wealthy, powerful or in government are totally desirous of harnessing this avenue to serve their own purposes.
It’s a horrible reality.
There are several techniques for the control and manipulation of an internet forum no matter what, or who is on it. We will go over each technique and demonstrate that only a minimal number of operatives can be used to eventually and effectively gain a control of a ‘uncontrolled forum.’
Professor identifies “moderate” websites. The only thing is that the websites that he lists are all “Alt-Left” websites. Which is, of course, propaganda. Is this what is being taught in schools today? White is black. Happy is sad. Good is bad. Right is wrong?
.
Let’s look at some of the techniques that those in power use to control us.
PTB - The Powers that Be.
The Oligarchy - The top 1% of the richest in a society.
The deep state - The long-employed unelected government employees.
The elected - The visible face of the government farce.
The caretakers - Actually, they are not involved at this level.
Forum Sliding
If a very sensitive posting of a critical nature has been posted on a forum – it can be quickly removed from public view by ‘forum sliding.’
A very popular technique on Freerepublic.com.
In this technique a number of unrelated posts are quietly prepositioned on the forum and allowed to ‘age.’ Each of these misdirectional forum postings can then be called upon at will to trigger a ‘forum slide.’ The second requirement is that several fake accounts exist, which can be called upon, to ensure that this technique is not exposed to the public.
To trigger a ‘forum slide’ and ‘flush’ the critical post out of public view it is simply a matter of logging into each account both real and fake and then ‘replying’ to prepositined postings with a simple 1 or 2 line comment. This brings the unrelated postings to the top of the forum list (“bump to the top” or BTTT), and the critical posting ‘slides’ down the front page, and quickly out of public view. Although it is difficult or impossible to censor the posting it is now lost in a sea of unrelated and unuseful postings.
By this means it becomes effective to keep the readers of the forum reading unrelated and non-issue items.
Altering Opinion & Reviews
Your opinion does not matter. If it did, then you would be able to speak freely and without fear.
There would be no such thing as “freedom of speech zones”, and “no hate” campuses.
The days of the first amendment protections are over. The first amendment only applies to those who regurgitate the narrative as defined by the government, or their owners; the oligarchy.
Here, in this section we discuss just some of the techniques that those in power use to suppress your thoughts, opinions and activities. The reader should be well advised that it is terribly out of date and obsolete. Such is the situation in the United States today.
Who is really in control? Are you?
“The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government, which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states and nation … The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes.
They practically control both parties … [and] control the majority of the newspapers and magazines in this country.
They use the columns of these papers to club into submission or drive out of office public officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government.
It operates under cover of a self-created screen [and] seizes our executive officers, legislative bodies, schools, courts, newspapers and every agency created for the public protection.”
– John F. Hylan, Mayor of New York City from 1918-1925
It is common knowledge that businesses and even individuals can alter the behavior of those on the Internet. But what is not so well known is that the Government takes this kind of manipulation very seriously and is doing their best to replicate it.
Consider these examples that have somehow become public knowledge.
Facebook Manipulation
“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.”
-George Orwell
Facebook Quietly Admits to Censoring information regarding the WikiLeaks DNC Links, but doesn’t say why.
Well, we know why.
Facebook and the DNC are partners in the collection of raw data of American citizens. I am sure that their efforts are quite extensive, and because of this, I shall only offer one or two examples of their efforts. If the reader chooses to disbelieve my conclusions in this matter, it will make no difference to me. So believe what you want.
Previously, Facebook was discovered to have removed a Live video of Philando Castille dying, and posts of the Bastille Day aftermath were scrubbed from the newswire.
Its news bar has also come under fire for being biased.
Facebook can call the issues disparate, but they’re not — not to users. At some point, the ignorance and blind claims of ‘damn that algorithm’ have to end. If Facebook wants us to turn to it for news and treat it seriously, then it has to be much more open.
Afterall, no one want’s to be spoon fed censored material.
The WikiLeaks link issue has reportedly been fixed, which is great — but also not really the point.
The fact links to the archive was blocked at all suggests there’s a very tight reign on what’s allowed on Facebook across the board, and that’s a problem.
Americans are both figuratively and physically tethered to a unified way of thinking. As time progresses, this system becomes stronger, more invasive and all encompassing.
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Not to mention, that this manipulation can be directed from outside the organization as well, such as from government agencies.
“More than 1,800 requests were so-called “emergency disclosures,” which are granted to law enforcement on a case-by-case basis, and are a subject of some controversy. They include, for instance, requests to suspend someone’s account, as was the case with Korryn Gaines, a 23-year-old mother who was shot and killed by police in 2016, after she reportedly threatened officers with a weapon. She was broadcasting her confrontation on Facebook, and police asked the company to shut down her account, saying that other users were egging her on.”
-Hanna Kozlowska in the article titled “Facebook is giving the US government more and more data” (I guess that the First Amendment no longer has any validity.)
Google Manipulation
Google could influence who voters pick to be America’s next president. This is the conclusion that research psychologist Robert Epstein came to after studying the demographics and algorisms used by the software firm. Writing for Politico Magazine, Epstein, contends the Google search engine behemoth (as well as others) has;
"…amassed far more power to control elections … to control a wide variety of opinions and beliefs … than any company in history has ever had."
He continues;
"America’s next president could be eased into office not just by TV ads or speeches, but by Google’s secret decisions, and no one — except for me and perhaps a few other obscure researchers — would know how this was accomplished,"
According to Epstein, Google’s search algorithm can easily shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by 20 percent or more and even up to 80 percent in some demographic groups.
Even if we ignore that voting is the imposition of a majority’s will on a minority, facilitated by wielding the violence of the state. Even if we disregard that voting only allows its participants the choice between two entrenched, corrupt, archaic political parties (while third party and independent voices are intentionally blocked, ridiculed and plowed under.)
We must then begin to confront the fact that electronic voting is such an openly obvious fraud to any “democracy” that would insanely choose to use it.
To have an unverifiable invisible counting mechanism, a proprietary, secret software and hardware platform, a meaningless archiving and recount system, a closed-source software system that cannot be audited and inspected is essentially and deliberately the worst possible implementation.
Not only does our country have the obvious electronic voting problems to deal with, but we have also implemented electronic voting in the most counter-intuitive, corrupt and problematically designed manner that it can possibly be implemented.
Epstein points to one telling experiment in which participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups in which search rankings favored either Candidate A, Candidate B or neither candidate.
In the experiment, the participants were given brief descriptions of each candidate and then asked how much they liked and trusted each candidate and whom they would vote for.
Then they were allowed up to 15 minutes to conduct online research on the candidates using a Google-like search engine. Each group had access to the same 30 search results, but the ordering of the results differed among the three groups.
When our participants were done searching, “opinions shifted in the direction of the candidate who was favored in the rankings,” he writes. “Trust, liking and voting preferences all shifted predictably.”
"Perhaps the most effective way to wield political influence in today’s high-tech world is to donate money to a candidate and then to use technology to make sure he or she wins…"
- Robert Epstein
It is interesting to note that while Google had been extremely active in attempting to manipulate the 2016 election in favor of their preferred candidate Hillary Clinton, they ultimately failed.
It was not because of their techniques however, but rather due to their expectation that the race would be close with Hillary leading by five points. Their manipulations did not take into account other scenarios.
Google is facing new scrutiny in the wake of revelations that it stores users’ location data even when “Location History” is turned off.
In the past, Google quietly edited its description of the practice on its own website—while continuing said practice—to clarify that “some location data may be saved as part of your activity on other services, like Search and Maps.”
As a result of the previously unknown practice, which was first exposed by the Associated Press, Google was sued by a man in San Diego. Simultaneously, activists in Washington, DC urged the Federal Trade Commission to examine whether the company is in breach of its 2011 consent decree with the agency.
In the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in San Francisco, attorneys representing a man named Napoleon Patacsil argued that Google is violating the California Invasion of Privacy Act and the state’s constitutional right to privacy.
The lawsuit seeked class-action status, and it would include both an “Android Class” and “iPhone Class” for the potential millions of people in the United States with such phones who turned off their Location History and nonetheless had it recorded by Google.
Further Reading
Google’s new scheme to connect online to offline shopping scrutinized
Also on August 17, attorneys from the Electronic Privacy Information Center wrote in a sternly worded three-page letter to the FTC that Google’s practices are in clear violation of the 2011 settlement with the agency.
In that settlement, Google agreed that it would not misrepresent anything related to "(1) the purposes for which it collects and uses covered information, and (2) the extent to which consumers may exercise control over the collection, use, or disclosure of covered information.
"Until the Associated Press story on August 13, Google's policy simply stated: "You can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored."
This turns out to not be true.
Amazon Manipulation
Sorry, but I am going to use an example from politics. Hopefully this one (being so dated) will not be offensive to my readership. Just remember people, politics in America is just a big game of "bread and circuses for the masses". All the participants work together.
Amazon can and will change and manipulate reviews for political reasons. With the proper amount of money, they will do so for ANY reason. (And, we all know, that the United States government has a bottomless supply of money…)
Let’s go back to later 2016, early 2017…
Hillary 2016 Book – Stronger Together
Here’s a funny story that wasn’t reported in the mainstream media. It took place during the 2016 election between Hillary Clinton and Donald trump. Both had written books to promote their causes and beliefs. However, Hillary Clinton’s book tanked and was poorly received. Here’s a screen shot;
Hillary Clinton’s book was just not selling.
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As The New York Times reported at the time, the book was a disaster. Both Mrs. Clinton and her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine, have promoted the book on the campaign trail, but the sales figure, which tallies about 80 percent of booksellers nationwide and does not include e-books, firmly makes the book what the publishing industry would consider a flop.
“Stronger Together,” whose cover shows Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Kaine waving, arrived closer to Election Day than most of these types of books. Named after the campaign’s slogan, “Stronger Together” offers readers, according to the book jacket,
“specific and practical solutions, while also articulating a bold and expansive vision of change and renewal.”
Its roughly 250 pages intersperse bullet-point policy ideas, like “launch a national initiative for suicide prevention” and “humanely address the Central American migrant crisis,” with photographs of Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Kaine on the campaign trail, charts in the campaign’s signature chunky font and highlights from Mrs. Clinton’s speeches.
Unfortunately the book was a flop.
No one wanted it, and the one’s whom actually bought the book gave it negative reviews. So, as with everything else in this ‘new normal rigged’ world, something had to be done and (Washington Post) WaPo-owner Jeff Bezos’ Amazon reviews appear to have been ‘tweaked’.
They apparently changed the reviews and the stats to reflect a much more favorable view of the book.
Indeed, more than doubling Hillary’s top reviews.
But, as WND.com explains, Amazon’s steps to ‘fix’ Hillary’s book reviews has resulted in 5-star ratings with scathingly negative comments. (I guess that is what happens with the literate masses object to such blatant manipulation.)
If you can’t even win when the rules are changed in your favor, things must be REALLY bad.
That’s how it looks for Hillary Clinton’s new 2016 campaign book, “Stronger Together,” co-authored with running mate Tim Kaine. WND reported this strange turn of events when the book was being savaged on Amazon.com with negative reviews, with 81 percent one-star ratings and an average of only 1.7.
Of course denials were everywhere, and the Clinton organized shrills quickly lashed out at “trolls” they said were criticizing the book only because they oppose the Democrat’s presidential candidacy.
It’s really quite funny.
Once it became news what Amazon was doing, other purchasers of the book had to chime in. WND previously reported there were more than 1,200 reviews, and the number grew to than 2,000.
Zero Public interest did not fit the Public Narrative.
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However, that just couldn’t possibly stand, and by Thursday afternoon, the amount was yet again culled (again!) until there were only 255 reviews, with many of the most critical reviews removed by Amazon, whose CEO, Jeff Bezos, owns the Washington Post, which created an army of 20 reporters and researchers to investigate the life of Donald Trump.
Victory for the Clinton book, however, remains out of grasp, with the negative, one-star responses, outnumbering positive, five-star responses nearly 2-1. The one-star ratings Thursday were 62 percent, to 35 percent for five-star ratings.
And, of course, knowing the DNC manipulation of all their reviews, the book reviewers simply punched the five-star button then made harshly critical condemnations of the book and Hillary Clinton.
That way their opinions were still posted…
"I didn’t buy this book or read this book, but I have read the reviews, and enjoyed hours of entertaining, fun filled reading, expressing the TRUTH, about a crooked, lying, corrupt, terminally ill Presidential candidate, who stole the nomination from Bernie Sanders, and who is about the steal the Presidency with the use of election fraud. 10 Stars to the authors of these reviews. Proof that not only are Amazon.com shoppers of superior intelligence, but thye call it like they see it…. Amazon shows this as a verified purchase, when I didn’t buy the book … how fun!”
- From suz702, who posted a five-star ranking
On and on, there’s pages of this stuff…
“the book confirms the hrc is a racist. every matter in her mind is about racies (sic). but reality is she does not care about the black people. just look at the ever increasing trend of black population that are relying on welfare since the obama rule. the fundermental (sic) cause of this result is the fact that lefties of the country favor the riches by allowing outsourcing jobs to other countries. black people should wake up, stop supporting dnc and hrc, who is effectively a puppet of the elite class. the book is simply a propaganda.”
- Ian alexander, another five-star reviewer said.
Just two days earlier, out of 1,244 reviews, 81 percent were one-star and 16 percent five-star. The book plunged from No. 840 earlier this week to No. 1,538 on Thursday. It was No. 5 in the subcategory “Books-Politics & Social Sciences-Politics & Government-Elections & Political Process-Leadership.”
The reviews dripped sarcasm, both before the Amazon edits to the reviews and after.
“I bought this thinking it would be a how-to book. I wanted ‘How to set up your own Foundation for fun and profit.’ Also, would like to have seen a chapter on ‘Ten easy steps to setting up your own secure server in a bathroom,'”
-Elaine.
And, here’s another…
“Not only no but hell no. I’d rather read Mein Kampf,”
- Anthony Messina.
Chjhores said:
“Pre-ordered an autographed copy but had to return it after this week’s announcement as I was worried it was contaminated with pneumonia bacteria. I didn’t want to end up exposed to the illness like her grandkids in Chelsea’s apartment she was playing with on 9/11 after she collapsed, or the little girl she was hugging in the street afterwards. Thought about ordering the Kindle version but I thought it might open my device up to being hacked by communist countries. I wasn’t too surprised to see Tim Kaine on the front cover giving the traditional National Socialist salute (“Heil Hitler!”), I felt it fitting.
Strongly recommended for those who believe the USA isn’t anything special and should be more like the peaceful utopias of North Korea, Iran, or Cuba.”
And kpm said,
“Imagine my dismay when key parts of her life were omitted, would have made for far better reading if she had included all of the below starting with flunking the D.C. Bar Exam to:
Was removed from her House Judiciary Committee staffer job because of incompetence and lying.
The Whitewater scandal.
Married a serial liar and cheater, who occasionally had sexual encounters with nonconsenting partners.
Lied about “sniper fire” in an attempt to simulate exposure to danger in a war zone.
The subject of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” that led to the impeachment and disbarment of her husband
Took crockery, furniture, artwork and other items from the White House — had to return and/or pay for them.
Said “what difference, at this point, does it make” about four brave people killed in Libya as a direct result of her failure to protect them on the anniversary of 9/11.
Totally ignored the structure and rules for the handling of sensitive national security information.
Amassed a personal fortune with “speaking fees” and payments from private sector political donors and foreign governments into transparent “foundations” in obvious exchange for future political favor.”
Nearly 1,500 people found that review “helpful.”
But more than 3,400 found helpful the comments from Daniel B.:
“I was going to read this book … I really was. But just as I got started, I found myself under sniper fire, passed out, and fell and hit my head. After that I got double vision and had to wear glasses that were so damn thick I couldn’t even see to read. As if that wasn’t enough, I then had an allergic reaction to something and started coughing so hard I spit out what looked like a couple of lizard’s eyeballs, my limbs locked up, and I passed out and fell down again, waking up only to find out I had been diagnosed with pneumonia 2 days earlier. Somehow I managed to power through it all, but it’s a good thing I was able to make a small fortune on this random small trade in the commodities market (cattle futures or some such thing) and then, miracle of all miracles, a few banks offered me a few million to just talk to their employees for a few minutes – and all that really helped out because I swear I was dead broke and couldn’t figure out how I was gonna come up with the 6 bucks to pay for this book, let alone pay the $1,500 for my health insurance this month. I still want to read it, but, honestly, what difference at this point does it make? I hear it sucks anyway.”
Clinton’s 2015 book, “Hard Choices,” received an average of only three stars despite garnering 2,460 customer reviews.
Here’s some screen captures of the “Stronger Together” reviews, because by the time this manuscript is released all of these reviews will be erased to fit the new narrative.
Of course Bezo would manipulate the data his company controls. It is in his own best interests. WND also has documented Bezos’ interest in the election outcome, with the Post’s army of investigators looking into Trump’s life.
As WND reported this summer, Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward told the National Association of Realtors Convention in Washington Wednesday:
“There’s a lot we don’t know. We have 20 people working on Trump. We’re going to do a book. We’re doing articles about every phase of his life.”
Woodward said he has been investigating Trump’s real-estate deals in New York. Why a book on Trump and not Hillary and her 22 biggest scandals?
“[W]e have years and years of reporting on Hillary Clinton to draw from, including her last presidential campaign, her time as secretary of state, and her position as U.S. senator, Because Trump’s involvement in political life is far more limited, the Post newsroom decided to embark on a book as a special project. In order to complete the book in a timely fashion, reporters from throughout the newsroom have been assigned to work for a brief period on particular aspects of his life and career.”
Coratti explained.
The one-star reviews for the Clinton book also continued. All were dripping with sarcasm. Just Thursday afternoon, Jimsdun wrote:
“Well I’m disappointed. This doesn’t tell me how to create a faux charitable foundation and then use it for money laundering.”
Hillary 2017 Book – What Happened
You would think that Amazon would know better than to repeat their manipulative techniques, but obviously they do not read alternative media. They are still drinking off the teat of mainstream media and are completely unaware of the public knowledge of their actions.
In what many have dubbed a flagrant intervention by Amazon itself to seemingly boost the rating of Hillary Clinton’s new book “What Happened“, the Telegraph first reported, and subsequently many others observed first hand, that Amazon has been monitoring and deleting 1-star reviews of Hillary Clinton’s new book “which was greeted with a torrent of criticism on the day it was released.”
Reviews of What Happened have been mixed, with some accusing Clinton of using it as an opportunity to blame others, such as former FBI head James Comey, Bernie Sanders, Vladimir Putin, social media and pretty much everything else, for her failure, rather than herself.
Even The New York Times, which supported Clinton’s campaign, wrote that the book is “a score-settling jubilee”.
What is fascinating, is how few one-star reviews have remained on the website amid reports and screen-grabs showing that reviewers used the space to criticize the former First Lady. One 1-star review, which remained on the website earlier, read:
"Read all the promotional excerpts, which combined come close to book length – pretty good novel. It is fiction, isn't it? Surely, someone is playing a joke."
"Picked this book up at Wal-Mart out of sheer morbid curiosity. Returned it, claiming I bought the wrong book"
While this is not the first time Amazon has intervened to “adjust” the ratings of its products, in November negative comments under a book by anti-Trump broadcaster Megyn Kelly appeared to be removed by the retailer, it has rarely “adjusted” reviews of such a prominent product so publicly.
"In the case of a memoir, the subject of the book is the author and their views. It’s not our role to decide what a customer would view as helpful or unhelpful in making their decision. We do however have mechanisms in place to ensure that the voices of many do not drown out the voices of a few and we remove customer reviews that violate our community guidelines."
So how does this change reality….
Well just look though the lens of a clock.
And then seven hours later…
What Amazon.com shows as of today 29OCT20;
A best seller!
Yes, it’s a best seller!
Man! If only my writings could become a best seller. What’s her secret? Are her ghost writers all that great. Truthfully, I am terribly jealous.
Hillary Clinton is obviously a well-beloved and liked person, who is an excellent writer and who has made the world a better place for everyone.
Twitter Manipulation
Perhaps one of the most manipulated social media platforms is Twitter. I don’t use it. I signed up for it when it first came out, and then lost interest after two days. That is the sum total of my twitter experience. However, I am an outlier. Others, such as Donald Trump, use it quite frequently.
Let’s look at some of the ways it is manipulated to serve the needs of those in power.
Twitter Manipulation – Shadowbanned
Following the permanent banning of [1] conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos from using its service; the [2] suspension of the account of Glenn Reynolds, aka @instapundit and creator of the Instapundit blog, a University of Tennessee law professor and a conservative columnist for USA TODAY; and [3] blocking veteran reporter Mahir Zeynalov after bowing to pressure from Turkish president Erdogan; October 2016 saw the [4] ‘shadowbanning’ of thoughtful – non-violent – twitter-er Scott Adams – the creator of the Dilbert cartoon character.
Scott Adams asked his followers for examples of Clinton supporters being violent against peaceful Trump supports in public… which seems to have ‘triggered’ some people and got Adams “Shadowbanned” from Twitter…
“This weekend I got “shadowbanned” on Twitter. It lasted until my followers noticed and protested. Shadowbanning prevents my followers from seeing my tweets and replies, but in a way that is not obvious until you do some digging.
Why did I get shadowbanned?
Beats me.
But it was probably because I asked people to tweet me examples of Clinton supporters being violent against peaceful Trump supporters in public. I got a lot of them. It was chilling.
Late last week my Twitter feed was invaded by an army of Clinton trolls (it’s a real thing) leaving sarcastic insults and not much else on my feed. There was an obvious similarity to them, meaning it was organized.
At around the same time, a bottom-feeder at Slate wrote a hit piece on me that had nothing to do with anything.
Except obviously it was politically motivated.
It was so lame that I retweeted it myself. The timing of the hit piece might be a coincidence, but I stopped believing in coincidences this year.
All things considered, I had a great week. I didn’t realize I was having enough impact to get on the Clinton enemies list. I don’t think I’m supposed to be happy about any of this, but that’s not how I’m wired.”
Twitter Manipulation – Bots
“Or take the right to vote. In principle, it is a great privilege.
In practice, as recent history has repeatedly shown, the right to vote, by itself, is no guarantee of liberty.
Therefore, if you wish to avoid dictatorship by referendum, break up modern society’s merely functional collectives into self-governing, voluntarily co-operating groups, capable of functioning outside the bureaucratic systems of Big Business and Big Government.”
-Aldous Huxley, in Brave New World Revisited (1958)
In a 2014 report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the social networking site Twitter estimated that more than 23 million of its active user accounts were being run by “bots” — software agents or bits of code that act on their own to respond to news and world events. They interact with real users, never revealing their true nature.
Bots of this kind have been used in efforts to sway public opinion in Central America already for a decade. The hacker and political operative Andrés Sepúlveda claims to have employed armies of bots to influence at least a half-dozen major election results in Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua and elsewhere.
Could the same happen in the U.S. and Europe?
Probably so, given findings on bot activity ahead of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. As part of the Computational Propaganda Research Project at Oxford University researchers looked at some 300,000 Twitter accounts and found that a mere 1 percent of them generated about one third of all tweets relevant to the Brexit debate.
1/3 of all Brexit debate were generated by 1% of accounts.
They believe that many of those accounts were run by bots, because human users could not have sustained such a level of activity without the help of automation. It’s not clear whether the activity swayed the result, though the Leave campaign did generate more automated tweets.
This issue is far bigger than Brexit: The disturbing reality is that computational propaganda is already with us.
In the 2016 U.S. presidential race, Twitter bots support both Trump and Clinton. Bots of various kinds live on cloud servers and operate 24 hours a day, and account for about 50 percent of all activity on the web.
According to the Central American hacker, Sepúlveda, peoples’ opinions tend to be swayed more by views they see as coming spontaneously from real people than by views expressed on television or in newspapers.
Twitter Exposed by the NY Times
Most of the reports regarding the manipulation by the media are buried deep down in the lower nooks and crannies of the mainstream media. Obviously they do not want people to know how they manipulate and conspire to alter viewpoints and opinions. Yet, occasionally an excellent article comes out that just “kicks the door down” regarding just this type of activity.
The New York Times wrote just this kind of article regarding Twitter. It’s worthy of a read. Here is what political commentator Rush Limbaugh (The New York Times Exposes the Fakery of Twitter, on 29JAN18.) has to say about this article;
Folks, I have to tell you something. The New York Times put on their website late Saturday and published in their newspaper on Sunday one of the most phenomenal stories. Now, I know. I am on record as having lost respect for the New York Times, and I am on record as having said many times that my instinctive reaction to anything in the New York Times is not to believe it. However, this story I happen to know is true — and it is phenomenal.
It is a very, very long story. I would recommend that you read this story on your computer so that you can benefit and experience the amazing graphics that they use to illustrate the point. The point of the story is that you, anybody, can buy followers on Twitter and Facebook. You can buy retweets. In other words, you can buy fake human beings and have them reported as following you. The names of people who have done this are listed in the story. They run from actors, to athletes, to pundits, to journalists.
These are bots. You know, I’ve found a lot of people — when I say a Twitter bot or a Facebook bot — say, “What is that?” Well, the easiest way to explain it is it’s just an automatic script. It’s just a little piece of code that is triggered by anything the creator wants it to be triggered by. It’s called a robot or a bot because there’s no real person behind it. It’s a fake. It’s made to look like an actual human being with a Twitter account but no human being exists.
It’s totally fake, made up. Some of these bots are actually based on real people whose identities are stolen and modified ever so slightly so that you wouldn’t notice it to the naked eye. And others are just manufactured out of whole cloth. There’s an actor mentioned here in this story that has 975,000 followers with the vast majority of them unreal. They have been purchased. The number one company selling these bots is right here in West Palm Beach, above Rocco’s Tacos on Clematis Street!
Not to be confused with the Rocco’s Tacos on PGA Boulevard. The Rocco’s Tacos on Clematis Street is where this little guy’s office is. He’s 27 years old. He makes people think that his office is in Manhattan. It’s exceedingly cheap. You can buy 100,000 followers for 10 bucks. The guy has earned six to $7 million selling fake followers. My friends, what this means is that very little is real on Twitter, ditto Facebook when you can buy followers.
Ray Lewis, future Hall of Fame linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens is listed as one who has purchased followers. Now, some of these people are gonna say, “I — I didn’t know! My agent must have done that.” But the bottom line is, you can create bots to do anything. The reason I know this is true is because — as I have shared with you on countless occasions — we have run up against this procedure, this technique trying to damage our business here. And we have found out in our investigational research, it is exactly what happened.
In our case it was 10 people who were flooding our advertisers with massive amounts of emails made to look like it was coming from tens of thousands of people, and it was 10 people creating fake Twitter users, fake customers, fake everything. So it’s one thing to create bots to bombard your enemies. It’s another thing for you to knowingly go out and purchase followers. So what it means is that when you’re on Twitter and you’re looking at somebody that is somewhat known, not the well-known at all, a YouTube star that has millions of followers, the likelihood it is it is nowhere near true.
But look at the influence that it has had. This is why followers are purchased. Look at how often the Drive-By Media quotes Twitter in every story they do. How many times have you heard in reaction to a story “Twitter is melting down”? And you are being led to believe that a story happens, whatever it is, and on Twitter there is this massive reaction to it, either positive or negative — and then you are further led to believe that that story is huge and that millions of Americans have an opinion on it.
And the likelihood is that very little of that is even true. Now, you might be asking, “Why would the New York Times be doing this?” It’s very clear to me. The New York Times had to weigh a couple of things here. On the one hand, these bots can be used to really damage your enemies — business enemies, business opponents, political opponents, political enemies, personal enemies — because you can create fake bots, and you can make it look like a person is literally despised and hated when that person isn’t.
And you can turn it around. You can make it look like a person is universally loved and adored and renowned by gazillions, and that isn’t true. It’s a way to earn fake popularity. Everything is fake on this social media. Not everything. So much of what social media is is fake. So much of it is unearned. So much of it is the result of shortcuts. I’m certain the New York Times did this because they’re fed up with Twitter having more influence than they do. “The New York Times is the paper of record!
“The New York Times is the media of record. Who the hell, what the hell is this Twitter business?” they have probably been saying themselves. I mean, it is a long story. It has many different writers and reporters on it. The evidence is pretty clear. As I say, if I didn’t have firsthand knowledge of this, then I would be highly suspicious of the reporting, of the agenda, the whole narrative. But since I know that this stuff happens. Now, by the way, I have to tell you, I did not know — and I’m happy admitting this.
It makes me sound like I’m a bit naive. I did not know you could buy followers. I didn’t know that. But a lot of people have found out you can buy followers. Do you realize the power of that, folks? Let’s say you’re a B actor or a B pundit, you’re a YouTube star. In reality, you don’t have millions of people watching. Ridiculous! Streaming hasn’t grown that much yet. But yet there’s all these “YouTube stars.” Can I give you some evidence of this? There was some YouTube guy. I forget his name.
I don’t mean this to be critical of the YouTube guy. Please do not misunderstand. But some YouTube guy was creating very clever videos. I don’t even know what the genre was. His first name was Casey. So CNN thought this guy had this massive Millennial audience. And they signed this guy up to start producing videos for them. And they got zilch. The guy finally had to admit that he didn’t know how to do what CNN wanted. He didn’t know how to… So… Well, what the real problem was, the guy didn’t have anywhere near the number of followers and audience that it was made to appear that he did.
See, when did you live by the fake sword, you die by it. When you want fame but it isn’t real, it’s gonna come back and bite you. When you want wealth but that isn’t real — you’ve stolen it, you’ve cheated it, you haven’t earned it — that’s gonna come back and bite you. You want popularity. And everybody on social media does. And this is just one side of social media that’s bad. The other side is just the absolute sewer that it is with the cultural-destroying language and behavior that is used on these social networks, the discourse and all of that.
And then the third element of this is all the lying about what great lives people have and how exciting their lives are. And people read this and think their lives are miserable and they get depressed. I mean, this is… It’s bad all the way around, and now adding this buying followers to it. So how many people have now comfortably gotten a false, totally incorrect opinion of the popularity of certain issues, of the popularity of certain people, when you can go buy it all? And I’m telling you, it’s cheap.
You can buy 100,000 followers for 20 bucks, folks. All you have to do is know where to go do it. Some of these bots are actual real people who do not realize they’re being used. Their e-mail address is changed with one letter. A capital I might become a small I so that nobody would notice it. The user photo might be compressed a little bit so that it looks slight different color but not enough so you wouldn’t notice it without a side-by-side comparison. They make up people and they take actual people and steal their identities, ’cause you have to have some legitimate feel of the follower scam to work.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This Twitter debauchery is even worse. You can kill a stock. You can drive a company’s stock down or the other way with some of these fake bots, the followers and so forth. I’ll tell you what. James O’Keefe, folks, his latest book involving his expose on the political nature Twitter and how they literally ban conservative thought is called American Pravda. It’s been outs a couple of weeks. If you read books, and if you want to learn — at least get a primer on what Twitter really is and how it operates — James O’Keefe, American Pravda.”
Altering Product Reviews
Talk about a glowing review: one five-star review given to a light-up USB cable for sale on Amazon had a headline claiming that this product “has lit up my life.” That review was not only glowing, it was steaming, Amazon says.
In today’s world, anything can be bought for the right price.
This includes written opinions about products and services. One particularly worrisome example is with the book reviews on the website Amazon.com. It turns out that there is a high percentage of them (relatively) that are fake; fabricated and simply made up to deceive either one way or the other.
In the case of the glowing review of the light-up USB cable; The review was fake, purchased by a third-party Amazon seller, the online retailer claims, and probably cost the manufacturer between $19 and $22 (£13 and £15) to write it and have it listed on the Internet for (assumingly) forever. Those are the accusations Amazon has made in its first-ever lawsuit against sites that sell reviews.
The suit, filed Wednesday in Seattle’s King County Superior Court, accuses Jay Gentile, a California resident, and the websites [1] buyamazonreviews.com, [2] buyazonreviews.com, [3] bayreviews.net and [4] buyreviewsnow.com, of trademark infringement, false advertising and violations of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and the Washington Consumer Protection Act.
The sites sell packages of reviews, from as few as 3 to as many as 100. Promises include “drip-feed delivery” that won’t raise Amazon’s suspicions and a “100 percent stick guarantee” for reviews, promising to replace any that Amazon deletes or filters out.
One of the sites Gentile is accused of running, buyazonreviews.com, sounds like it’s on the up-and-up:
“We use real people that are sourced from all around the world to deliver high quality unbiased reviews on your products.”
The fine print sounds just as legit:
“We are not receiving any money for your reviews nor are we paying reviewers. Your payment goes towards review sourcing, database management, and operation costs. “
But Amazon says that the reality “is far different.”
In this, its first ever crackdown on fake reviews since it debuted the review platform 20 years ago (with its first review of Dr. Seuss’s “The Butter Battle Book”), Amazon accuses Gentile of promising to “provide as many five-star reviews as the purchaser wanted” and to “slow drip” them onto Amazon’s product pages so that the company would have a “more difficult time detecting them”.
In the complaint, Amazon also accuses Gentile of advising his customers to “do a few verified purchase reviews … so as not to raise any eyebrows with Amazon.
"The reviewers don't actually have to receive the products, Gentile allegedly told customers. Rather, his clients could just send empty boxes to try to fool Amazon into thinking that the reviewer was a "verified purchaser."
The complaint quotes the advice Gentile allegedly gave:
Note: You do not have to actually ship the item unless you want to. We suggest that for tracking purposes is that you just ship out an empty box or envelope, this will show [A]mazon that the item was actually shipped.
When one clueless reviewer working for buyazonreviews.com complained about not having actually received a product, Gentile allegedly reassured his client that she’d be brought in line:
“All our reviewers know of the process and I am not sure as to why she sent this to you but I will ensure it does not happen in the future.”
Amazon gave a number of examples of what it says are phony reviews, such as the USB cable five-star review:
This has lit up my life
By j9 on March 31, 2015
Verified Purchase“Review: I was kinda doubtful about the "electroluminescent technology" of this USB cable. That it actually would work. But it actually did. Not only did the blue light function as they should, they were clear and bright, plus they turned off when the charge was finished. It's rad. They should make them in other colors too. Let's just say we're really impressed and are going to order a few more...”
Amazon is bringing claims of [1] trademark infringement, saying the websites are using the company’s name and logo without authorization. It’s also accusing the websites of [2] cybersquatting by hosting sites with names “identical to or confusingly similar to” Amazon’s own site. Amazon has asked the court to force the various websites to stop using its name and trademarks and to stop selling Amazon reviews. It’s also seeking triple damages and attorney’s fees.
Imagine a world where if individuals can set up a cheap website and system to do this, what powerful and well-funded governments can do.
It should not be believed that they would do nothing, for the maintenance of those in power (regardless of where they reside) are all heavily dependent upon securing the mass opinions of the populace. The reader should view everything on the Internet with suspicion, from news reports, to product reviews. The Internet is a wonderful tool, and it’s use in shaping your opinion on various matters is a well-honed and well-sharpened skill.
Flooding the Forum with “Likes”
In most forums, those posts with the greatest number of “likes” are presented first (or at the top of the forum). By controlling and altering the number of “likes” by various computer bots, one can effectively control the postings on a given internet forum.
This is a very common practice, and is common at Facebook, and Google where the actual software companies takes control of the forums in this manner. However, outside entities can also manipulate the forum using this technique.
Bangladesh “Click Farm”
The idea behind a click-farm is simple, but it takes a little explanation to understand how they came to be.
In the old days, when social media likes and website views were incredibly valuable, many webmasters turned to the dark side of the Internet to find ways to inflate them. Earning 1,000 likes or 1,000 website hits was a tough process, but it could be made a lot easier by setting up a program to refresh the page over and over. For Facebook, those bots would register accounts and use them to like the page.
Robots are easy to detect.
Facebook fan page likes could easily find these fraudulent accounts and remove them. Something needed to be done to make those number-inflating accounts less visible. Something to make them look more legitimate.
The answer, as it turned out, was just to make them legitimate – or as legitimate as it was possible to make them, anyways.
Bangladesh “Click Farm”
.
Webmasters pay people in developing nations like Bangladesh, where an annual income of $120 is acceptable, to create Facebook accounts. Or, more likely, webmasters pay a company that in turn pays these people.
These people register accounts, sometimes dozens, and sit idle until the money comes in. They receive a payment and a target Facebook account, and they relentlessly like the page with their accounts.
Even this was fairly easy to detect.
After all, if 10,000 accounts all mobilize in the span of a week and they all like the same selection of 10 pages, those ten pages very obviously purchased likes from a click farm.
At one point, Facebook purged so many fraudulent accounts it totaled nearly 10% of their entire user base. Unlike YouTube wiping views, however, Facebook’s deletions didn’t remove fake likes.
The modern version of a clickfarm still works the same way, only the people running the accounts take steps to obfuscate their traffic.
In addition to liking the pages they’re paid to like, they also click through ads and related pages on Facebook and like pages they aren’t paid to follow. This is how your page, running legitimate Facebook ads, can run afoul of a click-farm. The flurry of “organic” likes makes it much harder to pick out the mobilization of a click-farm for purchased likes.
The Chinese “Click Farm”
In 14MAY17, an unnamed person disclosed the operational details of a Chinese “click farm” used to manipulate the number of “likes” on a given Internet forum[i]. Photos were provided and some details were presented. From the article;
Chinese “Click Farm”
The bizarre ‘click farm’ of 10,000 phones that give FAKE ‘likes’ to our most-loved apps
Pages on social media websites are given fake ‘likes’ to make them look more popular by thousands of phones
“Footage has emerged of a giant "click farm" that uses more than 10,000 mobile phones to give product ratings and pages on social media websites phoney "likes".
Companies reportedly pay thousands to get their apps more likes by using services like this massive plant offers.
This covert clip in China shows rows and rows of like-making machines all wired to other devices in a factory. And there are said to be thousands more phones in the same building all made for the same purpose.”
The reader should note some details regarding all of the cell phones. They are all smart phones, typically generic or “off make” brands (probably due to cost considerations).
Note that the camera is covered by tape so that if any agency wanted to turn on the camera, it would not be able to record any video. Notice the screens, all of them are slightly different, but the forum that they are posing on is identical. The computer software provides a kind of software personality that automates the clicking algorithm.
A Russian man took video footage of the like-making machines and shared it online. But social media users reacted angrily to this clip. One viewer wrote: “Is everything in the modern world ‘fake’?” While, a third furious user shared: “Is anything actually real anymore?”
To which I must educate the reader.
Yes. Everything on the Internet is fake.
The Thailand “Click Farm”
Three Chinese men arrested in Thailand have acknowledged that they were operating a “click farm,” using hundreds of cellphones and several hundred thousand SIM cards to run up “likes” and views on WeChat, a Chinese social media mobile application, Thai police reported on 13JUN17.
Immigration Police Capt. Itthikorn Atthanark said the men explained they were paid according to how many likes and views they generated, each earning 100,000-150,000 baht ($2,950-$4,400) per month. Click farms are hired to inflate an online site’s viewership for prestige and profit.
Thailand click farm.
Some politicians boast of how many followers they have on social media, while clicks can generate ad revenue.
WeChat is China’s most prominent online social media platform, incorporating a text-messaging service as well as marketing for online stores.
Police seized 476 cellphones and around 347,200 SIM cards during the arrests Sunday at a house in Sa Kaeo province, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) east of Bangkok. The men, identified as Wang Dong, Niu Bang and Ni Wenjin, were charged with working without a permit and importing the phones without paying taxes.
Itthikorn said the arrests followed a police stakeout at the Sa Kaeo house after receiving reports of suspicious activity. He said a police search Monday at another residence believed to be engaged in the same activity came up empty-handed, though police believe others connected with the business are still at large.
Russian “troll farm”
Not only can you find “click farms” in Russia, but they are also used with ‘bots to flood the social media with trolls and other denizens of internet discussion. These farms park themselves and place ‘bots fully intended to disrupt the discussion on social media sites.
And what’s more, they are open for hire, and will do so for any social media. Apparently some of their biggest clients reside in the United States where they make princely amounts disrupting discussion as tolls on social media. So in Russia, not only do you have click-farms, but they also double as ’bout farms, and bit-mining operations.
A second highly effective technique (which you can see in operation all the time at www.abovetopsecret.com) is ‘consensus cracking.’
Pig Farts are destroying the Ozone Layer
Posted by Trustworthy Joe Average
Everyone knows that XXXXXX. It has been proven that XXXXXXX. And since XXXXX is a Y-chromosome, and Brando is good for plants, that DNA is great with JAVA, and the study clearly indicates that bovine farts are safe, while pig farts are dangerous.
To develop a consensus crack, the following technique is used. Under the guise of a fake account a posting is made which looks legitimate and is towards the truth is made – but the critical point is that it has a VERY WEAK PREMISE without substantive proof to back the posting.
Once this is done then under alternative fake accounts a very strong position in your favor is slowly introduced over the life of the posting. It is IMPERATIVE that both sides are initially presented, so the uninformed reader cannot determine which side is the truth. As postings and replies are made the stronger ‘evidence’ or disinformation in your favour is slowly ‘seeded in.’ Thus the uninformed reader will most like develop the same position as you, and if their position is against you their opposition to your posting will be most likely dropped.
This works on most websites, such as Facebook.
However in some cases where the forum members are highly educated and can counter your disinformation with real facts and linked postings, you can then ‘abort’ the consensus cracking by initiating a ‘forum slide.’
In April 2020, my LinkedIN feed was filled with articles stating that the Italian government was being overwhelmed with lawsuits against China for "mishandling" of the Coronavirus.
The only thing was, all of Italy was in lock-down at that time, and mail, servers and the Judicial apparatus were not functioning. They didn't even begin to resume operation until July.
Obviously it was a big lie.
No legal actions were taken inside of Italy against China at all, but you would never realize that if you were not aware of the situation within both Italy and China, and how the legal systems works. Things that most Americans are unaware of, which is why this technique is so prevalent in America today.
Topic Dilution
Topic dilution is not only effective in forum sliding it is also very useful in keeping the forum readers on unrelated and non-productive issues.
This is a critical and useful technique to cause a ‘RESOURCE BURN.’ By implementing continual and non-related postings that distract and disrupt (trolling ) the forum readers they are more effectively stopped from anything of any real productivity. If the intensity of gradual dilution is intense enough, the readers will effectively stop researching and simply slip into a ‘gossip mode.’ Which is the ideal outcome.
In this state they can be more easily misdirected away from facts towards uninformed conjecture and opinion.
The less informed they are the more effective and easy it becomes to control the entire group in the direction that you would desire the group to go in.
Caution is often warranted. It must be stressed that a proper assessment of the psychological capabilities and levels of education is first determined of the group to determine at what level to ‘drive in the wedge.’ By being too far off topic too quickly it may trigger censorship by a forum moderator.
Information Collection
Information collection is also a very effective method to determine the psychological level of the forum members, and to gather intelligence that can be used against them.
In this technique in a light and positive environment a ‘show you mine so me yours’ posting is initiated.
From the number of replies and the answers that are provided much statistical information can be gathered. An example is to post your ‘favorite weapon’ and then encourage other members of the forum to showcase what they have. In this matter it can be determined by reverse proration what percentage of the forum community owns a firearm, and or a illegal weapon. This same method can be used by posing as one of the form members and posting your favorite ‘technique of operation.’ From the replies various methods that the group utilizes can be studied and effective methods developed to stop them from their activities.
This method has become famous by various anti-gun groups who intentionally collected information on gun owners in selected cities in anticipation of a anti-gun government.
Anger Trolling
This technique is known as anger trolling.
Statistically, there is always a percentage of the forum posters who are more inclined to violence. In order to determine who these individuals are, it is a requirement to present a image to the forum to deliberately incite a strong psychological reaction.
From this the most violent in the group can be effectively singled out for reverse IP location and possibly local enforcement tracking.
To accomplish this only requires posting a link to a video depicting a local police officer massively abusing his power against a very innocent individual. Statistically of the million or so police officers in America there is always one or two being caught abusing there powers and the taping of the activity can be then used for intelligence gathering purposes – without the requirement to ‘stage’ a fake abuse video.
This method is extremely effective, and the more so the more abusive the video can be made to look. Sometimes it is useful to ‘lead’ the forum by replying to your own posting with your own statement of violent intent, and that you ‘do not care what the authorities think!!’ inflammation.
By doing this and showing no fear it may be more effective in getting the more silent and self-disciplined violent intent members of the forum to slip and post their real intentions. This can be used later in a court of law during prosecution.
JTRIG
One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. It’s time to tell a chunk of that story, complete with the relevant documents.
Over a period of several weeks, NBC News published a series of articles about “dirty trick” tactics used by GCHQ’s previously secret unit, JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group). These were based on four classified GCHQ documents presented to the NSA and the other three partners in the English-speaking “Five Eyes” alliance.
As of 2015, another new JTRIG document, in full, entitled “The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations.” Was published with goes into great detail how the United States government intentionally smears and destroys the reputation and credibility of anyone whom it wants to. It does this through pure application of honed Nazi and KGB techniques.
By publishing these stories one by one, NBC reports highlighted some of the key, discrete revelations: [1] the monitoring of YouTube and Blogger, [2] the targeting of Anonymous with the very same DDoS attacks they accuse “hacktivists” of using, [3] the use of “honey traps” (luring people into compromising situations using sex) and [4] destructive viruses. But, here, specifically, lets focus and elaborate on the overarching point revealed by all of these documents: namely, that these agencies are attempting to control, infiltrate, manipulate, and warp online discourse, and in doing so, are compromising the integrity of the internet itself.
Among the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG are two primary tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable. To see how extremist these programs are, just consider the tactics they boast of using to achieve those ends: [1] “false flag operations” (posting material to the internet and falsely attributing it to someone else), [2] fake victim blog posts (pretending to be a victim of the individual whose reputation they want to destroy), and [3] posting “negative information” on various forums.
Gaining Full Control
It is important to also be harvesting and continually maneuvering for a forum moderator position. Once this position is obtained, the forum can then be effectively and quietly controlled by deleting unfavorable postings – and one can eventually steer the forum into complete failure and lack of interest by the general public.
The goal is to only have forum postings favorable to your desired point of view present.
This is the ‘ultimate victory’ as the forum is no longer participated with by the general public and no longer useful in maintaining their freedoms. Depending on the level of control you can obtain, you can deliberately steer a forum into defeat by censoring postings, deleting memberships, flooding, and or accidentally taking the forum offline. By this method the forum can be quickly killed.
However it is not always in the interest to kill a forum as it can be converted into a ‘honey pot’ gathering center to collect and misdirect newcomers and from this point be completely used for your control for your agenda purposes. The object is to gain full control.
Prohibit Non Approved Opinion
The powers-that-be understand that if the government can control speech, it controls thought and, in turn, it can control the minds of the citizenry. In fact, some of this past century’s greatest dystopian authors warned of this very danger.
In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, reading is banned and books are burned in order to suppress dissenting ideas, while televised entertainment is used to anesthetize the populace and render them easily pacified, distracted and controlled.
In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, serious literature, scientific thinking and experimentation are banned as subversive, while critical thinking is discouraged through the use of conditioning, social taboos and inferior education. Likewise, expressions of individuality, independence and morality are viewed as vulgar and abnormal.
In George Orwell’s 1984, Big Brother does away with all undesirable and unnecessary words and meanings, even going so far as to routinely rewrite history and punish “thoughtcrimes.”
And in almost every episode of Twilight Zone, Rod Serling urged viewers to unlock their minds and free themselves of prejudice, hate, violence and fear. “We’re developing a new citizenry,” Serling declared. “One that will be very selective about cereals and automobiles, but won’t be able to think.”
Conclusion
Yes, the manipulation of speech is an important tool for the control of people.
And we see a lot of this in regards to politics. Specifically in politics related to “democracies”, which pretty much rely upon “mob rule” to select the leadership. Thus we see that data in democracies are subject to popular opinion and thus must also be manipulated.
So, we see that in a “democracy”…
Leadership and politics are heavily involved in censorship and manipulation.
And in data sets and metrics of success, leadership also manipulates heavily.
But this is not the case in other forms of governance.
In totalitarian, and Republic forms of governance, there is no need to appease the population, thus there really isn’t a need to manipulate or censor. You can use China as a good example.
China
There was an outbreak of COVID-XXX in ZhangXin on March XXXX. 2,338 were infected, 388 died, and 78 were arrested for non-compliance with the mask law.
The Chinese don’t need to lie about these figures, or the presentation of them. They are facts. And whether you like them or not, agree with them or not, or anything else has no bearing on the issue. They do not CARE about your opinion.
Compare that to America, where mob opinion is very important and can result in positive or negative opinions of the leadership. Eventually resulting in their termination if things go bad.
USA
COVID-XXXX hits Boston. 456 infected, 34 deaths. But these figures are not verified by a secondary source and there are indications that they might be artificially enlarged by confusing it with the influenza. A government spokesperson admitted that there were a "few" deaths, but that everything was under control and a vaccine is under production right now to prevent further infections. Further, the vast majority of those that died had prior conditions, were old and feeble, or had other complication.
Sound familiar?
Remember these techniques are only effective if the forum participants DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THEM.
Remember these techniques are only effective if the forum participants DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THEM.
.
Once they are aware of these techniques the operation can completely fail, and the forum can become uncontrolled. At this point other avenues must be considered such as initiating a false legal precedence to simply have the forum shut down and taken offline. This is not desirable as it then leaves the enforcement agencies unable to track the percentage of those in the population who always resist attempts for control against them.
Do you want more?
I have more posts along these lines in my Functional and practical notes section of my SHTF Index…
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Ok. The fact is that I have numerous avenues funneling small amounts of money to pay for my retirement, and little pleasures in life. I guess that life has taught me that you just cannot rely on one source of income. But rather, you need to have a lot of tiny sources of income. The more, the better.
But you know, it wasn’t always like this.
All my life I was told that if I got a job working for a “good company” that I would be set for life. That I could retire with a pension when I hit my middle 40’s and would have a great life with all my medical needs taken cared for.
It did not happen.
My life has been a constant struggle. And on the employment scene, it’s been a “gig economy” long before the rest of society caught up with that reality.
Over the years, I have tried to set up various mechanisms for earning and making money. Most of the time, however, I had (out of necessity) taken jobs working for others. Most of which didn’t deserve me. Today, I have a combination of low-income venues that provide a steady income. It’s not what you read on the internet or see in Hollywood. It’s just enough for a comfortable life, but there are no Maybach or Ferrari’s in my life, thank you.
One of the mechanisms that I use to earn a few bucks is to incorporate a few vending machines to my income stream. And I do mean incorporate. You add these elements of extra work to your daily routine, and you include the revenue income into the family budget for the wife to handle.
It’s a matter of persistence and trial and error. Like anything else, you invest some money, and you learn how things works by serving the machines. Many locations are terrible. Some locations change and cause upsets, and every now and then you “hit a pot of gold”. Don’t poo-poo this.
In my mind anything that puts some extra money in your wallet is something deserving of consideration. Anything.
Here’s a pretty good article on this subject.
The following article is titled “The economics of vending machines”, written by Zachary Crockett | @zzcrockett October 3, 2020. It was edited to fit this venue. All credit to the original author.
The economics of vending machines
The pandemic has boosted interest in vending machine ownership. But just how lucrative is the business? We spoke to 20+ operators to find out.
Three months ago, Jalea Pippens — a phlebotomist at St. John Hospital in Detroit — had her hours cut.
In the midst of the pandemic, the 23-year-old found herself in dire need of a second income stream. One night, while scrolling through search results for “ways to make extra money,” she came across vending machines.
The daily minutiae of owning a vending machine seemed a bit dull: buying bulk candy at Sam’s Club, stocking machines, collecting weathered bills and buckets of coins. But Pippens saw an opportunity to be her own boss.
She partnered up with her boyfriend and another business partner, bought a vending machine on Facebook Marketplace for $1.6k, and plunked it down at a local auto parts store, where it now grosses $400 per month.
“I’d never really thought about vending machines,” she tells The Hustle. “I didn’t even know you could own one.”
Pippens is one of thousands of individual operators who make up the bulk of the vending machine ecosystem.
During the pandemic, the relatively low barrier of entry has attracted a new generation of vending machine entrepreneurs — schoolteachers, nurses, mechanics, students — who measure profits in $1 bills and utilize new technologies to monitor and scale their operations.
But are vending machines really a viable side hustle? How much does the average machine bring in? And what does the job entail?
To find out, The Hustle surveyed and interviewed 20+ vending machine operators all over America.
A glimpse at the market
It is estimated that roughly ⅓ of the world’s ~15m vending machines are located in the US.
Of these 5m US-based vending machines, ~2m are currently in operation, collectively bringing in $7.4B in annual revenue for those who own them. This means that the average American adult spends ~$35 per year on vending machine items.
What makes the vending industry truly unique is its stratification: The landscape is composed of thousands of small-time independent operators — and no single entity owns >5% of the market.
(Zachary Crockett / The Hustle)
Some big corporations, like Pepsi and Coca-Cola, own their own arsenal of machines. But vending requires so many moving parts and brings in such slim profits per machine that it’s better suited for smaller operators who can minimize overhead costs.
According to a 2020 IBISWorld report, the nation’s 2m in-use machines are owned by 17.6k small businesses, the vast majority of which employ just a few people.
The vending industry is broad and encompasses everything from $0.50 gumballs to — well:
Oddities aside, the majority of vending machines (72.4%) house standard snacks and beverages — what are known as “full-line” machines in vending parlance.
Relatively low startup costs: An operator can find a decent machine and buy inventory for <$2k.
Scalability: Early revenue can be reinvested in expansion to leverage economies of scale.
A largely passive routine: Restocking and cash collection can be reduced to a few times per month.
A flexible schedule: Like the gig economy, vending allows operators to set their own hours.
But starting out in the business comes with its share of hurdles — the first of which is finding the right machine.
A new machine straight from a manufacturer can run from $3k to $8k+ — though used machines can be purchased on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace for as little as $300.
As Paul Valdez, a 39-year-old Miami operator, learned, those machines often end up being more trouble than they’re worth.
“I bought 4 machines on Craigslist for cheap and fixed them,” he tells The Hustle, “but they were all so crappy and old that no business wanted them.”
Once an operator like Valdez has secured the right machine, the next obstacle is finding a quality home for it.
Location can make or break a machine’s success — and finding a good one is often a steep challenge for people who are new to the business.
Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
Many of the best locations — places with heavy foot traffic, or large worker populations — are already saturated with machines.
Some owners we talked to have to make 100+ calls before landing a decent location. In the end, they often end up paying the owner a commission of 10%-25% of gross sales to drive home the deal.
Other owners resort to buying pre-established “routes” — machines that are already placed on-site somewhere — or attempt to knock out existing operators by offering a better service.
“It can be dog-eat-dog,” says Alyssa Howard, a 28-year-old who owns 22 snack machines in Colorado. “You have to treat it as a zero-sum game.”
The reason for this competition is simple: There is a tremendous variance in how much revenue a machine can bring in, based on where it is.
Good margins, small volumes
We surveyed 23 vending machine owners with various-sized operations and found that the average operator in our sample owned 13 machines that gross $309 per machine per month.
But self-reported revenue per machine per month ranged from just $75 to $650.
Note: This data comes from a survey of 23 operators and isn’t meant to be definitive; some vending machines make far less than the figures listed here; others make far more. (Zachary Crockett / The Hustle)
Most vendors we spoke with noted big differences in revenue across their own machines.
“I have one machine that does $25 every 2 weeks, and another that does $600,” says Everett Brown, a 32-year-old Lyft driver from Minneapolis who vends part-time. “Every location is different; some places suck, and others are gold mines.”
Jaime Ibanez got into vending in 2018. Fresh out of high school, he dropped $2.5k — about half his savings — on a refurbished snack machine and found a home for it at a local barbershop in Dallas.
Today, he owns 35 machines that gross $10k in revenue every month. His best location, a hotel, earns him $2.8k; his worst sometimes only sees $200.
And remember: these figures are pre-expenses. The business comes with its share of overhead costs.
For starters, ~50% of revenue goes toward the cost of items that go in the machines.
Many operators buy their wares in bulk at Sam’s Club and Costco and sell them for roughly 2x the price they paid. Here’s a look at how a typical vending machine’s margins might look by item:
(Zachary Crockett / The Hustle)
Among the other operating costs reported by vending machine owners:
General liability insurance (~$500/yr for <$100k in annual sales)
Commissions paid to locations (5-25% of revenue)
Transaction fees for card purchases (~5-6%)
Card reader analytics fees ($10/mo)
Storage space for unused machines (~$100/mo)
Gas and transportation ($50-$100/mo)
Taxes (10-37% of adjusted gross income)
Routine maintenance and vandalism repairs ($50-$250/yr)
Even something like logistics can be a burden: Vending machines are extraordinarily heavy — 600-800 lbs. — and often require special equipment to pick up and move.
All costs considered, an operator who makes $5k per month in revenue might take home something like $2k in profit.
To make vending work as a full-time gig, an operator typically must implement economies of scale, building the business up to dozens of machines that collectively generate a livable wage.
Operators like Ibanez are constantly reinvesting in expansion.
Ibanez with a few of his 35 vending machines in Dallas (via Jaime Ibanez)
The biggest input cost of all — the amount of time a vendor spends on-site — has been minimized by technology in recent times.
“I can visit all my machines in 2 days and not have to go back for 2 weeks,” says Ibanez.
Twenty years ago, operators had to drive to each machine on a semi-daily basis and jot down the items they needed by hand. Today, telemetry tools have largely allowed newcomers to operate remotely.
Roughly 70% of today’s vendors use some form of tech (card readers, apps, iPads) to monitor sales and inventory in real-time.
On a typical site visit day, Ibanez will get up at 6am, check his apps for inventory, and load up on his bestsellers — Honey Buns, M&M’s, and Snickers — at Sam’s Club. After restocking, collecting money, and doing an occasional repair, he’s home by 4pm.
This seemingly dull routine has piqued the interest of hundreds of thousands of young entrepreneurs on the Internet.
Ibanez’s YouTube channel, which chronicles his life as a vendor, boasts 362k subscribers and now earns more than his machines.
“People love to see the stacks of cash getting pulled out,” he says.
But something else is driving this fascination: the allure of a semi-passive income has led to a spike in vending during the pandemic.
The COVID-19 boom
Barry and Lori Strickland, a married couple in San Diego, run The Vending Mentors, an educational resource that offers an online course ($297) and ongoing consulting services ($97/mo) for new vendors.
Their journey into vending began back in 1989, when Barry — then a 30-year-old special education teacher — bought a few machines to make extra income during the summer.
Eventually, the couple grew the business to 250 machines and $500k in annual revenue before selling it.
Lory and Barry Strickland have seen an uptick in their vending machine course during the pandemic (Barry and Lory Strickland)
Since the pandemic, the Stricklands say they’ve seen a huge uptick in interest. This year, 200 vendors have signed up for their course.
“A lot of blue-collar workers are realizing their jobs are not as secure as they thought they were,” says Mr. Strickland. “We’re getting tons of interest from people who lost their jobs, or had hours cut, and are turning to vending to take things into their own hands.”
Mr. Strickland says that most vendors he knows have seen a 10-50% dip in revenue this year due to the stressors of the pandemic.
Radical shifts in consumer behavior, physical interaction, and health guidelines have shifted the vending landscape. Vendors who rely on schools have been hit especially hard; other locations, like nursing homes, have continued to perform well.
Despite the shakeup, Mr. Strickland maintains the market is ripe for entry.
“Vending machines are relatively safe compared to food prep — there isn’t as much human contact,” he says. “It’s also a business that a lot of people consider to be recession-proof.”
In particular, the Stricklands have noticed an uptick in Black and Latino vending machine owners — a trend they attribute to accessibility and relatively low startup costs.
VendingNation, a popular private Facebook group for new venders, has grown from 6k to 14.5k members since January — a 142% increase — and many of the new members are from underrepresented groups.
Jalea Pippens with a new machine — one of 15 she co-manages with her partners, Steven Lee and Gabriel McKinnon, in Detroit (Jalea Pippens)
Among them is Jalea Pippens, the phlebotomist from Detroit.
After buying her first machine 3 months ago, she launched Literally Lit Vending with her boyfriend (a nurse), and his best friend.
“The pandemic made us into entrepreneurs,” she says.
Over the past 3 months, Literally Lit has grown to encompass 15 machines all over Metro Detroit. Recently, they landed their biggest deal yet: 5 machines at a steel manufacturing warehouse.
Collectively, the machines now bring in $4k in monthly revenue — most of which is being reinvested into the company.
“When I used to see a vending machine at the hospital, I’d spend at least $5,” she says. “Now I’m on the other side, collecting the bills.”
Conclusion
Yes. I know. I can (personally) make great money with my knowledge and experience and uniqueness. After all, I am a Rocket Scientist, who speaks multiple languages and who lives smack dab in the middle of manufacturing central. In fact, I have interviewed for positions that pretty much were talking about paying me about ten times that of a commercial airline pilot. Which is a lot of money. A lot of fucking money.
But…
Is that all there is?
Money.
What about being your own boss? Having a relaxed lifestyle? Eating fine food, drinking wine and cavorting with pretty girls?
What about those things?
What about “cavoring around”?
What about spending time with your children? Not being stressed out? Walking out in the early morning and setting down to your daily routine without your phone ringing off the hook?
What about those things?
We all have to make a determination on what our life is to be, and we all need to make an individualized determination of how that will manifest. For me, it is the following…
A membership in a community.
Multiple sources of income that I control.
Doing the the kind of work that I love.
Meeting up with interesting people.
Living in a beautiful location.
Eating and drinking good delicious food.
Surrounded with love.
I suggest to the reader to forget about all that Hollywood nonsense.
Think small. Not large.
Think many avenues of income, not one.
Think many friendships and relationships. Not a few.
Think about having a lot of free time, not a little.
And you all might want to consider vending machines.
It will not make you rich. But it will pay for by-weekly steaks, pot roasts, and fine delicious sea food. Not to mention cases of fine delicious wine, and an unlimited amount of cigars.
Just a thought. You all.
Think small. Think community. Think skill. Think resources and relationships. Think about participation. Think about contribution.
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you.
"The US federal budget is on an unsustainable path, has been for some time. But this is not the time to give priority to those concerns."
- Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell
The world is changing. As I have covered in other posts, the technology that mankind is adopting is causing a great deal of social change. But not like one would expect. It’s not just using a smart phone instead of a rotary dial up phone. It’s not just using a Car Ride APP instead of hailing a taxi. It’s more than that…
It is disrupting many “imprisonment” and “stratification” schemes. Schemes that have become so ingrained into society that we (mistakenly) believe that they are a fundamental part of what our society is.
A stratification scheme is one in which a sentience (or a way of thinking and acting) forces upon society a special system of control. It is a system where they have advantage over other groups of people. And they control the access to this system. They let some people in, and leave others out. It's an exclusive system. As the saying goes in America "they control what will happen, and you ain't a part of it".
The caste system in India is a good example of this. But there are many others.
Most especially in America.
Think of any system where you need to go through a "gauntlet of approvals" to get something done. And then discover that the ones who "had it easy", and did not need to fight through that gauntlet (such as the wealthy and the "well connected") were sitting here smug when you finally (after many hoop jumps) arrived. These systems have saturated America today.
It is at a point that a "diversity" movement has organized to give others (who normally are restricted from entering these stratified societies) a chance to "break through" those invisible "glass walls".
These schemes…
… such as the Banking System, and the University System, and the Media System are all under stress and being replaced. (There are many others, such as the Judicial system, the Professional Registration System, and the Internet Paywall systems.) These schemes developed over time as a way for one group of people to have benefit over others. It was a way to control others (not overtly) but through quiet manipulation.
However, they point to some other nation. A nation that they read about in the “news”, and repeat loudly “America is the best nation on the earth!”. “America has problems” they retort, but it is not as bad as the rest of the world.
How do they know this mantra?
The American “news” media told them. That’s how.
Just stay in your little prison you mindless, deplorable debit serfs. Be content with your pathetic way of life. And work! Work! Work! If not, then the system will keep you so drugged up that you will be incapable of rising up and rebelling.
True, to some degree, more or less, the rest of the world engages in petty corruption. A cup of tea here, a few dollars there. However, in America, it is institutionalized and legalized at an enormous wholesale level. All by serious long-time crooks and con-artists.
The Presidential election of 2016 was a choice between two "mafia" bosses;
[1] Democrat - The Clinton Crime Syndicate. Hillary Clinton.
[2] Republican - A New York Casino Owner - Donald Trump.
But, people fought back…
The control of the media was the first battle.
Seemingly overnight, in the 1990’s, all sorts of alternatives to the mainstream media popped up. And the PTB were ending up exhausted trying to fright this “wack a mole” phenomenon. But they eventually won. The alternative media tended to cluster in groups by political extremes. So the PTB, and their government bodies, just simply ended up controlling the multiple media outlets. They now control the narratives for all Alt-Left, Alt-Right, and Mainstream media. And, the battle is not over. They are tightening their control over this medium in all sorts of ways.
The control over who works and who doesn’t is controlled by “the University System”. Over time, now a days, almost all positions except for semi-skilled and unskilled work requires a university degree. It’s pretty bad when a receptionist position needs to have a four year college education to work.
Well, that system is starting to fracture and crash.
And as I see it, it is going down in flames, and very little in the way of alternatives (in America) are replacing it. Overseas, in Europe and China, it’s a completely different matter. I think that I will cover this issue later on in another post, as it is interesting, and very complex.
And the control of the money / Banks is what I just talked about in my latest post. The systems have been set up to permit a small number of people great control over the lives of the rest of us, and it has resulted in ridiculous levels of wealth and poverty. And other nations (better run, stronger, and more capable) are coming up with solutions. Solutions complete with armed police to prevent corruption and abuse of the system.
Key to these new replacements for the paper-backed (not gold backed) banking industry is something called Cryptocurrency.
The following is a complete reprint of the article titled “What is Cryptocurrency?” written by Adam Levy (TMFnCaffeine) on Mar 11, 2018. It was edited to fit this venue. All credit to the author.
What Is Cryptocurrency?
Everything you need to know about this new form of electronic cash.
Cryptocurrency went mainstream in 2017 as the price of bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, soared over 13-fold during the year.
It’s often called “digital gold,” as some of the characteristics of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are similar to the precious metal often used as a store of value. But that comparison doesn’t do it justice.
Cryptocurrency is an electronic cash system that doesn’t rely on central banks or trusted third parties to verify transactions and create new units. Instead, it uses cryptography to confirm transactions on a publicly distributed ledger called the blockchain, enabling direct peer-to-peer payments.
That definition might seem downright cryptographic right now, but by the end of this overview, you won’t need a decryption key to understand crypto.
Today we’ll cover:
The creation of bitcoin and the blockchain, the underlying technology of all decentralized cryptocurrency.
How the blockchain solves the problems associated with prior virtual currencies.
How cryptocurrency transactions work without central banks.
The function of cryptocurrency “miners.”
How to buy cryptocurrency.
The early history of cryptocurrency
In 2009, a programmer using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto created bitcoin, the first ever cryptocurrency. Satoshi also created the blockchain technology, which makes all decentralized cryptocurrencies possible.
The blockchain was created as a solution to the “double-spending problem,” which arises in virtual currencies because it’s easy to duplicate digital information. A person could make a copy of his or her digital currency information and send both the original and the copy to separate parties.
Sort of like using a Xerox machine to make extra stacks of dollar bills.
Before bitcoin and blockchain, virtual currency relied on trusted third parties to prevent double spending. But Satoshi wanted to develop a decentralized currency, which meant finding a way for the network of bitcoin users to verify transactions.
“The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof-of-work,” Satoshi wrote in the abstract of the white paper announcing bitcoin.
This was the earliest description of the blockchain.
Why is it called a blockchain?
A block is a collection of transaction data on the cryptocurrency network.
It basically says Person A sent this much to Person B.
The Block-Chain Process.
As well as saying Person X sent this much to Person Y.
In a way, it is like the sales receipt that the chick at Burger King gives you when you buy a #1 Whopper Meal.
It also includes important information that allows the rest of the network to verify the validity of the block — such as the solution to a complex math problem — called a proof-of-work. While the math problem is hard to solve, it’s very easy for others to verify a valid solution. New blocks cannot be amended to the blockchain without a valid solution.
A block also includes a reference to the block that immediately precedes it. Thus, the blocks create a chain linking one to another through those references.
A “block chain” is created by linking all the blocks together.
The reference to the preceding block is accomplished through something called a cryptographic hash function. A hash function takes a set of data and maps it to a string of letters and numbers called a digest. If anything in the data changes, the resulting hash digest will change as well.
Chaining blocks together by using a hash function to reference the preceding block adds a great level of security to the system. To change a block in the ledger, a hacker would have to reproduce the entire chain of blocks following it, since it would create a chain of invalid hash values referencing the previous block.
It is sort of like making Xerox copies of your Burger King receipt and sending the copies (marked "copy") to everyone in your city.
How block-chain works.
How does a cryptocurrency transaction work?
Cryptocurrency is used for direct peer-to-peer payments anywhere in the world.
The speed of transactions varies based on currency and confirmation requirements, but it’s generally very fast compared with traditional banking systems. Where banks can take days to transfer money, cryptocurrency transfers happen in minutes.
Bank transactions = days.
Cryptocurrency transactions = minutes.
In general, cryptocurrency transactions go through the following steps before they get added to the blockchain.
A person requests a transaction, and the request is sent to the entire network.
Each computer on the network collects all concurrent transactions into a block, along with a timestamp for each transaction.
Each computer works on solving the difficult math problem to add the block to the blockchain. This process is called “mining.”
Once a computer finds a valid solution, it broadcasts the block to the rest of the network.
The network checks the solution as well as compares transactions in the block against the current blockchain to prevent double spending.
The block is added to the chain, showing the transaction was completed.
Once a block is added to the chain, that block gets hashed and is used to create the next block. The process continually repeats itself.
As such, transactions are practically irreversible, much the same way as if you give someone cash (hence calling it an electronic cash system). As mentioned, the chaining of one block to another means someone would have to edit the entire chain of blocks to change a transaction.
How the blockchain process works.
Since blocks are continually added to a chain, it’s extremely unlikely someone will be able to propagate an updated chain of blocks to the network before the rest of the network produces the next block and extends the chain further.
Every transaction needs a signature
Just as credit cards use your signature to verify you authorized a purchase, cryptocurrency uses a signature as well …
… a digital signature.
Transactions are secured through a cryptography system called public key encryption. Each user has both a public key and a private key associated with his or her account.
To authorize a transaction, users must prove they know their private key by using it as an input into a cryptographic hash function similar to the one used to link blocks together in the blockchain. That’s called signing the digest. The private key is used to write that “digital signature,” so it’s very important that the private key remains private.
Public Key = Each person in the transaction gets a copy.
Private Key = One (and only one) for each person involved.
What do miners do?
With no central banks deciding when to print more money, a cryptocurrency needs to define how to create new units of the currency. Many cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, distribute new units to miners as an incentive for verifying transactions on the blockchain.
“Cryptominers” verify transactions on the blockchain.
They are paid in bitcoin for their labors.
Miners work to solve the difficult math problem or other proof-of-work systems within every block of the blockchain. They also work to verify the solutions. Running all these calculations have real-world costs, including buying hardware and using electricity.
The difficulty of the math problem for bitcoin blocks is automatically adjusted such that the combined processing power of the network takes about 10 minutes to solve the problem on average.
When a miner successfully adds a block to the bitcoin blockchain, that miner also earns the right to take a reward. The winning miner’s bitcoin address is recorded in the block.
For instance…
The reward started at 50 bitcoins per block.
That number is halved every 210,000 blocks (or about every four years).
The current reward for adding a block is now 12.5 bitcoins, and that number will fall to 6.25 around June 2020.
At some point, the reward for solving a block in the bitcoin blockchain will become extremely small. By 2140, miners will have mined all 21 million bitcoins that will ever be in circulation. At that point, the incentive for miners to update and verify the blockchain will come from transaction fees. Some cryptocurrencies already rely on relatively high transaction fees to offer miners incentive.
Bitcoin miners (cryptominers) used to make their money in bitcoin for mining. Now, their primary source of income is in (high) transaction fees.
Transaction fees are currently relatively small for bitcoin, but if transaction volume doesn’t climb to compensate for the decrease in block rewards, transaction fees will have to increase to compensate miners.
How to buy cryptocurrency
It’s no longer practical to use your home computer, or even a custom-built bitcoin mining computer, to mine bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies.
Most people will get a better return by buying it through a cryptocurrency exchange.
A cryptocurrency exchange allows consumers to change their fiat currency, like U.S. dollars, into cryptocurrency like bitcoin.
Cryptocurrency trading process.
A cryptocurrency exchange works just like any other exchange, such as a stock exchange. It matches buyers and sellers based on a book of orders. As orders are added to the book, the exchange matches buyers willing to pay the same amount (or more) than sellers are requesting.
“What is cryptocurrency” revisited
To recap, I defined cryptocurrency as …
"an electronic cash system that doesn't rely on central banks or trusted third parties to verify transactions and create new units. Instead, it uses cryptography to confirm transactions on a publicly distributed ledger called the blockchain, enabling direct peer-to-peer payments."
Let’s break that down.
“An electronic cash system“: Cryptocurrency has no physical form. Ownership is determined by the digital record found in the blockchain.
“Uses cryptography“: Transaction requests are authorized and confirmed through public key encryption. The blockchain also uses encryption to link blocks to one another.
“Confirm transactions“: The chain of transaction data in the blocks allows the network to verify that a transaction hasn’t already occurred — the double spending problem — and to add new transactions to the ledger.
“A publicly distributed ledger“: The blockchain ledger is available to all the computers on the network. In fact, its publicity is essential to making the entire system work. By keeping an updated transaction ledger on every computer on the network, the system is able to protect against changes to the blockchain and verify transactions and ownership.
“Direct peer-to-peer payments“: Payments never go through a central banking system or trusted third party but instead simply move from payer to payee. This process increases the speed of transactions and reduces the fees associated with transferring money.
Cryptocurrency is a complex new form of electronic cash. With no reliance on central banks to confirm transactions or authorize the creation of new units, it can dramatically reduce the fees and time associated with moving money around the world.
Conclusion
People are still coming up with new applications for blockchain technology and new cryptocurrencies every day. With this basic overview of what cryptocurrency is, you can start developing a deeper understanding of the various currencies available.
"The only stable and viable solution for the species to survive is a new eco-civilisation, based on a global non-market economic system, in which the private tyranny of the market – a global plutocratic elite of profit mongers – and anti-democratic oligarchic political systems do no longer rule the destiny of the people,"
-Dieterich
Make no mistake, banking systems, and the way they operate is changing. Whether it will happen soon (with the e-yuan system currently in use) or in the distant future,(if the PTB that control America has their way), it will happen.
I think that it is important to understand that things are changing and the old way of doing things are being supplanted with better, fairer and more complete systems. And those that lived off the corruption of the old systems are not going to go away peacefully in the night. Instead they will fight. They will fight tooth and nail to keep the status quo.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
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There is a lot of movement going on regarding money and banking. Now, normally I don’t touch these subjects at all. As they are not of my interests. But, you know, just because I am not interested in it, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t take an interest in me. And it has.
Here we talk about the linkage between monetary systems and sentience. It's not your usual supper-time discussion subject.
The banking system has strip-mined the American middle class.
And now, most of the former American middle class are destitute debit slaves of a magnitude many times greater than anything historically present in the past.
That’s a pretty bold statement. I know.
But listen up.
While Egyptian slaves couldn’t own cars and cell phones, they need not ever worry about food, clothing, shelter or enjoying themselves. Same with the Roman slaves, the Persian slaves, the Irish slaves and the Moroccan slaves.
Now, don’t you all get your hackles up. Sure, there were many injustices that took place. But that’s really a different subject for a different time.
Right now, I am saying as clearly as I can that…
[1] The American middle class is functionally destroyed.
[2] What remains of the middle class are debt serfs that are tied to a system of life-time servitude and jail / prison for trying to leave that system. It’s service-for-self ruling over a mixture of other sentience’s.
[3] And most importantly, do not look at the shininess of your handcuffs as an indicator of “freedom”. It isn’t. Being able to own a gun, drive a car, and eat in a fast food restaurant doesn’t make you any better than an Egyptian slave. The big difference is in “the fight”. Americans are constantly fighting to “tread water” to keep solvent. Egyptian and Roman slaves never had that struggle. They performed their work, and then enjoyed life. Americans perform their work, and then continue to fight for their right to live.
Radical statements, eh?
Yes. I get it. It’s not comparing apples to apples.
My argument is that the entire collapse of the American middle class is the result of failed monetary and banking policies. And why they collapsed is complicated and worthy of consideration. Thus this post.
Usury & Fractional Reserve Banking is an Enslavement of Mankind
(Please download this video free of charge onto your phone by clicking on the downward arrow. This allows you to watch or listen to this video at your own leisure. Please go back to watch or listen to the video a few times if necessary so you understand who really owns the world’s wealth and power).
———–
This excellent 3.5 hour documentary produced by investigative journalist, Bill Still, educates the public about how central banks around the world were created by private bankers who loan money to governments by way of usury and fractional reserve banking.
Banks are given the power to loan money out multiples times than what they have in reserve. Generally, 10% is the reserve requirement in the world. This means that that the BANKS CAN CREATE MONEY THEY DOES NOT HAVE !!!
It explains why most people who own homes take a lifetime to pay off their mortgages because of the payments made on interests, not on principal. This also explains why most people can never become debt free & why we cannot eliminate hunger and poverty.
It also explains why we have inflation, deflation, recession, cycles of boom and bust because the goods & services generated in the real economy are simply NOT ENOUGH to be distributed for the vast quantity of money created!
Almost all government central banks are owned by private bankers who loan money by way of usury and fractional reserve lending, where THEY CREATE MONEY OUT OF LITTLE OR NO RESERVE, loans them to governments and charge interests on these loans! While the shareholders of these private central banks become richer and more powerful, governments around the world become heavily indebted to these private money interest groups.
Fractional reserve banking is rooted in fraud, results in massive poverty & reduces everyone’s value in money.
The Federal Reserve Cartel consists of less than a dozen families who own shares in every central bank in the world, as well as private banks. This cartel also owns World Bank, IMF, ECB and Bank of International Settlement. They are more powerful than kings & queens and our politicians serve their interests!
In addition to owning central banks, this cartel also owns large shares of the oil industry in the Middle East and around the world.
Their private banks serve as havens for MASSIVE tax evasion, money laundering, narcotics trafficking & weapons trade.
Professor Carroll Quigley, one of 20th century’s most highly respected historians, whose greatest contribution to our understanding of modern history was presented in his books, The “Anglo-American Establishment” and “Tragedy and Hope”. The latter was written in 1949 but only released after his death in 1981. His disclosures placed him in such potential danger from an Establishment backlash that it was never published in his lifetime. Quigley’s evidence is considered highly credible. He moved in exalted circles, lectured at the top universities in the United States, including Harvard, Princeton and Georgetown, and was a trusted advisor to the Establishment as a consultant to the US Department of Defense.
As per Professor Quigley:
"The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private. "
The key to their success, said Quigley, was that the international bankers would control and manipulate the money system of a nation while letting it appear to be controlled by the government.
[1:17 hour award-winning investigative documentary — Please download this video free of charge onto your phone by clicking on the downward arrow. This allows you to watch or listen to this video at your own timing.]
At the twilight of British Empire, the City of London set up a spider web of offshore secrecy jurisdictions, captured & funneled wealth from around the globe to City of London. With silent backing of USA, Britain’s offshore haven grew rapidly.
Today, it is the world’s dominant financial market. HALF of global offshore wealth is hidden in British secrecy jurisdictions. City of London is run by City of London Corporation, a PRIVATE company private mayor, private police force, private laws and a private Court.
While the sum of debts owed by ALL GOVERNMENTS around the world is approx. $70+ trillion, a staggering of $50+ trillion is hidden in British offshore secrecy jurisdictions!!!
Usury, privately owned central banking, fractional reserve banking and offshore banking deprive world citizens opportunities to healthcare, education, security, justice & better lives. It is essentially a form of oppression through illegal extraction of wealth & resources which rightfully belong to the people. We all need to unite together to fight against & to abolish this banking system. The ability to create money belong to our governments, not private individuals!
If financial corruption and parasitism are not abolished, the world’s citizens cannot truly be free!
Sources are listed below this Article
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The Bank of England was the first central bank created in 1694 by money lenders to loan money to the English Crown which used usury and fractional reserve banking.
The US Federal Reserve, the world’s most powerful central bank, was created in 1913 using the Bank of England as a model. As a matter of fact, all other central banks in the world have been created based on the Bank of England model, by private bankers using fractional reserve banking.
Who are these money changers?
[At 11:00 of video] In the Bible, Jesus called the money changers “a den of thieves” and drove them out of the temple. Historically, when Jews came to Jerusalem to pay for their temple tax, they could only use a special coin, the half Shekel of the Sanctuary. This coin contained half ounce of silver without the image of a Pagan emperor. For the Jews, it was the only coin acceptable to God.
The money changers made enormous profits on these coins because they held a monopoly over these coins which enabled them to charge exorbitant rates.
Since the 10th century, Europe was under the domain of Christianity. Christians in Europe were forbidden to practice usury because the Bible forbids this practice. This lucrative business was mostly taken up by non-Christian Jews who scattered throughout Europe because they were stateless.
Because of their astute money sense, the kings of Europe would often hire these money changers as Court Jews to look after their finances.
In 1,000 AD, the money changers who loan out and manipulate the quantity of money were active in Medieval England. By acting together, they were able to manipulate the entire English economy. These money changers were not bankers per se, but generally were the goldsmiths. They were the first bankers because they kept other people’s gold for safekeeping in their vaults.
The first paper money were merely receipts for gold left with the goldsmiths. Eventually, goldsmiths noticed that only a small fraction of depositors ever came in to demand their gold at any one time.
The goldsmiths started CHEATING on the system. They discovered that they can print more money than they had gold. Usually, no one would notice. They would loan out this extra money and collect interest on it. This was the birth of fractional reserve banking: loaning out money many times than what you have on deposits. If they had $1,000 on deposits, then they can loan out 10 times that amount ($10,000) in paper money, draw interest on it, and no one would notice the deception. By using these methods, goldsmiths gradually accumulated more & more wealth and they would use this wealth to accumulate more & more gold.
In the Middle Ages, Canon Law forbade the charging of interest because the purpose of money was to serve members of society to facilitate the exchange of goods needed to lead a virtuous life. Interest hindered this purpose by putting unnecessary burden on the use of money. Europe forbade charging interest on loans and made it a CRIME called “USURY”.
As commerce grew & opportunity for investments grew in the late Middle Ages, it came to be recognized that to loan money had a cost to the lender, both in risk and in loss of opportunities, so some charges were allowed, but not interest. All teachings condemned USURY AS FRAUD, injustice, oppression of the poor and it is clearly immoral. Fractional reserve banking is rooted in fraud, results in MASSIVE POVERTY and reduces everyone’s value in money.
The ancient goldsmiths discovered that extra profits could be made by switching from easy loans to tight loans. When they made the money easier to borrow, the money in circulation expanded, money was plentiful. People took out more loans to expanded their businesses, but in prescribed time, the money changers would tighten the money supply which made loans more difficult to get. People who could not get loans to pay off their debts were forced to sell their assets to the goldsmiths for pennies on the dollar, enabling the goldsmiths to reap enormous profits by buying up cheap assets. Today, it is still happening; we call this the business cycle or cycle of boom and bust.
[At 23:00 of video] By the end of 1600’s, England had gone through 50 years of continuously wars with France & the Netherlands and was in financial ruins. Frantic politicians met with the money changers to beg for the money necessary to pursue their political purposes. The price was high: a government sanctioned a privately owned bank which could issue money created out of nothing. It was to be the world’s first privately owned central bank: The Bank of England.
The legalization of the Bank of England amounted to nothing less than legal counterfeiting of a national currency for private gains.
Benjamin D’Israeli, former Prime Minister of Great Britain wrote:
"If the history of England is written by one who has the knowledge and courage, one would be astonished."
Unfortunately, nearly every nation now has a privately controlled central bank, using the Bank of England as the basic model. Such is the power of these central banks that they take total control over a nation’s economy. It soon amounts to nothing but a plutocracy, ruled by the rich. It is like putting the Mafia in charge of the army.
Yes, we need central banks, but not in private hands !
The central bank scam is a hidden tax. The nation sells bonds to the central bank it does not have the political will to raise taxes to pay for, but the bonds are purchased with money the central bank creates out of nothing. More money in circulation, means more inflation, which makes our money worth less. The government gets as much as it needs and the people pay for it in inflation.
THE IRONY IS, THAT NOT ONE PERSON IN 1,000 CAN FIGURE THIS OUT AND REALIZE HOW FRAUDULENT THIS SYSTEM IS, BECAUSE IT IS MOSTLY HIDDEN BEHIND COMPLEX ECONOMIC GIBBERISH.
With the formation of the Bank of England in 1694 by private bankers, the nation would soon be awash with money, prices throughout the country doubled, massive loans were granted for just about any wild scheme. Four years later, by 1698, government spending grew from 1.25 million pounds to 16 million pounds. Taxes increased again and again. With the British money supply firmly in their grip, the British economy went from a series of wild roller coaster of booms & busts, exactly what the central bank claims to prevent.
By the mid 1700’s, the British Empire was nearing its height of power around the world. Britain had fought 4 costly wars in Europe since the creation of their privately owned central bank. The cost had been high. To finance these wars, the British parliament had borrowed heavily from their central bank.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild is quoted as saying in 1791: “Allow me to issue and control a nation’s currency, and I care not who makes its laws. I care not what puppet is placed on the throne England to rule the Empire where the sun never sets. The man who controls Britain’s money supply controls the British Empire and I control the British money supply.”
With the creation of the world’s most powerful central bank, the US Federal Reserve in 1913, in the hands of the money changers, power was centralized to a tremendous extent, the money changers were ready for their First World War.
Wars proved to be the most profitable of all because of the enormous sums borrowed by governments and interests that ensued from wars. Nothing creates debt like warfare.
England was the best example. During the 119 year period between the founding of the Bank of England and Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, the country had been at war for 56 years and much of the remaining time, she had been preparing for war.
In World War I, the German Rothschilds loaned money to the Germans, the British Rothschilds loaned money to the British, the French Rothschilds loaned money to the French.
In America, JP Morgan was the sales agent for war materials for both the British and the French. In fact, 6 months into the war, Morgan became the largest consumer on earth, spending $10 million a day. Other bankers like the Rockefellers also made enormous profit as well.
[At 2:13:00] Profit was not the only motive but also revenge. The money changers never forgave the Czar for helping Lincoln during the Civil War. Also, Russia was the last European nation to refuse to give into the money changers’ attempt to create a privately controlled central bank. Three years after World War 1, the Russian Revolution toppled the Czar and instilled communism. Jacob Schiff of Loeb & Company bragged from his death bed that he had spent $20 millions toppling the Czar.
Why would some of the richest men in the world financially back communism, the system that was openly vowing to destroy the system that made them wealthy, namely, capitalism?
The short answer is that the money changers had always supported many sides of conflicts to keep different nations divided. The London Wall Street axis decided to take the risk by attempting to control revolutionary communist groups by feeding them massive quantities of money when they obeyed; and contracted the money, or even financed opposition groups when they get out of control. Lenin began to understand that although he was the absolute dictator of Soviet Union, he was not pulling the financial strings. Someone else was silently in control. The Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, at the behest of the international bankers who control them were, were creating communism through debt. In case you think that the money changers created communism, got it going and then lost control, in 1992, the Times reported that incoming Russian president Boris Yeltsin was upset that the incoming aid into Russia was siphoned off straight back into the coffers of Western banks as debt service!!!
[2:18:10] It is not a wild conspiracy theory that the money changers had a short range self-serving motive for profit as well as a long range political motive of advancing TOTALITARIAN GOVERNMENTS with the MONEY CHANGERS MAINTAINING THE FINANCIAL CLOUT to control whatever politician might emerge as the leader.
[2:18:30 to ] What is the money changers’ ultimate political goal for the world?
After World War I, the overall political agenda for the money changers began to be clear. Now that they control national economies individually, the next step was the ultimate form of consolidation: A WORLD GOVERNMENT.
[2:19:50] After WWI, the American public had grown tired of the international policies of Woodrow Wilson. In 1920, Warren Harding won a landslide with 60% of the vote. His presidency led to an unprecedented era of prosperity known as the “Roaring Twenties”. Despite the fact that the war had brought America debts ten times larger the civil war debt, still the American surged. Gold had poured into the US and continued to do so afterwards.
In the early 1920s, the governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Benjamin Strong, met secretively and frequently with the Bank of England governor Montague Norman. Norman was determined to replace the gold England had lost to the US during World War I and return the Bank of England to its former position of dominance in world finance. On top of that, rich with gold, the American economy might get out of control again, just like what happened after the Civil War. During the next 8 years, under the presidency of Harding and Coolidge, the huge debt built up during World War I was cut by 38%, the greatest percentage drop in US history.
After his inauguration, Harding quickly moved to cut domestic taxes and raised tariffs to records heights. This was an economic policy which most of the founding fathers would certainly have approved. His second year in office, he took ill in a train trip in the West and suddenly died of food poisoning. When Coolidge took over, he continued Harding’s domestic policy of high tariffs on imports while cutting income taxes. As a result, the economy grew at such a rate that net revenue still increased. That had to be stopped. Just like what they had done before, the money lenders decided that it was time to crash the American economy. The Federal Reserve began flooding the country with money and increased the money supply by 62% during these years.
Before his death in 1920, former president Teddy Roosevelt warned the American people (as reported in the New York Times) what was going on:
“These international bankers and Rockefeller Standard Oil interests control the majority of newspapers to club into submission or drive out of public office officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government.”
Just one day before the New York Times on March 26, 1922 the mayor of New York, John Hylan quoted Roosevelt and blasted those he saw as taking control of America its political machinery and its press:
“The warning of T. Roosevelt has much timeliness today, for the real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy length over city, state, and nation… It seizes in its long and powerful tentacles our executive offices, our legislative bodies, our schools, our courts, our newspapers and every agency created for the public protection… let me say that at the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller-Standard Oil interest and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as the international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the US government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both parties, write political platforms, make catspaws of party leaders, use leading men of private organizations…
These international bankers and Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests control the majority of newspaper and magazines in this country.”
There was a dark side to this prosperity. Business expanded based on credit. Speculation in the stock market became rampant. Although everything looked rosy, it was a castle made of sand. When everything was ready, in April 1929, the father of the Federal Reserve Board, Paul Warburg, sent out a secret advisory warning his friends that a collapse and nationwide depression was certain.
In August 1929, the Fed began to tighten money. It is not a coincidence that the biography of all Wall Street giants of that era, John D. Rockefeller, JP Morgan, Bernard Baruch etc. all marveled that they got out of the stock market just before the crash and put all of their assets in cash or gold.
On October 24, 1929, the big New York bankers called in their 24 hour broker call loans. This meant that both the stock brokers and customers had to dump their stocks on the market to cover their loans no matter what price they had to sell them for. As a result, the market tumbled. That day was known as Black Thursday. Congressman Louis McFadden, chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee from 1920 to 1931 knew who to blame. He accused the Federal Reserve and the international bankers of orchestrating the crash:
“It was not accidental. It was a carefully contrived event… The international bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here so they might emerge as rulers of us all…”
McFadden went further. He accused them of orchestrating the crash in order to steal America’s gold. In February 1931, in the midst of the depression, he put it this way:
“I think it can hardly be disputed that the statesmen and financiers of Europe are ready to take almost any means to reacquire rapidly the gold stock which Europe lost to America as the result of World War I.”
Curtis Dall, son-in-law of Franklin D. Roosevelt stated:
“Actually, it was calculated ‘shearing’ of the public by the World-Money powers triggered by the planned sudden shortage of call money in the New York Money Market”
Although the American public have never heard that the Federal Reserve was responsible for the cause of The Great Depression, it was well known among top economists. Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize economist said in a public radio interview in 1996:
“The Federal Reserve definitely caused the Great Depression by contracting the amount of currency in circulation by 1/3 from 1929 to 1933.”
The money lost by American during the Great Depression did not just vanish, it was simply redistributed into fewer and fewer hands (Rockefellers, JP Morgan etc.) of those who had just gotten out before the crash to purchase gold.
[2:36:50] Now the stage was set for a really big war (World War II). One which would pile up debt far beyond that of World War I. For example, in 1944, the US GDP was only $144 billion, yet $103 billion was spent on the war! This was 30 times the spending rate of World War I! Equally important, every nation involved in World War II greatly multiplied their debts during WWII! Between 1940 to 1950, Japanese debt swelled by 1,348%!!! French debt grew by 583% and Canadian debt soared 417%!!!
After WWII, the world was divided into two economic camps: Communist central planning economies on one hand versus monopoly capitalist on the other set to fight it out in one perpetual and highly profitable arms race. It was finally time for the central bankers to embark on their 3-step plan to centralize the economic system of the entire world and finally bring about their global government or new world order. The phases of this plan were:
1. Central bank domination of national economies worldwide;
2. Centralized regional economies: European Monetary Union, NAFTA;
3. Centralize the world economy through a World Central Bank, ending national independence through abolition of all tariffs by treaty such as WTO.
The largest holder of gold among central banks is the IMF. It and central banks control 2/3 of the world’s gold supply giving them the power to manipulate the gold market. Before we start to look at the solution to our economic problems, let us take a look at all that gold in Fort Knox. If we do not understand that all the gold has been stolen, we will allow ourselves to be stampeded into the wrong solution: a gold backed currency.
[2:39:30] Most Americans still believe that the gold is still here at Fort Knox. At the end of WWII, Fort Knox contained over 700,000,000 ounces of gold, an incredible 70% of all the gold in the world. How much remains? No one knows. Despite that Federal laws require an annual physical audit of Fort Knox gold; the Treasury has consistently refused to conduct one. The truth is, a reliable audit of whatever remains here has not been conducted since President Eisenhower ordered one in 1953!!!
Where did America’s gold in Fort Knox go?
Over the years, it had been sold off to European bankers at $35 per ounce at during the time which was illegal for any Americans to buy their own gold at Fort Knox. There was an infamous case where the Firestone family set up a string of dummy corporations to purchase gold at Fort Knox and kept it in Switzerland despite never landing on US shores.
[2:40:47] Finally, by 1971, all the pure gold in Fort Knox had been secretly removed from Fort Knox, drained back to London. Once the gold was gone from Fort Knox, President Nixon closed the gold window by repealing Roosevelt’s Gold Reserve Act of 1934, finally making it legal for Americans to buy gold. Naturally, gold prices began immediately to soar, 9 years later in 1980, gold sold for $880 an ounce!
One would think that someone in the government would blow the whistle: The largest fortune in world history stolen! It had been 40 years in the making!
[2:42:15] Just how did the story of Fort Knox gold robbery get out? It all started with an article in a New York periodical in 1974. The article charged that the Rockefeller family was manipulating the Federal Reserve to sell off the gold at bargain basement prices an anonymous European speculator. Three days later, the anonymous source of the story, Louise Auchincloss Boyer mysterious fell to her death from the window of her 10-storey apartment in New York. How did Mrs. Boyer know about the Rockefeller connection to the Fort Knox gold heist? She was the long-time secretary of Nelson Rockefeller…
When president Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, his conservative friends urged him to study the feasibility of returning to a gold standard to curb government spending. President Reagan then appointed the Gold Commission to study the situation and report back to him and Congress.
The Gold Commission reported the shocking revelation to Congress in 1982: The US Treasury owned no gold at all. All the gold that was left at Fort Knox is now owned by the Federal Reserve, a group of private bankers, as collateral against the national debt. The truth is, never before in history has so much money been stolen from the hands of the public and put into the hands of a small group of investors, the money changers (bankers).
[2:45:50] What is the nature of the World Bank and the IMF? Are they about to create a worldwide depression? After WWI and WWII, people around the world are tired of wars. So, under the guise of peacemaking, the international bankers devised a plan to consolidate power even further. Claiming that only an international government can stem the tide of world wars, the bankers pushed forward a proposal for a world government which stands on three legs: A world central bank to be called the Bank of International Settlements, A world judiciary called International Court of Justice to be located at the Hague, Netherlands, and a world executive legislature called the United Nations.
[2:47:00] As President Clinton’s mentor, Georgetown historian Carroll Quigley who has insider knowledge of the international banking cartel, wrote in his 1966 book “Tragedy and Hope”:
“The power of financial capitalism had a far-reaching plan, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole.
This system was to be controlled in a feudalistic fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at frequent meeting and conferences.
The apex of the system was to be the Bank of International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks which were themselves private corporations.Each central bank…
South to dominate its government by its ability to control treasury loans, to manipulative foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country.
The money lenders create a banking cartel composed of the world’s central banks which gradually assumed the power to dictate credit policies to the banks of all nations. In 1944, at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, The World Bank and The International Monetary Fund were formed. For example, just as the Federal Reserve Act authorizes the creation of a national fiat currency, the IMF has been given the authority to issue a world fiat currency, called “Special Drawing Rights (SDR)”. SDRs are partially backed by gold. With 2/3 of world gold in the hands of privately owned central banks, this means the money lenders can go about structuring the economic future in whichever way they deem most profitable.
[2:36:50] Now the world was set for a new war: World War II.
———–
[At 27:40 ] Let’s take a look at the role of the ROTHSCHILDS in central banking.
The Rothschilds are Jewish descendants who lived in the ghettos of Frankfurt, Germany since 1450’s.
The patriarch of this family was Mayer Rothschild, a goldsmith who took up the family business of money lending & coin exchange in 1763. He had 5 sons who were stationed throughout Europe in Paris, London, Frankfurt, Vienna & Naples. They all became very successful in banking & finance.
By the mid 1800’s, the Rothschilds dominated all European banking and were the wealthiest family in the world. They financed Cecil Rhodes, making it possible for him to dominate the diamond and gold fields of South Africa. In America, they financed the Harrimans in railway; the Vanderbilts in railways & press; the Carnegie in the steel industry, among many others.
THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT THEIR PREDOMINANCE IN EUROPEAN OR WORLD FINANCE HAS CHANGED
Along with Theodore Herschel, father of Zionism, the Rothschilds founded the State of Israel in 1948, shortly after World War II based on Britain’s Balfour Declaration which promised to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Today, the Rothschilds, along with other banking families such as Rockefellers, Goldman Sachs, Morgans, Warburgs, Lazards, Kuhn & Loebs, Lehmans, Schiffs and Israel Moses Seifs own & control the Federal Reserve, World Bank, IMF, ECB & Bank of International Settlement.
They own shares of all central banks around the world, as well as top 10 shares in Fortune 500 Companies, including private banks.
The headquarter of their banking empire is Bank of England, located in the City of London, an independent district from Greater London, with its own laws & own mayor.
The Rothschilds own media outlets such as Associated Press, Reuters & Economist.
The Rothschilds financed Britain’s Opium War against China and founded Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation to conduct their lucrative business dealings.
In addition to owning central banks, the Rothschilds also own private banks which control the oil industry in the Middle East. Their customers include some of the world’s major oil companies such as BP, (formerly Royal Dutch Shell), Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, Texaco & Gulf Oil.
Their private banks, HSBC, BCCI, among many others, also serve as havens for massive evasion, money laundering, narcotics trafficking & weapons trade.
According to Professor Michel Chossudovsky in his book, “War and Globalization”:
[Note: Prof Chossudovsky has been conveniently labeled as a “Conspiracy Theorist” and pro-Russian because he exposed 911 as a pre-text for the invasion of Iraq. Prof Chossudovsky’s father was an intellectual Russian Jew who left the Russian Bolshevik Revolution and became a UN diplomat for his adopted country, Ireland. Prof Chossudovsky was raised in Switzerland, emigrated to Canada and became Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa. He has nothing to do with Russia.
"...the military planners in the State Department, Pentagon and CIA call the shots on foreign policy. They are in liaison with NATO, IMF, the World Bank, WTO & Council for Foreign Relations."
"In turn, the Washington-based international financial bureaucracy, responsible for imposing deadly 'economic medicine' in the 3rd world and in most countries, maintains a close working relationship with the Wall Street financial establishment."
"The powers behind this system are those of the global banks and financial institutions, the military industrial complex, the oil and energy giants, the biotech and pharmaceutical conglomerates and the powerful media and communication giants, which fabricate news and overtly influence the course of world events by blatantly distorting the facts."
[TO BE CONTINUED]
Sources:
1. The Money Masters (money changers or bankers)
(Please download this video free of charge onto your phone by clicking on the downward arrow. This allows you to listen to or view this video at your own leisure).
2. Tragedy and Hope, A History of the World in Our Time
(Prof Carroll Quigley has insider knowledge of the bankers who are responsible for WWI & WWII. This book was written in 1949 but only released after his death in 1981. His disclosures placed him in such potential danger from an Establishment backlash that it was never published in his lifetime).
Prolonging the Agony: How The Anglo-American Establishment Deliberately Extended WWI by Three-and-a-Half Years.
The fact that governments lie is generally accepted today, but World War I was the first global conflict in which millions of young men were sacrificed for hidden causes.
They did not die to save civilization; they were killed for profit and in the hopes of establishing a one-world government.
By 1917, America had been thrust into the war by a President who promised to stay out of the conflict. But the real power behind the war consisted of the bankers, the financiers, and the politicians, referred to, in this book, as The Secret Elite.
Scouring government papers on both sides of the Atlantic, memoirs that avoided the censor’s pen, speeches made in Congress and Parliament, major newspapers of the time, and other sources, Prolonging the Agony maintains that the war was deliberately and unnecessarily prolonged and that the gross lies ingrained in modern “histories” still circulate because governments refuse citizens the truth. Featured in this book are shocking accounts of the alleged Belgian “outrages,” the sinking of the Lusitania, the manipulation of votes for Herbert Hoover, Lord Kitchener’s death, and American and British Zionists in cahoots with Rothschild’s manipulated Balfour Declaration.
The proof is here in a fully documented exposed — a real history of the world at war.
Are you overwhelmed yet? Yah. It’s a bit too much heaviness for a great fall day. But you all do need to have a grasp that all of human society is indentured to a handful of very wealthy elite that thinks that the status quo can continue on forever. And that they are setting in motion the beginnings of World War III so that China or Russia will not upset that monopoly.
How to Break the Kneecaps of Wall Street Sociopaths Before It’s too Late: Ferdinand Pecora Revisited
By Matthew Ehret for The Saker Blog
It is more than a little depressing to consider the impending systemic meltdown that immanently presses upon our current world. Since the 1971 floating of the U.S. dollar, a once proud and productive western industrial economic system has been increasingly asset stripped…
If America and the western order is to somehow find its moral fitness to survive and if a world war is to be avoided in the coming near-term future, then certain fundamental banking reforms will be needed.
Among the most important of these reforms will be a breaking up of banking activities into two categories under a renewal of the Glass-Steagall bank reform which was repealed by Bill Clinton in 1999.
These two categories would include:
1) speculative trash and illegitimate usury which must be “deleted” under a debt jubilee and
2) legitimate savings and other useful commercial banking activities tied to “real” values without which society couldn’t sustain itself.
Many readers might immediately scoff at my words, and assert that such a reform were impossible at this late stage of rot and corruption in western society but I would retort with the question: If this were so impossible, then how was it done already at a similar time of crisis only 87 years ago under similar circumstances of economic breakdown, fascism and world war? How have other national resistance movements blocked this sort of misanthropic agenda from succeeding in the past?
In this case, I speak of course of the forgotten Pecora Commission and an often-forgotten war on Wall Street which changed the course of human history.
What was the Pecora Commission?
Many are aware of the economic meltdown of October 24, 1929 that ushered in four years of depression onto America (and much of the western world).
However not many people are aware of the intense fight that was launched by patriots in both parties against the Wall Street/deep state parasite of that age…
… which prevented both a fascist coup against the newly elected Franklin Roosevelt…
… while also crippling Wall Street’s command of American life.
In spite of whitewashing revisionist history books that contaminated the past 70 years, America’s recovery from the depression never occurred without a life or death struggle and this struggle was made possible, in large measure by the courageous work of an Italian lawyer from New York. This man’s name was Ferdinand Pecora.
By 1932, when Senators Peter Norbeck (R-SD) and George Norris (R-NB) spearheaded the establishment of the U.S. Committee on Banking and Currency…
… the American economy was on life support and the people were so desperate that a fascist dictatorship in America would have been welcomed with open arms if only bread could be put on the table.
Unemployment had reached 25%, while over 40% of banks had gone bankrupt and 25% of the population had lost their savings.
Thousands of tent cities called ‘Hoovervilles’ were spread across the USA and over 50% of America’s industrial capacity had shut down.
Thousands of farms had been foreclosed and the engines of American industry had grinded to a screeching halt.
Across the ocean, the fascist regimes of Germany, Italy and Spain were growing more powerful by the day fed by injections of hundreds of millions of dollars of capital by London and Wall Street bankers.
Notable among these pro-fascist financiers was none other than Bush family patriarch Prescott, who provided millions in loans to Hitler’s bankrupt Nazi party in 1932 (and continued doing business with the party through 1942- having only stopped after being found guilty for “trading with the enemy”).
The Committee on Banking and Currency was a relatively impotent body when it began in 1932, but when Senator Norbeck called in Ferdinand Pecora to lead it in April 1932, everything began to change.
A first generation Italian-American, Pecora was forced to quit high school after his father was injured in order to support his family.
Years later, the young man found work as a clerk in a law firm, and managed to work his way through law school, passing the bar in 1911.
His unimpeachable reputation earned him the animosity of powerful NY financiers who ensured that his successes in prosecuting brokers never resulted in attaining Attorney General…
… where he made a name for himself shutting down over 100 illegal brokerage houses that speculated on fraudulent securities during the depression.
Within days of accepting the Washington job as Chief Council of Norbeck’s committee (for the meager salary of $250/month), Pecora was granted broad subpoena powers to audit banks and drag the most powerful men in America to testify in the committee’s hearings.
In his first two weeks, Pecora made headlines by auditing the books of major Wall Street banks and pulled in pro-fascist National City President Charles Mitchell (then preparing to advise Benito Mussolini) to testify.
Within days, Mitchell’s team of expensive defense attorneys could do nothing but watch in despair as the powerful financier admitted to short selling his own bank’s stocks during the depression…
… scamming depositors with purchases of Cuban junk debt…
… and avoiding taxes for years.
Mitchell was forced to resign in shame followed days later by NY Stock Exchange Chair Dick Whitney- who left the court in handcuffs.
This crackdown on Wall Street’s abuses were highly publicized and put the spotlight on the criminal schemes used to gamble with savings and commercial bank deposits on securities and futures markets which led to the orchestrated collapse of the bubble economy in 1929 (ironically much of the bubble built up during the “easy-money days” of the “roaring 20s” was centered in the housing market).
Pecora’s crackdown also set the tone for the incoming Roosevelt administration.
Unlike the previous 1911 Pujo Commission, which also exposed Wall Street’s abuses of power, the Pecora Commission was supported by a President who actually cared about the Constitution and amplified Pecora’s powers even further.
When FDR was told that supporting Pecora’s exposures of financial crimes would hurt the economy, the President famously responded with “they should have thought of that when they did the things that are being exposed now.” FDR followed up that warning by encouraging the attorney to take on John Pierpont Morgan Jr.
Rather than controlling an American institution as many believed 70 years ago and today, J.P. Morgan Jr. was actually running an operation that had earlier been created in the mid-19th century as part of a British infiltration of America. As historian John Hoefle pointed out in a 2009 EIR study:
“The House of Morgan was, in truth, a British operation from its inception. It began life as George Peabody & Co., a bank founded in London in 1851 by American George Peabody. A few years later, another American, Junius S. Morgan, joined the firm, and upon Peabody’s death the firm became J.S. Morgan & Co. Junius Morgan brought in his son, J. Pierpont Morgan, to head the New York office of J.S. Morgan, and the New York office became J.P. Morgan & Co. From its original role in helping the British gain control of American railroads, the Morgan bank became a leading force in the oligarchy’s war against the American System, using the deep pockets of its imperial masters to become a powerhouse in not only finance but steel, automobiles, railroads, electricity generation, and other industries.”
By 1933, the House of Morgan grew into a multi-headed hydra controlling utilities, holding companies, banks and countless other subsidiaries.
Senator George Norris showcasing a chart of Wall Street power
When J.P. Morgan jr. was called to testify, the banker carried a midget on his lap in mockery of the “circus of the commission”.
As the questions began however, the arrogant banker was caught off guard by Pecora’s proof of Morgan’s secret “preferred clients lists” of politicians whom the banker owned and who received stock offerings at discount rates.
Named among the thousands of traitors on this list, Pecora revealed former president Calvin Coolidge, Coolidge’s Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon (a Schacht-Hitler supporter from the start), financier Bernard Baruch, Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts and Democratic Party controller John Jacob Raskob.
Raskob was not only a major speculator but was also the leader of the American Liberty League which tried repeatedly to overthrow FDR between 1933-1939 and worked to ally America with axis powers from 1939-1941.
Morgan’s god-like ego was brought down to the level of mortals when the flustered banker was only able to answer “I can’t remember” repeatedly when asked if he had paid taxes over the past 5 years.
As it turned out, by the end of the trial, it was revealed that NONE of the subsidiaries of the House of Morgan paid any taxes during the entire period of the depression, and were caught gambling with depositors assets from commercial accounts.
These revelations didn’t sit well with a population dying of starvation across the streets of America.
Similar displays of corruption were made of the heads of Kohn Loeb, Chase Bank, Brown Brothers Harriman and others.
Faced with these revelations, The Nation magazine famously reported
“If you steel $25, you’re a thief. If you steal $250 000, you’re an embezzler. If you steal $2.5 million, you’re a financier.”
Pecora’s ally Sen. Burton Wheeler said
“the best way to restore confidence in our banks is to take these crooked presidents out of the banks and treat them the same as we treated Al Capone.”
FDR Drains the Swamp
With the light cast firmly upon the dark shadows where vile creatures like J.P. Morgan and other financial gremlins reside, the population was finally able to start making sense of what injustices befell them during the years of post-1929 despair.
While not every banker went to prison as Wheeler or Pecora would have liked, examples were made of dozens who did and many more whose careers were shamefully ended.
Most importantly however, this exposure gave Franklin Roosevelt the support needed to drain the swamp and impose sweeping reforms upon the banks.
In the first hundred days, FDR was able to:
1) Impose Glass-Steagall banking separation (forcing Wall Street banks to break up their functions and preventing speculators from gambling with productive assets)
2) Create the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) that protected citizens’ savings from future crises
3) Create the Securities Exchange Commission to provide oversight to Wall Street’s activities and on whose body Pecora was appointed commissioner in 1934.
4) Unleash broad credit through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) which acted as a national bank bypassing the private Federal Reserve, channeling $33 billion to the real economy by 1945 (more than all private commercial banks combined)
5) Impose protective tariffs on agriculture, metals and industrial goods to stop dumping of cheap products in America and rebuild America’s physical economy
6) Create vast public works, like the Tennessee Valley Authority, Grand Coulee dams, Hoover dams, St Laurence development and countless other projects, hospitals, schools, bridges, roads and rail under the New Deal that acted in many ways then as China’s Belt and Road Initiative has in our modern age. Unfortunately, Roosevelt died before this new form of political economy could be internationalized abroad in the post-war years as an anti-colonial program.
Ferdinand Pecora’s Commission shaped the dynamics of America so intensely by its simple power of speaking the truth, that efforts to run a fascist coup against FDR using a general named Smedley Butler also came undone before it could succeed.
Butler played along with Wall Street’s plans for some months before deciding to publicly blow the whistle in congress.
Butler exposed the intension to use him as a “puppet dictator” leading thousands of American legionnaires in a storming of the White House displacing FDR.
It is often forgotten today, but in the early days of the 1920s-1930s, the Legion was modeled on Mussolini’s fascist squadristi and even its leader Alvin Owsley made explicit in 1921 saying:
“If need be the American Legion is ready to protect the institutions of this country and its ideals, in the same way as the Fascists have treated the destructive forces threatening Italy. Don’t forget that the Fascists are for today’s Italy what the American Legion is for the United States.”
Butler’s startling revelations amplified FDR’s popular support and inoculated much of the population from the fake news pouring out of Wall Street propaganda agencies spread across the media.
“Under the surface of the governmental regulation of the securities market, the same forces that produced the riotous speculative excesses of the ‘wild bull market’ of 1929 still give evidence of their existence and influence. Though repressed for the present, it cannot be doubted that, given a suitable opportunity, they would spring back to their pernicious activity.”
Pecora went onto deliver one more warning which current generations should take seriously
“Had there been full disclosure of what has been done in furtherance of these schemes, they could not long have survived the fierce light of publicity and criticism. Legal chicanery and pitch darkness were the bankers’ stoutest allies.”
Today’s oncoming economic meltdown can only be prevented if the lessons of 1933 are taken seriously and patriots who actually care about their nations and people stop legitimizing the casino economy of fictitious capital, derivatives, debt slavery and anti-humanism that has become so commonplace across the governing strata of the technocratic and banking elite today trying to control the world.
This elite, just like the financiers of the 1920s, doesn’t care ultimately for money as an end but sees it merely as a means for imposing fascist forms of governance onto the world population.
In the same way that FDR’s Wall Street/London enemies sought a world government under Nazi enforcers then, today’s heirs to that anti-human legacy are driven by a religious-like commitment to “manage” a new collapse of world civilization under a Green New Deal and World Government.
So why accept that dystopic future when a brighter one is offered us by the Multipolar alliance today led by Russia and China?
We all have a choice
And that choice is simple.
We can continue on the path where all your labors are converted into physical paper. Where that paper is owned by a handful of people. And they rent that paper out to you, and utilize all sorts of systems that control how you use that paper, and how that paper works.
Or…
You can embrace a completely different system. One where there just isn’t any paper, and no one is in control of that paper. It’s a modern version of hard cold gold. You work, and you get a digital equivalent of gold.
Obviously the people who control that paper do not like the idea of others leaving their long-standing monopoly. And they are willing to institute a complete nuclear armageddon to make sure that they retain their role.
Interesting times are coming.
But I, for one remain hopeful.
And why am I hopeful?
Well, it’s a sense of community, worth and value. It’s a place and a situation where you are no longer controlled by individual forces sitting behind wood lined offices in remote skyscrapers in far away cities. Instead, where you live in a place where everyone has value and worth and contributes to the greater good.
And to get there…
…America needs two things…
[1] A civil war
[2] A conflict that will defang the “arsenal of the money changers”.
Which brings up where we are in all of this. When is this all going to happen? Is it just yet another promise [1] that “someday” things are going to change, or [2] prepare for the worst because the end of the world is coming
Which is what I have been saying all along.
People! You are all in the middle of this period of change. You are smack down right in the middle of it all. The globe is changing it’s monetary policy. One side does not like it, and are fighting tooth and nail to destroy everything around them. (Let’s not get side traced in all the roles of the various players in this), and the other side (mostly Asia) is plowing forward with the implementation of a new way of doing things.
So relax.
Change is happening.
Oh, and just in case you don’t believe me, there’s this…
Billionaire investor Ray Dalio on capitalism’s crisis: The world is going to change ‘in shocking ways’ in the next five years
Veteran hedge-fund manager says capitalists don’t divide the economic pie well, so the system isn’t working effectively for all
Ray Dalio certainly is no radical idealist, but in his frequent writings and media appearances the veteran investor consistently calls for Americans to rewrite their longstanding contract with capitalism so that it is fairer and more generous to more people.
Which is pretty much the entire point of this post.
- Metallicman
Otherwise, he predicts, life in the U.S. could become more difficult: mountainous debt that stunts economic growth; fewer opportunities for ordinary citizens to get ahead financially; and a worldwide lack of trust in the U.S. dollar that diminishes Americans’ purchasing power and could lower their standard of living.
Dalio is the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge-fund firm, which has made him a billionaire. So it’s not surprising that he champions capitalism as a proven way to expand economic growth and living standards.
“Capitalism and capitalists are good at increasing and producing productivity to increase the size of the economic pie,” he says.
Then Dalio stands this tenet on its head. Capitalists don’t divide the economic pie very well, he says, and so today the capitalist system, the foundation of the U.S. economy, is not working efficiently and effectively enough for all.
“Capitalism also produces large wealth gaps that produce opportunity gaps, which threaten the system,” Dalio says — a system that has been and still is key to the health and success of U.S. business, workers, government and investors alike.
Unless the U.S. takes steps to make systemic repairs designed to provide greater opportunity for more Americans to achieve personal growth and financial security, the consequences likely will be painful for the country, as Dalio explains in this recent telephone interview, which has been edited for length and clarity:
MarketWatch: You have written and spoken about three big domestic and international problems facing the U.S. over the next five to 10 years and how a failure to address these challenges could threaten America’s standing in the world. What are these three pressing problems?
Ray Dalio: I look at it mechanically, like a doctor looking at a disease. If asked what is the issue here, I would say that it is a certain type of disease that has certain patterns which are timeless and universal, and the United States is broadly following that progression.
There are three problems that are coming together, so it’s important to understand them individually and how they collectively make a bigger problem.
There is a money and credit cycle problem, a wealth and values gap problem, and an emerging great power challenging the existing dominant power problem. What’s going on is an economic downturn together with a large wealth gap and the rising power of China challenging the existing power of the United States.
It’s a fact that there has been a weakening of the competitive advantages of the United States over the last couple of decades. For example, the United States lost a lot of the education advantage relative to other countries, our share of world GDP is reduced, the wealth gap has increased which has contributed to our political and social polarization.
But we haven’t lost all of our competitive advantages. For example in innovation and technology, the United States is still the strongest, but China is coming on very strong and at existing rates will surpass the United States. Militarily, the U.S. is stronger but China also has come on very strong and is probably stronger in the waters close to China that include Taiwan and other disputed areas. Finances for both countries are challenging, but for the U.S. more so. The U.S. is in the late stages of a debt cycle and money cycle in which we’re producing a lot of debt and printing a lot of money. That’s a problem. As a reserve currency status, the U.S. dollar DXY, -0.17% is still dominant though its being threatened by its central bank printing of money and increasing the debt production problem.
‘The United States is a 75-year-old empire and it is exhibiting signs of decline.’
MarketWatch: Focusing on the money and credit problem, excessive debt can be a killer for businesses and families, but most people don’t seem to recognize that debt plays havoc with their country’s finances as well. Government runs the money printing press, which buys time, but eventually something’s got to give.
Dalio: If you look at the history — for example, the Dutch Empire, the British Empire — both experienced the creation of debt and the printing of money, less educational advantages, greater internal wealth conflict, greater challenges from rival countries. Every country has stress tests. If you look at British history, the development of rival countries led them to lose their competitive advantages. Their finances were bad because they had accumulated a lot of debt. So, after World War II those trends went against them. Then they had the Suez Canal incident and they were no longer a world power and the British pound is no longer a reserve currency. These diseases almost always play out the same way.
The United States’ relative position in the world, which was dominant in almost all these categories at the beginning of this world order in 1945, has declined and is exhibiting real signs that should raise worries. There’s a lot of baggage. The U.S. has a lot of debt, which is adding to the hurdles that typically drag an economy down, so in order to succeed, you have to do a pretty big debt restructuring. History shows what kind of a challenge that is.
I just want to present understanding and facts. There’s a life cycle. You’re born and you die. As you get older you can see certain things that are symptoms of being later on in life. To know the life cycle and to know that these symptoms are emerging is what I’m trying to convey. The United States is a 75-year-old empire and it is exhibiting signs of decline. If you want to extend your life, there are clear things you can do, but it means doing things that you don’t want to do.
‘Wealth cannot be created by creating debt and money.’
MarketWatch: Let’s put it bluntly: Is capitalism broken?
Dalio: I wouldn’t say broken as much as I’d say it has problems that have to be fixed. As I said, I’m not ideological, I’m mechanical. I look at everything operationally like a machine and what has been shown is that capitalism is a fabulous way of creating incentives and innovation and of allocating resources to create productivity. All successful countries have uses for it. For example, communist China has chosen capitalism, which has been essential to its growth.
But capitalism also produces large wealth gaps that produce opportunity gaps, which threaten the system in the ways we are seeing now. Wealth gaps give unfair advantages to the children of rich people because they get a better education, which undermines the equal opportunity notion. As the number of people who get equal opportunity diminishes, this reduces the possibility of finding talented people in that population, which isn’t fair and undermines productivity. Then the have-nots want to tear down the capitalist system at a time of bad economic conditions. That dynamic has always existed in history and it’s happening now.
The capitalist system is based on profit-seeking being the resource allocation system, which generally works well but doesn’t always. So, capitalism and capitalists are good at increasing and producing productivity to increase the size of the economic pie, but they’re not good at dividing the economic opportunity pie. Socialists are generally not good at increasing productivity and the size of the economic opportunity pie, but they are better at dividing the pie.
We now have too much emphasis on distributing wealth and getting it from producing debt and printing money, and not enough from increasing productivity. Wealth cannot be created by creating debt and money. We have to be productive together, so we have to look at the good investments that we can make together that make total sense, like in education, and create equal opportunity in order to be productive.
We have to be in this together. The system needs to be reengineered to do this. But if we don’t do this engineering well, we’re going to spend in an unlimited way and deal with that by creating debt that won’t ever be paid back, and we will risk losing the reserve currency status of the dollar. If we get into that position — and we’re very close — things will get much worse because we are living on borrowed money that’s financing our consumption.
‘Within the next five years you could see a situation in which foreigners who have been lending money to the United States won’t want to.’
MarketWatch: About the dollar being threatened as the world’s reserve currency — what does “close” mean, and what would the decline of this status mean for Americans?
Dalio: Within the next five years you could see a situation in which foreigners who have been lending money to the United States won’t want to, and the dollar would not be as readily accepted for making purchases in the world as it is now.
We have to realize that we’re spending more than we’re earning. Every individual, every company and every country has an income statement and a balance sheet. The income statement is how much is your earnings are relative to your expenses. If your earnings are greater than your expenses, great, you will increase your balance sheet. If your earnings are less than your expenses, then you have to draw on your balance sheet.
The United States doesn’t have a good income statement and balance sheet in dealing with the rest of the world. It is running a deficit to the rest of the world that is financed by borrowing money so that we are producing liabilities. Our living standards are based on our spending, not on our income statement or balance sheet. If the U.S. loses that ability and it doesn’t force itself to be more productive, one day it will lose that ability to borrow and then will have to cut spending, which is painful.
When that pain happens at a time when you have the population at each other’s throats over money, that’s a toxic combination. People can’t take a downturn and have less buying power. So, necessarily the poor will have to be getting money from the rich and the rich are going to want to prevent that, and then if it gets bad enough, that it messes up productivity.
‘When the causes people are fighting for are more important to them than the system that binds them together, the system is in jeopardy.’
MarketWatch: What steps do politicians and business leaders need to take now to create and implement reforms that will fortify the U.S. balance sheet and the dollar’s status?
Dalio: In brief, productivity and equal opportunity are most needed. If we could at least agree that we must have these things, that would be great. What we have now is a situation in which we’re fighting each other, we are not providing equal opportunity, and we are losing our productivity gains.
One of the greatest problems is that everybody’s fighting for their cause. When the causes people are fighting for are more important to them than the system that binds them together, the system is in jeopardy. This seems to now be happening. Everybody has their cause and they’re almost losing sight of the overall picture. Democracy depends on compromise. It’s the notion of compromise and working together and being able to have a negotiation to get what the most people want rather than have one side beat the other.
You really have to take the relative parties and make them agree on what’s going to be best. The group has got to be bipartisan and they have to be knowledgeable. Bring together parties of opposing ideologies who are also knowledgeable, not just smart but who are on the ground, to come up with a plan together that all can support so that we’re productive, increasing the size of the pie and dividing it well. It would be great if whoever the president is could draw upon people from both parties and different perspectives.
MarketWatch: As Americans prepare for a presidential election in November, the three major problems you mentioned earlier would seem to be important factors for voters to consider.
Dalio: Yes. The world is going to change in the next five years in shocking ways in relation to the three big issues we have been talking about.
First, there’s a debt-money cycle — what is the value of money? What will happen to the debt? Will the dollar retain its value? The finances of this — who is going to pay for it? How? What will work? That’s number one.
Second, the wealth, opportunity and values gaps will have to be dealt with. Are we going to be at each other’s throats in a way that is harmful or are we going to be working together even if things get worse?
Third is the rising of a great power in China to challenge the existing power of the United States. Will this be well handled?
We will be dealing with these issues in the next presidential term, which will have a huge effect on our outcomes. The last time those three things existed as they do now was the 1930 to 1945 period. That’s the last time you had zero interest rates and money printing. That’s the last time you had the wealth and political gaps as large as they are today, and it was the last time you had rising powers challenging the existing world order. This and many analogous times before it help to give us perspective.
‘Worry as much about the value of your money as you worry about the value of your investments.’
MarketWatch: These and other domestic and international challenges will clearly affect Americans financially. What would be a smart, proactive strategy for investors to both protect a portfolio and take advantage of market opportunities?
Dalio: First, worry as much about the value of your money as you worry about the value of your investments. The printing of money and the debt should make you aware of that. That’s why financial asset prices have gone up — stocks, gold — because of the debt and money creation. You don’t want to own the thing you think is safest — cash.
Second, know how to diversify well. That includes diversification of countries, currencies and assets, because wealth is not so much destroyed as it shifts. When something goes down, something else is going up so you have to look at all things on a relative basis. Diversify well and worry about the value of cash.
Americans look at the value of everything in U.S. dollars, but they don’t look at the value of the dollar. You’re in an environment where you have to be cautious about that, because the easiest way out for government is to do what the U.S. just did, which is to borrow and print a lot of money. They don’t have to get it from anyone, because when they raise taxes they have to get it from somebody and that somebody squawks. The population doesn’t pay much attention to the debt and the printing of money. They all appreciate the giving of money. So you hear the population say, “I need more money,” and get angry if they don’t get it. So you’ve got to give them more money, and it’s easier not to take it away from someone else.
The following is a completed reprint from The Organic Prepper titled “Open letter to the stressed out preppers” by Daisy Luther. Reprinted as found and modified (minor editing) to fit this venue. All credit to the author.
A Personal Letter to Stressed Out Preppers Who Are TIRED of This Apocalypse
Dear Friends:
2020 has certainly been quite a year so far, and a defining one for the preparedness movement. No longer are our stockpiles of rice, beans, and hand sanitizer objects that make us strange. Our stashes of TP would make us the envy of the neighborhood if, of course, anybody knew we had it.
So many of the things and beliefs that made us figures of mockery in the past are now proving their value. We’re learning, with a mixture of relief and perhaps dismay, that we weren’t so crazy after all.
This has been a year in which so many things have occurred that proved preppers have things right that it’s positively exhausting. We’ve had a pandemic, civil unrest, food shortages, increases in crime, exorbitant unemployment, and we’re facing an economic collapse, or at the very least, an economic crisis.
And we’re tired.
Maybe everyone doesn’t feel this way. Maybe you’re perfectly fine and you live on your back 40 and have been completely untouched by any of the above-mentioned crises. Maybe your finances are just fine, you never got out much anyway, and you’ve still got 8 years’ worth of food socked away to supplement the things you grow. Maybe you’re reading this as you spin goat hair into yarn from which you’ll make this year’s mittens. Maybe you have no relatives, friends, or loved ones in the path of danger. Maybe your area isn’t prone to a single natural disaster.
If this is the case, I salute you. I really do. Good for you.
But for most of us, this is not the case. A lot of us are tired.
And I mean tired.
I’m sure there will be plenty of folks in the comments who say, “Daisy Luther is such a whiner” but whatever. I’m just going to come right out and tell you how I feel about this.
This year has been difficult.
My life changed completely. The lives of people I love changed completely. I lost some people I cared for deeply to the virus. I watched people in my family frolic around blithely ignoring the virus for which they’re in a peak risk group for death. I watched my country get torn asunder by everything from the pandemic response to racial injustice to perceived insults or losses of rights. I have a family member who lives in a riot zone but due to work and finances, can’t just relocate. (Although those folks on the internet always make it sound so damned easy to just quit your job then up and move to the boondocks to raise sheep.)
I have friends who have developed such extreme political views on either side that I don’t even know what to say to them anymore. I still love them. I still know they’re good people or we wouldn’t have been friends in the first place. But what the heck, y’all?
Then we’ve got hurricanes and the worst wildfires ever in history and floods and droughts and snow in September and murder hornets and the Olympics got canceled and there was some radiation leak in Russia and police brutality, which you will say is alleged or real, depending on your personal perspective. Oh yeah, and the US Postal Service has gone to heck, a lot of kids can’t go back to school so they’re surfing the net while they’re supposed to be “distance learning” online, and Netflix is playing a child porn movie to prove that kids are getting sexually exploited.
Our presidential candidates are (in my humble opinion) like a choice between your favorite sexually transmitted infection, syphillis or gonhorrhea. And regardless of whether syphilis or gonorrhea wins, all hell’s going to break loose (or break looser because it’s already pretty freakin’ bad in a lot of places) before and after the election that may not even happen the regular way because of the pandemic.
And we preppers who were ready for an emergency are sitting here scratching our heads thinking, “Heck fire, I wasn’t actually prepared for ALL OF THE EMERGENCIES AT ONCE.”
And it’s going on and on and on.
And that’s the other thing.
This stuff is going on and on and on forever. Ad infinitum. We are still in the middle of a global viral outbreak that we don’t completely understand and lots of places are still under major restrictions. A lot of folks don’t have their jobs back and a lot never will. We have been dealing with this particular disaster since at least February and the mental toll of dealing with the restrictions, the loss of income, the isolation, and the loss of freedom has been harsh for many people. There are folks who are just plain mad that they didn’t get the apocalypse they signed up for and they haven’t gotten to shoot any marauders and quite frankly, lockdown is boring as heck.
Lots of us have family members and people in our inner circles who are chomping at the bit to get back to “normal” when things simply are not normal. We’ve got loved ones who want to head out to parties and who want to throw caution to the wind and who flat don’t give a hoot what they bring home to Grandma. We’ve got loved ones who are using this entire scenario to say how we’ve overreacted. We’ve got loved ones who still get aggravated when we bring home more toilet paper.
When we were prepping for all this stuff most of us never expected that our families who were also prepping for this stuff might not be on board with this specific scenario. We never thought we’d have to argue with children and spouses and friends and lovers about things like quarantines and masks and not eating all five years’ worth of the good snacks like Oreos in the first 6 months. We didn’t consider that we might not be able to replace our Bluetooth headsets or that we’d need them for work or that we’d have to have our offices in our homes or that our kids’ teachers (on Zoom) might see their BB guns in their bedrooms and send the SWAT teams after us.
We can’t go to church but we can go to riots.
We aren’t supposed to travel yet mysterious busloads full of “protesters” show up in other states and that’s just hunky-dory. The borders are closed except they’re not really and the restaurants can’t serve you except they can sort of and we can’t go to the beach but we can line up for a vaccine once the promised injection, untested for long-term side effects, is ready.
This is the worst apocalypse ever because it’s so dad-gum boring and it’s going on for-freaking-ever.
That’s the thing that nobody warned us about. This monotony just goes on and on and on. It would be one thing if we were out there fighting for resources but in reality, we’re all just standin’ in line at Wal-Mart with our masks on waiting for our turn to get zapped with a thermometer to see if we are allowed to go inside. If it weren’t for wifi we’d all be crazy by now. Or – let’s be real for a moment – maybe it’s because of wifi so many people are crazy right now.
Social media is a jungle – an outright vicious and bloody jungle – and may the most audacious mofo win because those of us who still retain our human decency are not going to be able to hang with the people out there flinging wild ungrounded insults like poop in the monkey cages at the zoo.
And folks – I hate to say it but we’re still on Round One.
We’re going to be dealing with this bizarre altered reality for quite some time. This virus ain’t over yet or if you don’t believe in the virus, then consider that this government response isn’t over yet.
We’re going to have to hope our children who are going to school in personal bubbles aren’t going to have OCD and chronic anxiety for the rest of their lives. We’re going to have to learn to make do without all the imports that no longer seem to be populating stores.
We never really expected that a huge part of survival would just be waiting and adapting to the new world around us. Not this new world anyway. This isn’t one we can shoot our way out of or buy our way out of or wait our way out of. We have to adapt to the new economy, the new precautions, and the new suspicions. We have to adapt to a different type of supply chain. We have to move into survival mode as we watch civil unrest and riots break out in the most unlikely places, although it’s not really the survival mode we ever expected. We have to adjust to the nearly constant state of offense and unrest. We’re going to have to teach our children to be bold and fearless despite a system that wants them to be afraid. We’re going to have to forge a path through a labyrinth that is nothing like the one we expected when we began prepping for serious events because this event was so wildly unpredictable that nobody could have seen it happening the way it did.
But this is what we do.
We’re preppers. Preparing for the unexpected is our thing. Even when the unexpected is long-lasting, monotonous, boring, and stifling. Even when our family thinks we’re overreacting. Even when everything changes and things don’t get back to “normal.” Even when we’re just sitting there right on the edge of chaos wondering if today is the day that things will erupt in our neck of the woods.
Every.
Single.
Day.
For.
Months.
The way this unfolded isn’t the disaster any of us expected but it’s the hand we’ve been dealt. How well we’re able to handle it will tell us a lot about how mentally prepared we actually are. How we manage our friends, families, and expectations will help us determine how things might go in a future, more Mad-Max variety of apocalypse.
Take this as the learning experience that it is. And don’t be lulled by the boredom into a false sense of security.
Because this is not over. Not by a long shot.
Hang in there, my friends. Whether we have to pull our loved ones along by their collars, whether we have to buy our supplies and stash them away on the sly, whether we have to prepare all on our own, we have to deal with the apocalypse we’ve been given, emotionally and physically.
It’s going to be a long haul, but we’ve got this. I don’t know if you’re feeling the same way that I am, but just in case you are, I wanted you to know – you’re not alone.
Daisy
Conclusion
I’m throwing a bunch of stuff out there at you all. But pay attention please.
Human society is changing.
It is a sentience sorting effort.
Service-for-self people have established long-duration systems known as “banking” to segregate society into a kind of modern serfdom.
Technology, and other societies (namely Asian) have created alternatives systems to the “banking system” and are going ahead with it’s implementation.
The service-for-self people are fighting tooth and nail to maintain the status quo.
They are causing internal dissension, and conflict in the United States.
They want to start World War III internationally, and have unleashed a global pandemic to that end. (Which pretty much backfired.)
You are all at the beginning phases of this change.
It will get worse.
People will die.
But, after the dust clears in about ten years, it will be a softer, quieter world.
So be positive and hopeful. The damage will not be uniform, but will be in clusters. As long as you are part of a community that “carry your weight”, be helpful and a Rufus, you will be fine.
The future belongs to the people that make things and contribute to the good of society.
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“At some point, a crisis of confidence in this so-called money is inevitable. People aren’t going to trust it forever if you continue to create trillions and trillions backed by nothing but a promise from a central bank and a promise from governments. That’s the flaw in all of this. You can’t sustain the perceptions of moneyness forever. History has many examples of how money is destroyed by over-issuance, and now we’re watching it in real time.”Doug NolandDoug Noland: It’s Too Late To Turn Back Now… I Believe You Should Take Cover!
August 5, 2020
It has begun.
Nations are running away from using the United States dollar. Instead they are choosing to use other methods to pay back their debts and engage in trade. They are using such things a as gold, eyuan, or commodity trading (like oil, wheat or rice).
A new world monetary system is being set up right now which will completely kill the US dollar, which is the world’s reserve currency. At least 23 countries (60% of the world’s GDP) are setting up swap lines which bypass the dollar and SWIFT, which is the dollar-based worldwide financial transaction system. These countries include Russia, China, India, and even Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.
Kevin: You know, I think about where the two of them agree. They would both say that we’re past the point of no return, that money turned into credit, and we’re now in a credit expansion. Noland would say kicking the can down the road is ultimately going to end in dystopia. What Duncan would say is, it’s our only chance at utopia. And they both know that credit probably ends badly, but I think Duncan would just like to have it end badly after he passes away.
David: That may be, so if we have a shot at utopia, let’s spend a little bit more. And that’s a little bit like looking at the hair of the dog as the real solution to a problem with alcoholism.
You’re right. It will take away some of the consequence in the short run.
Kevin: Do you remember Ian McAvity said that a doctor told him to not stop smoking because he had smoked so much that it would probably kill him.
David: That’s right. “You quit now and you’re dead.” That’s really what we’re talking about.
Doug NolandDoug Noland: It’s Too Late To Turn Back Now… I Believe You Should Take Cover!
August 5, 2020
For several years, financial analysts, primarily those outside the mainstream of academia, have been warning that any day could be the black swan event that collapses the dollar. This collapse will end U.S. hegemony as caretaker of the world’s reserve currency.
That day had arrived last year on 18NOV19 when a former head trader for a major financial institution issued a harbinger. He stated that 23 countries, and 60% of the world’s GDP, are or have setting up new swap lines which bypass the dollar. These systems not only bypass the USD, but they bypass SWIFT, and the BIS.
All of this is ushering in a new global currency system. It is a system that will kill the US dollar.
Who’s abandoning the USD?
Countries are growing weary of losing money on the falling dollar. Many of them want to protect their financial interests, and a number of them want to end the US oversight that comes with using the dollar. Although it’s not clear how many of these countries will actually follow through on an abandonment of the dollar, it is clear that its status as a world currency is in trouble.
Obviously, an abandonment of the dollar is bad news for the currency. Simply put, as demand lessens, its value drops. Additionally, the revenue generated from the use of the dollar will be sorely missed if it’s lost. The dollar’s status as a cheaply-produced US export is a vital part of our economy. Losing this status could rock the financial lives of both Americans and the worldwide economy.
Here’s just a few of the numerous nations that are running away from using the United States Dollar…
Saudi Arabia
The Telegraph reports that for the first time, Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates along with the US Federal Reserve.
This is seen as a signal that a break from the dollar currency peg is imminent. The kingdom is taking “appropriate measures” to protect itself from letting the dollar cause problems for their own economy.
They’re concerned about the threat of inflation and don’t want to deal with “recessionary conditions” in the US.
Hans Redeker of BNP Paribas believes this creates a “very dangerous situation for the dollar,” as Saudi Arabia alone has management of $800 billion. Experts fear that a break from the dollar in Saudi Arabia could set off a “stampede” from the dollar in the Middle East, a region that manages $3,500 billion.
Sudan
Sudan is, once again, planning to convert its dollar holdings to the euro and other currencies. Additionally, they’ve recommended to commercial banks, government departments, and private businesses to do the same.
In 1997, the Central Bank of Sudan made a similar recommendation in reaction to US sactions from former President Clinton, but the implementation failed. This time around, 31 Sudanese companies have become subject to sanctions, preventing them from doing trade or financial transactions with the US. Officially, the sanctions are reported to have little effect, but there are indications that the economy is suffering due to these restrictions.
A decision to move Sudan away from the dollar is intended to allow the country to work around these sanctions as well as any implemented in the future. However, a Khartoum committee recently concluded that proposals for a reduced dependence on the dollar are “not feasible.” Regardless, it is clear that Sudan’s intent is to attempt a break from the dollar in the future.
Russia
In 2006, Russian President Vladmir Putin expressed interest in establishing a Russian stock exchange which would allow “oil, gas, and other goods to be paid for in Roubles.”
Russia’s intentions are no secret–in the past, they’ve made it clear that they’re wary of holding too many dollar reserves.
In 2004, Russian central bank First Deputy Chairmain Alexei Ulyukayev remarked, “Most of our reserves are in dollars, and that’s a cause for concern.”
He went on to explain that, after considering the dollar’s rate against the euro, Russia is “discussing the possibility of changing the reserve structure.” Then in 2005, Russia put an end to its dollar peg, opting instead to move towards a euro alignment. They’ve discussed pricing oil in euros, a move that could provide a large shift away from the dollar and towards the euro, as Russia is the world’s second-largest oil exporter.
In 2005, Korea announced its intention to shift its investments to currencies of countries other than the US.
Although they’re simply making plans to diversify for the future, that doesn’t mean a large dollar drop isn’t in the works. There are whispers that the Bank of Korea is planning on selling $1 billion US bonds in the near future, after a $100 million sale this past August.
China just announced that it will stop purchasing our debt (holding dollars in reserve). This will force The Federal Reserve to print even more dollars than the $85 billion it’s currently printing.
A few months ago, the second largest economy on earth (China) and the third largest economy on earth (Japan) struck a deal which will promote the use of their own currencies (rather than the U.S. dollar) when trading with each other. This was an incredibly important agreement that was virtually totally ignored by the U.S. media. The following is from a BBC report about that agreement:
“China and Japan have unveiled plans to promote direct exchange of their currencies in a bid to cut costs for companies and boost bilateral trade. The deal will allow firms to convert the Chinese and Japanese currencies directly into each other. Currently businesses in both countries need to buy US dollars before converting them into the desired currency, adding extra costs.”
Way back in 2016, the second largest economy on earth (China) and the third largest economy on earth (Japan) struck a deal which will promote the use of their own currencies (rather than the U.S. dollar) when trading with each other. This was an incredibly important agreement that was virtually totally ignored by the U.S. media. The following is from a BBC report about that agreement:
“China and Japan have unveiled plans to promote direct exchange of their currencies in a bid to cut costs for companies and boost bilateral trade. The deal will allow firms to convert the Chinese and Japanese currencies directly into each other. Currently businesses in both countries need to buy US dollars before converting them into the desired currency, adding extra costs.”
India
In December 2018, India and the United Arab Emirates sealed a bilateral exchange swap agreement to boost trade and investment in their own currencies.
A swap is an international contract that is sealed off from a stock exchange and states that the two parties agree to exchange one financial instrument for another within a predetermined term and conditions.
Iran
China (in particular) appears determined to risk US sanctions in order to make a huge investment in the Iranian economy.
The US Treasury Department can only sanction firms that trade in dollars with Iran or that also trade with the US.
China intends its projects in Iran to be funded with soft-money currencies it has accumulated through its vast global trade. In accepting those African and other currencies, Iran will suffer a 30% loss, but it will escape the American net. Rendering American sanctions worthless.
Turkey
In 2018, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his plans to end the US dollar monopoly by pursuing a policy aimed at excluding the dollar from trading with its partners. According to the president, Ankara is preparing to carry out commercial transactions with China, Russia and Ukraine using national currencies. In addition, it is possible that Turkey will replace the dollar in trade with Iran.
This decision was prompted by both political and economic reasons. Relations between Ankara and Washington deteriorated after the failed coup attempt of July 2016. That year, several media outlets reported that Erdogan suspected that the US was involved in the coup attempt. The Turkish leader also accused Washington of harboring the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, who, according to the Turkish authorities, orchestrated the attempted coup.
Venezuela
Venezuela holds little loyalty to the dollar. In fact, they’ve shown overt disapproval, choosing to establish barter deals for oil.
These barter deals, established under Hugo Chavez, allow Venezuela to trade oil with 12 Latin American countries and Cuba without using the dollar, shorting the US its usual subsidy.
Chavez is not shy about this decision, and has publicly encouraged others to adopt similar arrangements. In 2000, Chavez recommended to OPEC that they “take advantage of high-tech electronic barter and bi-lateral exchanges of its oil with its developing country customers,” or in other words, stop using the dollar, or even the euro, for oil transactions.
In September, Chavez instructed Venezuela’s state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA to change its dollar investments to euros and other currencies in order to mitigate risk.
Why are they abandoning the USD?
Historically, new world reserve currencies are backed by gold.
China surpassed the US in terms of GDP based onpurchasing power parity (PPP), becoming the largest in the world by this measure, International Monetary Fund data show. In 2014 China reached $17.6 trillion or 16.48 percent of the world’s purchasing-power-adjusted GDP, while the US made slightly less, 16.28 percent or $17.4 trillion, the FT reported citing IMF data.
China is sitting there and wondering why the U.S. dollar should continue to be so preeminent if the Chinese economy is about to become the number one economy on the planet.
It’s an advantage for China. It’s an advantage for the rest of the world, and yes even for the USA it’s an advantage…
And so, China, and other emerging powers such as Russia, have been quietly making agreements to move away from the U.S. dollar in international trade over the past few years [and, as such,] the supremacy of the U.S. dollar is not nearly as solid as most Americans believe it to be.
As most Americans have this fantasy where America is empowered by GOD to exist and lord over the rest of the world. It is what all that “exceptionalism” means and refers to…
But, like the elephant in the room, sooner or later, you have to face up to the facts.
As the U.S. economy continues to fade, it is going to be really hard to argue that the U.S. dollar should continue to function as the primary reserve currency of the world. Things are rapidly changing, and most Americans have no idea where these trends are taking the nation.
Most Americans are in a state of denial.
They cannot believe that any other nation would have a currency as important or as valuable as the vaulted US Dollar.
But you know, all you need to do is sit down and reason it all out. It makes quite a bit of sense when you get down to it…
The Ten Reasons
The following are 10 reasons why the reign of the dollar as the world reserve currency is about to come to an end:
#1: China And Japan To Use Own Currencies In Bilateral Trade
Way back in 2016, the second largest economy on earth (China) and the third largest economy on earth (Japan) struck a deal which will promote the use of their own currencies (rather than the U.S. dollar) when trading with each other. This was an incredibly important agreement that was virtually totally ignored by the U.S. media.
#2: The BRICS Plan To Use Own Currencies When Trading With Each Other
The BRICS continue to flex their muscles. A new agreement will promote the use of their own national currencies when trading with each other rather than the U.S. dollar. The following is from a news source in India:
“The five major emerging economies of BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are set to inject greater economic momentum into their grouping by signing two pacts for promoting intra-BRICS trade…
The two agreements will enable credit facility in local currency for businesses of BRICS countries…[which is] expected to scale up intra-BRICS trade that has been growing at the rate of 28% over the last few years but, at $230 billion, remains much below the potential of the five economic powerhouses.”
#3: China and Russia Use Own Currencies In Bilateral Trade
Leaders from both Russia and China have been strongly advocating for a new global reserve currency for several years, and both nations seem determined to break the power that the U.S. dollar has over international trade.
In fact, both Russia and China have been using their own national currencies when trading with each other for a couple of years now.
Who do you think is Africa’s biggest trading partner? It isn’t the United States. In 2009, China became Africa’s biggest trading partner, and China is now aggressively seeking to expand the use of Chinese currency on that continent.
China seems absolutely determined to change the way that international trade is done. At this point, almost all Chinese companies in Africa are using Chinese currency in cross-border transactions.
#5: China and United Arab Emirates To Use Own Currencies In Bilateral Trade
China and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to ditch the U.S. dollar and use their own currencies in oil transactions with each other.
The UAE is a fairly small player, but this is definitely a threat to the petrodollar system. What will happen to the petrodollar if other oil producing countries in the Middle East follow suit?
Iran has been one of the most aggressive nations when it comes to moving away from the U.S. dollar in international trade. For example, it has been reported that India will begin to use gold to buy oil from Iran.
#7: Saudi Arabia Likely to Abandon Use of Petrodollar in Dealings With China
Who imports the most oil from Saudi Arabia? It is not the United States, it is China…Saudi Arabia and China have teamed up to construct a massive new oil refinery in Saudi Arabia…so how long is Saudi Arabia going to stick with the petrodollar if China is their most important customer?
#8: The United Nations Continues to Push For A New World Reserve Currency
The United Nations has been issuing reports that openly call for an alternative to the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency of the world. In particular, one UN report envisions “a new global reserve system…that no longer relies on the United States dollar as the single major reserve currency.”
#9: The IMF Has Been Pushing For A New World Reserve Currency
The International Monetary Fund has also published a series of reports calling for the U.S. dollar to be replaced as the reserve currency of the world. In particular, one IMF paper entitled “Reserve Accumulation and International Monetary Stability” actually proposed that a future global currency be named the “Bancor” and that a future global central bank could be put in charge of issuing it….
“A global currency, bancor, issued by a global central bank (see Supplement 1, section V) would be designed as a stable store of value that is not tied exclusively to the conditions of any particular economy. As trade and finance continue to grow rapidly and global integration increases, the importance of this broader perspective is expected to continue growing.”
#10: Most Of The Rest Of The World Hates The United States
Global sentiment toward the United States has dramatically shifted, and this should not be underestimated. Decades ago, we were one of the most loved nations on earth [but] bow we are one of the most hated.
I've said for decades now that the US needs shut down the CIA and close ALL its foreign military bases and bring the troops, planes, ships, and drones home. The CIA has toppled democratically elected governments all over the globe and as a result created hatred for the US. The CIA is the exact opposite of what we believe the US should stand for and support. We need to stop being an empire and start taking care of business right here at home. If we actually do that, maybe in a few decades the rest of the world might forgive us… might… maybe…
-pimaC Aug 17
If you doubt this, just do some international traveling. Even in Europe (where we are supposed to have friends), Americans are treated like dirt. Many American travelers have resorted to wearing Canadian pins so that they will not be treated like garbage while traveling over there.
If the rest of the world still loved us, they would probably be glad to continue using the U.S. dollar but because we are now so unpopular, that gives other nations even more incentive to dump the dollar in international trade.
An Acceleration of the abandonment of the USD
Well, since Donald Trump became President, his foreign policy has been reckless, ruthless and a complete disaster. Other nations now view the United States as a very unstable nation with many problems, that breaks long-standing treaties and contracts, and tries to imposes it’s own rules and laws in areas where it has no authority. In their mind, it’s best to just be isolated from this “train wreck” of a nation.
Trump’s Six-Point Legacy
Bully Allies
Belittle Friends
Break Good Deals
Invoke Disastrous Trade and Sanction Policies
Amplify Racial Hatred
Drive Countries Into Deals With China
In regard to points 4 and 6, Trump’s trade and sanction policies have been a disaster on every front.
Most Americans are unaware of this, and they are myopic and are only concerned with the Donald Trump domestic agenda. The Left hate’s it, and the Right love’s it. Only a very small fraction of Americans care about what goes on outside the confines of the United States.
What to expect…
What will happen if the U.S. dollar’s reign as the world reserve currency comes to an end? The answer is simple, as it is clear. The demise of the dollar will also bring radical changes to the American lifestyle.
When this economic tsunami hits America, it will make the 2008 recession and its aftermath look like no more than a slight bump in the road. It will bring very undesirable changes to the American lifestyle through:
massive inflation,
high interest rates on mortgages and cars,
substantial increases in the cost of food, clothing and gasoline and
a much harder time financing its debt.
Right now, there is a huge demand for U.S. dollars and for U.S. government debt since countries around the world have to keep huge reserves of U.S. currency lying around for the sake of international trade but what if… the appetite for U.S. dollars and U.S. debt dried up dramatically? That is something to think about.
What happens when fewer and fewer nations use the USD?
As more of these countries realize how irrelevant we have become, I would imagine Americans are about to find out the hard way about the huge trading advantage we have had all along--the world's reserve currency. When they dump the dollar as the main trading tool…
-Rocky Raccoon
17AUG20
A dollar collapse is when the value of the U.S. dollar plummets.
In that scenario, anyone who holds dollar-denominated assets will sell them at any cost. That includes foreign governments that own U.S. Treasurys. It also affects foreign exchange futures traders. Last but not least, it will hit individual investors.
When the crash occurs, these parties will demand assets denominated in anything other than dollars. The collapse of the dollar means that everyone is trying to sell their dollar-denominated assets, and no one wants to buy them.
This will drive the value of the dollar down to near zero. It would make hyperinflation look like a day in the park.
The following is compiled from “Explaining How Hyperinflation Could Come To The US” By Andrew Bieszad on August 14, 2020. Reprinted in it’s entirety with very little in the way of editing except to fit this venue.
There are no Americans alive today who remember as older adults the Great Depression. I speak of working men in their thirties or forties already on jobs here. By comparison, the Great Depression was very short, since from the decadence of the 1920s to the crash of 1929, and then twelve years to the entrance of the US in a serious way into World War II, the time from misery to true recovery was twelve years. In fact, the US recovered so well that massive industries grew, people found work, debt was paid down, families were able to settle down, and the country truly grew. The US victory in World War II that followed took the World War II induced economic boom and amplified it many times over, providing a wave of true prosperity that ushered in a small “golden age” in America which lasted until about 1965 if one considers the true effects, and until 2007 if one considers the expansion of credit as a way to prolong the economic effects of World War II through financialization at the expense of the integrity of the dollar.
It is known that around 1965, the post-World War II prosperity boom came to an end. This is also the same time where over the next decade, from 1965 to 1975, there were several major social changes, which for our purposes we will focus on the massive welfare expansions through Johnson’s “great society” reforms and then the subsequent decoupling of the US dollar from the gold standard with the opening up of “free trade” with China in 1973 under the Nixon administration that lead to the decline and death of most US manufacturing alongside the expansion of credit. Since this was all intentional, one can argue that the very towns which the US built up during and after World War II- the famous “mill towns” throughout semi-rural areas that today now are too often defined by drugs, crime, degeneracy, broken families, poverty, and misery compiled upon hopelessness -were manufactured from prosperity to decline per economic policy, knowing this would happen but not caring for the consequences because the economic ability to manipulate trade balances was valued more than the people who would be consuming the traded goods.
As one who grew up in the late 1990s and early 2000s before the economic crisis, I saw a lot of this decadence and credit spending as a child, but would not have called it such. Rather, I and many others would have called it “life as normal”, for this is what Millennials and some late Gen-Xers, as well as Zoomers, the arguable children of mostly Boomers and early Gen-Xers, knew to be normal. Life had a certain “pattern” to it, and it was one to follow this pattern if one wanted success. Indeed, there is an argument that can be made that such a pattern was not a bad thing for a time because it was based on a Boomer model of prosperity created by the Silent Generation as a result of World War II prosperity- essentially, one could call it exploiting the benefits of the spoils of war for public use.
But this was not normal, and given the generational gap, few could not have been expected to know otherwise. This is a reason why there is so much anger directed towards Boomers, for giving their children material goods and a pattern of life but not explaining how or why things work, and not giving them a way to fend for themselves if the pattern should fail (because they believed that it would not fail) and that life would continue to go on as normal. In a sense, life always does- even in a war torn zone such as Iraq. The problem is that life is very difficult when one does not know what to do if all one knows is one paradigm to be true.
This was violently exposed in 2007 and into 2008 when after six decades and two years since World War II, and four decades and two years since the Great Society Reforms, and thirty-four years after the dropping of the gold standards and the liberalization of free trade with China that the US dollar was exposed as being insolvent. The reasons for this are simple to understand- a combination of lots of bad debt, questionable financial practices that involved taking debt in the form of mortgages regardless of the viability of the owner to pay back his mortgage, “cutting up pieces” of the mortgage, mixing those pieces in with other mortgages “cut up” in the same way, and selling “bundles” as debt made up of untraceable ownership and questionable stability presented just as good as a Treasury bond but with no way to “re-piece” the trail of ownership if one “link” in the “chain” should default, created a crisis of liquidity and ownership. Nobody could get loans because nobody knew what monies went to who for what, and when this is combined with public debt loads on account of simple overspending and bad financial practices, the result is always the same- default and chaos.
At this point, the US had two theoretical options- she could either allow the economy to slow down naturally and in a Japanese-like scenario, see fluctuating prices along with falling wages and decreased purchasing power that could last decades, or she could service the debts as the way that governments throughout history have traditionally done in such a case, which is to create the money that was needed in circulation to keep people spending, but at a cost of lowering, even if only slightly, the value of the currency itself.
This is the reason why ever since the economy was declared “recovered” in 2009, the US has been theoretically in the middle of deflation. Since it is really a global depression, for the last decade one has seen the manipulation of aggregate demand levels and aggregate asset prices as never before arguably in history. In other words, since 2008, the U.S. and world economies have been slowly circling around the proverbial drain waiting to be flushed into the sewer, a process that if played out, would result in a Japan-like scenario that could last for decades.
However, the U.S. government has been continuing to run massive deficits as it seeks to prop up demand levels by way of “stimulus” spending, but this has simply not been enough to offset the fall in consumer spending. Since 2007, the government has become the “supporter” of all things business, and until recently, propping up all assets, including U.S. Treasuries, by way of “quantitative easing”, which is another way of saying “money printing”.
The Federal Reserve Bank- a private corporation not owned by the government but who controls the money the government issues -knows that a deflationary “death-spiral” as defined by a lack of liquidity (no available cash) will cause less spending, which leads to diminished demand, which leads to more unemployment, which leads to lower consumption, to still lower spending, until the economic machine goes to a halt.
In response, the Federal Reserve Bank bought up assets of all kinds in order to inject liquidity into the system and support prices so as to prevent this deflationary deep-freeze. This has been policy since 2010, and is a “one-size-fits-all” approach”. The danger of this is it sort of like a plumber whose only tool is a wrench- and every problem looks like a bolt or a nut to be turned.
Call it what you want- money printing, quantitative easing, price stabilization -it is all the same result, which is turning on the printing presses and printing money as fast as the machines can put it out (theoretically speaking- most of this is done electronically, so it’s more accurate to say “button pressing”).
But is this true deflation, where bond yields (interest return) is low, and unemployment continues to grow?
I wish it was. Rather, we need to talk about something I have been warning about for a long time, which is the Weimarian ghost of that horrible word, hyperinflation.
Why? Because the next step down in this world-historical Global Depression which we are experiencing will likely be hyperinflation.
Most people dismiss the idea of hyperinflation occurring in the United States as something only for the mentally ill, conspiracy fantasists, gold bugs, and survivalists. There is a point to this, for there are a lot of foolish ideas who have their own acolytes..
But what I speak of here is not fantasy. This is not about reading “conspiracies”, or projecting a desire onto a situation.
Apart from what happened with the Weimar Republic in the 1920’s, Western economies have no experience modern with hyperinflation. There were plenty of hyperinflationary events in the 19th century and before, but through careful economic management, the “advanced” economies have learned their lessons and so well that it’s been forgotten.
But there are some countries where one can draw experience from. Most talk about Zimbabwe- as so also have I done -but I would like to use a different example, since the case of Zimbabwe is a classic African example of war leading to mismanagement and corruption. I want to turn to Chile, as while in the Hispanic world, it is highly “europeanized” and yet went through a period of hyperinflation during the Allende government in the early 1970s (1970-1973).
In 1970, Salvador Allende was elected president by roughly one-third of the nation. A hard-core Socialist who headed a coalition called Unidad Popular (Popular Unity), under his government socialists, Communists, and assorted left-leaning parties took over the administration of the country and began to radically transform Chile on a road to left-wing socialism.
What happened was similar to the Russian and Ukrainian experience under life in the post-revolution days. There were land exproprations, nationalization of companies and mines, and the subsequent failure of them as a combination of corruption and inexperience rendered them unable to be used and just brought to run in the same path that the ZANU followed in Zimbabwe with the confiscation of farms that lead to mass starvation in once the arguably most bountiful food producing nation in Africa.
One of the key policies Allende carried out was wage and price controls. He froze prices of basic goods and services and augmented wages- basically, forcing businesses to pay workers more while refusing to allow them the freedom (in a non-greed oriented sense) to increase prices based on market demand. The most common parallel one can draw in our times to this is the “fifteen dollar” minimum wage laws in certain cities for McDonald’s restaurant workers. Yes, the wages increase, but as one can remember in the American cases (as there are multiple areas in which this has happened), employee hours were significantly cut, a lot of workers were fired or laid off, robotics was brought in to replace workers, and prices for food had to increase to the anger of the customer in order to accommodate the wage increases.
At first, this measure worked, as workers had more money, and goods and services still had the same old low prices. The people loved this, and so did what Americans did with toilet paper leading up to the COVID-19 crisis- they went on a shopping spree and rapidly emptied stores and warehouses of consumer goods and basic products. Meanwhile, Chile’s version of the “McDonalds” experiment detailed above, by forcing private companies to raise worker wages while maintaining their same price structures, caused bankruptcy. Allende then nationalized said companies for “the people” and put them back to work, but with the government spending money to keep them running for the same economic reasons, thus operating at a net loss.
This is where hyperinflation fits in, because Allende printed the money needed to pay for expenses for these state-run companies to cover for his irresponsible policies.
This is how hyperinflation came to Chile. Workers had plenty of cash in hand but it was no better than having Monopoly money, since one could not buy goods with it.
So what followed? Rationing and “ration cards”, with preference given to the friends of Allende. However, with no real economic fix in sight, people did what happens in all countries, which is they started black markets in staple goods, and only accepting American dollars because due to Allende’s policies, the Chilean escudo was worthless.
By 1973, the crisis was so miserable that the stock market and housing market collapsed as people lost everything they had. Nothing was safe from sale on the black market for all practical purposes as people traded very precious things simply for a little food and drink to stay alive. The crisis resulted in the success of the CIA-backed coup that overthrew Allende in September 1973 and installed the dictator Augusto Pinochet.
So having this context, and knowing how serious hyperinflation can be, let’s take a look at deflation and inflation again, and see how the various movements of the economic world differ.
In a deflationary environment, where commodity prices are more or less stable, wages drop, asset prices fall, and credit markets shrink, for in such an environment, there is really no inflation, for one cannot have overvaluing (inflation) if values are dropping. To say such is a contradiction.
Inflation and hyperinflation are thus not merely the same thing. It is not that the latter is on “steroids” but, like the goat and the sheep, two animals that share a similar look but are very distinct.
Inflation is when assets become overvalued because people want them so much. To use car language, it’s when the economy “overheats”. Think people paying one-hundred dollars for a “Beanie Baby” during the Beanie Baby craze of the late 1990s. A Beanie Baby is worth three to five dollars, not one hundred. But, if people will pay one hundred dollars for it, who is to say a business will not charge that? Greed yes, but such is the nature of man. This is inflation as a textbook definition- when an economy’s consumables (labor and commodities) are so “in-demand” because of (theoretical) economic growth and easy access to money (meaning either you are earning a lot, have a lot saved to draw on, or are borrowing the money on credit) that lets people spend money like a sailor in a bar. It is classic “supply and demand”, the “if they build it they will come” mentality.
This mentality should not be considered a modern thing either. It has been seen in Europe with the “Tulip speculation” of the 17th century, and was a main reason for the “boom-bust” economics of the 19th century that would destroy wealth as fast as it would create it, since the cycle, while it can be a brutal thing, is actually a natural process on the sine-wave of economic growth, for there is a start, a demand that grows, followed by a peak, a small decline, then a major decline, then a recovery to normalcy, back to interest again that the cycle continues on. This is found in all countries and peoples, and what the desire of government through “central planning’ has always been is to keep the “highs high and the lows gone”, meaning to always push for stability or growth so that money is made and either to minimize or completely eliminate any downturn in the economy so that money is not lost or that what money is lost is lost on people who are poor and not in the “economic club” of the wealthy.
But hyperinflation? Not so at all, for this is the loss of faith in the currency. Prices rise in a hyperinflationary environment like in an inflationary environment not because people want more money for their labor or for commodities, but because people are trying to get out of the currency -so they will pay anything for a good which is not the currency because the currency is becoming merely worth the paper it is printed on.
Right now, the U.S. government is indebted tremendously, varying from 108% to 159% depending on how it is measured.
Pick the percentage you wish, it does not really matter because it is all bad. The reason for this is because the Federal Reserve is printing money to do all things, from purchasing Treasuries in order to finance the fiscal shortfall existing, to bail out the public, and to keep major corporations from having to cease production due to deficits. The overall purpose of this is to try to maintain aggregate demand levels and support asset prices for the benefit of those invested into them. It is a process of the continued financialization of the economy that has been happening since the 1970s.
A deflationary cycle would last decades, and it would be very economically difficult, but with decreasing prices and the resulting job losses and business closures that would follow, it would overall result in the same thing, which is a recovery in the economy by way of a return to “normalcy”.
But this is not going to happen. Forget talk of “double-dip” recessions and that nonsense because the US is still in the first economic “dip” since 2007. No matter all the stimulus, no matter all the “liquidity” injections for over 10 years not, the economy is going down and both the Federal government and the Federal Reserve are going to use the same- and only tool -they have used to fix it, which is money printing.
This is the paradox. It’s these very fixes that are pulling us closer to the edge of a fiscal cliff because they have undermined faith in the currency itself and the ability of the US to service her debts. Treasury bonds? They are useless, and yet they are literally the only thing(s) holding the whole economy together because it is debt being used to service debt that is merely more debt.
We are talking about a financial “minefield” here- one mistake, and the thing explodes.
So then, how could hyperinflation happen?
First, there needs to be a reality check. It won’t be forever, so forget about Mad Max type scenarios, for those are fantasies of films and not reality.
Second, realize that life will go on, and America will be pretty much like it is today, with more poor people. In reality, at this point, as I have noted, hyperinflation is probably the only way that the economy will (in a practical sense) reset to better times, as a collapse in the currency, just like with a true bankruptcy, abolishes debt.
Third, the same rules of history apply. The famous saying “Buy when there’s blood on the streets” is the literal truth in this point. The best way to prepare for this is, in my personal opinion (and not giving any sort of financial advice, but just observations on the counsel of history) to lower personal debts, purchase useful commodities, and consider tangible assets that preserve value such as metals and even one may also regard land as doing the same.
Fourth, in hyperinflation, asset prices don’t skyrocket save on paper. They collapse, both nominally and in relation to real commodities. To use an example with housing, a $500,000 house falls to $70,000 or less, or better yet, 50 ounces of silver becomes something that can actually buy you expensive stuff you normally could not purchase in “normal” times such as land or heavy machinery.
Likewise, I’m not saying “when” this will happen, and hopefully there may be intervening circumstances that delay or even partially hinder the potential of paying $500 instead of $5 for a Starbucks latte. What happens after is also anyone’s guess, since while there are patterns, it would function in harmony with political changes, which can mean anything from a decline in currency value repegged against the old currency for a buyback (such as “buying back” into the new currency at a 30% discount such as what happened during the Great Depression), or an outright dictatorship with wage-price controls.
My observation is that no matter what happens, the current situation cannot continue. The Global Depression we are in is being exacerbated by the very measures being used to fix it, and in a story like this one cannot have a good ending.
The way that any of such crises will happen will be with an event. Right now, COVID-19 is being blamed for “destroying” the economy, but in reality just exposed the rot that was already there. The printing of money under COVID-19 with an upcoming second stimulus check is also only going to worsen the current scenario.
So let’s take this into consideration- how could this happen, an using COVID-19 as an example?
One word: homes.
Before the emergence of Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), most mortgages were issued by a local savings or loan company. The note of debt usually didn’t go anywhere save down the street. But once mortgage loan securitization happened, things fell apart.
Basically, what happened was personal mortgages were sold off in “slices” in bundles with other mortgages. These were “bundled” into special arrangements designed to hold the loans for tax purposes and sold off as bonds with safety equivalent to those issued by the US treasury, backed by the ability of people to pay their mortgages.
But the big question- what happens if people borrow more than they can, or lie on their statements of assets, or lose a job?
Here is the sinister part. When an MBS was first created, all the mortgages were in good standing because they were all brand new loans. Statistically, some would default and some others would be paid back in full, but no one knew which one or how. Yet by the process of “cutting up” these loans into multiple “bundles”, nobody knew anymore who had ownership of what part as there were so many scattered pieces.
To use the example of the Three Stooges (since this is the level of financial mismanagement we are talking about) consider that a man gets a mortgage. His bank sells his mortgage note to Moe, who sells a piece of it to Larry, who chops another part off and sells it to Curly, and all our notarized signatures are actually, physically on the note, one after the other as holding a share of the profits from the same mortgage note. If for whatever reason, the original holder skips any payment, then the chain of title is said to be broken. Therefore, legally, the mortgage note is no longer valid. That is, the person who took out the mortgage loan to pay for the house no longer knows whom to pay. The result? The bank just forecloses on the man who failed to pay in an effort to get money back for the Three Stooges without giving him ever a change to remedy his situation. The Stooges walk away with at least some money back in their pockets, and the common man suffers a debilitating financial loss.
But this is just the start. Expand this to real estate, and rental properties for landlords. If COVID-19 puts people out of work, how can anyone pay? Likewise, what happens if businesses cannot pay their mortgages or rentals on commercial real estate, who are also indebted to banks? Likewise, what happens when multiple mortgages owned by separate people are bundled together?
Do you see the can of worms that’s opening up? We are talking about a chain reaction like a nuclear bomb.
—> disrupts ability of landlord/company to pay for his mortgage —>
—> forces foreclosure —> big real estate goes back to bank —>
—> bank tries to sell it —-> nobody wants to buy because no money and too big —>
—> real estate falls to disrepair —> now nobody wants it —>
—> prices have to go down —> people lose money, including banks —>
—> people need money for a bailout like the rest of the country —>
—> more bailouts devalues the currency —>
—> the devolution of the currency means more poverty and job losses and back to he beginning.
This is not a recovery. This is a death spiral that we are circling.
It is estimated that 33% of renters or 12 million people, to make their full payment in July, meaning that 12 million could be on the cusp of eviction in a matter of months. In total, about 40 million- or about the size of Poland as a nation -are at risk of losing their homes. In addition, landlords are set to lose billions of dollars this year over the inability of tenants to pay rent.
This year alone, tens of millions of Americans were pushed into instant poverty, many face housing insecurity and homelessness as the labor market recovery reserves. This has led to millions of permanent job losses. Many Americans already had insurmountable debts and no savings, because they simply could not due to rising prices and a dead economy.
But this is nothing. Watch as more big corporations are go bankrupt, more businesses fail, more workers are laid off, and the financial dominoes start to fall at lightning speed.
Over the last 4 months, more than 50 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits, mostly with the specter of a permanent job loss looming. As we reported, one survey from USA Today discovered that 47 percent of all unemployed workers now believe that their “job loss is likely to be permanent”.
People are really suffering and are going to suffer more in the future, and this is why I have been warning this Christmas there will not be a Christmas “sleigh ride”- such as going through the snow on a horse-drawn sleigh that is popular in American lore -but rather a “slay ride”.
A “slay ride”, implying violence and a sort of butchery found in a horror film, except this time the film is real life.
And the slaughter will be to people’s personal finances and the retail market since being forced to spend money on essentials such as food, water, and utilities, and maybe not even having enough for that.
The retail sector is going to be absolutely decimated since 25% to 40%, as I have noted before is made in the time from Thanksgiving to Christmas. With most likely poor sales for the future, there will inevitably be more layoffs, more job destruction, and more poverty.
If one wants to see what the retail sector is going to look like, one only needs to go to a local mall.
Many of them are dead or dying as evidenced by the ongoing store closures, the proliferation of people “hanging out” but not shopping (as in looking for a warm place to stay, not actually going there for leisure purposes) has continued to grow, and the fact that many of the stores are disorganized, dirty, or just falling apart. The mall, being a creation of the consumerist post-World War II economy is, like the post-World War II world, falling apart at the seams.
So what is the answer from Congress?
Two words, as noted before: money printing.
Consider that in the last few months, the US printed more money than all that was printed in the first two centuries of the US’s existence.
“The United States printed more money in June than in the first two centuries after its founding,” Morehead wrote. “Last month the U.S. budget deficit — $864 billion — was larger than the total debt incurred from 1776 through the end of 1979.” (source)
Buy why continue to print, if it will destroy the economy? As noted above, to question money-printing as the one-size-fits-all solution to every economic problem is to question the power structure of the status quo and the only tool used to manage said problem. Basically, it is telling the plumber with the wrench he needs a different tool, but since he has no other tools, he doubles-down and insists on using the wrench.
But what happens when people cannot pay their bills and still do not have a job? They already are going to get two checks- essentially 2007-type bailouts.
Who is to stop a third?
A fourth?
A fifth?
Money being thrown out of helicopters?
There is nothing. Nothing at all. The people figured out they can print themselves the treasury.
Historically speaking, there is a point in any human society that people can get the idea into their heads that they can “print their way to prosperity”, sometimes also called “voting themselves the treasury” while providing less than what is required to sustain those benefits.
This means in every case death for a society because it destroys the value of the means of exchange in one case, and in a more insidious example, in the name of “fairness” it can create polarizing factions that demand special fiscal handouts, to which other groups form and demand “justice” in the form of equal handouts, until eventually the money runs out, people become angry, and start fighting.
In both cases, the trust needed to sustain a society is destroyed, and chaos results that has to be restored by a new currency and many times, since economics is the predecessor to political change, a new government has to be instituted to restore the loss of order.
For people wondering, the US has already been on this road for decades, beginning with the ponzi scheme of Social Security, for while it was well-intentioned and may have worked in select cases, the philosophy, composition, and size of the US make it very difficult for such a system to successfully function in the US without causing a complete breakdown at some point.
The “Great Society” programs had a similar effect, for while it is true that all societies give welfare, the welfare given was not managed through churches or based upon available resources, but was funded through financialization at which the root was money printing.
It is one thing to help people with money that one has, but an entirely different matter to do the same thing but on credit that one cannot pay back without destroying one’s own finances. This is not even a matter of taxation either, since the taxes collected do not even pay into the actual programs, but rather are interest payments to the Federal Reserve Bank (a private company) on the money that they loan to the US government at her request to run said programs.
Thus the argument of “my money is going to welfare junkies” (as so many will say) is absolutely not true- the problem is not “those people on welfare”, but rather the criminally irresponsible financial policies and practices that “we the people” voted for and have continued to accept because it provides to the public the surface benefit of “extra wealth” by letting the same individuals buy fancy cars, nice homes, take big vacations, and dine luxuriously through borrowed money to be paid at a later time but which mathematically can never be paid off lest the value of the money itself collapse. Welfare is not ultimately paid for by taxes and arguably has not been since 1973, as it has all been paid for by money printing.
But to stay on the topic of “welfare junkies”, the biggest of such are not poor people in apartments in the inner cities or trailers in the woods, but are the very same corporations and their CEOs that are called “captains of industry” and “business leaders” that Americans are told to hail as intelligent and model citizens. These people are largely not leaders or admirable, but criminals in suits and with lots of servants to help them perform their actions (whether those working for them realize the totality of what is happening or not).
The reason for this is because it is they who lobby for either lower taxes for themselves or for increased tax schemes so that they can force average to small business owners out of business through excessive taxes while at the same time through as series of deceptive accounting tricks (like the “Double Irish” or the “Dutch Sandwich”) pay little to no taxes at all.
Thus having the effect of paying less while it appears to the public that these are “responsible corporate citizens” who are encouraging “their fellow businessmen” to “pay their fair share” since they are “good patriotic American citizens”, when the reality is they are just con men peddling dishonesty and criminality for their own gain at the loss of everyone.
Back in 2007, when millions of people had their finances destroyed by the crash, did the public receive a financial bailout? Absolutely not. Instead, it was major corporations who received it in the form of the TARP plan.
Now it should be made very clear that the bailouts were not good, and they should never have happened. However, noting this, if major companies were bailed out at the ostensible taxpayer expense and thus putting the country on a long-term road to either a very painful deflationary depression that would likely persist for decades or the more likely chance of hyperinflation, why should the general public, who was deceived by these same companies and politicians for years, not receive a bailout too?
The only way to fix the financial problems, regardless of now or 2007, was to fix the debt issue, and the only way to do this would be either to pay it back- which is mathematically impossible because of how the Fed system works -or to declare a jubilee, disown the debt, shut down the Federal Reserve Bank, arrest the officers of the bank, and seize control over money creation, which would plunge the US into about a decade of financial disorder but would be long-term healthy for the country as it would reset the currency and allow asset prices to stabilize and permit for real value to be created so that all men and companies, small or big, could benefit for true long term prosperity.
But that is not what has been allowed to happen and is likely not going to be allowed to happen, and especially at the current time. The only way to fix the current problems of the system is either a debt jubilee or to allow it to be run as it is until it naturally and inevitably will collapse. In both cases, such will be at a point when the debt can be disposed of and the economic system rebuilt.
This has been the greatest benefit of COVID-19 and the ensuing first and soon to be second stimulus check that will follow from Congress. Some people complain as to why the government is “giving away taxpayer money”, when not only is the reality that the government is just printing money and handing it out regardless of what the taxpayers give, but if the government will give nearly limitless amounts of welfare to major corporations for decades yet continue to force the common taxpayer to pay ever more money to the government, what reason is there that the taxpayer, who is most likely (based on statistical analyses about debt per person) overloaded with debt, should not be given a financial bailout too? Legally speaking companies are people in the US (“non-human persons”), so if a non-human person can get a bailout, is it not more important that “human persons” receive them, since societies are made of people? There is no real argument, if one supports the bailout of corporations, not to bail out the general public, because the philosophy is the same, and if the government will insist upon bailouts for companies, it is hypocrisy to deny the common man what a company would receive.
The end of the world is coming for the US economy as we understand it through a post-World War II paradigm, and that is something which all must accept but is not necessarily a bad thing, as all things come to an end.
The real trick, however, is to prepare for after the end of the “apocalypse” because life must continue on- it will go on in the middle of chaos (as it does in any war zone) as well -and how one prepares will determine one’s future after the crisis is over, and likely as in the case with World War II for many decades to come, so the impact will last beyond one’s life and extend to family and future generations.
The discussion of how to handle this for specifics is another topic for a different time. But returning to the issue of inflation versus hyperinflation, the concern now is not to fight policies being instituted or to make bold public statements- since these rarely do any good unless there is already an organic or manufactured groundswell of support guiding the end goal that such a public declaration would support to the exact same end -but to focus on the current fiscal path that has been chosen and is going to be chosen.
Hyperinflation is not the choice of most people, but rather it is the choice being forced on the average citizen that he cannot control happening but rather how he deals with in based on the current circumstances.
For example, say that you are placed in front of a massive floodgate. The gate is going to be opened upon you, and you cannot hide from it.
You are going to get hit by the water and it is going to knock you around, and there is no way to avoid this.
However, you have twenty-four hours to prepare.What would you do?
Would you just “show up” to the gates and do nothing? Or instead, would you take some precautions? For example, you could buy a lifejacket. But would you stop there? Would you possibly consider with that lifejacket a helmet to prevent head trauma, and maybe a wetsuit too? If you had the money, would you consider investing in a pair of goggles and even maybe some flippers so you could swim?
If you had a lot of money and wanted to try to make the best, would you consider purchasing a set of scuba gear so that you could swim with the currents and even explore them?
The choice is for you to make, but at the very least, a good lifejacket is in order because if you have that, you may lose consciousness, you may be cold, you may have a lot of pain to endure, but it is very, very unlikely you will drown. This is something that all people can do for themselves that is very effective.
Take this same example and apply it to the situation of the financial markets with inflation and hyperinflation. Most people are not rich and cannot afford a lot of the expensive measures that those with greater financial means could employ. However, they can take basic measures to protect themselves.
Hyperinflation is not a fun thing to think about.
However, it is real, it is historical, it can happen to anyone, and knowing the principles by which it can come to pass helps one to avoid its effects. Knowing the signs of the times, it would be wise to pay attention, as the signs are becoming too clear.
So what is the USA actually doing to mitigate this situation?
At the moment, the global financial system is centered on the United States but that will not always be the case.
As far as international monetary policy goes the United States under Trump has been radical.
The Trump administration has pursued a unilateralist and bilateralist vision for foreign exchange policy. This policy is vastly different from the multilateralist approach of its predecessors over the prior 25 years.
Treasury secretaries in the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations avoided commenting on currency markets, and when forced to do so simply backed a “strong dollar.” This gave administrations the moral high ground to criticize others, especially Japan, when they sought to weaken their currencies. That high ground is gone.
The United States led the G7 and G20 in 2013 in developing new currency commitments—orienting macroeconomic policies toward achieving domestic objectives using domestic instruments; not targeting exchange rates for competitive purposes; and refraining from competitive devaluation.
Now, the president and some advisers tweet to promote dollar weakness, alleging that foreign monetary policy accommodation, for example by the European Central Bank (ECB), is tantamount to currency manipulation.
Monetary policy transmission works through a number of channels—lending, asset prices, yield compression, and confidence, for example.
Exchange rates are also a key monetary policy transmission channel.
But the administration disregards that euro-area growth is anemic and inflation persistently well below target, giving the ECB strong internal reasons to pursue accommodation.
U.S. growth performance has been superior to that in Europe and Japan, and thus U.S. rates are higher. The administration’s trade wars and tariff threats reinforce a risk-off market environment, further supporting dollar appreciation. Massive U.S. fiscal deficits also push the U.S. current account deficit higher, while boosting the need for capital inflow. If the president wishes to see a weakening in the dollar, the best way to achieve that is not to tamper with U.S. out-performance but to work with others to boost their performance, while ending trade wars.
In August, as the renminbi (RMB) fell below 7.0 per dollar after an intensification of U.S.-China trade tensions, the president ordered Treasury to designate China for “currency manipulation.” The designation was unwarranted. The RMB is managed, not “manipulated.” China could prevent the RMB from falling by drawing down reserves. But the currency fell in large part because market participants viewed depreciation as offsetting the competitiveness hit from higher tariffs.
The designation contradicted the Treasury’s own criteria for assessing whether “manipulation” and harmful currency practices were being pursued. China’s current account surplus in 2018 was around 0.5 percent of GDP, a relatively small surplus; on a net basis, China sold a small amount of dollars in market intervention. To be sure, China has a large bilateral surplus with the United States, but economists dismiss the relevance of bilateral balances.
A country “manipulating” its currency to gain an unfair competitive advantage in international trade would be expected to purchase dollars to hold its currency down and run large current account surpluses as a share of GDP. China does not fit that bill.
More generally, Treasury is undermining the integrity of its Foreign Exchange Report. It recently cut its current account “monitoring” threshold from 3 to 2 percent of GDP in order to pick up more countries, but this level is too low given economic structures. At one point, it placed India on its monitoring list, even though India ran a current account deficit. Italy and Ireland, too, were placed on the list. Prior to the manipulation designation, China was on the monitoring list, even though it only tripped one (the bilateral balance) trigger, whereas placement on the list requires triggering two criteria. On the plus side, Treasury has acted to expand the report’s country coverage, encompassing a number of smaller Southeast Asian surplus nations.
According to media reports, the administration has debated intervening in currency markets to push the dollar down. For example, the United States could buy euros or RMB, pushing up their values and thus the dollar down.
In the rare instances when the United States intervened in the past two decades, it did so on a concerted basis with G7 partners. There is little reason to believe any current U.S. operation would be concerted. A solo U.S. euro operation would not likely succeed—unless the Fed stood ready to print unlimited dollars to intervene, U.S. resources are highly constrained; the euro/dollar market is vast; the ECB could buy as many dollars as the United States could sell.
Such considerations would pertain to intervention in the Chinese currency. The Chinese authorities can exert a strong influence over banks operating in the on and offshore markets. Even if such an operation occurred, the United States would confront difficult operational issues about investing the currency proceeds.
The administration put forward a Commerce Department rule proposal to treat currency undervaluation as a countervailable subsidy, an idea the Bush administration rejected.
The proposal is problematic. Currency values are determined by balance of payments flows, not just trade accounts, and in turn by monetary and fiscal policies. There is no precise way to assess currency undervaluation. Even if one could, that would not address whether undervaluation was attributable to that country’s policies, or perhaps the flip side of policies in the overvalued currency country. The undervaluation of a country’s multilateral exchange rate also does not tell one the amount of bilateral undervaluation versus the dollar. For example, the subsidy would differ if the optimal bilateral balance deficit between the United States and China were $400 billion or zero.
The administration is aggressively pursuing trade provisions in currency deals, and this trend started under the Obama administration. The Trump administration amped up, pushing welcome side understandings on intervention alongside the revised United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) deal. The United states-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) provisions, though, allow certain exchange rate transparency and reporting issues, unrelated to monetary policy, to be included in dispute resolution. While the practical import of the USMCA currency provisions is minor, their inclusion in dispute resolution sets a precedent that could errantly allow trade authorities to stray into macroeconomic policy settings.
Some in the administration have also discussed taxing foreign inflows, consistent with a draft Senate bill of Senators Hawley and Baldwin. Such policies would stand in strong opposition to the longstanding openness of U.S. capital markets.
The administration’s robust unilateral use of financial sanctions could also corrode the dollar’s future global use. Past administrations sought to build multilateral coalitions for deploying financial sanctions. In doing so, officials balanced considerations on using sanctions with the implications for the dollar’s financial and reserve currency roles.
The Trump administration has used financial sanctions far more aggressively and unilaterally. While there is no realistic alternative to the dollar for the foreseeable future, our traditional allies have been put off by the administration’s unilateralism, as best reflected in Europe’s effort to create the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges or INSTEX, a plan to circumvent the dollar’s use to allow Europe to trade with Iran.
The Trump administration’s views on the dollar, foreign exchange policy, and external developments are a major departure from the practices followed by the United States over the past 25 years.
These policies and practices are alienating allies and eroding the multilateral fabric underpinning the international monetary system.
And the largest, and most powerful nation that is able to influence the USD and the international monetary system is China. And President Trump has declared “war” on China. labeling it an “enemy”, conducting a “hybrid war” with it, and engaging it in every way (s0 far) short of a nuclear exchange (aside from the BRI explosion)…
How China Could Crash the US Dollar on a Whim
Over the last 30 years, China’s economy has grown at an average annualized rate of nearly 10%. While this statistic alone is jaw-dropping, what is more impressive is the extent to which the nominally Communist country’s economy has become intertwined in the global economy.
China now exerts enormous influence over the economies of virtually every country in the world, and a slight change in its domestic economic policy has the potential to send shock-waves rippling throughout the world.
Nowhere is this more apparent-and frightening-then in China’s economic relationship with the United States, which is very much at the mercy of China when it comes to prices, wages, interest rates, most importantly, the value of the Dollar.
The precariousness of this relationship is already the subject of significant publicity, redolent of the Japanaphobia of the 1980’s that saw American economists scare-mongering about Japanese control of the US economy. [Of course this later turned out to be unfounded, but that is beyond the scope of our discussion.]
With regard to China, most of the analysis is focused on its growing foreign exchange reserves, the majority of which are held in Dollar-denominated assets. Here, from US house prices to global commodity prices, from interest rates to inflation rates, we will observe how China could cripple the US economy, both willfully and unintentionally, if so desired.
Forex Reserve Diversification
Let’s begin with an examination of China’s forex reserves, which is probably China’s biggest bargaining chip in its economic relationship with the US. Up until a decade ago, China’s currency, the RMB or Yuan, was pegged to the Dollar.
As with any peg, there often develops a discrepancy between the fixed value of the currency and the value that the market would assign if the currency were permitted to float. As China’s economy surged ahead, especially over the last five to ten years, tremendous pressure began to build under the RMB. In order to maintain the peg and hold down the value of the RMB, China began accumulating foreign exchange reserves by withdrawing foreign currency from circulation. Today, China’s foreign exchange reserves are massive, at $1.4 trillion as of September 2007.
In the eyes of American policy-makers, this presents a problem because the majority of these reserves are held in Dollar-denominated assets, namely in the form of US Treasury securities. The US government theoretically could not be happier that foreign Central Banks are willing to finance its perennial budget deficits. However, this borrowing has reached a point where foreigners now control over 40% of the US national debt. Moreover, long-term US interest rates are market-driven, based on the buying and selling of US government bonds. In other words, the US has gradually ceded control of its long-term interest rates to foreign Central Banks, namely China and Japan.
As the Dollar has depreciated, many Central Banks have begun “diversifying” their forex reserves, by switching from Dollar assets to assets denominated in other currencies.
This is problematic for the Dollar for two reasons.
First, switching from US assets to European assets, for example, directly causes the Dollar to depreciate.
Second, the bulk sale of US treasury securities (whether or not they are replaced with other US-assets) causes US bond prices to decline and hence, yields to increase.
Thus, if China suddenly decided to diversify its reserves, for economic and/or political reasons, it could potentially crash the Dollar and send US long-term interest rates skyward.
Since mortgage rates are tied directly to government bond yields, a rise in interest rates would probably also affect US real estate prices. Higher interest rates would make borrowing for a home more difficult, which would lower the demand for houses and thus, the value of American real estate.
In fact, China created the China Investment Co. Ltd., capitalized with almost $300 Billion, charged with investing its vast forex reserves in higher-yielding assets. However, the company’s inaugural investment was a stock purchase in the Blackstone group, an American private equity firm.
Thus, while it seems likely that China will gradually discard some of its stock of US Treasury Securities, the affect on the value of the Dollar will be minimal. Besides, while China would certainly punish US businesses and consumers by unloading US Treasuries on the market, it would punish itself even more, since the value of the government bonds that it didn’t sell would decline.
The second aspect of the China-US economic relationship which China could wield to its advantage is the RMB, itself. American public officials enjoy criticizing China for failing to allow its currency to appreciate more quickly. But it’s really all lies and distortions.
What policymakers don’t realize is that a rapid appreciation in the RMB would actually harm the US economy.
Coupled with its growing role as the world’s factory, China’s cheap currency has made Americans wealthier, by increasing their purchasing power. As production of labor-intensive goods was outsourced to China over the last decade, prices for finished products began to fall both in real terms and in nominal terms. While the effect on US employment trends is debatable, its effect on prices has been unambiguous. Thus, even while the American economy boomed, inflation remained relatively modest by historical standards. This allowed the Federal Reserve Board to hold interest rates down and foment economic growth.
As the RMB appreciates, Chinese producers will become ever-more forced to pass along some of the price increase to consumers. Now, if China was to suddenly revalue its currency by the 25%-30% that western policy-makers are demanding, prices on a whole host of Chinese products would jump up overnight.
This would adversely affect American purchasing power and limit consumption to such an extent that the US would be in danger of slipping into recession.
While the trade deficit that is the bane of American politicians’ existence might decrease in the long-term, it would skyrocket in the short-term. Besides, as many analysts have been quick to point out, there is not much overlap between Chinese and American production.
Thus, a more expensive Yuan would send production to other parts of Asia, rather than back to America. As is what is currently going on with some of the cheaper and simpler products.
Direct Competition with US Exporters
A more potent (and plausible) weapon would be to compete more directly with US exporters, by expanding into high-technology products. America currently leads in a handful of high-technology industries.
Business
Financial
IT services
Aircraft and spacecraft,
Semiconductors,
Specialized computers,
Pharmaceuticals,
Measuring and control instruments.
China has specialized in manufacturing labor-intensive products, which have long since been manufactured outside of the United States. As previously stated, a revaluation of the Chinese Yuan would surely not return production to the US. However, if China were to expand into capital-intensive and/or high-technology products, it could easily steal market-share and jobs from the US.
Key points
Many observers doubt that China can assume global technological leadership, but there are very good reasons to believe it will.
Four factors comprise ‘technology leadership’:
[1] Research and development (R&D) intensity,
[2] R&D personnel,
[3] number of scientific publications,
[4] The number of patent applications.
Three factors contribute to China’s growing technology capacity and eventual global technology leadership:
[1] China offers technology innovators a massive domestic market.
[2] China’s government has the authority to shape industrial policy and provide infrastructure.
[3] Globalization has benefited and will continue to benefit China through technology transfer and spillovers.
Limiting the Importation of US Products
Of course, there is also the imports side of the trade equation.
China is one of the United States’ largest export markets. Which isn’t saying much, America just doesn’t manufacture or create much inside of America any more. Never the less, limiting the importation of US goods and services would certainly be felt in the US. Though, truthfully, aside from aircraft and food products like wheat, it doesn’t amount to much.
Some anti-competitive options include tariffs, import taxes, quotas, or a simple ban on the importation of certain types of products.
Raw Material Pricing
In addition, there is the impact that China’s economic growth has exerted on global raw material prices. It has been said that 25% of the world’s construction cranes are currently located in China, to support the country’s building boom. These massive development and infrastructure projects require proportionally massive quantities of raw materials, namely cement and steel.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategists, in a note, point out that the U.S. Department of Defense has termed China’s domination of the rare earth market as potentially dangerous, given the offshoring of manufacturing and vulnerabilities in America’s manufacturing and defense industrial base.
China produced about 78% of rare earths in 2018, and owns about 40% of global resources. Bank of America strategists noted the dominance of China is due to the fact that its government classified them as a strategic resource and has emphasized exploration and extraction of the raw materials for about 100 years.
The analysts said China made the materials available at a low cost in the 1990s, hurting competitors and limiting expansion of rival producers. There are 17 rare earth elements, which are not actually rare but refining them from ore is costly and results in pollution.
— With reporting by CNBC’s Eunice Yoon and Fred Imbert.
Competition for Energy
China was responsible for three quarters of the world’s energy consumption growth, followed by India and Indonesia. The U.S. and Germany posted the largest declines.
-Fossil Fuels Still Supply 84 Percent Of World Energy
China is now the world’s largest consumer of energy, the largest producer and consumer of coal, and the largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Over the last half century, China’s large manufacturing-based economy has primarily been fueled by coal. From 1990 to 2018, China increased its coal consumption from 0.99 billion tons to 4.64 billion tons.
The nation that consumes the most fuel and raw materials can also control the pricing.
This will eventually lead towards hyperinflation of some magnitude.
How bad or severe the influence will be on America, the American economy, and on Americans will depend upon the international relationships that America maintains. Most significantly the relationships that it has with the largest and most influential nations. namely; China.
But there is a problem.
President trump despises China. He has set China up as the big old “boogie man”, the evil villain from which all the woes of American can be blamed upon. You have to be living under a rock not to realize this.
Now, of course, China could respond in kind. And in doing so, the entire American “house of cards” would come tumbling down.
But it hasn’t.
Not yet, at least.
In short, China has several economic “weapons” at its disposal for countering the US, ranging from the manipulation of its currency to the diversification of its burgeoning stock of forex reserves. It also has several less blunt options to choose from, such as enabling Chinese companies to compete more directly and effectively with US companies, and opposing the US in securing a domestic energy supply.
On all of these fronts, the US is essentially “playing with fire”, since it has become so dependent on China as the world’s factory.
Ultimately, it seems unlikely that China will deliberately butt heads with the US unless it is first provoked, but America should nonetheless be respectful to China, since its economy hangs in the balance.
And it is because of this that someone should slap Trump and his neocon advisors at the side of their heads and ask them WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY DOING? Because, like it or not, China is the nation that is holding “all the cards”. Not the United States. And the only reason why Americans are not paying $67 for a gallon of gasoline is because China has decided that the likelihood of Trump remaining in office for eight years is unlikely. And that any replacement would be in the best interests of China at this time.
But that is not how the USA sees things.
The ONLY way that the USA can get out of this future cluster-fuck is to engage in a war with China, and then blame all the subsequent collapsing on China. But, as the events of 2020 has shown, the planned results will not unfold as is desired and expected. Thus we have three very likely scenarios;
[1] Full-on World War III. Whether with China or with Asia. As there is no fucking way that the oligarchy is going to accept an internal revolt of the American peasantry and their eventual torture and beheadings. This is ultimately the most undesirable outcome. The USA will strike first, without Congressional approval. Then after the fact, the Senate will “rubber stamp” the approvals.
[2] A gradual collapse of the United States unfolding with greater and greater alarm. Attempts to distract attention of the American peasantry away from the turmoil has been met successfully. Thus, the oligarchy has decided that an uprising of the surfs is the lesser of two evils. This is the outcome of the more retrospective of the oligarchy who have support networks outside of the area of hostilities. This is, after all, something that they can continue to manage, as complex and ugly as it appears.
[3] An increasing civil war scenario as in scenario #2 (above), only with an attempt to distract the peasantry with an external villain (scenario #1 above). That would mean a few years of gradually increasing Civil War style events. Maybe two to three years worth, followed by a move of desperation to “rally America together to fight some evil”. With the rally a complete failure, and a full on World War III being the result. This is the most probable outcome.
What’s your opinion? One, two or scenario three?
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this in the SHTF and Trump Trade War Indexes…
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In 2016, Carol Highsmith got a cease-and-desist letter from Getty Images threatening to take her to court if she didn’t take down a photograph (shown above) she’d put up on her website.
This was strange—because she’d taken the photograph herself, and she’d put it in the public domain.
A few years before, Highsmith had donated 100,000 of her photographs to the Library of Congress so that they could be used royalty-free by anyone who wanted.
The Library of Congress saw it as “one of the greatest acts of generosity in the history of the Library”…
… and Getty Images, it seems, saw it as one of the greatest acts of a total sucker in the history of getting rich off of somebody else’s work.
They copyrighted 18,755 of Highsmith’s public domain photographs and started sending people cease-and-desist letters for using them—including Highsmith herself. Highsmith, full of righteous fury, took them to court for $1 billion. But the truly messed up part of this story is that it doesn’t have a happy ending.
The court ruled in Getty’s favor, saying: “Public domain works are regularly commercialized, and the original authors hold no power to stop this.”[REF] In other words, even though Highsmith’s donation had given everyone the legal right to use her photographs for free, it didn’t stop Getty from threatening people into paying them money for them, anyway. (They still conceded that the letter sent to Highsmith was a mistake, but they got off with a slap on the wrist at the most.)
Anyone who wants to can go around demanding that people pay them for things that are in the public domain all that they want. Nobody actually has to pay them—but they’re under no obligation to tell anyone that fact.
What the fuck is going on here?
Well, you probably guessed it. You see, when an American does something nice, and tries to make the world a better place by offering things for free, or cheaply, or giving destitute people free haircuts, there is some evil son-of-a-bitch that is going to either have it stopped, and / or try to profit from it.
America has become a land of the “dog eat dog”, and this single-minded selfish behavior has resulted in the terrible America that exists today.
I do wish that I could say that this is a singular instance, but it’s not.
It’s the norm.
Inefficiency or fraud?
When you give money to an agency, you know like “Save the Children”, or “The Salvation Army”, or “Toys for Tots” you believe that most of what you will give will go straight to the charity’s good works. If, for instance, you gave $100 to an agency that helped homeless people living on the street, you should reasonably expect at least $90 out of the $100 to go towards helping people.
Unfortunately that is not the case.
For all their nice commercials and “feel-good” slogans, many of today’s largest American nonprofit organizations are extremely inefficient.
In fact, I argue that they are so inefficient that it is suggestive of something else. I argue that they are for-profit organizations that use the cover of “helping the needy” to swindle millions of dollars from people like you and I.
They are inefficient simply because they dedicate the majority of their resources to other aspects of their organization. Leaving little left over in the way of resources for their actual causes.
I know, I know, every organization has overhead costs, but a staggering number of charities today are way, way off the “deep end” in this regard.
At one time, the American Cancer Society spent only 26 percent of its national multibillion-dollar budget on actual medical research, allotting the other three-fourths to “operating expenses.”
American Cancer Society
26% - Medical Research
74% - Salaries, overhead, office furniture, "training sessions" in Los Vegas.
In 2005, the Phoenix New Times reported that the Arizona branch of the organization spent a gasp-inducing 95 percent on overhead costs. Yes, that is correct, and that meant that they left actual cancer victims “only the crumbs.”
Phoenix Arizona branch - American Cancer Society - 2005
05% - Money to people with cancer.
95% - Salaries, offices, cars, and other "incidentals" of the owners.
At the Arizona branch, the nonprofit spends 22 times as much on paying employees, maintaining the offices, and keeping the coffee machine running than on the cancer victims they are supposedly aiming to save.
Consider another cancer support organization…
A peer organization of the American Cancer Society, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, is also a mechanism to swindle money for personal profit. Still, the foundation, which organizes the annual Breast Cancer 3-Day walking events nationally, can only manage to put forward 13 cents to its cause for every dollar it raises. Those 3-Day t-shirts must be some pretty high quality cotton.
Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
13% - Helping people with cancer
87% - Salaries, bonuses, trips, office, coffee, etc.
Of course, inefficiency is hardly limited to cancer-fighting organizations. The Greenpeace Fund—widely known for its environmental and conservation goals—is among the least efficient of environmental charities. It commits upwards of 82 percent of its fundraising to overhead costs. Costly tree-hugging.
The Greenpeace Fund
18% - Goes to helping the environment.
82% - Salaries, bonuses, office, trips, and nice furnishings.
Several groups assess and rate nonprofits’ efficiency, equipping donors with the tools to pick their charities. Charity Navigator, one such group, ranks charities based on a five-star rating scale of efficiency and publishes data on the breakdown of nonprofits’ organizational spending.
Charity Navigator bestows only one star upon the American Cancer Society, while the marginally more efficient Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation wins three stars. The popular March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation wins a two-star efficiency rating for spending 82 cents of every dollar it raises on overhead costs.
March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation
18% - Helps families with children that have birth defects.
82% - Salaries, bonuses, overhead, offices
Americans, for all their supposed generosity, are not discerning enough when it comes to giving. They pour money into organizations like the American Cancer Society and the March of Dimes, because these organizations appeal to people’s publicity sensitivities.
Too many worthy and efficient nonprofits are pushed aside by massive money-eating charities because wealthy donors prefer to go to galas than to actually do something noteworthy and good.
Traditionally, the reasons to contribute to the health of society were fairly banal: [1] general compassion for others; [2] feeling good about yourself as you lie in bed at night pondering your life; [3] political gains; and [4] the occasional tax deduction.
But now, the charity culture has taken on new form.
In the new fundraising world, the strategy is making amusements. Charitable organizations attract philanthropists through “fun” incentives. Nonprofits organize events throughout the year that are booked as good times: the American Cancer Society puts on the Relay for Life event, and the March of Dimes Foundation organizes its famed annual walk to save premature babies— with its measly 18 cents per dollar raised.
Few people ask whether their money is being used wisely, but these events are wildly successful: Americans from a wide variety of demographics and socioeconomic networks turn up in droves. People are attracted to organizations like the American Cancer Society because they are glamorous and glitzy. The nonprofits pull in donors with promises of celebrity appearances and festive awareness-raising parties.
Although this trend of glamorous charity seems fantastic for the world of nonprofits, or at least innocuous, it is actually calamitous, because insincere philanthropy enables quasi-fraudulent inefficient charities.
We have people who donate their belongings for public consumption, and some greedy SOB tries to profit from it. We have charities that are supposed to help people, and then they run up huge enormous expenses with little to show for the very people that they are supposed to help.
When I lived in Indiana, I used to walk among the few remaining strands of trees that were not taken over by farm fields, and housing developments. My wife and I would walk on these shallow paths up and down the ravines, in and out through the wooded glades, and up and down the various streams.
I will never forget this one event.
It is was in Marion, Indiana. There was a new housing complex going up, and they were bull-dozing all the trees and virginal forests to make way for flat spaces to build roads and single story wood-frame buildings upon. We had just gotten out of a particularly dense section of the forest, when suddenly we encountered a pile of dirt and up-rooted trees. We had to climb over the mess to continue in the woods…
…and there I saw it.
It was a bent metal sign, on a metal post that was partially standing when the bulldozer plowed into it.
The sign was telling.
This land is donated by the XXXXXXX family to the City of Marion, Indiana on 1972 so that it may remain pristine and virginal to the end of time. May you and your children and their children forever have access to this area. Remember that the Lord is everywhere and the best way to see his good works is to experience it first hand. These lands are for you and your children to enjoy forever.
We went back down the path two weeks later. The sign was gone, and a construction team was laying down some asphalt where it used to be.
Suckers!
In America today, you get the over all impression that if you are not “on the hustle” then you are a fool and a rube and that you deserved to be swindled. Ah. many a good person has fallen for this contemporaneous belief, and it is wrong. It is really, really wrong.
You are not a fool for trying to help others.
It’s not you.
You are a victim of someone else to misrepresented themselves, their organization and their role in society. They themselves, have created a for-profit model this is vacuuming up money from everyone so that they can maintain their nice and lavish lifestyles.
In 2014, the March of Dimes received $196 million in revenue, with the majority ($187 million) from contributions, fundraising events, and grants (the other $9 million came from investment income, program services and other sources).
$96 million (49%) was spent on salaries, pensions, employee benefits, and payroll taxes. 129 individuals received more than $100,000 in compensation. 60 independent contractors received more than $100,000 in compensation. 10 executives (President, Executive VP, Asst Secretary, Asst Treasurer, Medical Director and five Senior VP’s) received a collective $3.3 million (ranging from $255,000 to $510,000).
-Where does your $1 to March of Dimes go?
But, that is not all…
As I have ranted about this in other posts. I have argued that America is a nation where the common man dies a death by a million small paper-cuts. Whether it is an endless stream of taxes or fees, to all sorts of other “charges”, it is near impossible for the average American to save up any money at all.
Not that it matters to me. I don’t live there any longer.
But what about this comeuppance?
Ah.
Well, you see, our universe, and our reality is based upon thought. Right? And while we occupy a given particular world-line alone, it’s actually not an isolated world-line. It is instead connected to an “ocean” of other world-lines that are all inner-connected and wired up together.
And behaviors, and thoughts, and manifested emotions all tug on these interconnections in all sorts of ways.
You can call them as waves, as radiation, as fluxes within the universal void, as dark-matter or anything else you might want to refer them as. The point is that thoughts of others, not on your particular world-line, at any given moment, affects your world-line. It affects the templates. It affects the baseline. It affects how the paths, the arrows of time, are followed, and the rules for slides. It affects everything.
Well…
If you think good thoughts, and do good things, you can be assured that the universe will somehow bend to your advantage.
And..
If you think bad thoughts, and do bad hurtful and spiteful things, you can expect that the universe would also bend to your thoughts and create situations that would be very uncomfortable for you.
And…
If you use people, treat them as dupes all on the promise that you are "helping people" then you can be rest assured that this will have an equally hurtful effect upon your life.
So, while I cannot predict what will happen in each individual case, I can pretty much confirm that bad people will get to experience some bad things. And good people, will get to experience some good things, and greedy people will get to experience A GREAT LOSS OF MONEY AND STANDARD OF LIVING.
It’s the way the universe works.
And the oligarchy…
Well you can run, and you can hide, but the universe has a way of sniffing you out. You will most certainly get your comeuppance.
Do you want more?
I hope that you enjoyed this post. I have more in my Happiness Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
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.
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I’m not going rehash what has happened since the late 1960’s to the present. It’s pretty obvious. Everyone in America started to monetize everything. Nothing was off limits, and now today, you have to pay for everything. Everything in America comes with a price and nothing is free any longer. It happened in America and the other Western “democracies” followed America’s lead. The UK, Canada, Australia all became enraptured towards money… money… money. All with zero thought going towards how the society would change in the process.
Here, I am just going to remind everyone about some things about everyday life before Americans were turned into “cash cows” for others to profit from.
Introduction
I am minding my own business when I came across this comment…
It wasn't all that long ago that you could come out of High School, get a job, start a family, and the two of you could raise the kids with one staying home to do so while the other went off to work. It might not be glamorous but you could make it work in a decent little 3br, 1ba house. Four people, three bedrooms, a couple sharing one and one for each kid. Television was free over the air, not $100 a month for a "package" from DISH or a cable company. I grew up in one of those houses; there was no A/C, the phone was on a desk with a cord going into the wall and long-distance calls were $2/minute -- and that was when $2 would buy you a pound of high-quality steak!
Well, I have been musing about this for some time.
I have mentioned this to others, and they just laugh at me.
My conservative friends tell me that it’s simply because of inflation. But that is a good thing because look at all the cool things we have today. Like ATM’s, computers, cell phones, and the Internet. Inflation is a sign of progress.
My liberal friends tell that this is a sign of change. Change is good. We don’t want women to be oppressed and toiling alone in the kitchen all day, being barefoot and pregnant. We need things to be higher cost to make the world a better place.
Um.
I think that are both rationalizing everything.
But it did get me to thinking. And I started to think about my boyhood days growing up in Western Pennsylvania. Ah. It’s certainly a beautiful place. let me tell you.
Typical Pennsylvania with hills and meandering rivers and streams, with old railroad lines that followed the rivers through the large wooded lands.
Here’s some of the many things that we pay for without even thinking about it…
Water was free!
When I was young, water was free. No shit! It came out of the tap in these mechanisms known as “drinking fountains”. You would be able to walk up to one and press the lever and a nice stream of ice-cold, refrigerated, water would come out for you to have.
Public drinking fountain in Dallas Texas. It is quite popular and creates quite the sensation.
When I was young, these drinking fountains were everywhere, and contrary to the contemporaneous narrative about “racism”, I never saw a “white” only drinking fountain. That was something reserved for the Southern States like Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama. I grew up in the mid-West. Our water fountains were either white ceramic or sheet metal affairs.
There weren’t any signs about color.
It was very common to grab a quick drink from one of these contraptions. It wasn’t until I was in High School that the school district allowed vending machines to be installed in the school. The Senior Class would be able to make money from these vending machines to collect money for various school activities. This would be supplemented by such things as school dances, parades, bake sales, and candy bar drives.
Drinking from a school water fountain.
When growing up, we would drink from the water hose. It was always very warm from the sun, and tasted like plastic. It had a bronze contraption at the end like a miniature fireman’s hose. You could twist the mechanism by turning it. It would change the water from a spray into a tight laser-beam that you could use to water distant parts of the yard with (and clean away tough debris).
When I was in sixth grade or so, my father hooked up this micro mini water fountain to the water faucet at the side of the house. It was identical to that of drinking water from the lawn hose. Except that it didn’t taste like like plastic. It was just room temperature water that came straight from the tap. It was nearly identical to that of drinking from the kitchen sink.
It was identical to this…
The house side water fountain.
Boyhood adventures
When we were out hiking or riding our bikes, we would drink from our canteens, or from a hand-pump well. These hand pumps were large metal contraptions that were placed all over the rural covered wells. This happened sometime around the 1940’s I guess. As children and folk had a tendency to fall down the sides of these wells. Not a good thing, don’t you know.
Most of the time the hand-pump would be a cast steel mechanism that sat on top of a cement platform. We would, as kids, pump the handle furiously, and after about five to eight pumps water would start gushing out. One person would pump the water while the other person would try to drink from the fountain. We would either use cupped hands or put our open mouth under the spigot. We would also use this fountain to fill up our army surplus canteens, or boy scout canteens.
Cast iron, or cast steel, hand water pump.
Now, along side the rural roads of Western Pennsylvania were all sorts of natural mountain springs. Here, you really didn’t need a pump at all. You would just dip your hands into the cool water and take a drink, or a gulp of ice cool refreshing water. The water came from a multitude of artesian wells. Some of which had access in the back yards of many a home and farm, but many were also right there along side the roads.
In almost every case, these wells came from a rusty pipe that was shoved into the side of a hill. It would pour out a continuous flow of water and would empty into an old galvanized tub or other such arrangement. Sometimes it would be an old massive kitchen sink, while other times it would be something else. At all times the tub would be murky with moss and other plants associated with it. It would also be mostly overgrown with the typical shrubbery of back road Pennsylvania, such as blackberry bushes, and elderberry vines.
Pennsylvania roadside spring.
Many rural folk, who lived far away from the towns would make weekly trips to these springs and fill up as many buckets and bottles that they could fit in their truck. They claimed that the water tasted much better than the purified tap water. I would tend to agree with them. The minerals in the water certainly made the water taste nice.
The only problem of course, was thirty years later when I ended up with kidney stones from drinking all that hard water. But, as you can guess, that’s another story for another time. And no, it’s not directly traced back to the Pennsylvania springs.
Coke-Cola
Oh, and yes…
There were coke machines. A bottle of coke ran you ten cents, but you needed to drink it right there, and put the bottle back in the wooden box besides the machine. But, I’ll tell you that the glass bottle was really thick and heavy. It felt good in your hand. It fit it well.
Coke machine that dispensed in bottles. The cost was ten cents per bottle, and you had to replaced the used bottle in a wooden crate next to the machine.
Also, it was cold. Ohhh man! So very cold. No, I’m not talking about a refrigerator temperature, I am talking about frosty cold, like borderline freezer temperatures. These were fine memories when you would be able to drink a frosty ice-cold coke for a dime, and relax a spell.
When I got my first job, we had a soda dispensing machine. In it were cans of soda. But none of them had pull up tabs until the mid 1970’s. Instead you needed to use this pointed can opener that hung by the side to punch a triangular hole in the top of the can to drink from.
It would hang on the side of the soda machine by a dirty white string. No one ever took it, or stole it or anything like that. No one even thought about doing so. It was a different time, and people thought differently.
The opener had a sharp pointy side for opening cans, and a blunt rounded end for opening bottles and popping the tops off…
Vintage Vaughn USA 58 Bottle Opener Can Opener, 3.5″ Long
This was used for sodas and just about everything else. This was true with beer as well. When those pull up tabs were introduced, it revolutionized everything! Let me tell you!
A special Event
But really, and quite seriously, drinking soda (or pop) was really a “special” occurrence. For the most part we drank water, milk or Kool-Aide. This was a powder that our mothers would mix with water and put in the refrigerator for us to drink. It came in different flavors like cherry, strawberry and orange. You heat up some water, add the powder, and then add a ton load of white sugar. Stir. Place in the refrigerator.
Easy peasy. Lemon squeezy.
At Supper, we would have a big glass of milk or water. Both would be very cold. Winter or Summer. Cold beverages was considered a good thing. In fact, if we had water at the table, you can guarantee that it was served with ice cubes. Frosty. Oh, so very frosty.
But the soda, well that was for visits to our grandparents.
Typical Pittsburgh basement. Our grandparents would store cases of beer and soda on the stairs leading down to the basement.
Prior to every visit, our grandparents would go to the “State Store” and buy some cases of beer and soda for us kids. These cases would sit in the cool basement, and while we were visiting, we would be able to drink all the soda that we were capable of.
Now, in Pennsylvania the only place your could buy alcohol is though a “State Store”. These are government stores that enable you to buy booze. They had the distinction of being open during government hours, and tended to be inconvenient. So what we all would do is make a “beer run” prior to the weekend to stock up on the libations for the weekend.
Pennsylvania State Liquor Store.
Now of course, things are different.
You can buy beer in convenience stores, and other places that are so authorized. But in those days the government had a complete monopoly on the distribution of alcohol. Why? Well, it was for the children, don’t you know.
Today…
I would say that most people who drink soda would probably get it as part of a fast food meal. My guess is that this would be the greatest revenue generation source. Aside from that they would purchase these huge… HUGE… bottles of mega-cola from Walmart or some other retailer.
Judging from the appearance of most Americans, I would guess that they drink a lot of sugary drinks.
They also might like to buy a bottled water from a 7-11 or some other convenience store. They come in all sizes and shapes. They are pretty cheap.
But…
But…
Not as cheap as in “free”. Don’t you know.
Which is where I will make this important point. Most expensive bottled water is nothing more than plain tap water put in a nice bottle and assigned a heavy price. Just like this picture so clearly indicates…
Students at Humboldt State University created this display to educate peers on the perceived ills of bottled water, ahead of a campus-wide ban.
And we know that most bottled water is simply repackaged tap water. Because we have tested the water and that is exactly what it is…
So why am I ranting on so? What is the point that I am trying to make? Why does this matter? And what is the point of all of this?
When did we reach this point where we all thought it was fine to start paying for things that were free? When did we start tearing out the water fountains, and buying plastic bottles of water?
Not only that…
When did we stop getting free packs of stick matches at the restaurant counters everywhere, to buying disposable lighters? At what point in time did we think that paying for a disposable lighter was a more attractive option than a free package of matches?
Or…
When did the transformation from a blue plate meal in a unique family restaurant be replaced with a fast food pre-packaged burger in a styrofoam package? What ever happened to the heavy white plates? The thick (bang on the counter) mug of coffee, and the sprig of parsley at the side of the plate?
Or…
At what point in time were washable linen tablecloths replaced with plastic tabletops, cloth napkins with paper tissue, and silverware replaced with disposable plastic cutlery? Why did everyone switch from reusable linens, to disposable plastic? Why are only the establishments that cater to the wealthy retaining the old ways?
Or even worse…
When did buying a tea, or a decaffeinated coffee at a fast food restaurant equate a hot paper cup of water and a package of mix? What’s the point?
Ah. But no one asks these questions. No one does.
But they should. You should.
Why do we line up to the “self service” pump to pump our own gas? Why not have the Gas Station Attendant take care of it for us? Is it really about saving money like we have been led to believe…?
Why do Americans still pay using paper checks instead of QR code?
If cigarettes, cigars, beer, and alcohol can be banned from the workplace “for the children”, then why not unhealthy food, candy, and coffee? And why the workplace, I thought that children couldn’t work until they were of age?
Which makes you wonder…
At what point in time did we allow someone to place the dividing line between what is allowable and what is illegal and give up our own personal decision making process? Since when are there others who can decide what is best for us? Who assigned them to be better than us…
Who?
In 1913, a group of oligarchs decided that everyone must pay taxes and report all their financial transactions to the federal government.
Well, it is 2020. How did it all work out?
In the 1970’s glass fibers were banned from use. This resulted in most buildings (above the first floor) in the small cities and towns of America being empty and uninhabitable. This in turn, contributed to people moving outside and away from these community centers. Thus creating sprawling suburbs and a decay of down-town community life.
Who was the genius that thought this all up?
Everything is interconnected
Everything is interconnected. You change one thing, and other things will change. Often the smallest change might result in a great deal of massive changes. Changes that might alter the fabric of society.
You make a law that trash can only be collect on Thursday, and the trash from the weekends will pile up in big heaps on the sidewalks.
Thus making children walk on the streets to avoid the refuse.
Thus creating a dangerous situation for the children and the drivers of the cars.
Eventually, someone will get hit.
All because someone made a law by proclamation.
Now, it’s very difficult to pin-point singular changes.
There were other contributing factors.
In the case of the banning of asbestos glass fibers, there were studies that pointed to dangers. And yes, there were other changes going on at the same time. Such as changes in the work-place, and others all within society. And yes, all of these contributed to the end results. And, to be honest, no one could actually predict what the long term consequences would be of their decision making.
But no one cared. All they cared about was the short term impacts. Or, as we like to say in the USA, “the bottom line for the fiscal quarter”.
The United States might officially pretend to work in one way. However, the United States functionally operates pretty much like this;
Someone wants a change.
Money exchanges hands.
One person gets very rich.
The public accepts the changes.
Time passes…
Consequences of these changes are felt.
More money exchanges between different hands.
New laws and rules are made.
The public accepts the new changes on top of the old changes.
After over two centuries of this, America is [1] a nation of rules, and laws, on top of [2] rules and laws, on top of [3] rules and laws, on top of [4] rules and laws…
It’s a mess.
And the people are upset. And they are starting to lash out.
This is not how to run anything. Not a business. Not a sports team. Not a game. Not a town. Not a factory. Not a school. Not a train. Not an airplane. You cannot run ANYTHING in this way. Things cannot operate in a sustainable manner if you conduct business this way.
Just imagine operating a business like this. Just imagine.
You run a restaurant. A customer comes in give you $1000 to stop serving bacon. You stop serving bacon. Half of the customers stop coming in.
Another gives you $500 to play advertisements at rock-concert levels.
Another gives you $750 to house livestock in the kitchen.
Two years of this, and the restaurant would be a complete and total wreck.
You just cannot.
Which is why the United States is in such a mess right now.
China used to be like this
Yup. China used to be like this.
The Beijing leadership would act like autocratic king, and make proclamations. Much like is being done in America today. This is America today…
You MUST have permission to fish.
Tiktok is banned. No American is permitted to own, use or have it on their phones.
WeChat is banned. Don’t even think about having anything to do with it.
Chinese students are banned from Attending American universities.
You are forbidden to eat sunny-side-up eggs.
You are forbidden to drink jumbo-sized cokes and soft drinks.
China was like this too.
Then, after a great deal of turmoil, China changed. This received scant reports in the American media, but it was earth-shattering in China. It was called “The Cultural Revolution”, and it forced the government to come up with new ways of doing things. Maybe you heard about it, eh?
Here, a proposal is made…
A trial run is conducted.
Results are weighed in pros and cons.
A pilot run is conducted with the improvements.
Results are again weighed in pros and cons.
Implementation phase on a local / state level.
Again results are monitored over set period of time.
A go / no go decision is reached. To either scrap the process, or improve it, or leave as is.
Since this has been implemented in just about every level within China, the implementation of changes has become rapid and successful. Bad ideas are quickly discarded, while good ones are retained.
Of course, no one in the West knows any of this. To them, China is a “regime” run by the evil communist party who makes rules and laws and squashes the helpless citizenry yearning for “freedom” and “democracy”. Ah. All so that America can gin up support for world war III.
Nonsense.
America needs to step up to the plate and up it’s game.
It’s probably too late to do so in any meaningful way.
But…
It’s better late than never.
Oh where was I…
Oh, yeah.
Water.
Water is your most essential consumable. If you do not have fresh potable water, you will die. We have become accustomed to getting water at will. Whether it is from a water fountain, or from a bottle that you pay for in a store, it is something that we take for granted.
Were I to be an evil person, I would secure access to water. So that only those whom I wanted could drink and use it. The rest of the water would be of questionable quality. For all it takes is to drink some bad water and you get a bacterial or viral infection. And if you don’t have antibiotics…
…you will die.
Water is something that we take for granted. We see shelves and shelves of bottled water. We assume that they are good and potable. We see water run out of the tap and take long luxurious showers in it. We never stop to think what it would be like were we to be forced to collect water from a nearby muddy stream or from catch basins.
Conclusion
Water is good, and a valuable part of life. We, in our comfort, have taken it’s availability for granted. We really shouldn’t. back one hundred years ago baths were once a month activity. Water, potable water was a treasure, and all farms and communities husbanded their water supplies.
While I greatly lament the monetization of nearly everything in the United States, we must realize that that this is an artificial reality. Water, like air, and shelter are necessary to life. Those that try to profit from these basics are those that do not care about your life, your family or your well being.
And any government that allows this, should be replaced with one that does.
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This is a very simple post that will layout a fundamental template for your prayer affirmations. These affirmations are things that you read aloud (to yourself) everyday during a campaign. Prayer campaigns happen over a period of time, and are interrupted by periods of inaction. In other words, you conduct a campaign and then stop completely. Then after a period of rest, you start a new campaign. The affirmations are a list of your desires laid out in a prayer format.
Structuring is a term that I use to describe the organization of your prayer list. You do not need to have it organized, but it will really help you out when the time comes to run a campaign.
The Structuring of a prayer campaign
Most people put together perhaps ten lines of prayers and call it their verbal affirmations. They repeat them once a day in their private moments. Some put them on a laminated sheet in the shower and read them aloud while taking a shower. Some put them in a notebook and read them when they are alone in their home office. While others have them on a list in their wallet and they read it in their car in the company parking lot.
When I conduct a prayer affirmation campaign, my list is long. It is very long and very detailed. I do this because I know that if I am not that detailed, what will manifest might not be what I want. So I tend to be very descriptive and very exacting in my campaign.
I learned the importance of this the hard way.
It's almost like that "contract that you sign with the devil", you will indeed get exactly what you wish for. But you must be very careful in defining your wishes.
So there are really only two recommended techniques (for the newbe and novice) that you can employ. Either have [1] very simple and broad affirmations, or [2] a very complex detailed affirmation campaign.
You do not need to be like me.
In fact, I strongly recommend that people new to intention campaigns start out slowly and simply, and then modify the affirmations over time to find our what works for them. For certainly, what works for one person might not work for others.
I will repeat.
We are all different. So what works for one person might not work for others. Which is why, pretty much, I tell everyone to stick to plain and simple affirmation campaigns and keep things basic. And then, after you have seen how things manifest for you, you can alter and grow your affirmation campaigns into great complexity with more intense results.
My suggested campaign template
Here, I am going to lay out the elements of a very detailed affirmation campaign. One that I use personally (with my personal prayers omitted, of course) and leaving the general affirmations for you all to use and alter as you see fit.
Now, I have mentioned how to conduct these kinds of prayer campaigns in other posts. So none of this should be a real surprise. What might be different here is that the campaign that I am listing here is an “advanced” campaign. It is one that is intentionally modified for “expert” use.
Yes.
This is what I use, and it is what any one who has been doing affirmation campaigns for a couple of years can use. It is not for newbe use.
What is different here, and why I warn NOT to use if you are new to affirmation campaigns, is that it contains certain elements that you must agree to that will completely and totally alter your campaign implementation.
The advanced techniques
This affirmation campaign is full of affirmations that will fundamentally alter and change how your campaign actually runs. This campaign includes “code” that will rewrite the “source code” behind the normal working procedure of an affirmation campaign. And thus it is dangerous for newbe use.
The advanced coding…
[1] Permits the application of world-line slides in your life.
[2] Discards your “initial world-line template” or base-line world-line map for others that will achieve your goals.
[3] Dramatically decreases the time for implementation of your affirmations by permitting and allowance for periods of “phased out discomfort”.
[4] Places guarantees that discomfort will be kept to a minimum.
To use these advanced techniques would result in some rather impressive changes in your life, but it will come at a cost.
[1] Using slides
The cost is that once you have allowed a campaign to slide you out of your birth-world-line map, you will never be able to return back to it. Which means that [1] you will forever be forced to conduct prayer affirmation campaigns until you die, and [2] that you must still obtain experiences and lessons as part of your soul charter. This will result in [3] some level of potential discomfort.
What does this mean?
Well, it might be like the character “Earl” from the show “My name is Earl”, who wins a lottery ticket for millions of dollars, but gets hit by a car and loses the ticket. Because he owes a karmic debt that exceeds the value of the lottery ticket.
My name is Earl television show.
Well…
… it might appear to be like that.
[2] Changing the template world-line map
In reality, it’s not really so much about karma as it is that your consciousness NEEDS to obtain experiences during this life.
The at-birth-world-line template was provided to you to use as a map to make those experiences occur. Good or bad, right or wrong, you were corralled or lead to make decisions that would cause events that would manifest due to your thoughts.
So yes, in a way, our world-line template that was allocated to us at pre-birth pretty much set up a corralled, and fated life.
Now, you are purposely leaving that template map, and permitting yourself to slide out on to other world-line maps.
World-lines can be grouped into clusters of similarly, and by other means.
When I refer to a world-line "map", I am referring to cluster of world-lines that evolve (over "time" as viewed by the consciousness) in such a way that the HIGHEST PROBABILITY of events are presented in a three dimensional format. The most probable world-lines are shown in a two dimensional plane, and the relative "difficulty" or "discomfort" to the person is presented in the third dimensional axis.
If you do not use this kind of "map", then you have no structure. Just a big furry and fuzzy ball of all probabilities all superimposed over each other. So use of this map greatly simulates how a person can make decisions, be corralled into certain actions, and learn from experiences and events.
If you want to get off this "fated" or "corralled" map that you were assigned with at birth, then you need to slide off of it. You would slide onto another map.
These other maps might be radically different, or might not. They might be violently disturbing, or quietly comforting. They might be anything. And that is the point. You elect to leave the experience-kindergarten and step into the elementary school hallway. It’s a big step.
Normal thoughts, and a normal simple affirmation campaign works within a pre-birth template map. There is a fixed number of world-lines that you must pass through (on the x-y axis) to obtain your goal.
To speed things up, or achieve other advantages, you need to slide off that map in a z-prime axis onto another map. This other map would have other issues and an entire set of highest probability pathways.
[3] Quick(er) response to your campaign
In this “heavyweight” affirmation campaign template, you would agree to sacrifice comfort and convenience for achieving your goals.
So, for example, if your normal campaign would normally take six years to manifest some long-term goal, this technique would reduce it to a third of the time. Say two years.
Also, as a side effect of this methodology, you will discover that the “pause” between campaigns will be abbreviated as well. Rather than taking a three month long pause between campaigns you might have the strong feeling that you could start a new subsequent campaign shortly afterwards, say in two months instead of three.
[4] Fail safes
Of course, this campaign would include fail-safes or else it would be very, very dangerous.
The idea behind this is that the world-line map that your experiences would lie upon in this incarnation would be within a set of boundary limits. You would have a high probability of experiencing “A”, and “B”, and while you could us your free will to avoid experiencing those things, the probability of you doing so would be very small.
People ask what is fate?
A child drops an ice cream cone on a hot pavement in the Summer and runs away crying.
You watch that event.
The highest probability would be that you watch, and then continue on your way as if nothing happened. This would be your fated pre-birth template, and you would be proceeding on the x-y axis. This is the most common and highest probability of behavior.
But there are actually a near infinite things that you can do. Such as...
[1] Buy the strange kid a new ice cream cone.
[2] Go after the kid and taunt her / him making fun of them.
[3] Pick up the cone and throw it in the trash.
[4] Pick up the cone and eat it.
[5] Pick up the cone and throw it at a passing car.
The most common and highest probability reactions and events are on the world-line map.
For instance, you would accept a job at “ACME Widgets”, not knowing that in three years they would lay you off. This would be a scenario that you would pretty much be fated to experience.
Now, it is true that you do not have to accept the job at “ACME Widgets”, but the situation on this world-line template would be such that not taking it might mean going without food for a while, or other uncomfortable things.
So in other words, the world-line template map is a fated life that you as soul selects for your consciousness to experience.
But, by accepting and allowing to slide off this birth-assigned template map, you can use your thoughts to navigate to new and different world-lines off that template.
On this new world-line template, you have a set of new opportunities and new events that were NOT present on the old pre-birth world-line template.
So, while the option for “ACME Widgets” might still be open to you, so will an opportunity at “Headbook Software”.
Now taking that opportunity would give you much better salary, and a host of other benefits. More so than “ACME Widgets”, but also would provide a different mapped “terrain” that you would need to navigate.
Instead of just worrying about a pay check at “ACME Widgets”, you now have to contend with a host of other issues that was not in your pre-birth charter. You would experience far more, and do far more, and live a much more active life… but it would be at a level of compression. In other words, more experiences, and thus a greater risk of discomfort.
To mitigate and control this additional and new discomfort, you would need to add text to your affirmations to control and mange it. Thus this technique…
Advanced Technique
I call this an advanced technique because you are “taking the training wheels off”.
The idea of training wheels is to teach balance with a “safety” system to catch the child when their balance is off. In reality, most kids simply rely on the training wheels and never practice balance at all. Some children even find that it is easier to fall with training wheels – particularly while maneuvering around a corner.
-Time to Take Off the Training Wheels? Parents Families.com
So once you implement advanced intention campaigns…
… you are awarded “full spectrum” control…
… with all the benefits and the inherent dangers that come with it.
THIS IS NOT FOR THOSE NEW TO AFFIRMATION CAMPAIGNS.
You need to have been conducting an affirmation campaign for at least a year before you try these techniques. I don’t want to advocate people to dive into the deep end of a pool until they learned how to “doggie paddle” first.
The affirmation campaign template
Here I am going to give you, the reader, elements of my very own personal affirmation campaign. I have omitted my personal information so as not to confuse this template. (And besides, it’s personal, don’t you know.)
General
I am calm, cool, collected and confident.
I , and my family, are all happy, healthy, and relaxed.
I live a calm, stress-free, comfortable life.
I feel calm and halcyon most of the time.
I have no worries, concerns, or stress. [1]
I am the water that flows under the earth in strength and power. [2]
I am navigating my reality towards my goals. [3]
In general, my reality is one that is a controlled improvement over what I already have. [4]
I am happy, healthy, and successful.
I fill my body with good delicious and healthy food and drink.
I have money, savings, and investments. [5]
Negative people are always repelled away from me in such a way that they do not affect my reality.
These affirmations manifest in the near future, and maintain existence for the remainder of my life.
All of these events as specified manifest as quickly as possible. [6]
Notes;
This is the "general" category at the top of my affirmation list. It contains phrases and general assumptions that will occur not matter what else manifests.
[1] The first five items refer to my level of stress and comfort. Now, if you do not want a relaxed and comfortable life, you can omit these items. I, myself, have lived in stressful situations. I do not want any part of them to manifest. So I make sure that no matter what, my life is calm, and good.
[2] My personality is one of adaptation. Some people have fixed personalities. You can alter this to read something like "I am a rock and stable in all things", or perhaps if you are of a flighty and wispy countenance "I move like the air and master my environment". It's all up to you. This phrase defines your general placement within the mapped terrain.
[3] You must vocalize what you are doing.
[4] You want to improve in what you have. You want to keep the good things going on in your life and add more good things to them. You do not want to throw away everything and start from scratch, do you? If you do, you can omit this phrase.
[5] If you do not include money in your affirmations, no matter how well intentioned, you could easily end up being poor and destitute; happy, but poor and destitute.
[6] These last two statement phrases are critical. By specifying a time limit, you allow the navigation to take you off the pre-birth intention canvas. You drop off the map and are permitted to slide to what ever new map will provide you quicker and more immediate results.
Now the world around us is seemingly going crazy. Pockets of discomfort, strife and alarm are all around us. We don’t want any of that to impact our life. We do not want any part of that in our life and we most certainly do not want to obtain experiences that are associated with strife.
However, if you slide off the pre-birth template you can end up (easily) within a world-line that is full of stress and discomfort. You do not want that. Not in the least. So in order to prevent that, you will need to place some affirmations in regards to safety and security.
Like this…
Safety
My family is safe and secure and protected from all efforts to attack it. [1]
I am safe and protected where I live, and my life is stable and isolated from any attacks of any type.
No matter what the news says, none of the disturbing things actually happens to me or my family. [2]
I and my family are safe and secure. Any battles, wars, conflicts or social upheavals occur far away from us.
My family and I are safe and isolated away from conflict, strife, and danger. We are always safe.
The people around me love me, protects me, nurtures me, and supports me. [3]
Notes;
If the world was stable this section in your affirmation campaign might not be necessary. But the world is not stable. Right now there are three carrier battle assault groups off the coast of China 15 miles from where I live. Maybe Donald Trump thinks that it makes great news headlines. For me, well it is very stressful and ugly.
[1] This might be the only phrase you might need.
[2] If the "news" is promoting something dangerous, this phrase will act like a shield and cause the event (or something similar) to "bounce off" and hit some other target. You know, like the fire on the USS Bonhomme Richard, or the massive explosion known as the Beirut explosion. This phrase will deflect events away from your area.
This is a complicated matter and I could devote an entire post on it alone. When huge groups of people start thinking things, they create a buildup of quanta. That buildup must be released. If it is being directed at something, and you use an affirmation to conduct a world-line switch, the build-up still needs to be released. And thus you will see other examples of where the "bullets ricocheted to".
[3] You need to tie yourself to a friendly and supportive community.
Now, let’s get into the content…
Content
Here is where you would put your “regular” intentions. This is where the vast bulk of your intentions would go. And it might look something like this…
The affirmations are for example only.
They are not my personal affirmations. My very own intentions are a little shy on objects and things, and rather dense when it comes to personal relationships, adventure, and lifestyle. But here are some illustrative examples.
I have a lawn with “Centipede grass”.
My front door is painted a high gloss PANTONE Bright Red C, with a nice real shiny brass door knocker.
I own a John Deer Cub Cadet Ultima ZT1 50-in. 23-hp Kawasaki Zero Turn lawn mower.
I own a beautiful white Nissan Titan XD Pro 4X.
You can add anything here that you want. In this example, I have placed things. But you can describe relationships, or situations, or events.
Events like…
I am able to travel the world in a sailboat.
I am part of a local group of businessmen and attending gatherings.
I have box seats at the local stadium.
Relationships like…
I am dating a girl that has the personality of Lauren Cohan (The Walking Dead actress).
I am dating a girl that has the body of Kelly Brook (English model, actress and television presenter best known for her roles in the 2010 horror comedy remake Piranha 3D).
My father and I have resolved our differences and spend time together on the weekends.
Situations like…
I have part ownership in a golf club.
My house is filled with happy dogs and relaxed cats.
I live next to the mountains and have a fresh water spring in the back.
In short, you can put anything here that is is desire. You can be vague or specific. Just note that the more specific you are, the longer it will take to manifest. So only add specificity when actually necessary. Otherwise, it’s wisest to keep things flexible.
Non Physical Entities & Forces
Our world, for the most part, is populated with the things that we see and experience around us. Therefore, since that is all that we know, that is all that we wish to alter. But the truth is that there are a host of other things, and other elements of our reality that exists around us. This includes things and entities.
By placement of specific affirmations you can protect yourself from malevolent entities (if they exist) or enlist the help of other non-physical entities, were it your prerogative.
I ask for help to achieve my intention targets; and I do get help from all the non-physical beings that can assist me.
I also get help from any physical beings that can assist making my dreams and wishes come true and manifest.
Other entities, not limited to but including, XXX, YYY, ZZZ, guardian angels, friendly sprites, and other entities are permitted to assist me obtaining my goals as defined here. [1]
In no way can these other entities hurt, harm, or mess up my life and intentions. They may only help, and are welcome to help gladly.
I know how to embrace opportunities as they manifest around me, and implement those necessary changes and actions promptly. [2]
Notes;
[1] You might not believe that non-physical intelligence's and animals exist. That's fine. But it wouldn't hurt to have this line in your affirmations, now would it?
[2] This affirmation can go anywhere, but the placement herein associates it with a knowledge associated with specific actions associated with non-physical, or physical entities.
Control of emotions and thoughts
We are constantly under manipulation. Where it is the embedded code within the websites and the APPs that we use, to the movies we watch and the news that we subscribe to. Everything is trying to twist and control our emotions. Yet, in order for our affirmations to actually work, these influences must be zeroed out.
Now there are two ways to zero out these influences. Firstly [1], you can get rid of those influences directly. You can stop using the media, using the computer and using the cell-phones. Or [2] you can add affirmations that control your reactions to those influences.
This section follows route #2. You have affirmations that control the way that the external influences influence your behaviors and action.
I am able to control my emotions and thoughts.
I prevent any angry, dangerous, or terrible thoughts from occurring. [1]
I prevent the manifestation of any reality that might result from bad, negative or dangerous thoughts. [2]
I avoid getting into arguments on the internet.
Everything surrounding me is positive and good.
Notes;
[1] The first two affirmations are seemingly redundant. But, they are not. One specifies that I am in control of what I think, not outside influences. The other prevents the manifestation and generation of bad or negative thoughts.
[2] Prevents the generation of "bad" reality generation resulting from my thoughts.
MWI Routing
This section adds a strong degree of control on how you add, alter, modify or implement your intention campaign. I am a strong believer that each one of us runs our very own unique campaign, and thus what works for one person, might not work for a different person. So in order to control that aspect of variance, you need to specify how the affirmation campaign works within your MWI reality.
These affirmations serve that purpose…
I understand how this universe works, and how to alter, improve and change my reality. [1]
I use this knowledge to generate a perfect life for myself and for my family.
As such, I am the Captain of my Consciousness. [2]
I move in and out of the world-line realities as necessary to achieve my thought-destination(s).
I do achieve my ultimate goals and I do so efficiently, and quickly while avoiding bad or undesirable world-lines. [3]
I am alert on what to say and do in order to achieve my desires.
I know what affirmations to make to manifest the life that I wish to participate within.
I know, positively, when to stop, change, alter or revise my affirmations in accordance with my needs and desires. [4]
I am aware of opportunities as they arise, and I know exactly what actions to take to maximize my desired intentions.
I am aware of the world-line routing as it occurs and do not panic or worry about how things will manifest. [5]
I recognize that world-line realities that I inhabit might be calm and relaxed, but that substantial positive and proactive events are unfolding for my benefit that might be hidden from me.
Notes;
[1] This phrase helps you rapidly learn what affirmations to use, and which ones not to use. You also better understand why and how they work. I think that this sentence along helps tie the affirmation campaign into a mechanism for soul experience growth.
[2] These two commands place your verbal affirmation campaign firmly into the realm of "navigation console". By using these phrases you convert an intention campaign from a "lifestyle enhancement method", to a "world-line navigation console".
[3] These two lines explicitly state what the purpose of the affirmation campaign is, and how it works.
[4] These four affirmations enable you to have insight on how to improve your affirmations, and add or subtract from them. While this is seemingly a more or less natural consequence of performing a campaign, this little statement guarantees that whatever alterations you make will be in accordance with your direct wishes, and not what was laid out in the pre-birth reality template map.
[5] These two affirmations cover cognizant awareness of the physical reality and what to do to alter, reroute or modify your intention campaign.
Intention Canvas
I urge everyone to have “dream board” or “intention canvas”. This contains images and pictures used to complement your affirmation campaign.
As opposed to "sharpening" your intention focus, it make it more "fuzzy". (Which is counter intuitive. Not what you would think, eh?)
In other words, instead of a small, hard, absolute point on the world-line terrain map, it becomes a bigger, fuzzier, and softer ball. What this does is provide a larger group of avenues or paths for you to reach to your goal.
The key words or text herein is to “complement”, and not to “replace” your affirmation campaign.
As I have discussed previously, the canvas can be a “dream board”, a rotating image display on your computer, or a folder containing a stack of pictures. It can also include a computer folder in your PC that contains images that you can use (and one that you don’t visit often either.)
In all cases you MUST tie this “intention canvas” to your affirmation campaign. These affirmation commands do just that. In my case, I have a folder that contains picture collages that represent my intended desires. And that is what I will suggest in these examples…
I utilize the images in my “XXXXX” folder (and all subfolders) to help make the manifestation of my lifestyle manifest.
I also utilize the photos in my PC (found in the YYYYYY directory) and used as my rotating background display to help cultivate the reality that my world line is.
The following commands specify exactly how the images will manifest and what they represent within my life…
In which case, then you go into great detail what general terms that each image represents. Such as these examples…
Males shown in photos
In all cases, the dominant male figure portrayed in the image(s) represent myself. [1]
Images that portray mafia figures, or “bad people” portray myself in similar roles of power. They do NOT, however, manifest these kinds of people against me. [2]
Images that portray powerful people represent my role as it manifests.
In images showing actors, it is the character, personality and role that they play that manifests in my life, not that of the actual actor. [3]
Notes;
[1] Do not assume that just because a male figure is in a photo residing inside your intention canvas, that it automatically represents you. If you want that to happen, then you will need to either use this affirmation, or photoshop your image into that photo.
[2] So, you've got a picture of Tony Soprano enjoying some wine, with his underlings nearby and a girl on each arm. Do not assume that you would intend this role to materialize. Instead, the local mafia don in your neighborhood might end up getting the intention instead of yourself.
[3] Likewise, you want the role that the actor plays. Not the life of the actor him or herself. If you want the actors person life, then you need to specify it. You need to specify exactly what elements the images represent or else you might have the wrong things manifest. You might (for example) want the life of Captain Jack Sparrow, and have a photo of a carefree run-infused pirate. While in reality you might end up with Johnny Depp's life and an embroiled divorce. Yikes!
Objects shown in photos
In images related to gold, money, currency and wealth, the intention is broadly associated with large sums of money, wealth and success that I possess.
In images relating to objects, they represent the things that I own or possess as property.
Women shown in photos
In images that have females, they represent the situation that I am participating in.
In images that only contain females, the appearance and body shapes, and the situation of the female, their body and actions are what manifests per my intention direction.
In images showing females, with a dominant physical attribute (as determined by myself), that attribute manifests within my reality.
Notes;
Since I am a male, I do not want to confuse any images with women and children. I want to specify that they are different and perform roles that are situational.
Blocking and Protections
We live inside a reality that has both physical and non-physical components. Thoughts alter and change our reality. Both our thoughts, and the thoughts of those around us. Good people can give us good wishes and pleasant thoughts. However, most of the world today is not good, and thus bad people can thrust bad wishes upon us.
We don’t want to suffer through hexes, malevolent intentions or bad events sent in motion by individuals who have a grudge against us. So we must utilize protections. Here are the protection affirmations that I use…
I have awareness on how to avoid the manifestation of problems. I follow that advise immediately without question automatically.
I purposely avoid negative, dangerous, bad, or problematic reality world-lines to achieve my goals
I have broken apart any barriers to controlling my reality. These are barriers that are either self-created, or those created by others.
I define my reality, and undo any spells, magick or alterations imposed upon me, or the reality around me by anyone or anything.
I block and shut out all negative, de-constructive, and dangerous thoughts from manifesting and altering my intentions listed herein.
Notes;
Do not assume that everyone thinks like you. There are many "closet" occultists, and "home-grown" priests that will throw some unwanted thoughts and beliefs your way. You must put up protections.
You would be surprised at how many there are. Seriously.
Personal Health
We can have an affirmation campaign that is all great and full of details, but if you ignore you health, it will all be for naught. If there is one thing that we should learn from this coronavirus situation, it is that if you don’t have your healthy, all the riches and “stuff” in the universe become meaningless. You absolutely need to protect your health and general well-being in your affirmation campaign.
Do not neglect this most important aspect of a prayer / affirmation campaign.
I am in top physical shape. I am healthy and happy.
My body operates, functions and behaves like when I was in my late 20’s and into my early 30’s. [1]
My wardrobe is professionally matched, and my body is clean, pleasant and attractive.
My heart is strong and healthy. My internal organs are all in top shape. [2]
Nothing is permitted to cause me harm, damage or physical discomfort.
I know what minerals, vitamins and foods that I must eat to achieve my intention targets. [3]
Notes:
[1] Obviously this applies to folk older than this age. LOL.
[2] Old men can have all kinds of problems and issues, and to prevent and control that, we tend to watch our diets and take vitamins. Exercise is important, and I don't need any affirmations to support what I already do naturally.
[3] Shortly after adding this affirmation line, the number of business luncheons and dinners that I would normally have dropped considerably. My wife started to make a lot of vegetables, and fish. I began to find myself eating this kind of nut and fruit oatmeal just about every morning. Ugh! Yet, after a few months I discovered that my over all body health did actually improve dramatically.
Household
The biggest influence on your life are those in your immediate family. Thus, you need to cherish, and protect them. For without them, you are just a lonely speck floating upon a most turbulent sea.
My family is happy, healthy, and well-taken cared for emotionally, physically, and financially. There isn’t any stress at all.
My family life is very calm, happy and positive. [1]
My family is happy and I have a very calm and happy domestic life at home.
I and my family are healthy, happy, relaxed and doing what we love.
Notes;
[1] My idea of what constitutes a happy family household might not be what you would. I think a calm and happy household is best for my temperament. I however, know others that love a chaotic household with all sorts of happy noise and activity. You need to customize this affirmation to fit your own personal lifestyle.
Lifestyle
Lifestyle is a “catch-all” that really describes the overall desire that you hope to accomplish from this affirmation campaign. Thus, it is critically important. It is the difference between having a “wealthy” life as opposed to a “rich” life. And if you don’t know what I am talking about, watch the movie “Bronco Billy”.
I love my life, and I love everything about my life.
I love the colors, the air, the weather, the people, the location, everything.
I improve upon what I have, not change it drastically.
The improvements are all what is listed here or better.
The improvements are glorious additions to what I already possess.
I live in a beautiful area, with great colors, fresh air, roomy spaces, and a calm and relaxed neighborhood.
I am very comfortable, safe, secure, happy, relaxed and live a nice fun and carefree life.
Everyone sees me as how I desire to be seen. [1]
I know what actions to take to secure my privacy and personal life. [2]
I have the strength (emotional and physical) to break through any barriers to achieve my goals.
Notes;
[1] I control what people think about me. Not others.
[2] Privacy is a fundamental human need. Yet governments, family members, and society pretty much has obliterated this belief. Which is why that I often go without a cell phone on me, and do things on my own personal schedule and not on the schedules that others use. Now, if you do not secure your privacy, the chances are that you will lose it.
Opportunity
The thing about affirmation campaigns is that they rely on you (the person making the affirmations) on taking advantage of the opportunities that present themselves to you. Thus, it makes no difference if you have an opportunity manifest in front of your eyes, but refuse to take advantage of it. You need to act to manifest that situation.
I am aware of opportunities when they arise, and I am led onto which ones to take and follow up with.
I have physical, spiritual and non-physical entities assisting me in making the opportunities listed herein into personally profitable ventures.
Opportunities come my way and I always profit handsomely from them.
I am aware of the trends going on in my life, behind the scenes, and on tactical, and strategic levels.
Affirmation techniques
Here we specify and “hammer out” the way that these affirmations will operate. You do not need to do this, but by doing so you can control the implementation of the affirmations onto your world-line.
I know of, and use, the specialized techniques to improve the actionablity of my verbal affirmations listed herein.
I know what things to say in my affirmations to make my reality happen safely and quickly.
I am dismissive of those that are not worthy of my time, or effort.
Speed of implementation
By specifying the speed of implementation, you create a slide event. This moves your world-line adventures, and your life off the pre-determined template and direct and straight into your own hands.
All these affirmations occur as quickly as is comfortably and as safely as possible. At no time is my family, health or safety at risk.
These changes are being implemented now, and will manifest soon. Really, really soon.
The normal rules of affirmation manifestation has now been advanced to this direct and immediate application without hesitation.
All these affirmations happen quickly, provided that dangers are avoided and I (and my family) are protected.
Death
Here, it seems really morbid, but a few moments a day to make sure that your transition out of the physical reality would be calm and complete is really a good thing. Don’t you think?
Death will occur late in my life.
I will outlive my father, yet be healthy and functional up until death.
When the time comes for my death, it will be smooth and easy.
Those left behind will be well taken cared for.
Important Navigation Notes
Here we get involved in the aspects that make this affirmation campaign “advanced”. It lays out the use of slide and how they will manifest and under what conditions. You will notice that they permit “minor imperfections” to occur as long as my baseline affirmations manifest.
This affirmation campaign is set up to engage the obtainment of objectives early on, with whatever minor imperfections that they might have.
I use world-line slides to accelerate the implementation of these affirmations.
The slides only come into use whenever they can [1] reduce the time to obtain the affirmation realization within my physical reality, and [2] they do not cause me any discomfort or trouble.
As time moves on, the imperfections drop away, and the true and idealized intention manifests.
This rule enables a quick near-immediate manifestation of my desires herein without having to wait for a long time to obtain the “perfect” intention reality.
Conclusion
This post describes an “advanced” affirmation campaign. It uses slides to accelerate the manifestation of the campaign objectives. As such, it is highly detailed and involves long lines of affirmation code.
It is only for advanced users to use.
As an example, I used elements of my very own affirmation campaign and I urge the reader to use and discard what they wish to make a similar campaign for themselves.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my affirmation campaign index here…
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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.
Joe Furey.
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.
Do you want some more?
I have similar posts in my Life and Happiness Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
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.
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One thing that can be pretty common in an intention campaign is the presence of “false positives”.
What is a “false positive”?
False positives are events or things that appear to match your verbal affirmations in substance, but have some glaring defect that makes them unusable.
Which is why you need to be very specific in what you affirm.
Ah, but you'd better be very specific.
Here's some wishes that an Craven Morehead wanted if he could have three wishes granted by a genie. It is found in this chat room titled "Genie grants you three wishes, what are they?"
Better vision, no more glasses
Better teeth
Bigger dick
Now, if you were a mischievous person, how would you twist those wishes into something undesirable? Think about it a second.
Now, instead of that nice fairy-tale fantasy. Consider quantum physics and the nature of the universe. Thoughts create reality. So, if those are your wishes, then imagine a totally impartial world-line cross over where you head directly to the world-line that first offers you those destinations.
Is the first world-line that offers you a "bigger dick" the one that you want to inhabit?
Kenyan's enormous penis means he cannot have sexPenis Enlargement Gone Wrong: A Wealthy Diamond Trader ...Yes, a Penis Can Be Too Big To Fit Inside a Vagina
Personally, I would prefer to have "free, unlimited sex with anyone I want at any time" over "a bigger dick". But that is just me.
These attributes are called “false positives”, but they can just as well be called an “echo image” of your target desire. Here we are going to discuss this.
Like ripples in a pond, a target object or situation can often create “ghost” or “echo” images. These items are not necessarily exactly what you are striving for. Though, it might (truthfully) be exactly what you are asking for.
Thoughts within the MWI are like ripples in a pond. And when you have a strong directed goal, it is like a big ripple. Sometimes, the ripple is not exactly what we want. It is instead, exactly what we asked for. Thus it is a “ghosted echo image”.
I will use an example from my own life to illustrate this.
An example
This is an actual true to life example. It's my example and it is about me.
Metallicman is not a wealthy man. He lives a comfortable life; a “rich” life. But it is not a wealthy life.
If you do not know the difference between a “wealthy life” and a “rich life” then watch the movie “Bronco Billy” starring Clint Eastwood. Pay attention to Miss Lilly.
Bronco Billy. Pay attention how Miss Lilly went from a wealthy life to a rich life.
To survive, and put food on the table, Metallicman often runs “projects”, works, and efforts that help himself and his family with the day to day needs of life. One of which is a small company that he owns that provides services.
It’s not big, or noteworthy other than to say that it provides a periodic income when needed. And, aside from income, it also provides purpose and meaning. All men, especially Metallicman, must have an occupation and a purpose that provides for their family and to their community.
So after losing a customer, Metallicman decides that he wants to obtain a new customer. But a substantial one. One that has a lot of money to work with, and who would provide a stable source of labor and income to his business.
So Metallicman adds this line to his “affirmation campaign”…
I am in charge of billions of dollars of worth/value.
Now, Metallicman did not say that he was a billionaire. He did not say that he wanted to be rich and wealthy. He added a line to a affirmation campaign that referred to his business. That his business would expand to a point where he would be in charge of billions of dollars of worth / value.
Safe, huh?
The affirmation campaign ends. The “pause” sequence begins. Then approximately three months after the completion of the last affirmation campaign, while in the midst of the “pause”, he is introduced to a new (potential) client.
The client’s story
Well, Metallicman is in China. Most of his clients are not Chinese though. They are mostly Europeans, with a smattering of Australians and Africans. But this new client is a Chinese American. He’s a Chinese man who emigrated to America and holds American citizenship.
His story…
Now, while he was in China, over the last twenty years, he would take the United States Dollars that Americans would use to set up companies, and convert them into RMB and give the RMB back to the new Americans starting their businesses within China. He would exchange, for a price, USD to RMB.
United States dollars were exchanged for Chinese RMB.
Then he would keep the United States dollars himself. For he did not trust the Chinese yuan. And in those days, having “green backs” could open up a lot of doors for you.
It kind of became an obsession with him, and he started collecting more and more United States currency. And using it to create even more United States currency.
He would have piles of currency in his home, and they would get larger and larger. Until he had to rent out a large building to store them in. It was a real-life scene from the movie “Blow”.
Scene from the movie “Blow” starring Johnny Depp.
Well, apparently, the care-taking of the money became too much for him. He ran out of space in his multiple holding locations, and went to a local bank.
He opened up an account, all completely legal, and deposited the money into the account. “Phew!” he thought. No longer did he have to worry about rats chewing up his money, or some punks breaking into the buildings and running off with the cash.
A year or two passed.
Then, as part of an anti-corruption campaign, the Chinese government made some laws designed to combat fraud and corruption. They established a new branch of the government called the “Corruption Police” and passed a slew of laws designed to tightly control money flow and reduce corruption.
Part of this was drastic measures in the use of non-Chinese money; the RMB.
The key was that you can only use Chinese money in China. Which is (pretty much) a “duh! moment”. But for the longest time, people were conducting all sorts of “back room” deals and activities hidden from public oversight.
Anyways, the law was that no one can move non-Chinese currency inside of outside China without oversight.
Max use limit is 50,000 USD/year per person. (In / out or transaction.)
All movement of money must have an approved reason, and documentation. Mostly paperwork, but used as part of your citizen profile.
You cannot use USD inside of China legally. You must use RMB.
So in effect, he has all this money, but he cannot use any of it (aside from a very small amount).
Metallicman opportunity
So this man comes up to Metallicman though his financial advisor and asks if Metallicman can help him convert this money into legal RMB currency.
Metallicman listens.
Metallicman thinks.
Metallicman asks “how much money is it”?
And Metallicman is shown some banking financial records that confirm that the money is real, and it is in legal storage with an authorized Chinese bank.
And…
… as far as how much money is involved, Metallicman is shown this statement…
A golden opportunity for Metallicman.
What this means.
People. This is a lot of money.
It’s floor to ceiling stacks of one hundred dollar bills. It’s not just a large number in a ledger or spreadsheet. It’s stacks and stacks of one hundred dollar bills piled on top of each other.
It’s an amazing amount of money.
Here is what one billion dollars looks like if you used $100 bills;
What one billion dollars looks like using $100 dollar bills.
Now, that is a lot of money.
But, you know, it’s not just one billion dollars. It’s many many times that amount.
The thing is that he has 23.6 billion dollars. That is twenty three times the amount shown in the picture. Or roughly 276 pallets full of $100 dollar bills.
(whistle!)
And, he was asking Metallicman to help him convert it to Chinese RMB.
A one-in-a-lifetime opportunity? Eh?
The Options
Essentially in situations such as this, you [1] come up with ways to solve the problem / situation, and [2] work out a system of payment for your time and efforts (and resources).
So that is exactly what Metallicman did.
The first option was really simple. You just find enough people, and each person individually converts 50,000 USD to an equivalent amount in Chinese RMB. The only problem with this is that you need a lot of people to do so. Like 472,000 people.
That’s really not a practicable solution.
Finding people that want to convert this money one-on-one for free is difficult. But to find more than a handful is really difficult, and well finding 472,000 people is down right impossible.
So the direct legal option is out.
But there are other options, as well.
You can use option two. Here, you can use the money on large scale buildings, or purchase property or large projects directly. The restrictions on this is that [1] you must first find someone wanting and willing to accept USD for property or objects, and secondly [2] it must be within the geographic legal boundaries of the local government. (In China, while Beijing makes the rules, everything is governed at the local level.)
Well, apparently he did just that. And already used up a bunch of the money in the process. So much, apparently, that the builders, and real-estate developers in his region are simply no longer willing to accept United States dollars for their projects. He saturated the market.
Option Three. There is an option that he can obtain Beijing approval to use the money outside of the local region for a specific project. This option allows him to conduct large-scale investments and building projects using USD as long as there is complete Beijing and corruption police monitoring.
He was not keen on this idea.
He did not say why, but I suspected that it might have to do with some “bad blood” in Beijing or perhaps some history regarding how he was able to come up with so much currency in the first place.
So that leaves…
Option Four. I came up with option four knowing my relationships with factories and other hard industry within China. I came up with a process that would use the money to produce ingots or other raw materials bought in USD, and then sell it to Chinese factories that would pay in RMB. It was simple. It was legal. It was useful.
The drawback was that there would be operation costs to run the operation, but that would be offset by the profits from the transactions. In my mind, this was the best option to disperse the money, follow Chinese law, and make a profit.
But the Billionaire had other ideas…
Well, Metallicman made the presentation with his aide over dinner with the financial advisor and her partner. After a round of talking and drinks it became obvious what the billionaire was looking for.
A direct conversion of USD to RMB. Cash to cash.
Large scale transactions with nothing smaller than increments of $10 million.
He would pay 1% transaction fee. (around $10,000 per 1 million dollars)
And, with a great deal of sadness and regret, I had to say “no”.
Why I turned it down…
There were many reasons, but let’s stick to the basics…
I do not know that many people who are desirous to convert their RMB to USD directly. The need is not there.
The number of people who do want to do so is very small. The desire to conduct “under the table” dealings in untraceable bills is even smaller. In China, with all the electronic “checks and balances” it is a very risky operation. To do so needs a strong and compelling reason.
Thus…
While not directly illegal, it skirts the law in legality. It’s risky.
To find these people, locate them, meet them, have dinner with them, and convince them to trust you… takes time, money and a substantial amount of “wining and dining”.
A mere $10,000 dollar per one million dollars will not be sufficient. There would need to be some type of expense account, and it would exceed the payment terms by a factor of five or ten.
So what does this mean?
A false positive.
A "False Positive";
A test result which incorrectly indicates that a particular condition or attribute is present.
This 23.6 billion dollar opportunity was unobtainable to me. While it did meet my verbal affirmation prayer campaign literally, it did not meet its’ intent. I was unable to use the money in any way to provide a stable source of income to me and my family.
If you recall, my affirmation stated…
I am in charge of billions of dollars of worth/value.
Indeed, for a very brief period of time, I was actually “in charge of billions of dollars of worth and value“. But it was not sustainable. I could not profit from it because the limitations placed upon it by the owner were not appropiate for my management.
Yet, even as I was unable to [1] find people that were [2] willing to convert the transaction, my prayer affirmations were still valid and did actually materialize…
But it was not what I wanted.
Why?
I was willing to work for a payment scheme, but the scheme suggested by the client was not realistic for the task / opportunity.
What the client wanted was outside my skill base, my knowledge level, and my network of contacts.
(In regards to my affirmation campaign), I did not specify exactly how I would profit from this relationship, just that I would be “in charge”.
This is a pretty dangerous condition to place within your affirmation campaign.
Open ended.
Not specifying how you would benefit from it.
For instance, if you state something along the lines of “I work in a big company”, you could very well end up…
…in a situation that you might not like…
…like, perhaps, being the janitor (figuratively) “handcuffed” to a job you might not want or like.
You do not want that.
In this universe you need to work from the world-line that you are inhabiting, and then adjust your thoughts accordingly so as to best fit your desires.
Let me explain…
You are always “half way” there…
While the objective of managing a multi-billion dollar account is still in place, it is not exactly what I desire. As it stands. But…
But…
… do not give up. The game is not yet over.
Get a grip! The game is not yet over. You need to calm down, and come up with a plan. You now know more than what you did before. You know what options you have and are far closer to realizing your objectives than before.
You are still in play. The thoughts are still working for you and they are still manifesting the reality that you desire.
You just need to adjust them.
You need to perform a “course correction”.
What is a course correction?
When a spacecraft gets off of its trajectory, or path through space, it must be put back on the right path. The location of the spacecraft is determined and its course vector (the speed and direction of its flight) is calculated.
-What is a course correction?
Of all the millions of world-lines that I traversed in the MWI, I did manage to reach a cluster that contained “billions of dollars in resources” that I can exploit.
Just because that particular opportunity is not my ideal condition, it does not mean that the opportunity is gone. It’s not. Rather you are actually looking at the outside of a very enormous iceberg, and you need to conduct a course correction to exploit it to your advantage.
Here's a mind exercise.
Imagine that you want to become a figurative painter in Paris, France.
To this end, you conduct a prayer affirmation campaign.
And after a few years you suddenly find yourself in Belgium. It is not France, but it is close.
You are not painting figures, but you are dating a woman with a large dancing studio with enough room for you to "dabble in your hobby". You occupation in Belgium permits you to have plenty of time to drink wine, paint (a factory that makes oils for painting is down the street - offering discount prices), and continue your painting dream.
It's not exactly what you want, but it is getting closer and closer to your goal.
In this situation…
Well in this situation, what options do I have?
There are numerous options, let’s review them.
Accept the terms of the Billionaire. Try to find clients and convert USD to RMB and accept his payment terms.
Renegotiate with the Billionaire. Try to find clients to convert USD to RMB but with payment terms to my own satisfaction plus all expenses paid for.
Renegotiate with the Billionaire, have him accept my proposal to perform factory to factory commodity trading to convert the money.
Drop the entire opportunity completely.
In any event, regardless as to how the physical matter is dealt with, there does need to be a readjustment and course correction to the verbal affirmations used within the prayer / affirmation campaign.
It should have elements that maintain…
Sustainability and duration. Or how long will this goal last for.
This reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode. Where she granted a man his wish to be able to fly.
So he jumps of the 50 story building window, and indeed he could fly. He laughed and flew. He felt the wind on his face and on his arms.
The only thing was that the contract did not specify the duration of his ability. And so after 30 seconds he fell to his death.
Funny thing about this contract, it did not specify the duration of how long you could fly for…
Do not assume anything in regards to your affirmations. If you want to have a nice, long duration customer, that will use your services, and from which you can profit from; then SPECIFY IT.
I am in charge of this money for many years.
And secondly, you need to specify how this relationship will benefit you personally…
I make a very nice salary, profits, interest, and margin in transactions regarding this money.
I am able to use the money to provide a stable source of income to me and my family.
I attend KTVs, eat fine food, meet interesting and sexy girls as part of dealing with this money.
A false positive
False positives often occur within affirmation / prayer campaigns.
Our natural reaction when a false positive occurs is to assume that exactly what we have specified within our prayer campaign has actually manifested. But this is an illusion. We need to study what has manifested, and then adust our affirmations accordingly. Remember, just because it looks like what you asked for, might not be what you actually want.
…
This might be such things as “the man of your dreams”, or “the house of your dreams”. You take what is presented to you, and then you make course corrections.
Your prayer affirmation campaigns never end. They only adjust and reorient to new information, and you should be constantly and constantly refining and redefining them.
May your deepest dreams come true.
May your deepest desires come true.
Do you want more?
I have more posts on this subject in my Intention Index here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
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.
Let’s discuss others that have tried to make a buck off of the UFO, or Extraterrestrial issue. Let’s look at their motivations behind the creation of enormous amounts of disinformation that is nothing short of a fire-hose spewing out the most confusing and perplexing nonsense regarding our extraterrestrial benefactors. Here, we talk about some such person. We talk about “Commander X”.
We all have opinions of others. In fact, I have included memes regarding this characteristic of humans within this Metallicman blog.
The truth is that we shouldn’t judge others. We really shouldn’t, and that includes me. Yup, yours truly should NOT judge others. Those whom live in glass houses should not advocate throwing rocks.
There are those whom tread upon my “turf” and, naturally, I end up having opinions regarding them and the statements that they make. With this in mind, I wish to devote an entire post to an individual known as “Commander X”.
A person known as “Commander X” who claims to be an “insider” in such matters is a perfect example of how people can believe the simple narrative.
"Commander X is alleged to be a retired Military Intelligence Official turned author who writes about controversial subjects related to secret United States government programs. Commander X also released an DVD which is compiled of a person with a blacked out face giving lectures. Critics say the sound effects made by the audience ( coughing and clapping ) are made artificial. Rumors are that Commander X is the same person as Timothy Beckley Green.
I neither support nor disparage the statements made by this individual. I am only commenting on them.
He just does not understand that the world is large and complex and that the relationships between people are governed by sentience. This person is an example of how a person can pick a political target and use it as their dartboard for blame. It is a very good example of how a non-insider can exploit the apparent reality and try to profit from it.
In truth, this clown knows “jack shit” (nothing) about MAJestic.
I use him as an example. He is a great example. I don’t know for positive what his association is. I do not know if he is [1] legitimate (highly unlikely), or a [2] hoaxer, [3] disinformation expert, or [4] profiteer (probable).
I just do not know.
My experiences were of a very limited scope, and were not anyway as inclusive as the experiences that he claims to have been privy to. In any event, he has very strong opinions related to the Republican political party (RNC) and their relationship with the New World Order (NWO) and extraterrestrial treaties.
I strongly disagree with him.
The extraterrestrials that I have had contact with do not care one way or the other about American centric politics. They do not care if the person is a Democrat, a Republican, a Libertarian, or a Communist. They simply do not care.
(Can I make this any clearer?)
The extraterrestrial species that I had close, face to face, and physical contact with had absolutely zero interest in what I thought, felt, desire, cared about, or yearned for They did not care about politics or the group behaviors of large masses of humans.
They did not care about it.
There is no massive secret and hidden agenda that some people allude to. Instead there are multiple agendas and objectives that various clandestine human groups work toward. The human race does not need to know about the individual efforts, nor the participatory members.
All that one needs to know and understand is that their own personal thoughts and their own personal actions define their existence. It defines their sentience, and sentience will determine their own personal evolutionary future.
His Books
If the reader wishes to investigate the simple narrative, then they should read the large volume of books written by this person. He has made quite the small “cottage industry” writing and producing such blather;
Underground Alien Bases: Flying Saucers Come from Inside the Earth!
The Philadelphia Experiment Chronicles: Exploring the Strange Case of Alfred Bielek and Dr. M.K. Jessup
Time Travel – Fact Not Fiction: Time Slips, Real Time Machines, And How-To Experiments To Go Forwards Or Backwards Through Time
Invisibility and Levitation: How-To Keys to Personal Performance
Reality of the Serpent Race and the Subterranean Origin of UFOs
The Philadelphia Experiment Revelations!: An Update on The Philadelphia Experiment Chronicles – Exploring The Strange Case of Alfred Bielek & Dr. M.K. Jessup
Nikola Tesla: Free Energy and the White Dove
Commander X’s Guide to Incredible Conspiracies
Mind Stalkers: UFO’s, Implants & the Psychotronic Agenda of the New World Order
William Cooper: Death of a Conspiracy Salesman
The Controllers: The Rulers of Earth Identified
Teleportation: From Star Trek to Tesla
Incredible Technologies of the New World Order: UFOs – Tesla – Area 51
The Ultimate Deception
The Smoky God and Other Inner Earth Mysteries: Updated/Expanded Edition
Strange and Unexplainable Deaths at the Hands of the Secret Government
Planet X: The Coming of the Guardians
Behind the Mask: An Inside Look at Anonymous
Time Travel: A How-To Insiders Guide
Morgellons: Level 5 Plague of the New World Order
The Commander X Files
Supressed Intelligence Reports: News They Dare Not Print!
Underground Alien Bases
America’s Top Secret Treaty With Alien Life Forms: Plus The Hidden History Of Our Time
The Final Nail in Your Coffin! – A Pox to All of Mankind: Morgellons and Red Mercury Plagues Created in NWO Labs of Mad Scientists
Behind The Mask: An Inside Look At Anonymous
America’s Top Secret Treaty with Alien Life Forms: Plus the Hidden History of Our Time
Mind Stalkers
Commander X Teleportation Update (Book & Cd)
The Philadelphia Experiment Chronicles – REVISED EDITION: Exploring the Strange Case of Alfred Bielek and Dr. M.K. Jessup
Mind Controlled Sex Slaves And The CIA
Magick And Mysteries Of Mexico: Arcane Secrets and Occult Lore of the Ancient Mexicans and Maya
Plans For Time Travel Machines That Really Work – Revised And Updated Edition: How To Move Through Time And Space
The Dulce Wars: Underground Alien Bases and the Battle for Planet Earth
Nikola Tesla’s Death Ray and the Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster
2012 and the Arrival of Planet X
Dead Men Talking; Exposing The New World Order Conspiracy And The Evil Agenda Of The Brotherhood Of Illuminati (Book And Dvd Set)
Teleportation: A How to Guide: From Star Trek to Tesla
Out of the Darkness: UFO Revelations and the Arrival of the Mysterious Planet X
The Final Nail In Your Coffin! – A Pox To All Of Mankind
Coming of the Space Guardians – UFO Rescue Squad, Millions to Be Saved
Out Of The Darkness
Mind Matrix: Covert Electronic Harassment Mind Control Program
Matrix of the Mind: UFO Abductions – Mk Ultra – And Electronic Harassment Technology Designed to Warp Your Brain
Mind Stalkers: Mind Control of the Masses
Levitation and Invisibility: — Learn to Use the Incredible Super Powers Within You!
The Conspiracy Summit Dossier: Whistle Blower’s Guide To The Strangest And Most Bizarre Cosmic And Global Conspiracies!
Fighting the Federal Reserve — The Controversial Life and Works of Congressman
Mind Machines: How to Understand Them- How to Build Them – Applying Their Basic Technology
Mysterious Disappearances: They Never Came Back
UFO’s Nazi Secret Weapons?
The Secret Lost Diary of Admiral Richard E. Byrd and The Phantom of the Poles
My thoughts on this matter.
Just a mere glance at the prodigious quantity of books authored by this individual speaks volumes about who this individual is, their actual knowledge, true MAJestic association and their purposes. May I indulge the reader;
MAJestic is compartmentalized. No one person knows the full details of many of the sub-projects and sub-programs. The prodigious volume of works for this author betrays the fact that he is neither from the top of the MAJestic organization, nor a working-level person.
Those at the top of the management structure only know executive summaries without extensive details.
Those in the middle echelon know substantial details of a very VERY limited range of subjects.
Those at the lowest levels know nothing except to perform their own unique and specialized task.
MAJestic is secret. You have hardwired probes in your skull that prohibits memory recall. To have the abundance of memories that this individual claims would require the same kind of botched retirement sequence that I went through.
MAJestic operates from a HQ located in another reality. This reality occurs on a different planet, at a different time, and in a different world-line. To access any of the information that has been so prodigiously published would mandate travel to the centers of control. This means portal access.
The moment the first book was released, the person would have been tracked down and killed. There would not have been a second book, or any of the many many other books.
Finally, any and all disclosures are at the behest of our benefactors and our “up-line” within our individual cell. The only way we can disclose anything is with their approvals.
Therefore, everything written by this author is to be considered suspect.
A criticism of this opinion.
Let it be well understood that “Commander X” has a following of believers. And they do not agree with my contentions.
“This is rich. It really is.
There is absolutely nothing that is different between this Commander X person and yourself. The only real difference is that he has a far better business model than you do. He is making money in his books, while you are just squandering away your nonsense for free (or at cost).
Your objections to this person only come from your failed profit model. Your writings about him is nothing more than a school-yard bullying. Face it, you and he are both the same.”
The mechanism.
The mechanism behind how a person can create a profit model through writing a large number of books is to tell people what they want to believe. No one wants to read that they are overweight and fat. Instead, they want to believe that a “miracle pill” will make you thin, young and youthful. No one wants to believe that America is falling apart and it’s government is terribly corrupt. They want to read about American “exceptionalism” and the wonderful “freedom” and “democracy” that they possess.
He capitalizes on this.
His subject matter is certainly interesting. He has made a science of vacuuming up the most popular of the “fringe” and “alternative” memes and subjects, added his own opinions, and fantasies and mixed it all up with some researched facts here and there to flush-out the body of his books.
He likes to rage on about the Powers That Be (PTB), the New World Order (NWO), and the “Secret” or “Hidden Agenda”.
Now, they do exist, but you all must know that there is no secret handshake, annual planning sessions, and ceremonial attire that they wear and engage in. They are in all actuality a loose collection of very powerful interests that are collaborative in nature with shared objectives.
But you all know this. Right?
And there are “overlapping” organizations that dance in and out of the PTB (or the ) NWO such as MAJestic.
What he does is take these “known and well understood” realities and creates a fiction around them. It makes for great reading, and maybe some of what he writes is actually true. Some of it is certainly plausible.
One of his key “writing points” is the New World Order (NWO). It’s a globalist objective that has a modern progressive view of nations where there are no borders, but a sole centralized government.
There are other definitions, don't you know, but this is mine.
New World Order (NWO)
In a keynote luncheon at RIMS 2010, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, best-selling author of The Black Swan, told the story of a turkey who is fed by the farmer every morning for 1,000 days.
Eventually the turkey comes to expect that every visit from the farmer means more good food. After all, that’s all that has ever happened so the turkey figures that’s all that can and will ever happen.
But then Day 1,001 arrives. It’s two days before Thanksgiving and when the farmer shows up, he is not bearing food, but an ax. The turkey learns very quickly that its expectations were catastrophically off the mark.
And now Mr. Turkey is dinner.
My experiences with extraterrestrials were entirely positive. There were no political motivations or influences that I was aware of.
All those who worked on the projects were loyal Americans with a moderate degree of patriotism and had no inclinations toward a New World Order or anything like that at all.
Even though we sometimes referred to the triangular symbology when contacting each other, the association with the New World Order is most likely coincidental.
Some of the people I worked with were very liberal in their political beliefs, while others were much more conservative in their leanings. (It was always a personal belief forged by one’s own experiences.)
If anything, and this is speculation on my part; the NWO is a desirable end-achievable towards meeting the requirements as set forth by treaty by the Type-I greys.
Implementation will be problematic, and probably will not happen in my lifetime (I hope. I am not a big fan of it.).
I believe that as such, MAJestic has a vested goal in achieving this kind of one-world government to meet their treaty obligations with the Type-I greys.
Indeed, it is very important that for the human race to advance, in alignment with the goals set forth by the Mantid species, that we [1] incorporate a global wide governmental body with [2] a strong degree of control over the earth’s population, [3] decrease the enormous pollution “foot print” currently accelerating globally and [4] stabilize our conflict resolution. The United Nations, as it stands today, is not sufficiently strong enough to meet the guidelines as established by the Mantids.
It just simply does not meet their requirements.
+ + +
The environment and world view by those truly involved in the MAJestic Umbrella is very, very far removed from the nuances and limited world view of a political machine that is earth-centric.
While many might have their own private thoughts, they tended to keep them to their selves. All extraterrestrial-related black projects are politically sterile. Don’t get caught up in the narrow focus of those in power in America.
Apparent power. They are all “puppets” of the Banking (or powerful) global elite. Who are thus “puppets” of the more powerful extraterrestrial policing species such as the Type-I greys.
They are, generally, not involved in the MAJestic operation.
Ronald Reagan and George Bush aside, most presidents, elected officials (Senators and Representatives), appointed political appointees, celebrities, and popular stars are not involved in the MAJestic organization. They are but “window dressing” for the masses of human population to ease control over.
Truthfully, humans are a prized commodity; and must be treated properly and carefully. Selection of those whom interface and work with the extraterrestrial leadership is carefully done and strictly maintained.
Popular clowns; most presidents, television personalities, and pop stars are just entertainment. They have absolutely no bearing on the reality of the human condition, in a multi-dimensional quantum reality that is nurtured by Mantid extraterrestrials.
Conclusion
There are those that have created a for-profit mechanism from which to obtain wealth via capitalization on the distrust of Americans for their government. This includes everything related to UFO’s, Extraterrestrials, wealthy elite, secret societies and such things as the PTB and NWO.
The person known as “Commander X” is one such person.
In itself, he and his writings are pretty harmless. Rather he creates interesting fiction to supply those looking for answers, and makes a few dollars in the process. He utilizes known situations (UFO’s, PTB, NWO, and the Greys) and generates disinformation for personal profit.
The reader should beware of anyone who is trying to profit from the “extraterrestrial issue”.
Why?
That is because, to have that desire to make money off of others (on this issue) is to be a ‘Service to self” sentience. And MAJestic membership is limited to “Service to others” only. You can only be a Rufus if you are involved in MAJestic and extraterrestrial interaction.
Do you want more?
I have other posts along this line, if you are interested, please check out my MAJestic index here…
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The United States was set up as a Republic way back in 1776, and over the years “improved” into other things. First it was a “democracy”, then into an “oligarchy”, followed by “empire” in the 1960’s and now exists as a military Empire controlled via oligarchy. It’s a real mess. It’s ungainly, corrupt and dysfunctional.
And, it is handling this COVID-19 emergency outrageously bad.
In fact, the handling of it is so incompetent, and unfathomably bizarre, that it would probably be best not to have a government at all. Just let the sheeple graze on the “fruited plains” freely without any “assistance” from Big Brother Government.
Seriously, it’s time to demolish the old, and look towards new horizons.
Is It Time for a New Direction?
This article was written by Jacob G. Hornberger on April 10, 2020. Edited to fit this venue and all credit to the author.
If Americans are not doing some serious soul-searching in the midst of this crisis, they need to start. Where America goes from here is not some sort of esoteric debate. What we do at this point has life or death consequences. Get it wrong, and suffer more death, suffering, and impoverishment. Get it right, and America moves toward life, health, liberty, peace, prosperity, and harmony.
What everyone needs to recognize is that they are facing a choice of systems, not a choice of people. Either stick with the same systems or switch over to new systems. That’s the choice now facing the American people.
Let’s examine four systems under which we currently live and have lived for decades.
America’s economic system
This is a centrally planned and centrally managed system run by the federal government. Its central aim is to “wage war on poverty” by forcibly taking money from everyone and redistributing it to people in need, such as the elderly and the poor. It is based on massive confiscation of income and wealth by the Internal Revenue Service, in the form of income taxes and payroll taxes.
America’s healthcare system
This too is a centrally planned and centrally managed system run by the federal government. It is based on big, powerful central planning agencies like as the Centers for Disease Control and the FDA, as well as massive socialist programs like Medicare and Medicaid, both of which are responsible for foisting a never-ending healthcare crisis onto the American people consisting of ever-increasing healthcare costs that have bankrupted people or sent them into deep debt.
America’s monetary system
This too is a centrally planned and centrally managed system run by the federal government, specifically the Federal Reserve. From its beginning in 1913, its job has been to print up ever-increasing quantities of paper money to enable the federal government to fund the ever-increasing expenditures of the welfare-warfare state way of life.
America’s system of empire and foreign intervention
This too is a centrally planned and centrally managed system by the national-security branch of the federal government. Its job is to wreak death and destruction among foreigners and, in the process, bring ever-increasing amounts of taxpayer-funded largess to its army of well-heeled “defense” contractors, which are composed of former members of the national-security establishment.
Consequences of central planning
How are all these systems working out? Most, if not all, people would agree that they are not working out well at all. Together, they have either bankrupted people through taxes or debts or left millions of people without even enough savings to get them through a couple of months of unemployment.
And guess who is now paying the biggest price for the coronavirus crisis — seniors and the poor. That’s because the FDA, in all its central planning wisdom, prohibited the private sector from producing test kits that would have, without any doubt, significantly reduced the coronavirus infection rate.
How can they lower the infection rate if they don’t know who has the virus, especially since people who have the virus are infecting people for about a week before they show any symptoms? A massive number of cheap testing kits would have enabled people to ferret out quickly and early who was infected, enabling everyone else to continue working.
Given that their dysfunctional healthcare system has totally failed to stem the crisis, they have resorted to tyranny and oppression through a mandatory shutdown of the economy, sending millions of people into unemployment and even bankruptcy.
To relieve the financial distress from their destruction of people’s livelihoods, they are resorting to their dysfunctional monetary system. The Federal Reserve is now printing money like it was going out of style. Does anyone really believe that printing trillions of dollars is a way to relieve economic distress? It’s just another form of taxation, one that plunders and loots people, specially the elderly and the poor, through the massive devaluation of their money.
Meanwhile, their fourth dysfunctional system is ensuring that the national-security establishment will suffer no budget cuts whatsoever in order to enable to maintain its oversees machinery of empire and intervention.
Isn’t that ironic? Their four systems of central planning and management are responsible for massive death, suffering, and impoverishment not only here at home but also abroad.
A different direction
If you like how all these dysfunctional systems have worked out, are working out, and will continue to work out into the future, just continue supporting their existence.
But make no mistake: There is a choice to be made here because there are four systems that are opposite to the four systems under which we are are suffering. These four systems are as follows:
A free-market economic system
Under this system, everyone keeps everything he earns — 100 percent, which enables everyone to save lots of money. No income taxation and no IRS. It’s a system based on 100 percent voluntary charity. This was America’s founding economic system for more than 100 years. It produced the wealthiest and most charitable society in history.
A free-market healthcare system
Under this system, the private sector and the free market are entirely responsive for healthcare. No more having to get permission from federal bureaucrats to produce test kits or anything else because the federal government will play no role whatsoever in healthcare. A total separation of healthcare and the state, just as our ancestors had the wisdom to separate church and state. This was America’s founding healthcare system and last for more than 100 years. It produced the finest healthcare system in history, one in which healthcare costs were cheap and affordable and in which doctors and hospitals treated the poor for free on a purely voluntary basis.
A free-market monetary system
Under this system, the free market determines the currency that is going to be used. No more Federal Reserve and no more legal-tender laws. For more than 100 years, America had the finest monetary system in history, one based on gold coins and silver coins. A free-market monetary system would improve upon that concept.
A limited-government republic with a small, basic military force.
No more national-security state and no more foreign military bases and foreign interventionism. No more sanctions, embargoes, invasions, occupations, wars of aggression, torture, state-sponsored assassinations, secret mass surveillance, and other destruction of civil liberties. America was founded as a limited-government republic, which lasted for more than 100 years.
The same old direction versus a new direction
So there you have it: Four completely different systems from which to choose. Americans should choose wisely. Your lives, health, and financial well-being and those of your loved ones, friends, and neighbors depend on it.
Do you want to see similar posts?
I hope that you found this post curious. Please take care. You can view other similar posts in my SHTF Index, here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
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.
Right now, in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, many people are frustrated, afraid and sit by watching their life seemingly crumble around them. Maybe they lost their jobs, or are watching their investments fall, or perhaps something else is going wrong. Maybe they have the illness, or some other calamity. I have written that no matter how bad things are, there is always an “out”, a “hope” a chance to get it back. Here is one such story…
From Millionaire to Car Detailer.
The global financial crisis destroyed me in 2008. The years
immediately after were some of the worst years of my life. I lost
everything; or at least I thought I did.
As it turns out, I didn’t lose much at all (assuming you don’t count
approximately $3 million in real estate equity and a couple of hundred
thousand dollars in cash, as “much”).
I was in Vegas when Lehman Brothers folded… It was my birthday … and
it was the first time I’d ever lost big there. I should have known
something wicked was coming, but I didn’t. So when my consulting
contract didn’t get renewed, I didn’t panic. I kept doing business as
usual. When my tenants defaulted on rent, I kept paying mortgages. A
year later, I still had $50,000 plus in the bank … enough of a cushion.
I suppose at this time I should make you aware that I was not exactly
a low-profile person. I was (and am) in luxury goods and hospitality,
and I consulted with companies catering to high-net worth individuals. I
helped them design sales and business strategies to keep their clients
happy in the short and long term. Needless to say, the luxury sector was
massacred, and is still clawing its way out of the muck and mire, at
least in the United States.
So, with enough money to float for six to ten months, I kept looking for work in my field.
And looking, and looking … nothing.
Any kind of business consulting … nothing. (Six more months go by).
Any kind of sales … nothing. (Six more months … This was where it got scary).
Bear in mind that up until this point, I had never even gone a month without a job since I was 12 years old.
My confidence was shot – I mean decimated. I was a shell of the man I had been only two years previously.
I had the stink of failure all over me.
A friend of mine owned a couple of car-washes. He offered me a job.
It was outside work, taking orders when people drove in to the wash.
“Would you like the undercarriage done?”
It was winter in Colorado.
I declined.
I was sharing a huge house at the time with my best buddy and his new
girlfriend, who became his fiancé, and we were ALL broke. It was
brutal. I don’t think I would have made it without them. I was depressed
and miserable. I’m lucky they didn’t bury me in a snow bank and leave
me there. I’m sure there were times they wanted to.
“Cocky” doesn’t do failure well.
My buddy with the car-wash called again a few weeks later. I said no
again. Not just because of the embarrassment. Not just because of the
cold weather and the elements, or standing on my feet for 10 hours a day
on concrete without Wi-Fi.
It was because of my father.
Almost every good father has a catch phrase that he uses to motivate
his sons to do better than he did. Typically, it’s the threat of being
stuck doing any minimum-wage job that no teenager from the Gekko era
would ever aspire to. For some reason, the example that my father chose
was “car wash”. We’d go through Towne Auto Wash after Little League and
he’d always point to that guy who asks, “Do you want a regular wash, or
deluxe?” and then hands you that little piece of paper.
“Mickey” He’d say. “You have to save some money/get better
grades/quit chasing girls/do your homework. You don’t want to end up
like that guy, working in a car-wash, do you?” The last time I heard the
speech was around 1996. The words, however, hung in the air for years
to come.
So, you can see my quandary. To me, working in a car-wash was the
ultimate admission of failure. Not losing all my assets. Not selling my
watches and cars. Not letting go of a few rugs and some art.
I was living with friends, driving a 17-year-old car, had less than
$200 in the bank with no idea where the next $200 was coming from, and I
was worried about being seen as a failure.
A little deluded?
Perhaps, but reality kicked in when I didn’t have money for a niece’s birthday present.
So I called my friend back and asked if I could still have the job at
the car-wash. My utter failure as a human being was complete, my
humiliation final -or so I thought.
On my third day of dragging myself in to work, the raven-haired
stunner that I’d hired as my assistant five years previous pulled in –
driving a brand new Lexus.
NOW my humiliation was complete.
There was nowhere to run, no place to hide.
And yet … just as I was about to die from shame, something happened
that literally changed my life. She smiled, jumped out of her car,
pointed her Louboutins right at me, ran over and gave me a hug. We
chatted for about 10 minutes while her car was getting done. She said
she was happy to see me, that I’d been a great boss, and that she was
glad I was working. “Sooooo many” of her friends(able-bodied
twenty-somethings) were unemployed, and at least I wasn’t trapped behind
a desk.
I realized that I’d been beating myself up needlessly, and saw how lucky I truly was.
In that instant, I decided that instead of just showing up until I
could find something better, I would use all my skills to increase my
friend’s business, and I did. Over the next few months, something
amazing happened to me. Something I never saw coming, and something that
impacted my life and made me a better man.
I saw hundreds of people every day and none of them thought I was a
failure, and it energized me. I smiled. They smiled back. I was happy
and engaging, and I sold about a gazillion deluxe washes. But also, my
worst fear morphed into something I started to look forward to. I got my
confidence back, and it was obvious. I saw DOZENS of people I knew –
clients, old customers, friends I’d lost touch with, and every single
one of them said something positive.
They respected me.
They held me in higher esteem for seeing me in the cold, wearing a
red nylon jacket with a car wash logo on it. Nobody made fun of me or
called me names. Nobody laughed.
There was even an article in a local lifestyle magazine about me.
They respected me for doing what had to be done (I’m sure a few were
secretly happy that I’d been taken down a few pegs … but hey, we’re all
human, right?)
The truth of my situation was laid bare for the world to see …
there’s no way to spin a story when you are asking people if they want
the basic or deluxe wash. There’s no amount of charm of polish or
bullshit that can hide the truth.
I was working in a car wash – and nobody thought I was a failure. Not even my father.
Then, about 6 months later, one of my old clients called. He needed
some help setting up a new luxury club. We put a deal together and when I
resigned from the car-wash, my friend was genuinely sad, saying I was
the best employee he’d ever had.
I approached that new consulting contract with a vigor and zest for
life I hadn’t felt for years! A few months after that, another contract
took me to Asia, and I’ve been consulting over here ever since.
So, my worst fear turned out to be my salvation.
It gave me confidence, paid my bills for a while and put me in a
position to move my company to Asia and have access to an abundance of
new cultures and growing markets.
Sure, I’m not quite back to where I was that day 9 years ago in
Vegas, but I have a red nylon jacket with a car wash logo on it that
reminds me that for my version of success, I don’t have to be.”
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
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I read that Donald Trump wants the COVID-19 vaccine that is being developed in Germany. He wants it to be patented as an American product and limit it’s utilization to Americans only.
Meanwhile, China is sending supplies and resources to any nation that needs it. Planes, boats and transports have been dispatched and are busy trying to help other nations during time of need.
America - Selfish, self-serving, and demanding.
China - Helpful, compassionate, offering help.
Perhaps it’s time to step back and look at the bigger picture.
It’s a picture of what lies outside the shores of the United States. It’s a picture that does not resemble anything that any American media reports. This is true whether it is the Alt-Left, the Mainstream Media or the Alt-Right neocon publications.
Instead, take a look at what’s really going on, in the bigger picture…
The following is a reprint of an article found on the Global Research website. All credit to the authors.
Washington elites can’t recognize that a multi-polar world is already here. Worse, the Trump administration keeps constantly stumbling in foreign policy, thus showing the entire world that the USA may not be the almighty superpower.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that the US is turning into Rodney Dangerfield of geopolitics.
Here are some recent examples of embarrassing US foreign policy:
EU & Russia
USA openly tries to block Nord Stream, the gas pipeline that links Russia to Europe. And the US-led propaganda campaign was non-stop & intense.
In the end, Germany & others went ahead with the Russian pipeline anyways.
Nord Stream
What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?
India and Turkey
India and Turkey ignore America’s public bullying and buy Russian missile defense systems (S-400).
Then the US threatens to retaliate by blocking the sale of F-35 to Turkey.
What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?
India
India — America’s strategic partner to “contain” China — buys oil from Iran & Venezuela, ignoring US sanctions.
India and Iran have made many trade agreements.
What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?
Venezuela
Having failed in Syria & Iran, the bloodthirsty Neocons wanted at least one damn regime change. So they targeted Venezuela and used all the standard strategies — choosing a puppet leader (Guaido), trying to bribe/blackmail military leaders, obvious sabotage of electricity across the whole nation etc.
John Bolton, Marco Rubio and Mike Pompeo spend enormous time tweeting sensational propaganda.
Yet, Maduro has survived.
Now, to rub it in, Putin is flying Russian military and aid to Venezuela; and China has sent medical supplies. The Monroe Doctrine is openly challenged for the first time since the Cuban Crisis.
Maduro and Xi Peng.
What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?
Huawei
US bans Huawei & dictates all its allies into doing the same!
Panama ignores US threats, welcomes Xi Jinping, joins Belt and Road, and signs 40 bilateral agreements with China.
Xi Peng in Panama.
What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?
Italy
Similarly, the US government publicly threatened Italy about joining the BRI…
How idiotic!
The rest of the world does not subscribe to American Alt-Right neocon publications. This type of rhetoric is fine within the American echo chamber, but looks absolutely ridiculous to the rest of the world.
Maybe Washington doesn’t know that many EU countries are already formal members of BRI — Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Malta, Poland, Portugal etc.
Well, Xi Jinping visited Italy in March, got a royal welcome and signed huge deals.
Italy ignored the US and signed on to Belt and Road. Plus, Italian PM Conte visited China in April for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Summit (where representatives from 150 countries, including 37 Prime Ministers and Presidents, attended).
As Italian leaders put it, “BRI creates a circle of virtuous growth” and “BRI is a train that Italy cannot afford to miss.”
Also please note, that during the COVID-19 crisis, the United States refused to help Italy in any way.
Yet China not only sent supplies, but sent doctors and medical staff to assist the already stressed Italian medical staff.
What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?
France
Then Xi Jinping went to France, got a red carpet welcome again
(including at Arc de Triomphe in Paris) and signed a massive deal to buy
300 French Airbus planes!
Not the American planes that they had discussed with Obama.
Xi Jinping went to France, got a red carpet welcome again (including at Arc de Triomphe in Paris) and signed a massive deal to buy 300 French Airbus planes!
Two days earlier, Macron had warned that Europe shouldn’t be naive about China’s influence.
But now he claims “China is EU’s strategic partner!!!”
China is EU’s strategic partner!
What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?
Germany
Even Germany’s Merkel endorsed the Belt and Road Initiative by saying…
“It’s an important project and Europeans want to participate in it.”
Germany has become strategic partners with China.
Everyone around the world realizes the power of China’s economy. And they ignore America’s hysterical reaction.
The entire saga is like that “Distracted Boyfriend” meme.
“Distracted Boyfriend” meme.
America needs a proactive, constructive, positive foreign policy in this multi-polar world. And the US should stop being so insecure, paranoid and negative.
Trump should join the Belt and Road Initiative and work with 126 other member countries to build infrastructure, increase connectivity and boost trade. Also, stop demonizing Russia & picking fights with Venezuela, Iran, Syria etc.
We need to get out of the zero-sum attitude & focus on a win-win strategy.
Conclusion
It doesn’t take a “Rocket Scientist” to figure out where the world is moving towards.
America possesses 10% of the world’s factories. China possesses nearly 70% of the factories. China hasn’t fought a war since 1977, and they offer grants and loans with “no strings attached”. They seek harmony and a “win – win” arrangement. They view global relationships as “give and take” in a way that both parties benefit.
They keep their “noses out of” other nations internal affairs.
Hard manufacturing industry as part of a nation’s GDP world-wide. America is on par with Burma. Even tiny Sri Lanka, and Paraguay have better ratios.
Meanwhile the United States, like a big lumbering aged dinosaur is trying to clutch and claw itself back into global significance. It has to. For if it doesn’t, that enormous mountain of debt, based on the inflated petrol-dollars, will totally devastate what remains of America.
The only options left for America are to [1] get with “the program” and work together with the rest of the world, or [2] engage China (and by extension, Russia) in World War III.
No other options are “on the table”.
Let’s see what happens. Pay strict attention to the American mainstream and Alt-Right media. The nature of the articles will inform you as to which path America has embarked upon.
If the anti-China rhetoric keeps on increasing in intensity, a move to Iceland might be prudent.
I hope that you enjoyed this post. I have many others in my Trump Trade Wars Index, here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
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.
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More stories of personal heroism in China. This is part four.
Here are some more fine videos of personal heroism. These videos all take place in China, and show examples of how average, normal, everyday people (or dogs and cats) can make a difference. When the calling strikes and an emergency occurs, will you be the one who turns their back, or will you run and offer help? Will you be the one who stays playing on the cell-phone, or will you lend a helping hand? Will you be the person who will make a difference in the lives of those around you, or are you just going to fade into the background.
Make a difference. Be like Rufus!
Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.
These are all micro-videos of very short duration. From ten seconds
to three minutes. I would suggest that you, the reader, allow them to
load to get the full experience.
Video 1 – Child collapses on the train.
What would you do if your child isn’t feeling well. He has a fever, and suddenly he collapses, on the train. He has zero life signs and it looks like he is dying right before your eyes. What would you do?
What would a father do?
Be the Rufus. You run over and you save the baby!
Video 2 – Child falls between the tracks.
Children can get into all kinds of trouble, and often we might not even notice what is going on until it is too late. We need to act quickly and offer and lend our support. We need to do this. Lives are at stake!
Be the Rufus!
Video 3 – Daughter misses her daddy.
Do not think that you are never appreciated. Your family and your children need you more than you realize. Their feelings and their emotions are real. When you are gone, on a business trip or for other reasons, they will miss you. It will hurt, and you will need to show them that you care and love them very much.
Video 4 – Help on the stairways
China is a nation of escalators. Millions of people use them daily. Since they are so often used, it is normal to see accidents and problems around them. So what would you do if you notice some people having trouble on top of a moving mechanical contrivance? What would you do?
Video 5 – Help on the stairways – 2
Helping someone might be the last thing on your mind. But suddenly, you look up, and people are screaming. They are terrified, and things have gone wrong, terribly, terribly wrong. The only one nearby is you. You and you alone. What would you do?
Be the Rufus.
Video 6 – Help on the stairways – 3
Here we have a problem on the stairs. A man who is disabled cannot use the stairs himself and collapses. What can you do?
You be the Rufus.
Video 7 – Taxi driver speeds a child to the hospital.
You’ve got to rush the baby to the hospital. Here, a normal taxi driver got more than what he planned for. A hysterical mother cradles her baby and they must rush the child to the emergency room in the hospital. Did he ask for specifics? The hospital, etc. Nope. He went into emergency Rufus mode…
Video 8 – Taking down purse snatchers.
Purse snatching is a problem in some parts of the world, and can be a potential problem in rural China.
Here we see what happens when a normal man, goes after the purse snatchers on a moped. He uses a bike. He chases after them, and tackles them and fights them to get the woman’s purse back.
Be the Rufus!
Video 9 – Toddler climbs out of the 6th floor window.
This is a problem in China. So many skyscrapers, and so many children. When you hear cries from up above… what are you going to do? Wait for the police? Wait for the firemen? Wait for the building security?
No, you spring into action on your own and you take matters in your own hands. You be the Rufus.
Video 10 – Child waits for mommy.
Here we have a little girl waiting for her mommy. The volunteers in the subway station come over and comfort her while she is waiting. Be the Rufus, you help others and tend to the scared, the frightened, the young and the needy.
Video 11 – Wheelchair help.
When a vet is trying to make his way, with no legs… in a wheelchair, what do you do? Are you like everyone else? You look away, you mind your own business. You don’t get involved?
Or, are you the Rufus?
Conclusion
We do not know when the calling will come.
However, when it calls, you must take action. It will not make you wealthy, rich, famous, or attractive. But, it will make a difference when you are judged upon death. Be the Rufus. Make a difference. Help others. It’s our highest calling.
Posts Regarding Life and Contentment
Here are
some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you
might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up
in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society
within communist China. As there are some really stark differences
between the two.
More Posts about Life
I have
broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones
actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little
different, in subtle ways.
Funny Pictures
Be the Rufus – Tales of Everyday Heroism.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
More stories of personal heroism in China. This is part three.
Here are some more videos of personal heroism. These videos
all take place in China, and show examples of how average, normal, everyday
people (or dogs and cats) can make a difference. When the calling strikes and
an emergency occurs, will you be the one who turns their back, or will you run
and offer help? Will you be the one who stays playing on the cell-phone, or
will you lend a helping hand? Will you be the person who will make a difference
in the lives of those around you, or are you just going to fade into the
background.
Make a difference. Be like Rufus!
Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.
These are all micro-videos of very short duration. From ten seconds to three minutes. I would suggest that you, the reader, allow them to load to get the full experience.
Video 1 – ATM robbery
You are minding your own business. You are in an ATM kiosk and are waiting in line while the chick in front of you withdraws some money. But, hey! You notice something. There’s a guy beside her with a knife! And he is robbing her directly… right there! In front of you, the other customers and is not afraid of him being filmed by the cameras!
What would YOU do?
Video 2 – Child falls into a manhole.
So, yeah. It’s an average day. You are out shopping, and you know what? You see this little girl disappearing right in front of you! What are you going to do?
What would you do?
Video 3 – Little girl falls off the back of a scooter.
A little girl falls off the back of the scooter, and her mother rides off into the sunset. The girl, terrified and afraid wanders about. What would you do? Would you help her out?
Would YOU help her?
Notice that no only did the other woman on the scooter stop, but the white car did as well. He opened up the door and offered to take the little girl home.
Video 4 – Crazed knife attacker.
You are having a nice quick lunch in a restaurant. Suddenly out of the blue this guy comes running inside the restaurant shouting “God is great!” in some strange language. That’s odd enough, but he’s waving around a cleaver and is heading towards the back of the restaurant. Yikes!
What are you going to do?
Video 5 – Fire at a gas station.
We’ve all stopped to fill our cars with gas. But what happens when the truck next to your car catches on fire? What would you do? Here is what happens when well-trained station attendants spring into action…
Video 6 – Frightened baby.
Not all heroes wear tights, have capes and fly through the skies. Often the environment around us just needs a little bit of help; more smiles, a kind word or some encouragement. Check out what this doctor does to sooth the fears of this child…
Video 7 – Helping the old man cross the street.
Crossing the streets in China are often quite trying. Cars zoom back and forth Indy-500 style. No one seems to give a Rat’s Ass about pedestrians. Never the less, not everyone has a car, and you do have to cross the street. Even when you are 99 years old.
What would you do? Honk the horn and yell “Hey old man! Get the fuck out of my way, ya old geezer!”, or would you be the Rufus…
Be . The . Rufus .
Video 8 – Returning a wallet.
Kindness and being fair and just is what defines us. Contrary to what Hollywood, and Washington DC can make us believe, there are good people in the world. It’s just that they avoid publicity and operate quietly in silence and secrecy.
Be the Rufus.
Video 9 – Stranger collapses on the street.
You are walking to your car. Then you notice this body in the street off the parking lot. It’s limp. Dead. Not moving. What are you going to do?
Be the Rufus!
Video 10 – Know the full story.
Life is not black and white. It is full of grey areas, and it is up to us to individually determine where the to place the line that makes things black and white. But, we must know the full story first. We cannot rely on your eyes and ears, and certainly CANNOT rely on the news-babe on television. The truth is often elusive.
Do not judge others unless you know their full story.
Do not judge. Know the full story.
Conclusion
We do not know when the calling will come. However, when it calls, you must take action.
No. It will not make you wealthy, rich, famous, or attractive.
However, it will make a difference when you are judged upon death. Be the Rufus.
Make a difference. Help others. It’s our highest calling.
Posts Regarding Life and Contentment
Here are
some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you
might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up
in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society
within communist China. As there are some really stark differences
between the two.
More Posts about Life
I have
broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones
actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little
different, in subtle ways.
Funny Pictures
Be the Rufus – Tales of Everyday Heroism.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Here we look at the protests in Hong Kong and who is funding and training them. For they are using sophisticated urban combat techniques, as well as creating very sophisticated bombs, and handmade weapons. Obviously, some agent wants this group to cause damage and trouble in Hong Kong.
Who are they, and who funds them?
I pretty much sat down and wrote most of this after reading the onslaught of negative news reporting out of the USA after the Senate passed an anti-China resolution regarding HK and American businesses operating inside of China.
U.S. Senate Passes Hong Kong Democracy Bill, Drawing …
I don't like lies and characterizations in general, but this affects me personally, and it thus pisses me off.
To quote Q;
Control of narrative = control of public opinion
Control of public opinion = power
How do you control the narrative?
Information warfare.
Q
Well for starters, for the most part, the most radical instigators are not Hong Kong citizens. The instigators are NOT the “figureheads”, they are educated agitators, with knowledge in urban warfare, and close combat strategies.
Those “leaders”, “trainers” and “agitators” that have been captured by police are neither students, nor (in most cases) Hong Kong residents. While the vast bulk of the protestors are indeed, HK residents, their leadership is not.
What’s going on?
The demonstrations in Hong Kong, now an open confrontation with the People’s Republic of China, have a global impact. So, as such, what are the forces behind this movement? Who provides the funds and who stands to benefit?
Who?
Protests in Hong Kong routinely carry the US flag and photos of Donald Trump.
The increasingly violent demonstrations in Hong Kong are completely embraced and enthusiastically supported by the United States government, including Donald Trump, the US Congress and the Senate. The American news media is having a near feeding frenzy over all this news, and the U.S. corporate media is eating it all up.
This should be a danger sign to everyone fighting for change and for social progress. U.S. imperialism is never disinterested or neutral. It’s always for a objective.
The protesters now use the same violent methods that were used in the Maidan protests in the Ukraine. The U.S. seems to hope that China will intervene and create a second Tianamen scene.
That U.S. color revolution attempt failed but was an excellent instrument to demonize China.
A repeat in Hong Kong would allow the U.S. to declare a "clash of civilization" and increase 'western' hostility against China. But while China is prepared to intervene it is unlikely to do the U.S. that favor. Its government expressed confidence that the local authorities will be able to handle the issue.
-Moon Over Alabama
That objective is almost always to institute a “puppet government” taking the form of a dictatorship under the disguise of “fighting for democracy”. It’s a model that has worked for many decades, and should be so well known by now to everyone…
The Vietnam war was for democracy.
The Kuwait war was for democracy.
The Iraq war was for democracy.
The Grenada war was for democracy.
The Panama war was for democracy.
The Libyan war was for democracy.
The Yemen war was for democracy.
Now, the war drums are for what? Democracy?
A war in Hong Kong for democracy…
Only this time it isn’t against a long tiny third-world back-water nation. It will not be Libya, Yemen, Syria, or Grenada. This would be a war against China, on Chinese soil.
And China will fight back…
…in a nuclear fashion.
Why does China want Hong Kong?
Well, Hong Kong was always a part of China. The English seized the city during the Opium Wars, as part of a treaty that put an end to one of the steps of English aggression against China. Even then, the English only got a 99 year lease. That expired towards the end of the 20th century.
China was of course happy to see a part of their country that had been stolen by the English returned to them.
Can't really think of an example where the USA has had a portion of its nation stolen from them, but it isn't hard to imagine that they'd want it back. They were certainly willing to kill a lot of people just to get back a part of America that seceded and tried to tell the Yankees that they weren't all that into them anyways.
-Posted by: Who Dat | Aug 14 2019 15:51 utc | MOA
And make no mistake about it, parsing the details to confuse Americans will not work on the global audience. You would be dealing against a nuclear-armed global super-power. How do you seriously think it’s going to pan out? Are you willing to engage in nuclear war with Russia and China simultaneously? Because, that’s what’s going to happen…
And make no mistake about this either, China (even if alone) is no slouch in the ICBM, MIRV nuclear arena. They would “kick some ass” and have enough left over…
For decades, the United States has taken China’s ballistic missile capability for granted, assessing it as a low-capability force with limited regional impact and virtually no strategic value. But on October 1, during a massive military parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Beijing put the U.S., and the world, on notice that this assessment was no longer valid.
In one fell swoop, China may have nullified America’s strategic nuclear deterrent, the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and U.S. missile defense capability. Through its impressive display of new weapons systems, China has underscored the reality that while the United States has spent the last two decades squandering trillions of dollars fighting insurgents in the Middle East, Beijing was singularly focused on overcoming American military superiority in the Pacific. If the capabilities of these new weapons are taken at face value, China will have succeeded on this front.
Nothing is what it appears. It’s all manipulations and lies to mask the true purposes.
Those that want confrontation with Beijing are delusional, and you are, in a few short years, going to pay the price of their idiocy.
The official statement of the Chinese Embassy in the Russian Federation regarding the events in Hong Kong (in Russian).
The words at the end of the statement are very revealing, given the recent intentional provocations and riots of a bunch of marginals (aka "Russian liberal opposition") in Moscow:
A comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction have been established between China and the Russian Federation in a new era. Both countries have been unjustly charged for their level of freedom, democracy, and human rights. We are confident that we will meet the same attitude among the general public of the Russian Federation on the issues of Xiangang. We are confident in the understanding by the Russians of the determination and perseverance of China in protecting state prestige and sovereignty.
- Posted by: alaff | Aug 14 2019 16:23 utc | MoA
Manipulation in Hong Kong
One of the most significant examples of US aggression against China is the instigation of a color protest or color revolution in Hong Kong. The aim is to provoke China into reacting harshly and violently, which would reinforce the Western perception that China is heavy-handed, tyrannical and totalitarian. China has already moved troops to its southern mainland border, just across the water from Hong Kong. It is possible that another US objective is to push the protestors into declaring Hong Kong independent of China. There are some who say the Hong Kong protests are a grassroots affair. There is usually a grassroots element to many of these protests, but almost always the bigger factor in the shadows is US interference (or US-UK, or US-UK-Israeli, interference). Here is a very telling comment about the Hong Kong protests found under the article Violent Protests In Hong Kong Reach Their Last Stage on the MoonOfAlabama.org website.“The Extradition Law revision that started this was only a convenient proxy for those wanting chaos in HK to create chaos. The instigators behind the initial protest march are the same ones who started Occupy Central five years ago. They are the ones who huddle with operatives from US/UK Consulates, who travelled to the Washington/London/Brussel/Taipei, etc. to see politicians and plot strategies, to arrange for funding, and to recruit dare devils for the carnage. Lucky for them that HK was ripe for such shenanigans because HKers in general are sullen over their loss of superiority complex against mainland Chinese, brainwashed subconsciously through schools and churches about CCP wickedness, and desperately stressed under HK’s economic realities. Most of the protesters don’t even know what the Extradition Law is all about …”“The instigators, however, are well versed in all the intricacies. They know who they can easily recruit and order to do violence … they know the fifth column within the government and business … If large casualties result what do they care? … [T]hey know their foreign backers are only too glad to see Chinese killing Chinese …”“By the way, the US Consulate in HK has over 1,000 on payroll (an estimated 200 CIA agents), UK’s is over 500 (among them MI6 agents). That size of consulate in a city of less than 400 sq. miles of land (over half of which mountainous) is a laughable anomaly, wouldn’t you think? What are they all there for?”
-The Freedom Articles
The disruptive actions involve helmeted and masked protesters using gasoline bombs, flaming bricks, arson and steel bars, random attacks on buses, and airport and mass transit shutdowns.
HK protestors are set on burning down the entire city.
Among the most provocative acts was an organized break-in at the Hong Kong legislature where “activists” vandalized the building and hung the British Union Jack flag. As well as burning down a university campus.
U.S., British and Hong Kong’s colonial flags are prominent in these
confrontations, along with defaced flags and other symbols of People’s
China.
A man inspects a Bestmart store which was vandalised during Sunday’s anti-government protest in Hong Kong, China, October 21, 2019. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
The New York Times described the airport shutdown:
“The protests at the airport have been deeply tactical, as the largely leaderless movement strikes at a vital economic artery. Hong Kong International Airport, which opened in 1998, the year after China reclaimed the territory from Britain, serves as a gateway to the rest of Asia. Sleek and well run, the airport accommodates nearly 75 million passengers a year and handles more than 5.1 million metric tons of cargo.” (Aug. 14)
U.S. media have consistently labeled these violent actions “pro-democracy.”
But are they?
HK protestors are set on burning down the entire city.
Even if the leaders of these reactionary actions decide to pull back from the brink and re-calibrate their tactics, there is pause for concern. For based on the Chinese government’s unequivocally strong warnings, it is important to understand a movement that has such strong U.S. support.
The protestors want “freedom”
This is a rally cry that evokes strong emotions with Americans.
Though it shouldn’t. Most Americans haven’t tasted freedom for at least one hundred years, and have no concept of what it actually is.
The cognitive dissonance has been overwhelming these past months. "Pro-democracy protesters" who use black bloc tactics of arson and vandalism. "Students yearning for freedom" who organize Molotov cocktail factories. Complaints of excessive "police brutality" when by objective international standards the police were remarkably constrained.
"Hong Kong is a repressive police state" says Joshua Wong, and yet it is consistently near the top of the list in the Cato Institute world freedom index.
The protesters are "fighting for democracy" even though Hong Kong is democratic, and demand a "universal suffrage" that in practice very few jurisdictions, least of all their beloved US/UK, enjoy.
Add a dollop of uninformed virtue-signalling from the usual clueless western cheerleaders, and it has been a festival of delusion which somehow ends with the image of a petrol-bomb-wielding black bloc protester as the new face of "freedom" (as seen on twitter).
-Posted by: jayc | Nov 22 2019 21:14 utc | 19
People, freedom is being able to drink booze, and smoke, and plop your dog Fido next to you in a public restaurant. It means that you can ride in a car without a seat-belt, drink large size coke’s and have sunny-side up eggs whenever you want. It means that you can hunt and fish without a permit, and buy most medicines without a prescription.
America had freedoms, but when FDR and Wilson removed the SCOUS defense of the ninth amendment, American became a nice, safe, gulag.
Today, most Americans can only have small brief glimpses on what freedom used to be like…
The Fitzgeralds arrived in New York in the early autumn of 1922—after a rocky start working as an ad man in his bachelor days, Scott was finally making headway as a celebrated author. They checked into the Plaza and began partying, not even sobering up to go house hunting, but then what was the point, they weren’t going to be sober while they lived there. Zelda was an incorrigible flirt when drunk and she also had a habit of taking her clothes off and dancing naked in fountains or parading down railway tracks. Scott, although less of an exhibitionist, was equally out of control. In December of the same year the couple’s ‘house rules’ for weekend guests at their home in Great Neck, Long Island included a polite directive “not to break down doors in search of liquor, even when authorized to do so by their host and hostess,” and warned that “the invitation to stay over Monday, issued by the host and hostess during the small hours of Sunday morning, must not be taken seriously.”
They needed the occasional sober Monday, if only to write the letters of apology they constantly had to send excusing their drunken antics and bad behavior, but in many ways the Fitzgeralds could do no wrong. They were young, beautiful—Dorothy Parker described them as looking “as though they had stepped out of the sun”—and fast. In a complex case of life imitating art, and vice versa, they both typified and immortalized the Jazz Age—their extravagant lifestyle funded by the handsome payments Scott received from the magazines that published his flapper fictions and the publishers who bought his novels.
So, I find it very curious, and you the reader should as well, that a nation-state that is #1 in personal and economic freedom would want to be more like a nation that is #25 at best in the same category.
For the past 25 years, including this year, Hong Kong has been ranked No. 1 in the Heritage Foundation’s list of countries with the “greatest economic freedom”—meaning the least restraints on capitalist profit taking.
Why do the HK protestors want less democracy and freedom? The answer is that this is not really their goal. It is instead the mechanism from which they can instigate disruptions.
Hong Kong’s ranking is based on low taxes and light regulations, the strongest property rights and business freedom, and “openness to global commerce and vibrant entrepreneurial climate … no restrictions on foreign banks.”
That has not changed. No where has the mainland placed new laws, regulations or changes to that model of governance. When the HK local government wanted to open up extradition to other nations, the protests erupted, and the government backed down.
So what the heck is going on? The protestors are not asking for more. They are demanding less.
WTF?
China has a right to intervene
It must be strongly stated that China is not invading Hong Kong if it
moves against these violent disruptions. Hong Kong is part of China.
This is an internal matter, and the call for independence for Hong Kong
is an open attack on China’s national sovereignty.
Hong Kong is a part of China.
The idea that any American military force will come to “liberate” or “save” Hong Kong is an invasion of China.
Any attempted invasion of China will result in the nuclear destruction of most major United States cities.
As it stands today, and what is NOT being reported in the United States media, is that under Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the constitution for the city, the government is legally allowed to request help from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
China is not Syria.
China is not Bolivia.
China is not Venezuela.
China will fight back. They will not permit this, and frankly, I am quite surprised that they have permitted this to go on so long. They have been very polite and have kept causalities to a minimum. Were this kind and level of damage to have taken place in the United States, people would have been killed.
Here is an article that explains one key way that Washington is meddling in the affairs of Hong Kong:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2019/08/how-washington-is-meddling-in-affairs.html
While the ideals of democracy are admirable and desirable, Washington's version of democracy is tainted by big money and has developed into a system where politicians are for sale to the highest bidder.
-Posted by: Sally Snyder | Aug 14 2019 16:10 utc | MoA
China has announced that it will take action if things escalate.
The Chinese government has announced that it will intervene militarily to defend China’s sovereignty.
Top government officials have labeled the most extreme acts as “terrorism” and denounced U.S. support.
Several times officials raised the analogy to the Western “color revolutions” that violently overturned governments in Serbia, Ukraine, Libya and Haiti and were attempted in Venezuela and Syria.
China is aware of what is going on and they will take appropriate and measured action. the problem is that the United States people, haven’t seen measured and appropriate responses since the 1940’s.
Americans are not expecting military push-back. For if they were, they would be terrified of all the war-drum beating by the American press.
“The ideologues in Western governments never cease in their efforts
to engineer unrest against governments that are not to their liking, even though their actions have caused misery and chaos in country after country in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Now they are trying the same trick in China,”
-China Daily explained on July 3rd, 2019
Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to Britain, told reporters that
their country was still acting as Hong Kong’s colonial master.
(nbcnews.com, July 4)
“A spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry claimed Tuesday that
recent comments from American lawmakers [Nancy] Pelosi (D-Ca.) and
[Mitch] McConnell (R-Ky.) demonstrate that Washington’s real goal is to incite chaos in the city,” according to CNBC.
“By neglecting and distorting the truth, they whitewashed violent crimes as a struggle for human rights and freedom.” (Aug. 14)
Where is U.S. support for other resistance?
Hong Kong police are denounced in the U.S. media for violence, but actually have shown great restraint. Despite months of violent confrontations, with flaming bottles constantly thrown, no one has been killed by the police.
That is NOT going to last for long.
There are rumors that some Hong Kong oligarchs were originally behind the protests to prevent their extradition for shady deals they made in China. There may be some truth to that.
China's president Xi Jingpin is waging a fierce campaign against corruption and Hong Kong is a target rich environment for fighting that crime.
The former British colony is ruled by a handful of oligarchs who have monopolies in the housing, electricity, trade and transport markets:
The book to read is Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong (2010) by Alice Poon, which explains how the lack of competition law created outrageous wealth for the tycoons. It’s a complex subject but the key point is that in Hong Kong all land is leasehold and ultimately owned by the government, which uses it as a means of raising revenue.
This goes back to the days of empire when British policy required colonies to be self-funding. The system kept taxes down and attracted business – but one side-effect was that it gave the government an interest in rationing land to keep it expensive. That didn’t matter much when the local economy comprised a few traders but, in the modern technological world of 2012, it puts the government at odds with every person and business wanting affordable space.
Indeed, it induces the government to distort and damage the economy, and indeed society. This system paved the way for a handful of Hong Kong families to become unimaginably wealthy by getting their hands on cheap land back in the days before the city started to boom.
Rents and apartment prices in Hong Kong are high. People from the mainland who buy up apartments with probably illegally gained money only increase the scarcity. This is one reason why the Cantonese speaking Hong Kong protesters spray slurs against the Mandarin speaking people from the mainland. The people in Hong Kong also grieve over their declining importance. Hong Kong lost its once important economical position. In 1993 Hong Kong's share of China's GDP was 27%. It is now less than a tenths of that and the city is now more or less irrelevant to mainland China.
-Moon over Alabama
Demonstrations in Honduras. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
There is no such favorable media coverage or support from U.S. politicians for demonstrations of desperate workers and peasants in Honduras, Haiti or the Philippines, or for the Yellow Vest movement in France.
There is never an official condemnation when demonstrators are killed in Yemen or Kashmir or in weekly demonstrations in Gaza against Israeli occupation.
Demonstrations in Haiti. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
These struggles receive barely a mention, although in every case scores of people have been killed by police, targeted for assassination or simply just disappeared.
Demonstrations in the Philippines. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
Hong Kong has always been part of China. It was seized by the British in order to facilitate the illegal drug traffic of the East India Company. The Chinese government, concerned at the social and economic mayhem caused by imported opium, paid for in silver, banned its import. The British government, which relied on the revenues it got from exporting cheap Indian opium, grown on stolen land, insisted that China allow the trade to continue. And enforced its demands militarily-the Opium Wars. Within fifty years of these wars and Hong Kong's occupation by the British on a 99 year lease, a significant proportion, close to 20% of China's men were addicted to opium.
That is why China wanted to regain sovereignty over Hong Kong. As to the assertion that the local people don't want Chinese rule but long for the British-now under US rule- to return, that is simply untrue.
As b has been pointing out the troubles in Hong Kong are almost certainly organised by the US government.
Laguerre suspects that the same is true of the gilets jaunes. Does anyone else believe that Macron is being attacked by the US government?
-Posted by: bevin | Aug 14 2019 16:18 utc | MoA
Demonstrations in Malawi. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
While Hong Kong protests receive widespread attention, there is no similar coverage of or political support for Antifa, Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the U.S. or the masses protesting racist Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and roundups of migrants.
It seems to be a narrow focus on China, and only on China.
U.S. pressure continues
Months of violence and chaos in Hong Kong have US dirty hands all over them.Orchestrated by the CIA in cahoots with other anti-democratic US agencies and anti-government Chinese hooligans, there’s nothing spontaneous about what’s going on endlessly.
Days earlier, the Trump regime’s State Department (up to its ears in what’s happening) expressed phony grave concern about violence and chaos in the city — ignoring US responsibility for what’s ongoing.
Pompeo threatened China, saying all options are on the table, including direct US intervention, if Beijing’s military intervenes to quell what’s unacceptable and must be stopped.
Over the weekend, masked hooligans clashed with police at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University.
On Sunday, police surrounded the campus, warning elements involved in rioting and vandalism to leave or be dealt with harshly.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that a “sedan without license plates tried to ram a group of police officers,” a live round and rubber bullet fired at the vehicle.
“(M)asked radicals” occupying the campus clashed violently with police, dozens arrested, hundreds more involved.
Highly inflammable “dangerous materials” that can be used for explosives were seized from elements arrested — “stolen” from the university’s labs, adding:
“(R)adicals shot arrows and hurled petrol bombs and bricks (at police) – sometimes from catapults mounted on the roof of campus buildings.”
“Police fired a large quantity of tear gas and deployed two water cannons and armored vehicles.”
Clashes raged for hours, a police statement saying: “Anyone who enters or stays on the campus and assists the rioters in any way will risk committing the offense of ‘taking part in a riot.’ ”
Hooligans arrested were not university students.Police called them outsiders. On Monday, classes at all Hong Kong universities were suspended — a Polytechnic Univ. statement saying in part:
“All classes have been forced to be suspended and all operations on the campus have been halted,” adding:
“The University is gravely concerned that the spiraling radical illicit activities will cause not only a tremendous safety threat on campus, but also class suspension over an indefinite period of time.”
“They are concerned about the safety on the campus, and they do not want to see the campus being destroyed further.”
A commentary published by Beijing’s official People’s Daily broadsheet on Monday said ending months of violence and chaos in Hong Kong “is a critical matter,” adding:
In multiple parts of the city, “rioters have been rampantly committing acts of vandalism and arson, paralyzing public transport, trashing rail tracks, hurling petrol bombs at running trains, indiscriminately causing bodily harm to civilians and even turning campuses into battlefields.”
If what’s going on isn’t stopped and the rule of law restored, “there would be no guarantee for the peaceful life of residents, to say nothing of Hong Kong’s future development.”
On Monday, SCMP’s deputy executive editor Zuraidah Ibrahim said the following:
“Hardcore mobs upped their violent game when they took over tertiary campuses last week, as bureaucrats came under fire for doing little and the police warned the city was on the brink of total breakdown,” adding:
“In the north, radicals occupying Chinese University took over the Tolo Highway. At Polytechnic University, they have shut down the Cross-Harbour Tunnel for five days, the longest forced closure ever.” “The mobs broke into the campuses’ chemical laboratories and set up petrol bomb mills overnight and practiced throwing fire bombs with catapults and arrows.” “Fiery battles between protesters and police spread across several universities, as mainland and international students evacuated.”
“The radicals finally withdrew, except at PolyU where a stand-off continues as I write this. Last week, the People’s Liberation Army soldiers took to the streets with brooms – not guns – to clean up, as did volunteers fed-up with the violence and their pockmarked streets. We still don’t see an end in sight.”
US dirty hands are all over months of violence, vandalism, chaos in the city, attacking China’s soft underbelly, trying to destabilize and weaken the country.
Beijing knows what it’s up against — US imperial rage challenging China’s sovereign independence.
- US Dirty Hands Escalate Hong Kong Violence
Despite China’s warnings of possible martial law, strict curfews and military intervention to restore order, protesters have shown no signs of retreat.
The U.S. and Britain are determined to propel forward those hostile political forces they have cultivated over the past two decades.
This is really, really dangerous.
What a fucking mess the Empire has made over the last century.
Trying to reconcile my belief in democracy with non-intervention makes this one tricky. I have no desire to support the fascist United States in attempting to subvert another country's government.
The cultural gap (and therefore lack of knowledge and understanding) between the west and China is so vast it makes attempting to separate genuine journalism from McCarthy-ist era style propaganda about the country very difficult, thus making a merits based comparison between the 2 spheres of power almost impossible.
Most of the stories I hear about Chinese repression are obvious pro-western propaganda, which makes it tempting to dismiss other pieces of information out of hand.
I can only wish the best for the people of Hong Kong and China, whatever they decide that may be.
Laguerre hints at an interesting point I'd not considered with regards to the yellow vests in France - are they US aided? I'm still inclined to lean towards it being a more genuine grass roots movement from the limited bits I've seen, though I'd be intrigued to see what connections could be verified there. US state department attempting to push Frexit would certainly be a new angle to think about for a lot of us.
-Posted by: Northern | Aug 14 2019 16:22 utc | MoA
Methodology
The escalating demonstrations are linked to [1] the U.S. trade war, [2] tariffs and [3] military encirclement of China.
Four hundred—half—of the 800 U.S. overseas military bases surround China. Aircraft carriers, destroyers, nuclear submarines, jet aircraft, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile batteries, and satellite surveillance infrastructures are positioned in the South China Sea, close to Hong Kong.
Media demonization is needed to justify and intensify this military presence. And it is ongoing and ruthless.
John Reed at Foreign Policy describes “how the U.S. is encircling China with military bases.”
The U.S. military is encircling China with a chain of air bases and military ports. The latest link: a small airstrip on the tiny Pacific island of Saipan. The U.S. Air Force is planning to lease 33 acres of land on the island for the next 50 years to build a “divert airfield” on an old World War II airbase there. But the residents don’t want it. And the Chinese are in no mood to be surrounded by Americans.
…In addition to the site on Saipan, the Air Force plans to send aircraft on regular deployments to bases ranging from Australia to India as part of its bulked up force in the Pacific. These plans include regular deployments to Royal Australian Air Force bases at Darwin and Tindal, Changi East air base in Singapore, Korat air base in Thailand, Trivandrum in India, and possibly bases at Cubi Point and Puerto Princesa in the Philippines and airfields in Indonesia and Malaysia, a top U.S. Air Force general revealed last month.
As I’ve written in the past, these Pentagon plans are part of the Air-Sea Battle strategy. The idea is to have enough US bases and Air Force capabilities peppered throughout the region so that China would be too surrounded to safely attack in the event of a conflict.
“Stealthy American bombers and submarines would knock out China’s long-range surveillance radar and precision missile systems located deep inside the country,” reports the WashingtonPost. ”The initial ‘blinding campaign’ would be followed by a larger air and naval assault.”
Not surprisingly, Beijing is none-too-pleased with the fact that Washington is planning contingencies to “battle” China, and militarily encircling China in the Pacific. Imagine the calls for war in Washington if China was backing various Latin American countries with money and weapons and building air and naval bases in the Caribbean with the explicit aim of bombing United States to smithereens.
I haven’t seen such demonization since World War II against the Nazi Germans.
Encouraging the demonstrations goes hand-in-hand with international efforts to bar Huawei 5G technology, the cancellation of a joint study of cancer and the arrest of Chinese corporate officers.
All these belligerent acts are designed to exert maximum pressure on China, divide the leadership, destabilize economic development and weaken China’s resolve to maintain any socialist planning.
The Trump Admin has come out with all guns blazing against Huawei, China’s telecommunications giant, which is now the 2nd biggest smartphone producer in the world, second only to Apple and within striking distance of them.
The USG has accused Huawei of assisting Chinese Intelligence by placing backdoors in its software and hardware that allow surveillance by Chinese authorities (but not the NSA).
Trump has even pressured allies like the UK to stop using Huawei altogether, despite the fact that Britain relies heavily of Huawei for its infrastructure.
The attacks against Huawei escalated on December 1st 2018, when the US orchestrated a totally illegal kidnapping and illegal detention of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s CFO (Chief Financial Officer). Wanzhou is still being held against her will in Canada on US orders.
-The Freedom Articles
Martial law in Hong Kong, a major financial center, especially for international investment funds coming into China, would impact China’s development.
And that, my friends, is the objective.
Capitalist economic “freedom”
British imperialism, in the 155 years it ruled Hong Kong, denied
rights to millions of workers. There was no elected government, no right
to a minimum wage, unions, decent housing or health care, and certainly
no freedom of the press or freedom of speech. These basic democratic
rights were not even on the books in colonial Hong Kong.
The British were ruthless when they owned Hong Kong, and treated the native Chinese there with scorn and dismay.
For the past 25 years, including this year, Hong Kong has been ranked No. 1 in the right-wing Heritage Foundation’s list of countries with the “greatest economic freedom”—meaning the least restraints on capitalist profit taking. Hong Kong’s ranking is based on low taxes and light regulations, the strongest property rights and business freedom, and “openness to global commerce and vibrant entrepreneurial climate … no restrictions on foreign banks.”
For this Hong Kong is well considered the “freest society in the world.”
This “freedom” means the world’s highest rents and the greatest gap
between the super-rich and the desperately poor and homeless. This is
what Hong Kong youth face today. But the youth are consciously being
misdirected to blame the city administration for the conditions Hong
Kong is locked into under the “One Country, Two Systems agreement.”
Ah, if only HK was independent, free of China, would everything become equal, fair and just. Only if...
An unequal colonial treaty
Hong Kong is stolen land.
This spectacular deep water port in the South China Sea at the mouth of the Pearl River, a major waterway in south China, was seized by Britain in the 1842 Opium Wars.
Hong Kong was seized by Britain, and used as a staging platform to get the Chinese addicted to Opium so that the wealthy in Britain could profit.
After negotiations with Britain had dragged on through the 1980s, the British imposed another unequal treaty on the People’s Republic of China.
Hong Kong under British rule in the 1970’s.
Under the 1997 “One Country, Two Systems” agreement that officially
returned Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories to the PRC, Britain
and China agreed to leave “the previous capitalist system” in place for
50 years.
China, determined to reassert its sovereignty over land stolen by the British, also needed funds for development.
Most money in Asia moved through the Hong Kong banking system. So in 1997 China was anxious to reach a smooth transition that would not destabilize the transfer of investment funds into the 99.5 percent of China that had previously been denied development funds.
To understand this situation, you must realize that ever since the Chinese Revolution in 1949, China had been sanctioned and blockaded from accessing Western investment and technology.
China had been denied development funds for many years. The plan was to keep them backwards and primitive. So that they could continue to be a low-cost resource for the Western nations.
U.S. and British imperialism took full advantage of the 1997
concession that maintained their economic control of the former colony.
Their hope was that Hong Kong could serve, as it had in the past, as an
economic battering ram into China.
Their hopes were not realized.
In 1997 Hong Kong’s gross domestic product was 27 percent of China’s gross domestic product. Today it’s a mere 3 percent and falling. Much to U.S. and British frustration, the world’s largest banks are now in China and they are state-owned banks.
What confounds the capitalist class, far more than China’s incredible growth, is that the top 12 Chinese companies on U.S. Fortune 500 list are all state-owned and state-subsidized. They include massive oil, solar energy, telecommunications, engineering and construction companies, banks and the auto industry.
-Fortune.com, July 22, 2015
U.S. corporate power is deeply threatened by China’s level of
development through the Belt and Road Initiative and its growing
position in international trade and investment.
U.S., Britain built a network of collaborators
When Britain and China signed the One Country, Two Systems agreement,
all foreign intervention and colonial claims on Hong Kong were supposed
to end. Full sovereignty was to return to China.
However, U.S. and British efforts to undercut Hong Kong’s return began in advance of the signing.
Just before the transfer of sovereignty, Britain hastily set up, after 150 years of appointed officials, a partially elected, although still mainly appointed, government. They quickly established and funded political parties, composed of their loyal collaborators.
Millions of dollars were openly and secretly funneled into a whole
network of protected social service organizations, political parties,
media and social media, student and youth organizations, and labor
unions established to undercut support for China and the Communist Party
of China.
Think about it. Of course this would happen. Neither the USA nor the UK were stupid.
The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKFTU) receives U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funding, along with British support. It promotes “pro-democracy, independent unions” throughout China. The HKCTU was established in 1990 to counter and undercut the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions founded in 1948, which is still the largest union organization with 410,000 members.
The HKFTU suffered years of brutal repression under British colonial rule as it fought for basic protection of workers’ rights. A strike organized by the HKFTU shook British colonial rule in 1967. The strike became a citywide rebellion sparked by mass layoffs of workers from the plastic flower factory.
"They seem to want a Tiananmen Square outcome as success."
The Tiananmen Square outcome was–media accounts to the contrary–that the kids all left the square safely by 7:20 am, just as all the HK demonstrators are unharmed.
There was a riot led by professional thugs elsewhere in Beijing, in Chang'An Avenue, but that was a different matter entirely and one with an interesting sequel. The leader of that riot was exfiltrated to the UK by MI6 and subsequently convicted of robbing and murdering an elderly Londoner. Sweet.
- Posted by: Godfree Roberts | Nov 22 2019 23:23 utc | 34
British colonial authorities harshly suppressed the uprising, resulting in 51 deaths and hundreds injured and disappeared. The HKFTU supports China and opposes the reactionary demonstrations.
NED funding = CIA support
Allen Weinstein, a founder of the NED, told the Washington Post in 1991;
“A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” (Sept. 21, 1991)
The NED funds, coordinates and weaponizes nongovernmental organizations and social organizations with the capacity to put tens of thousands of misdirected, idealistic and alienated youth on the streets.
Funding from the NED, the Ford, Rockefeller, Soros and numerous other corporate foundations, Christian churches of every denomination, and generous British funding, is behind this hostile, subversive network orchestrating the Hong Kong protests today.
While you would NEVER hear about this in the mainstream American media, it of course makes sense. All you need to do is follow the money trail.
In HK, for instance, when the protestors receive payments through the NED, or NID, they get a tattoo on their arm (to prevent multiple payouts),a nd you can see this clearly on the exposed skin of rioters.
The NED bankrolls the Hong Kong Human Rights Movement, the Hong Kong
Journalists Association, the Civic Party, Labor Party and Democratic
Party. They are members of the Civil Human Rights Front that coordinates
the demonstrations.
This role of the NED in China is increasingly harder to obscure.
Alexander Rubinstein reported in “American Gov’t, NGOs Fuel and Fund Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Protests” (mintpressnews.com, June 13):
“It is inconceivable that the organizers of the protests are unaware of the NED ties to some of its members.” (tinyurl.com/y6nhmapz)
The goal is to promote a hostile and suspicious attitude toward China and toward communism and to foster the false concept of a past democratic Hong Kong with a distinct identity.
China Daily warns:
“In recent years, there have been warnings that color revolutions are emerging as a new form of warfare employed by the West to destabilize certain countries.” (Aug. 12)
Which system works better?
The Aug. 13 New York Times refers to Hong Kong as a “bastion of civil
liberties” to counter “Beijing’s brand of authoritarianism.”
British colonial past is deeply mythologized. Twenty-two years of constant nostalgia for this past, supposedly glorious time has influenced increasingly impoverished youth.
The most violent rioters, amongst them those who hold the US flag, have obviously the order or to kill somebody, better a policeman ( as the clear intend on the GT journalist shows... ) or to provoke some killing of a protester, or by accident of a journalist ( who, btw, astonishingly, remain in the middle of the melee always...
I find this very suspicious, which is their insurance company? I want it for my travels...Most probably not journalists themselves but rioters in disguise ), as these intends of assassination happened very timely, almost simultaneously with or consecutive to Trump´s Twitter on that he expected nobody will result with any harm.... obviously from his terrorists side...
BTW, this behavior have time ago passed from ghastly to straight criminal, under any country´s law.
In the US, none of these terrorists would still remain alive, they would never had been able to get so close to any policeman so as to grab his batton leaving him unarmed. They would had been shot in place, the whole bunch of them...as we so usually watch happens with black people there....
Why The Donald ( and Bannon, the Pepe Frog exposes him all the way, they already do not even try to conceal anymore...) thinks any country in the world would have to allow this?
I posted some of these videos yesterday in the week review thread ( and I am glad "b" gave them some greater visibility..) and to my view, some of these rioters, especially those who talk with the travelers seem to be on drugs....
It´s an appreciation on how their tongue slide so much plus the slowness with which they talk, in such stressant situation, very contrasting with, for example, the elder summoning the rioter in the subway. See the very thin guy talking with the Australian businessman in the video i posted in the week and review thread....
I wonder whether these could be people taken from jail or correstionals, as they were part of the ISIS recruits who flew to Turkey to be tarinned and then to Syria, their behavior is clearly antisocial, no wonder any real complaint they could have ...
In the video on "strangers" supplying the rioters, there are two totally masked and covered women ( all the way the ISIS handlers style...) who, by their physical complexion and hair, seem to not be Chinese women at all, but Westerners...at 2:21 footage....Most probably NED/CIA operatives...
-Posted by: Sasha | Aug 14 2019 16:06 utc | MoA
Listen up. Much of what you read is a myth.
Despite decades of multimillion-dollar Western funding, Hong Kong has
a poverty rate of 20 percent (23.1 percent for children) compared to
less than 1 percent in mainland China. In the past 20 years, mainland
China has lifted countless millions of people out of poverty.
Poverty rate in HK = 20%
Poverty rate in mainland China <1%
Just across the river from Hong Kong sits the city of Shenzhen.
It is one of the Special Economic Zones established to lure Western technology. These zones, originally with thousands of labor-intensive factories and millions of workers earning low wages, were centers of capitalist exploitation and enormous profits for U.S. and other global capitalists.
Shenzhen grew from a city of 30,000 in 1979 to a megacity of 20 million, with the largest migrant population in China.
Shenzhen had a population three times the size of Hong Kong. With investments via Hong Kong, this new city became a massive polluted factory town with sweatshops spewing out clouds of dark toxic smoke.
In the past five years, through city and national urban planning, Shenzhen is today one of the most livable cities in China, with extensive parks, tree-lined streets and the largest fleet of electric buses in the world (16,000), along with all-electric cabs.
Shenzhen aims to have 80 percent of its new buildings green-certified by 2020. It is full of apartment blocks, office towers and modern factories with advanced equipment manufacturing, robotics, automation and giant tech startups.
For the last 10 years wages have been stagnant in Hong Kong while
rents have increased 300 percent; it is the most expensive city in the
world. In Shenzhen, wages have increased 8 percent every year, and more
than 1 million new, public, green housing units at low rates are nearing
completion.
United States Demands
The U.S. is demanding that China abandon state support of its
industries, the ownership of its banks and national planning. But
contrasting the decay, growing poverty and intense alienation in Hong
Kong with the green vibrant city of Shenzhen across the river shows that
there are two choices for China today, including the angry forces
mobilized in Hong Kong: modern socialist planning or a return to the
super-exploitation and imperialist domination of the colonial past.
For decades Britain and the U.S. used the people of Hong Kong for
cheap labor. Now they are using the same population for cheap political
propaganda. This cynical maneuver is just one more weapon in a desperate
effort to disrupt China’s further development.
U.S. corporate power is incapable of meeting any of the desperate needs for housing, health care, education and a healthy environment for people here. Instead, in a relentless drive for profits, enormous resources are squandered on militarism to threaten countries around the world.
Today…
The Hong Kong protests are escalating, just as the US-China trade war is also escalating. None of this is out of the blue.
For quite some time now, the US has been shifting the focus of its hegemonic and imperial ambitions towards China, recognizing it – even more than Russia – as its main rival superpower.
Author Graham Allen published his 2017 book entitled Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? addressing growing US-China tension and the potential for a future US-China war.
The term Thucydides trap is derived from ancient Greece to describe a situation when a rising power gains enough strength to challenge and disturb the existing ruling power. With this phenomenon in mind, let’s take a look at the background to the current US-China trade war (which is becoming more bitter and intense by the week) and the Hong Kong Protests.
Identifying the Enemy
Quotes from top US officials, military and non-military alike, show that China has gradually been replacing Russia as the #1 enemy, although this is not clear cut; there is still a lot of hatred towards and fear of Russia.
In 2018, the USA changed its official defense strategy.
Terrorism was no longer the #1 threat and was replaced by Russia and China.
The DoD report accused China of wielding predatory economics and building fake islands in the South China Sea to intimidate nearby countries.
“China remains our biggest long-term challenge. Without focused involvement and engagement by the United States, and our allies and partners, China will realize its dream of hegemony in Asia.”
- Admiral Harry Harris, former commander of the US Pacific Command, said this about China in 2018.
“China’s intent is crystal clear. We ignore it at our peril. I’m concerned China will now work to undermine the international rules-based order … China’s impressive military build-up could soon challenge the United States across almost every domain.”
Earlier this year, DNI (Director of National Intelligence) Dan Coats said:
“[The] rule of law, international norms, and fairness in trade and international engagements is not the Chinese model … Chinese leaders will increasingly seek to assert China’s model of authoritarian capitalism as an alternative—and implicitly superior—development path abroad, exacerbating great-power competition that could threaten international support for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.”
- DNI (Director of National Intelligence) Dan Coats said:
Previously in 2018 Coats had followed Trump’s lead by blaming China
for interfering in US elections (where have I heard that one before?).
He stated:
“[China is targeting] state and local governments and officials … It is trying to exploit any divisions between federal and local levels on policy, and uses investments and other incentives to expand its influence.”
- DNI (Director of National Intelligence) Dan Coats said:
All this rhetoric comes against a backdrop of intertwined economies, where many US companies have outsourced and offshored their labor to China.
Targeting Chinese Institutions, Initiatives and Projects
The US has taken a dim view of practically every Chinese effort to develop itself in the last decade.
The US has opposed China’s gigantic OBR (One Belt, One Road) Initiative which has been dubbed the New Silk Road.
The US has directed propaganda against BRICS, China’s SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization), its development bank and many other trade initiatives.
The US accuses China of trying to control the world, yet such accusations must be difficult to receive with a straight face given that the US routinely threatens both its allies and enemies with economic warfare, sanctions, trade wars, governmental overthrow, invasion or even nuclear annihilation if they don’t toe the American line.
Funding and Training Muslim Uyghurs – Sometimes as Part of ISIS
You may not have heard of them, but there is a Chinese minority group known as the Uyghurs or Uighurs. Many are Muslim and of Turkic ethnicity. They live in the semi-autonomous region of north-west China in a province called Xinjiang.
Well, guess what?
The United States government has been funding them to aggressively fight against the Chinese government.
The funny thing is that a little bit of effort and the whole thing becomes apparent even through the traditional media reports. Recall that early media reports said there were 1.7 million protesters "according to the organiser's estimates". Once you remember that, then every time you hear millions is a hint to look up the Police estimate (150k) and estimates of maximum numbers in space available - also 150k or thereabouts.
More stories hint of high protester numbers but don't mention numbers -so check the accompanying pictures and videos - we a few thousand (ie well down on ever factual early numbers) and more recently just a few hundred. Police violence - yet every picture or video show large numbers of police acting very very peaceably (compare Paris). HK democracy - yet all the pictures recently have been exclusively of masked blackshirts and if you dig deep most of the violence has been blackshirt on passers by.
There must be picture editors who are stunned by the reports they run.
And obviously the story they are all looking for is the China overreaction that was never going to happen.
The whole thing runs in parallel with the obvious Ujghur 1 million in prison lie (it would be equivalent to every male aged 16-29) where the only witnesses to speak to western journalists have been fed to the press in Istanbul. We all know that Chinese muslims in Istanbul are going to or already in ISIS. James Le Mesurier doing a little extra press feeding in his spare time.
- Posted by: Michael Droy | Nov 22 2019 22:17 utc | 29
So when ever you hear, or read about the Chinese concentration camps and the imprisonment of those “poor” Uyghur Muslims, keep in mind that it is the Untied States that has the largest prison population in the world. China doesn’t even come close.
The United States is THE prison nation, and locks up more citizens than any other nation on the surface of the earth, and has put more people in prison behind bars than Hitler did in Nazi Germany, Stalin did in the Soviet Union, and Pol Pot did in Cambodia. Compared to China, it’s not even on the “radar screen”.
So America is great because of “freedom” and “liberty” and protections afforded by the “Bill of Rights”, Eh?
The White House has asked the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals to place an emergency stay on a ruling made last week by a federal judge so that the president’s power to indefinitely detain Americans without charge is reaffirmed immediately.
On Wednesday, September 12, US District Court Judge Katherine Forrest made permanent a temporary injunction she issued in May that bars the federal government from abiding by the indefinite detention provision in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, or NDAA.
Judge Forrest ruled that a clause that gives the government the power to arrest US citizens suspected of maintaining alliances with terrorists and hold them without due process violated the Constitution and that the White House would be stripped of that ability immediately.
- White House demands military prisons for Americans under NDAA
The bullshit is amazing to me!
In America, you can get incarcerated for the tiniest of reasons, or commit enormous crimes and be totally immune from prosecution.
We all need to look at things objectively and at the “big picture”. Just why is the United States government pushing the anti-China narrative? Why are they making a big deal of “concentration camps for Muslim terrorists” when the largest number of inmates are in the USA itself? What is going on?
Follow the money trail…
Neocon Marco Rubio, and warhawk, sponsored this 2018 bill pushing the US to get involved.
Rubio, for those who don’t recall, was the very same guy itching for war with Venezuela earlier this year in 2019. War is so great with these people. They think that America will forever be isolated and protected and war can never come to roost inside the United States.
Hong Kong’s opposition unites with Washington hardliners to ‘preserve the US’s own political and economic interests’
While claiming to fight for “self-determination,” Hong Kong opposition leaders are collaborating with regime-change neoconservatives in Washington to “preserve the US’s own political and economic interests.” A new DC lobbying front has become their base of operations.
The Grayzone piece linked above misses the real man behind the lobbying. Andrew Duncan who is a main sponsor of Senator Marco Rubio who is the main promoter on the hill for "activist" and U.S. darling Joshua Wong. Duncan is also one of the producers (financiers) of a film about Wong.
Watchdog group files complaint in shadowy gift to super PAC aiding Marco Rubio
An election watchdog organization filed a complaint Friday with the Federal Election Commission over a $500,000 donation to a super political action committee aiding Marco Rubio from a mystery firm headed by a New York investor.
...
The complaint from the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, seeks an investigation into IGX LLC for masking the donation and to determine whether the Conservative Solutions PAC was aware of the origins of the contribution. The actual donor, Andrew Duncan, of Brooklyn, New York, acknowledged to the Associated Press earlier this month that he had routed his contribution through IGX, a business entity registered last year in Delaware.
- Posted by: b | Nov 22 2019 20:17 utc | 12
However, much of the funding is done under-the-table by the soft power network of NGOs, illustrious among them the National Endowment for Democracy of NWO (New World Order) insider George Soros.
The UHRP (Uyghur Human Rights Project) admits on its website that it was “founded by the Uyghur American Association (UAA) in 2004 with a supporting grant from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).”
Got the following email today from my "representative" U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (for whom I have never voted) on the reason for his vote: "The world is watching, and we must step up to hold the Chinese government accountable. Please know that I will continue to fight for an America that brings moral leadership to the international stage."
Merkley remains the darling of self-styled Oregon "progressives", who have no clue about the real meaning of moral leadership. He pulled a stunt a year ago trying to get into an immigration gulag and was refused entry. He conveniently forgot to mention that privatized corporate immigration gulags were established by Democrats under President Obama.
I used to call his office to express my opinion, but no longer bother, he's just another war party flack.
- Posted by: Trisha | Nov 22 2019 22:22 utc | 31
Since when does the USG deeply care about oppressed minorities in
other nations? It’s a rhetorical question, but I’ll answer it this time:
if – and only if – US interests are aligned with that minority, and for
the (usually short) time period the interests are aligned.
“The alleged “struggle” by the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, referred to by the terrorists and their foreign sponsors as “East Turkistan,” consists of two essential components – a foreign harbored political front including the Washington D.C. and Munich-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and a militant front clearly backed by the US and NATO through intermediary groups like Turkey’s Grey Wolves … Encouraging separatism in China’s western Xinjiang region, if successful, would carve off a substantial amount of territory. In conjunction with US-backed separatism in China’s Tibet region, an immense buffer region stands to be created that would virtually isolate China from Central Asia.”
So, just as the US funded and trained Operation Gladio warriors to fight communism in Europe, Mujahideen fighters to battle the USSR, ISIS to battle Syria, it is also preparing for war with China by funding and training the ‘separatists’, whoever they may be, in this case the Uyghurs.
“Chinese militants from the western region of Xinjiang have fled from the country to get “terrorist training” from Islamic State group fighters for attacks at home, state media reported on Monday.”
Initiating a Trade War
There is no doubt that it was the US under Trump who initiated the US-China trade war. As such, these series of HK protests are part of the negotiating strategy.
Even before he took office, Trump took to twitter bashing China for its supposed economic exploitation of the US. Trump says the objective is a better trade deal with China to benefit all Americans, but this trade war is producing a massive fallout and host of negative effects for American consumers, farmers and manufacturers.
“How about China’s economy? Are Trump’s tariffs crushing the Chinese economy? Not really. During Jan-May 2019, China’s exports to the US fell about 5%, but China’s exports to the EU rose more than 14%. And, guess what, EU is China’s #1 trading partner (and ASEAN is the #2 trade partner), while the US is #3. So, China keeps growing at a healthy pace — even the IMF predicts a healthy 6.2% real GDP growth for China this year!
But here’s the kicker. While China’s exports to the US fell 4.8%, the reverse — US exports to China — fell by a whopping 24% (for the first five months of 2019). So, US exporters and farmers are hurting real bad. And Trump cannot win re-election without the support of those “great soybean/corn/pork farmers.””
Instigating a Color Revolution by way of the Hong Kong Protests
One of the most significant examples of US aggression against China is the instigation of a color protest or color revolution in Hong Kong. The aim is to provoke China into reacting harshly and violently, which would reinforce the Western perception that China is heavy-handed, tyrannical and totalitarian.
China has already moved troops to its southern mainland border, just across the water from Hong Kong. It is possible that another US objective is to push the protestors into declaring Hong Kong independent of China. But, you know what, they are going to hold back. They will not give the USA what it so obviously wants.
The idea behind the protests and the rioters In Hong Kong was all along to provoke another Tian An Men incident. This was quite obvious since the start of the protest. It now gets publicly acknowledged:
BBC Newsnight @BBCNewsnight - 11:00 UTC · Nov 19, 2019 “Some of the protesters seem to have an objective to provoke a military confrontation with China. They seem to want a Tiananmen Square outcome as success.”
Fmr Foreign Sec @Jeremy_Hunt says he is “concerned with the tactics” with some of #HongKong’s protesters.
Had China moved troops to Hong Kong, or allowed more force to be used against the protesters, the U.S. would have used that to press its allies to put strong sanctions on China. The protesters' violence was designed to achieve that outcome. The plan was part of the larger U.S. strategy of decoupling from China.
The plan failed because China was too smart to give the U.S. what it wanted. Now it is Trump who is under pressure. He needs the trade deal with China because the current trade war is doing harm to the U.S. economy and endangers his reelection.
Which is probably the real reason why the protests have died down.
- Posted by b on November 22, 2019 at 19:02 UTC | Permalink
There are some who say the Hong Kong protests are a grassroots affair. There is usually a grassroots element to many of these protests, but almost always the bigger factor in the shadows is US interference (or US-UK, or US-UK-Israeli, interference).
“The Extradition Law revision that started this was only a convenient proxy for those wanting chaos in HK to create chaos. The instigators behind the initial protest march are the same ones who started Occupy Central five years ago. They are the ones who huddle with operatives from US/UK Consulates, who travelled to the Washington/London/Brussel/Taipei, etc. to see politicians and plot strategies, to arrange for funding, and to recruit dare devils for the carnage. Lucky for them that HK was ripe for such shenanigans because HKers in general are sullen over their loss of superiority complex against mainland Chinese, brainwashed subconsciously through schools and churches about CCP wickedness, and desperately stressed under HK’s economic realities. Most of the protesters don’t even know what the Extradition Law is all about …”
“The instigators, however, are well versed in all the intricacies. They know who they can easily recruit and order to do violence … they know the fifth column within the government and business … If large casualties result what do they care? … [T]hey know their foreign backers are only too glad to see Chinese killing Chinese …”
“By the way, the US Consulate in HK has over 1,000 on payroll (an estimated 200 CIA agents), UK’s is over 500 (among them MI6 agents). That size of consulate in a city of less than 400 sq. miles of land (over half of which mountainous) is a laughable anomaly, wouldn’t you think? What are they all there for?”
And yes, there is proof. The senior US consulate member Julie Eadeh
was photographed secretly meeting with the top 2 leaders of the Hong
Kong protests, Joshua Wong and Nathan Law.
The senior US consulate member Julie Eadeh was photographed secretly meeting with the top 2 leaders of the Hong Kong protests, Joshua Wong and Nathan Law.
Remember – the NED now does overtly what the CIA did covertly decades ago. Allen Weinstein, one of the founders of NED, confessed that “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
NED has been equipping the HK protestors out of CIA enclaves inside of Hong Kong.
To an American, I sound like some kind of Chinese lover / Communist sympathizer. But the difference between myself and Joe and Suzy average is that I LIVE HERE. I see the changes and the differences FIRST HAND.
I can compare things directly, and I don’t need to be told what to believe by an actor playing a newscaster on television.
I'm a Hongkonger, so allow me to inject some perspectives here as a very concerned onlooker to what is happening. I'd admit my views are in the slim minority among fellow Hongkongers, and likely be laughed off as a conspiracy-theory monger or a Commie groupie.
The Extradition Law revision that started this was only a convenient proxy for those wanting chaos in HK to create chaos. The instigators behind the initial protest march are the same ones who started Occupy Central five years ago. They are the ones who huddle with operatives from US/UK Consulates, who travelled to the Washington/London/Brussel/Taipei, etc. to see politicians and plot strategies, to arrange for funding, and to recruit dare devils for the carnage. Lucky for them that HK was ripe for such shenanigans because HKers in general are sullen over their loss of superiority complex against mainland Chinese, brainwashed subconsciously through schools and churches about CCP wickedness, and desperately stressed under HK's economic realities. Most of the protesters don't even know what the Extradition Law is all about, but what the heck, it seemed like a good party to participate in, no?
The instigators, however, are well versed in all the intricacies. They know who they can easily recruit and order to do violence; they know the Basic Law and its fuzzy edges; they know the influences of clergy/university,high-school teachers; they know the fifth column within the government and business; they know HKers' irrational sensitivity towards so-called world opinions; they know that the foreign judges (which consist of 95% of the court) and foreign press are solidly behind them. Thus, they wanted to sock it to China; the more direly the better. If large casualties result what do they care? None of their own children were among the crowd and casualties would surely enlarge that blackeye they were to deliver. And they know their foreign backers are only too glad to see Chinese killing Chinese.
Like someone said in posts before mine, this incident is more similar to Maidan than any other color revolution prior. US/UK/Taiwan/Oz/Japan are enjoying their 5-minutes of glory and celebration at this point. The blowback, however, will come years and decades later.
By the way, the US Consulate in HK has over 1,000 on payroll (an estimated 200 CIA agents), UK's is over 500 (among them MI6 agents). That size of consulate in a city of less than 400 sq. miles of land (over half of which mountainous) is a laughable anormaly, wouldn't you think? What are they all there for?
-Posted by: Oriental Voice | Aug 14 2019 19:22 utc | MoA
The USA is collapsing, and like a snarling, rabid dog is snapping and thrashing about as it plummets further and further into the black, black abyss. The idea that somehow, the USA can wrestle back some of it’s old “greatness” by stalling the rise of China is a chimera.
America the nation that was founded as a republic no longer exists. it has been replaced with something different. First a “democracy”. Then after untold number of amendments, “mob rule”. Then with the consolidation of the mainstream press, an oligarchy.
It’s just an illusion. It’s not going to happen.
Evil Outlaw US Empire planners in their hubristic zeal to decouple from China's economy erred massively in thinking China would be the one harmed and come begging for a trade deal. Instead, China's geoeconomic strategy is clearly working and is more potent than what the Empire can bring to the table--Oops! China can now play Trump.
- Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 22 2019 21:16 utc | 20
But in the meantime, these are dangerous times we live in, and Nuclear warfare is nothing to trifle with.
What the American media is showing are distortions and lies. They are dangerous.
To understand what is going on you need to see the FULL picture. Not only what the “deep state” wants you to see to the exclusion of all else.
Links about China
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
Globalists Wanted to Exploit Asia, but China Surprised Them.
So, here I am, checking out my various social media feeds and see all sorts of chaos and tumult. And, as I get past the sensationalism, and the horror, I see a common thread. Some how and in some way, the United States, through various agents, agencies, or funding venues, lie at the root of all the unrest.
Is this what it seems to be?
The kicking, thrashing, and screaming of a dying empire? Or is it something else? In my mind, it seems an awful lot like the American empire is dying, and it is NOT going away quietly in the night. It is going down, and thrashing about everywhere in shrieking pain.
Thus…
This post.
This post is about an ingenious plan that went awry and altered the trajectory of history. And we, well, we are living during this fourth most Tumultuous period in American history.
The previous three periods were…
The Revolutionary War
The American Civil War
World War II
This plan was doomed to fail from the get-go, simply because it relied on far to many assumptions about non-Americans. And now, well, we are starting to witness that failure in all it’s ugly glory.
What do all these presidents have in common? They all believed that they could take control of China and annex it just like they did to Japan in the 1980’s.
The plan was conceived and implemented over a century by many of my colleagues and (or course) their predecessors. These people were, collectively, the smartest and the most visionary people in the world.
A mere 25 years ago, the plan seemed to have come to fruition, and western intellectuals talked not only about the end of the Cold War, but the “end of history.”
The first stage implementation of the NWO – The New World Order, where the Earth would be divided into shared “estates”.
We were all so excited about the imminent New World Order (which is now referred to as the “international rules-based order”). Everything was lining up and falling into place.
Then Asia happened.
The Big Grand Plan
After WWII, we Americans, established an unprecedented system to control half the world. As such by 1992, we were confident about bringing in the other half.
We were so close to total global control and domination.
So close…
After WWII, we Americans, established an unprecedented system to control half the world. As such by 1992, we were confident about bringing in the other half.
In the early 1990s, China and India represented not only 40% of world’s population but also a vast pool of consumers and diligent workers. At the same time, my colleagues also appreciated the opportunity to make trillions of dollars.
It was win-win.
Unlike the average westerner who saw Asia only as a land of poor and
uneducated people, we understood its potential. After all, for the first
1800 years of the last 2000 years, the two largest economies in the
world were … China and India.
The gross world product (GWP) is the combined gross national product of all the countries in the world. Because imports and exports balance exactly when considering the whole world, this also equals the total global gross domestic product (GDP). According to the World Bank, the 2013 nominal GWP was approximately US$75.59 trillion.
Of course, bringing more than 2 billion people into our system would also mean sudden loss of jobs, drastic reduction in wages, and a painful drop in the standard of living for many Americans and Europeans.
No matter, however.
We deliberately ignored or downplayed these inevitable ramifications. We all figured that we would deal with the complexities of these issues later on… down the road.
So, how did our plan turn out? Let’s look.
First, the original plan for the New Global Order. This is the blueprint that was established and how it was intended to be set up as.
This is the original plan for the New Global Order. It was drawn up in the 1940’s. 1942 to be exact.
India
India worked out splendidly, just as we planned. Although India was hesitant about opening up their economy — understandable, given their experiences with British colonialism — we gained their trust by helping millions of Indians emigrate to the West.
In return, India privatized most of their major industries, including their media, and allowed us to become major shareholders. Now, India is tightly integrated into our system.
China
But then there’s China.
The biggest prize slipped away from our fingers. Most people don’t realize that the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989 was actually a “color revolution”. It was manufactured by the CIA, MI6 and social engineering experts, Gene Sharp and George Soros. Indeed, we even had recruited China’s Gorbachev – Zhao Ziyang, the top leader of the Chinese Communist Party.
Alas, the strategy failed, and Zhao Ziyang ended up spending the rest of his life in house arrest.
After that, we decided to pursue a patient approach, since we didn’t
want to lose China’s efficient and cheap factories. Furthermore, we
assumed that:
As China got richer, its people will NATURALLY get rid of the communist party, and replace it with “democracy”.
Western products will ALWAYS dominate the Chinese consumer market
Chinese manufacturing will FOREVER remain stuck in the low/medium-end of the value chain, since (everyone knows) innovation is impossible in an authoritarian society
China will become, at the best, only a regional power. After all, throughout its history, China had never demonstrated much desire in foreign relations.
Americans are seemingly looking more and more like a parody of idiocracy.”
Well, guess what?
Yup. Every one of our assumptions turned out to be wrong. China’s GDP grew 27-fold from 1989 to 2017, and yet 84% of Chinese are happy with their socialist government. Also, what was supposed to be just a factory for the West, became the largest trading partner for more than 130 countries.
Confounding our expectations, China has become #1 or #2 in many areas of hi-tech industries including solar energy, electric vehicles, smartphones, supercomputers, Artificial Intelligence and mobile payments. 9 out of the top 20 most valuable internet companies are now Chinese.
Most Americans have no idea that there is prosperity in China. China’s GDP grew 27-fold from 1989 to 2017, and yet 84% of Chinese are happy with their socialist government.
The fact that a Chinese company, ZTE, made the world’s first 5G phone call earlier this year should be a “Sputnik Moment” for us.
Worst of all, China has proved the benefits of public banking.
Without the government getting into debt, Chinese public banks give massive long-term loans for infrastructure at extremely low interest rates. This has enabled China to build 25,000 Km of high-speed railway systems, modern cities and other infrastructure projects that benefit the Chinese people.
Such socialistic model makes our private banking system look bad!
America is trying to grapple with a changing global power base. In order for us to control the rest of the world, we need to invest that money in military might around the world to control others, other nations, and obtain advantage for the American way of life! Yessur! We shouldn’t spend tax money on Americans in America. No! The money should be spread out all over the globe to fight for Democracy! Yessur!
Finally, we never thought that China would develop a grand vision such as the Belt and Road Initiative (the modern Silk Road).
While we build military bases around the world, China is building high-speed railways, highways, seaports, airports, power plants and pipelines in 65 different countries. If this continues, there’s no doubt who’s going to have more global influence in the near future.
The biggest threat to western dominance is the Made in China 2025 plan. If they achieve expertise in semiconductor chips and a few other industries, we Americans will lose our global hegemony.
“China must be stopped” is the rallying cry of the oligarchy elite.
Hows Stuff Works is for fags. Electrolytes are what plants crave. Duh.
Rest of Asia
Something remarkable has been happening all over Asia (I will narrowly use the word here to refer to only Asia Pacific. Technically, Asia extends all the way from Russia to the Middle East).
After WWII, Japan succeeded in a brilliant way, which inspired the Asian Tigers – South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. However, the wild fire of enthusiasm really caught on when China lifted 700 million people out of extreme poverty and created the world’s largest middle class.
No. 66 Middle School in Urumqi, northwest China is home to 2,400 children from 13 different ethnic groups. They are all part of a Chinese government programme helping ethnically diverse students in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to receive higher quality of education.
Known as the Xinjiang Class, the programme was introduced in 2000 to offer children living in the region’s remote areas the possibility to attend a top junior high school (ages 12-15), preparing students to then attend a senior high school in one of 17 cities across the country.
Now, every country from India to Indonesia to Vietnam feels optimistic and confident that they can succeed as well, and many of them are consistently growing at breakneck rates of 6-7% per year. Economists say that 88% of the next 1 billion people to enter the global middle class will be from Asia. Thus it’s no wonder that Asians are now far more optimistic than westerners about the direction of their countries.
Asian countries – including even North Korea – have realized that
wars and conflicts only get in the way of prosperity. This is, of
course, very bad for our divide-and-rule strategy — we were hoping to
use Taiwan, Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and India to contain China.
Map of China and Japan. Showing the location of the “contested” Senkaku / Diaoyu islands. If Japan can control these islands, then the United States can place a military base there, right next to China. Therefore it is a critically important location from which America can control China.
If Asia continues to enjoy peace and cooperation, the geopolitical
center of gravity will shift dramatically. Many people don’t realize
that, in terms of purchasing power, China is already larger than the US.
In nominal GDP, by 2030, China will be bigger than the US, India will
be bigger than Germany, and Asia will account for 40% of global GDP.
By 2050, the top five world economies might consist of four Asian countries.
While the rising Asian middle class is a lucrative consumer market for our corporations, we dread the rise of multi-national Asian corporations in a decade or two.
In other words, we want Asians to be rich enough to buy Colgate and Pampers, but not too rich to mass produce toothpaste and diapers; we don’t mind Asians becoming the CEOs of Google and Microsoft, we just don’t want them to develop their own search engines and operating systems. We want to be in control. Us, and us alone.
Who knows what this will lead towards, if the rest of the world is prosperous?
For this reason, China must be stopped. The New Silk road must be thwarted. China needs to be put back into it’s rightful place as a servant to the American consumer and puppet to the global leadership.
Steps are being taken.
We have Hong Kong “fifth column” actions in progress.
We also have radical Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. Both of these efforts will stymie the development of the Silk Road and enable the United States to maintain a global leadership role.
Conclusion
In the early 1970s, David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger convinced the Chinese elites to open up their economy.
Then we created the WTO in 1995 and enlisted 128 countries, knowing very well what it would do to American/European manufacturing.
Letting China into the WTO in 2001 accelerated the outsourcing of jobs from Europe and the US. To hide the devastation, we created the housing bubble on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Now, we’re also effectively using mass immigration and other social engineering tools to keep people distracted.
I will admit that, blinded by hubris and greed, we misjudged the rise of Asia, especially China.
America will still be able to control the world, it’s just a slight setback while the superior knowledge and skills of the American leadership arrange the globe to fit our needs.
However, let me remind you that we have brought down many empires over the last 250 years. We’re not going to simply sit back and let revisionist powers rewrite the world order. This is why the next decade will be both fascinating and dangerous.
China’s Silk Road.
A Final Note
I wrote this “tongue in cheek” from the point of view of someone in favor of the United States maintaining global control. But, this is not the 1960’s and the world is indeed a dangerous place. The United States is going through “death spasms” and if we are all not careful, it could bring the rest of us down with it.
I do not like this situation. I am fearful of it. If there is anything that I could advise, it would be for people to calm down, have a few beers and stop trying to control other people. Let everyone else prosper. If they are doing well, good for them. It’s not your problem. Stop trying to fight, fight, fight.
There’s enough to go around for everyone.
This is what New York City will look like if America tries to initiate another proxy war with a major nuclear-armed superpower. They are a serious, serious nation. They DO NOT PLAY.
Links about China
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
This article connects hawkish neocons with outrageous theft of enormous amounts of money. They sponsor a war, people die, and they cart away pallet loads of money. This has happened time and time again, but few talk about it. But it’s a real thing, and it’s a real problem. Here we talk about it.
Executive summary
When there is a war, there is a great deal of confusion. The nation involved in the strife loses control of their assets, and the attacking forces live in a period of confusion. Funds, often enormous, are poured into the region, to help “stabilize” it. However, the fact remains that the funds, the moneys and all the banks in the disputed combat areas are all “up for grabs”. Thus offering an enormous bonanza for the people who are involved in the subjugation of a given region.
It becomes a wonderful mechanism for military leaders, and politicians, to become enormously wealthy within a short period of time.
War is a way for politicians to become insanely wealthy in a short period of time.
And as such, the United States has turned this into a racket.
The basis for this article
This article was inspired by another article titled; The case of the missing $6.6 billion. In which the author Bill Ardolino asked on June 13th, 2011 what happened to the billions of dollars in “humanitarian aid”, and “infrastructure investments” that the United States gave to Iraq to rebuild their nation.
He argued that Iraq still looks like a pile of mud huts with pot-hole filled dirt roads and a nation devoid of any kind of serious infrastructure rivaling that of before the Iraq conflict. He is right.
Iraq is a big mess with no obvious reconstructive efforts by any measurable degree. What happened? Where did the money go, and why are Americans still expected to pick up the tab?
Billions of dollars. Billions.
Pallets of US currency arriving in Iraq. Source: US Congress, House Committee on Government Reform.
Q Chimes in
The Corrupt System Has Been Ripping Off the US TaxpayerQ!!mG7VJxZNCI
24 Nov 2019 - 4:24:25 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNqKhRcpktU📁[16:00]
"Are we going to be sending massive amounts of money that simply goes into other people's [personal] bank account(s) [theft]." - POTUS
Who audits where foreign aid actually goes?
Nobody.
Foreign aid > Country [X] > Personal Bank Accts [+US person(s) involved].
Think Iran.
Think Paris Accord [attempt].
Think All.
Corrupt system.
Do you think [GS] is spending his own money re: push of radical viewpoint adoption?
US TAXPAYER payments [aid] > directly/indirectly [GS] organizations?
Re-read drops re: 'Foreign Aid'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2qIXXafxCQ&feature=youtu.be📁[Listen carefully]
RETURNING POWER TO THE PEOPLE.
DRAINING THE SWAMP.
POTUS IS FIGHTING FOR YOU.
It's been a long time since we've had a non_corrupt POTUS who cares for the people, and not himself.
Q
After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration flooded the conquered country with so much cash to pay for reconstruction and other projects in the first year that a new unit of measurement was born.
Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.
This month, the Pentagon and the Iraqi government are finally closing the books on the program that handled all those Benjamins. But despite years of audits and investigations, U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion in cash — enough to run the Los Angeles Unified School District or the Chicago Public Schools for a year, among many other things.
And it’s not only the “humanitarian funds” send by well-wishing Americans and generous Congressmen, but rather the entire gold bullion of the nation in strife…
Gaddaf al-Dam recalled that in 2011, the Libyan state had approximately $600 billion worth of assets inside and outside the country, including $200 billion in bank accounts abroad, along with tons of gold and silver. Six years on, all of this has been plundered. “During these six years, not a single brick has been laid. The streets of the capital have no electricity, the water supply has been turned off, wages are not paid.” Schools are not functioning. “This all a time bomb, and poses a threat to the future.”
The post-invasion chaos in Iraq was severe enough that massive sums of money regularly went missing, the majority (is) thought to have found its way into the pockets of those Iraqis who were early to adopt dialogue with Coalition forces.
Some of it undoubtedly funded the insurgency.
American neocons love wars because they can plunder without consequence, and they can become enormously wealthy in the process. We are not talking about a nice mansion. We are talking about purchasing hundreds of mansions for one corrupt neocon politician.
In 2008, an Iraqi politician told theLWJ his positive assessment that the “major” corruption, the deals worth “hundreds of millions of dollars,” were over.
But he anticipated that the “middle to lower-level corruption will continue for a long time and will be a huge problem.” This was progress of a depressing sort, I thought at the time.
Last we heard, Iraqi’s gold was all taken by the Americans already, immediately after the Iraq invasion. The gold now was bought by the new Iraq army by selling the weapons they received from American military aid. I’m sure ISIL would’ve preferred to have those weapons instead of this gold.
The lack of effective accounting controls in place to manage Iraqi use of funds, both oil receipts and international aid, was shocking then, and continued to surprise, despite noticeable improvements at the ministry and ground levels.
A relevant amount of corruption along the lines of baksheesh and “ghost soldiers” is culturally inevitable in Iraq, but the fact that individuals and organizations could steal that quantity of money is a big deal, and potentially very harmful to US security interests.
The lack of effective accounting controls in place to manage Iraqi use of funds, both oil receipts and international aid, was shocking then, and continued to surprise, despite noticeable improvements at the ministry and ground levels.
It almost goes without saying that billions can buy lots of people, Kalashnikovs and IED components.
In fact, the best case scenario is that a number of Americans, Iraqi political figures, and Iraqi businessmen are merely living incredibly large off ill-gotten gains and pumping most of the money into the economies of Jordan and Dubai.
Fingers crossed.
Moon over Alabama adds his two cents…
The Washington Post liberated some 2,000 pages of more than 400 interview transcripts and summaries from the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). The interviews were with officials and soldiers involved in the war on Afghanistan.
Reading through the threepartseries on the papers is depressing. The opinions and narrations of the insiders are, as could be expected, devastating:
“We were devoid of a fundamental understanding of Afghanistan — we didn’t know what we were doing,” Douglas Lute, a three-star Army general who served as the White House’s Afghan war czar during the Bush and Obama administrations, told government interviewers in 2015. He added: “What are we trying to do here? We didn’t have the foggiest notion of what we were undertaking.”
Since 2001 the U.S. has spent more than $1 trillion on Afghanistan. Most of the money has flown back to 'contractors' in the United States. A significant part, whatever bribes and corruption would generate, was invested by Afghan officials in real estate in Dubai.
In public, U.S. officials insisted they had no tolerance for graft. But in the Lessons Learned interviews, they admitted the U.S. government looked the other way while Afghan power brokers — allies of Washington — plundered with impunity. Christopher Kolenda, an Army colonel who deployed to Afghanistan several times and advised three U.S. generals in charge of the war, said that the Afghan government led by President Hamid Karzai had “self-organized into a kleptocracy” by 2006 — and that U.S. officials failed to recognize the lethal threat it posed to their strategy.
Little of the money reached the common people of Afghanistan. Where it did it was wasted on projects that Afghanistan will never be able to sustain. The corruption is one reason why many Afghans tolerate or even favor Taliban rule.
- Some Truth About The War On Afghanistan
The United States government responds.
Well, having the claim that neocons and the government are after gold and riches does not fit the narrative that those in power want to project. They want to keep on continuing with their plunder unabated. So they utilize “fact checking” organizations to validate their narrative (and they pay them handsomely, don’t you know.)
Here’s a link to their version of the story. Note that it does not address the lack of infrastructure growth, new public works, or anything that they infrastructure investment is supposed to create. All they do is say… “Nah. It’s false, don’t you know.”
A certain degree of error is expected and excusable in the circumstances of post-invasion Iraq.
But $6.6 billion-worth is not.
Soldiers can become enormously wealthy by plundering the banks of the land that they seize. They can also acquire all the money sent from home for humanitarian reasons and purposes. They can “pocket” it and build a couple of hundred mansions and hire security guards to protect their gains.
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At a press conference held by the government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Saturday, Elijan Anayit, a spokesperson for the Information Office of the Xinjiang government, condemned the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which in September published a report titled "Documenting Xinjiang's Detention System," falsely claiming that China is persecuting ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
Anayit said the claims are totally fabricated and don't hold water. He explained that from 2010 till the end of 2018, the Uygur population in Xinjiang increased by 25.04 percent, rising from 10.1715 million to 12.7184 million, whereas the Han population increased by just 2.0 percent, rising from 8.8299 million to 9.0068 million.
-Former Xinjiang trainees share their training center experiences
news.cgtn.com
This article takes a comprehensive and serious look at the abuse of the Uyghur Muslims at the hands of the dastardly Chinese Communists. We look at who this group of people are, and their culture, and what is going on regarding their relationship with the Chinese central government in Beijing. We also take a good hard look at how they are being used as pawns in a global wide game of geopolitical politics.
“1 million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps!” ...
“Ethnic Cleansing and Cultural Genocide!” ...
PBS NewsHour: Inside China's brutal persecution of Uighur Muslims - Season 2019 Episode
Yikes! These emotional phrases are very effective in geopolitical arguments. Often they are used as excuses to acquire money and funding out of the United States Congress towards one or more "efforts at spreading democracy".
You know, just like the (so called) "successful" pro-democracy movements in Libya, Iran, Cuba, Syria, Iran, and now Venezuela. Look at just how successful American tax-dollars are promoting democracy around the world!
It's a better way to spend the money, don't you know, than rebuilding Baltimore... Right?
Why rebuild Baltimore?
We shouldn’t spend tax money on Americans in America. No! The money should be spread out all over the globe to fight for Democracy! Yessur!
So what’s the real story about the Chinese Uyghur Muslims? Let’s look at this issue in detail. Let’s go beyond exaggeration, distortion and sensationalism.
But let’s first review the propaganda.
You know. The propaganda that is directly aimed at YOU, the American reader. It’s all that propaganda to justify your Congressman throwing lavish parties, and hauling pallet-loads of “Benjamins” to far-away shadowy entities to spend as they see fit.
You know… for “democracy“.
After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration flooded the conquered country with so much cash to pay for reconstruction and other projects in the first year that a new unit of measurement was born. Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time. The only thing is that once the money was handed over to the American military forces for “safe-keeping” it disappeared.
After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration flooded the conquered country with so much cash to pay for reconstruction and other projects in the first year that a new unit of measurement was born.
Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.
This month, the Pentagon and the Iraqi government are finally closing the books on the program that handled all those Benjamins. But despite years of audits and investigations, U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion in cash — enough to run the Los Angeles Unified School District or the Chicago Public Schools for a year, among many other things.
-Long War Journal
The Uyghur propaganda serves a purpose.
It is to support regional CIA activities within China. Create a war where allocated funds can be easily diverted. And, in so doing, channel the allocated tax dollars back to Washington and into the pockets of the oligarchy. That is why the neocons love war so much. The war zone is all confused and it is very easy to siphon money into their wallets.
It’s an enormous racket.
The Uyghur propaganda serves a purpose. It is to support regional CIA activities within China. Create a war where allocated funds can be easily diverted. And, in so doing, channel the allocated tax dollars back to Washington and into the pockets of the oligarchy. That is why the neocons love war so much. The war zone is all confused and it is very easy to siphon money into their wallets.
I recall, as probably most people don’t, that the Central Intelligence Agency, with assistance from some of China’s neighbors, put $30 million into the destabilization of Tibet and basically financed and trained the participants in the Khampa rebellion and ultimately sought to remove the Dalai Lama from Tibet–which they did.
They escorted him out of Tibet to Dharamsala.
There were similar efforts made with the Uyghurs during the Cold War that never really got off the ground. In both cases you had religion waved as a banner in support of a desire for independence or autonomy which, of course, is anathema to any state.
- US Ambassador Chas. H. Freeman.
Anti-China propaganda focusing on the Uyghur Muslims
The propaganda can get pretty ridiculous, and it often is…
Role Reversal:
Washington is reportedly sending white men to sleep in the same beds as black Detroit women while their husbands are serving time in prison. It's a racist racket against women of color.
Yes. It is that ridiculous.
You’ve got to be shitting me. That people actually believe this nonsense. But there you have it. American press reporting on a statement made by…
Yup, the United States funded propaganda mouth piece for Asia.
Radio Free Asia is a CIA front organization.
Nah, you might say. It just can’t be CIA! There must be a mistake, you argue. The CIA doesn’t get involved in these kinds of things. Right? But…
The International Broadcasting Independent Grantee Organization grant program provides funding for projects that support freedom and democracy by enhancing an understanding about America and the world to overseas audiences. Grant funding is limited to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks.
-United States Grants for Radio
And the connections are everywhere. All you need to do is a mere five minutes of research to connect the dots.
The CIA and all this meddling is friggin’ everywhere. And, it’s not the only one…
"Eminent scholar Jerry Cohen likens to the situation in Xinjiang to that of Nazi Germany, where dozens of his relatives were detained, tortured and killed under a similarly totalitarian regime. The connection between the totalitarian ideology of the Chinese Communist Party and modern-day surveillance technology has resulted in a terrible degradation of human rights for the Uyghur people."
- China’s Escalating Repression of the Uyghurs
My goodness!
Who is this “expert” who is equating China with Nazi’s? Well, a quick search on the internet identifies him as a “venerable expert on Chinese affairs“. Where he is found working and writing for the American publication “National Review”. (A Conservative “Hawkish” Neocon Publication.) He is considered to be “a skilled and talented advocate for world-wide “democracy””.
This organization is a true war-mongering alliance, that uses the cover of “American Conservatism”, for substantive reputation.
But, you know, this no longer flies true in the latest iteration of American Conservative thought. Since 2016, the American conservative movement has had a major shake-up. Americans are sick and tired of Democrats calling themselves Conservatives, just because they love to fight proxy wars.
"Their unceasing agitation against a compromise peace in the Middle East, coupled with their lobbying for America to endorse to Sharon’s ongoing humiliation of the Palestinians, has managed to make America hated in parts of the world where it used to be admired, even loved.
Some of that hatred has been turned—should we be surprised?—into anti-American terror.
Now, as it prepares to occupy Iraq against the will of much of the Middle East while facing a rejuvenated al-Qaeda, America has fewer real friends and more ill-wishers than ever in its history.
This is in considerable part the “accomplishment” of America’s neocons..."
- Among the Neocons
So what is going on, eh?
Since the start of the Iraq War, the United States has sent tens of billions of dollars in assistance to Iraq, a large portion of which has been squandered or simply disappeared.
So we know [1] that a major United States publication that supports Conservative Neocon ambitions; global proxy wars, is writing the anti-China Uyghur Muslim narratives.
We also know that they [2] have an “expert” that writes about the Muslims in China.
Further, [3] by “connecting the dots”, we know that the CIA, via the NED and NID funds this effort; the author and the publication.
Finally, we can see [4] the target is CIA directed to use the Uyghur Muslims as pawns in America-instigated revolution within China.
And as such…
[5] American tax-payer funds can be rerouted to other destinations. Destinations where the neocon sponsors can extract enormous profits.
They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time. The only thing is that once the money was handed over to the American military forces for “safe-keeping” it disappeared. All 21 plane-loads.
Who is this “expert” who reports these issues?
"Eminent scholar Jerry Cohen likens to the situation in Xinjiang to that of Nazi Germany..."
OK. Fine. We have a name rather than “sources”, or “it was reported”… We have someone that we can investigate.
Then, as such an “expert“, he should have lived in China for a few years, and should travel back and forth between China and the United States quite often. Right? He’s an expert… right? He has first-hand information that has affected his thoughts, emotions and attitudes. He must have tons of experience to ignite the (apparent) rage inside of him to write such a flood of articles about the Muslims in China. Right?
Nope.
Jerome A. Cohen has never lived in China.
NEVER.
N-E-V-E-R.
Never, as in doesn’t even speak Chinese. Never, as in doesn’t know what a Chinese license plate looks like. Never, as in has zero Chinese friends. Never, as in does not know the difference between Tianjin, and Dangguang.
Never.
Never, as in “knows Jack-shit.”
Never.
Yet… Yet, here he is instructing and “educating” Americans on how to think, and getting their emotions all riled up. Eh.
Out of the spotlight, active U.S. interference takes place through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
The NED is bankrolling Hong Kong "pro-democracy" and anti-Beijing groups such as the Solidarity Center (SC), the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor to the tune of millions. In 2018 alone the NED reports giving 155,000 U.S. dollars to the SC and 200,000 U.S. dollars to the NDI.
The NED is a sham NGO founded in 1983 to replace functions previously carried out by the CIA.
Philip Agee, a former CIA agent and author of "Inside the Company: CIA Diary" details how the CIA would set up front organizations and funnel money into destabilization campaigns.
After destabilization would come the coup-d'etat. The Brazilian 1964 coup that overthrew President João Goulart and the Chilean 1973 coup against Chilean President Salvador Allende were both backed by the CIA. In both instances, left-wing parties were deposed and replaced by right-wing military forces compliant to U.S. interests.
- Why is the National Endowment for Democracy fueling Hong Kong protests?
In particular, he (used to be) a member of the Uyghur Human Rights Project. Which enjoys full generous (taxpayer) funding out of the United States to institute regime changing efforts inside of China.
From 1984 to 1990 the NED received $15–18 million of congressional funding annually, and $25–$30m from 1991 to 1993. At the time the funding came via the United States Information Agency (USIA).
- National Endowment for Democracy - Wikipedia
That is CIA meddling to a “T”.
Since the start of the Iraq War, the United States has sent tens of billions of dollars in assistance to Iraq, a large portion of which has been squandered or simply disappeared.
Government auditors say some $61 billion was spent on reconstruction projects in Iraq from 2003 to 2012. At least 10 percent of the money cannot be accounted for. Some 15 percent of the money spent, or roughly $8 billion, was wasted.
-Fiscal Times
How about the Slave message inside Christmas cards?
A British girl discovered a message inside of a box of charity Christmas cards bought from British grocery giant Tesco saying it had been packed by inmates. (Screenshot from CBS News)
China on Monday denied accusations of forced labor at a Shanghai prison after media reported that a British girl found a message hidden in a Christmas card saying it had been packed by inmates, a piece of news later proved to be a “prank”.
Yeah. Sure.
“A prank”
The allegations came to light when The Sunday Times reported that six-year-old Florence Widdicombe from Tooting, south London, discovered a message inside of a box of charity Christmas cards bought from British grocery giant Tesco, reading…
“We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu Prison China. Forced to work against our will. Please help us, notify human rights organization and contact Mr. Peter Humphrey.”
The news suddenly captured worldwide attention, while many doubt its authenticity.
Coincidently, or maybe not, Peter Humphrey mentioned in the message is exactly the writer of the article, a British former journalist who was imprisoned in Qingpu Prison in Shanghai for over two years for trafficking personal data.
Peter Humphrey is a British former journalist who was imprisoned in Qingpu Prison in China. (Screenshot from The Globe and Mail)
In his report, Humphrey said he contacted several members of
ex-prisoners in Qingpu Prison, who confirmed they had been packing
Christmas cards for Tesco for at least two years, and were “being forced
into mundane manual assembly or packaging tasks” for other Western
companies. However, he didn’t mention the identity of these prisoners
and the names of those Western companies.
On Monday, Zhejiang Yunguang Printing, the Chinese firm that supplies greeting cards to Tesco, slammed these “unfounded claims”, adding that they don’t have labor from Shanghai Qingpu Prison, according to Global Times.
This relationsip would be well documented and easy to prove,
China’s Foreign Ministry also dismissed the allegations, saying it was “just a drama choreographed by Mr. Peter Humphrey”. “After verifying with relevant departments, we know for sure that there is no forced labor of foreign prisoners in Qingpu Prison in Shanghai,” noted Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang.
The news has also received wide attention from netizens, many of whom questioned whether it was credible. (Screenshot from comments under BBC News’ official Facebook account)
The news has also received wide attention from netizens, many of whom questioned whether it was credible.
Something fishy out of the UK.
“There is so much misinformation, it’s almost impossible to say with any certainty where it came from,” reads a Facebook user’s comment.
The news has also received wide attention from netizens, many of whom questioned whether it was credible. (Screenshot from comments under BBC News’ official Facebook account)
This is not the first time that Humphrey has popped out into the spotlight with a headline or two.
In 2018, after he confessed to charges he illegally bought and sold the personal information to clients, he asked Britain’s media regulator to revoke the broadcast license of China’s state television for helping to stage his allegedly forced confession and subsequent jailing in China.
In response to Humphrey’s accusations, China’s Foreign Ministry
spokesman Geng said in a regular press briefing in November 2018 that
China hoped Britain can support and facilitate the reporting work of
international media in the UK. “China’s judicial departments handle
cases according to the law, and safeguard the legal rights and interests
of foreigners in China,” he added.
Fake stories concerning China stitched up by Western media is not unusual over these last few years.
Last month (November 2019), a piece of seemingly explosive news was reported by Australian media about a self-proclaimed spy Wang Liqiang who sought asylum in Australia, claiming to have reportedly given authorities information about operations in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia, which incurred heavy criticism from Australian media and politicians that China has interfered in the country’s politics and universities.
Ironically, Wang later confessed to fraud, making the story into a farce that put Australian media to shame.
Similarly, it is not surprising that Humphrey came back to the spotlight after one year of silence with a fake story, to which spokesman Geng replied by providing him with the advice that “if you want to grab more eyeballs, at least come up with some new tricks.”
Complete and absolute nonsense! Remember, boys and girls, any pronouncements (such as this) comes out of Beijing and is super-dooper well-documented.
I used to post on FreeRepublic. Then they sold out, just like Matt Drudge did. Now FR is something else. It is a mouth-piece for the oligarchy.
Now FR is something else. It is a mouth-piece for the oligarchy.
The CIA regime changing apparatus.
People! A recitation of the “talking points” of any CIA directive and regime changing apparatus should always be suspect.
No matter how much of a patriotic person you might be, the CIA, and the NED / NID have a terrible track-record of regime change. In almost every case resulting in death, bloodshed, and the implementation of an American-friendly dictatorship at the loss of freedom for the nations so targeted. As well as a mysterious loss of the allocated billions of dollars that was their charge.
Here’s some articles in case you don’t know what I am talking about…
America is currently fighting 8 simultaneous wars today. We have been in Afghanistan for almost 20 years. That is obscene.
World War II American involvement was three years.
World War I was four years.
The American Civil War was four years.
The first gulf war was one year.
What’s with all the wars?
In the past three years, over $3 billion in CASH was flown out of Kabul reports the Wall Street Journal. Officials don’t know exactly who got what, but have a general idea: “U.S. investigators believe top Afghan officials and their associates are sending billions of diverted U.S. aid and logistics dollars and drug money to financial safe havens abroad.” That’s still $9 billion less than what was lost in Iraq.
Why are Americans dying in far-away third-world nations? Why are we paying for it? Why is America trying to fight everyone?
Why are we the policeman for the world, and what’s all this nonsense about spreading “democracy“…?
Why are we flying pallet loads of untraceable cash to the regions and not using (observable) bank transfers? Why are the billions of dollars vanishing? Why is it all being done so surreptitiously?
American money began to disappear almost as soon as the Iraq War began. In 2004, $19 billion in reconstruction assistance was provided to Iraq. From 2005 to 2009, $26 billion was sent to Iraq for the same purpose.
A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report published in 2009 said much of this money was lost to waste, fraud and abuse. Stuart W. Bowen, Jr., then Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), testified to Congress in 2009 that 15 to 20 percent of this money was wasted.
-Fiscal Times
On top of that, consider that the Uyghurs in Xinjiang are not living in a third world shit hole. The “proxy-war model for personal financial gain” can have dire consequences!
Picking a fight with nuclear-armed, merit-ruled China is like dancing on top of a fuel-soaked mattress while sparking the flint on a lighter. It’s idiotic!
Meanwhile, Detroit, San Francisco and Baltimore are absolute "shit holes". There is something seriously wrong when Americans are willing to throw money away on nonsensical regime change, while ignoring the festering rot in their very own backyard.
Really! What is America today?
It is crazy and absolutely NOT sustainable.
What does China think about all this?
China is fully aware of what is going on.
Though the American (manipulated) public might not be. As such, they are proceeding cautiously with a smile on their faces. We should not ever be under the illusion that they are oblivious to the Neocon interest in regime change within China.
Most Americans haven’t a clue about China. Many think that it is a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. I am not at all kidding.
I remember talking to a woman at the checkout line in Conway, Arkansas. We ended up talking about China and how different it was. She sincerely thought that it was a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee.
Arkansas…
Most Americans do not know where China is located at relative to their hometown. In fact, polls have indicated that is is actually some confusion whether it is a separate nation, or another state residing within the United States. This extreme level of ignorance allows those in Washington D.C. to manipulate and control the thoughts and decisions of the average American citizen.
And when you talk about a subject specific to China, they act like a radical progressive democrat and shout loudly back at you. Often it is a canned phrase that they acquired off FOX news, or CNN. You know what I mean.
Canned phrases that can be repeated without thinking…
Communist!
Concentration camps.
Mind-control.
Religious prosecution!
Pretty amazing.
Brawndo – The Thirst Mutilator.
Knowledge Test
So one of the first things that I do when I end up getting sucked into a subject like this, is to pull out a map and ask the person which whom the discussion revolves, to point out where Xinjiang is.
If they are unable to locate it on a map, then I know that they are just a member of the mindless, manipulated American (and British) public.
You try. Give it a spin.
Where is Xinjiang on this map? Can you find it?
Blank simple map of China, no labels.
So, do you know where Xinjiang is? Point to it.
When I have run this little exercise… using a printer, and not allowing anyone to cheat using the internet, I am always surprised by the ignorance. (In fact, I actually carried up a folded printout in my backpack, for a spell.)
Initially, the person shrugs it off.
They won’t do it, and are insulted that you are trying to get them to show how ignorant they are. They do not like to be shown to be a fool. No one does, and so I cannot blame them. Can you?
I can't blame them. Most Americans can't point out Nebraska on a map, either.
It’s human nature, you know. We all want to think that we are brighter, smarter, and more intelligent than other people. So when we get into arguments, and it is pointed out that we are ignorant and manipulated, we resent it, and revolt against it.
OK.
Well, here is where Xinjiang is…
Map of China showing Xinjiang.
BRAWNDO’S GOT WHAT PLANTS CRAVE!Brawndo’s got electrolytes. And that’s what plants crave. They crave electrolytes. Which plants crave. they crave electrolytes. Which is what Brawndo has. And that’s why plants crave Brawndo. Not water, like from the toilet.
Don’t try to make sense of it, because you can’t. Just take note of the fact that Brawndo has electrolytes and does not come out of the toilet, I guess.
Brawndo’s got electrolytes. And that’s what plants crave.
What is Xinjiang like.
First of all, the media will never show the peaceful, prosperous parts of Xinjiang. Heck. They won’t show much of anything. It is extremely important for those in power to keep Americans ignorant of life outside of America.
An April 2005 audit concluded that CPA managers of [reconstruction] funds distributed in the South-Central region of Iraq could not account for more than $96.6 million in cash and receipts. An October 2005 audit found that South-Central personnel could not account for more than $20.5 million in Rapid Regional Response Program funds and made $2.6 million in excessive payments.”
Waste was not limited to mismanagement, however. Sometimes it was criminal, the report found.
“In late 2005, several U.S. citizens were criminally charged with respect to the handling of these funds—and have since pled guilty. In February 2007, five more were indicted, of whom four were convicted and one pled guilty,” CRS reported.
-Fiscal Times
American media is just one lie after the other. It’s all manipulation propaganda. Take heed.
So this is the kind of images that the media uses when discussing the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang…
Human rights observers and independent experts said Tuesday that China seems to start massive DNA collection work from residents of a volatile region, where most Muslims are under strong security crackdowns.
What they omit is that everyone in China has their DNA collected. I have my DNA collected in China, and I’m not even a citizen. Such selective reporting, and then presented with a negative spin is common in Western reporting of the Uyghurs.
The NGO reported that, while the government was not confiscating passports, however, acquiring a passport as an ethnic minority was near impossible. Beijing has dedicated significant effort in the past five years to curbing the freedoms of Xinjiang’s majority Uighur population, who are largely Muslim and whose state is home to a major separatist movement, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) .
This article comes on the heels of reports that China was confiscating passports. Which was proven false, and China demanded an apology.
Now, rather than retract the narrative, they rewrote it as “difficult to obtain a passport“. Not true either. But the march of propaganda must roll. Couple that with picture of army soldiers and you have an effective propaganda onslaught.
Here’s another example…
The Uighur Muslim community in China’s Xinjiang region are facing arbitrary detentions, daily restrictions on religious practice, and “forced political indoctrination” in a mass security crackdown, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.
“The Chinese government is committing human rights abuses in Xinjiang on a scale unseen in the country in decades,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. “The campaign of repression in Xinjiang is a key test of whether the United Nations and concerned governments will sanction an increasingly powerful China to end this abuse.” In its 117-page report, “‘Eradicating Ideological Viruses’: China’s Campaign of Repression Against Xinjiang’s Muslims,” Human Rights Watch presents new evidence of the Chinese government’s mass arbitrary detention, torture, and mistreatment, and the increasingly pervasive controls on daily life.
The way it reads sounds like the Muslims are being arrested and imprisoned because of their religion. That’s not the case. They are being imprisoned because they are [1] residents of Xinjiang and [2] they have committed crimes. Crimes like theft, murder, rape, and abductions.
Criminals exist all over the world.
That’s how propaganda works. It never provides the entire full and true situation. But, rather, it provides selected reports presented in a way to arouse emotions.
You know what? This is what Xinjiang really looks like…
Grand Bazaar in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang
Yeah. This is what it is really like, you all.
And Western media won’t talk about the billions of dollars that China has invested in Xinjiang, modernizing the cities, building 21 airports, linking with region with bullet trains etc.
This is hardly ever reported, but when it is, it is reported in a negative way. As if investing in things, buildings, constructions and hiring people is bad, terrible and unhealthy…
Having eliminated poverty and solved basic subsistence problems, the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang have now set their eyes on more prosperous lives, along with marked improvement in their standard of living.
In 2008, the per-capita net income of farmers in Xinjiang was 3,503 yuan, which is 28 times more than that of 1978, and 1.2 times more than that of 2000 when the western development campaign was launched; the per-capita disposable income of urban residents reached 11,432 yuan, which is 35 times more than that of 1978, and double that of 2001. The per-capita deposited savings of urban and rural residents averaged 14 yuan in 1955, 52 yuan in 1978, 4,913 yuan in 2000, and 11,972 yuan in 2008. Per-capita consumption was 122 yuan in 1952, 181 yuan in 1978, 2,662 yuan in 2000, and 4,890 yuan in 2007.
- Development and Progress in Xinjiang
Let’s compare the Chinese investment in Xinjiang with similar investments that the United States makes in America…
Uyghur High-Speed Rail in Xiajiang, China.
I’d try to compare it with the United States High Speed Rail, but I cannot. America doesn’t have high speed rail. Nor is America investing time and money to improve cultural minority enclaves. It is instead throwing money elsewhere.
Meanwhile, China is investing in Uyghur.
High-Speed Railway in Xinjiang
Ugyhur State-of-the-art Airports
I’d also like to compare the Uyghur airports with American airports, but I cannot do this either.
The latest international airport in the United States was built decades ago. At that time, people were still wearing bell-bottoms and wore afros.
The latest international airport in the United States was built decades ago. At that time, people were still wearing bell-bottoms and wore afros.
Anyways, the amount of monetary investment in Xinjiang is astounding, and the Uyghur workers who are all involved in building these projects are all making a decent life for themselves and their families. The Chinese, as a traditional conservative society, believes that people need a “hand up” to improve their social mobility. That means jobs for the men, opportunities for the children and community for the women.
Thus all the new and modern airports and public works.
International airport in Xinjiang, China.
In 2018, the 21 airports in Xinjiang handled 33 million passengers
And there are also thousands of mosques in Xinjiang, whose recorded
history goes back more than 2000 years when the ancient Silk Road linked
China to Italy and Greece. In China, there are mosques that were built
in the 10th century, which demonstrates the tolerance and respect for
religious rights in Chinese society.
Uyghur Religious Freedom in Xinjiang
If you read the American and British media, you would think that China is terribly repressive. Squashing free thought, and religious beliefs at will. It’s not true, not even remotely true. In fact, it’s absolute and complete nonsense.
You need to understand what is actually going on.
Xinjiang is the largest autonomous region in China, located in the Northwestern zone of the country. It is also where you will find the largest population of Muslims in China. Although the Hui Muslims make up the majority of Muslims in all of China, it is the Uyghur Muslims that are the largest in number when it comes to Xinjiang.
The Uyghurs are a Turkic Ethnic Group living in East and Central Asia, specifically the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. They are a group of racially diverse people, including a variety of ethnicities ranging from Caucasians to Mongoloids. As the area with the largest concentration of Muslims in China, there is no need to worry about finding nearby mosques and prayer places in Xinjiang.
This is the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China.
There are about 20,000 mosques in Xinjiang
Also to remember are two nuggets of information: [1] Xinjiang is a really vast region — it’s four times as large as California(!); and [2] Uyghurs make up only about 40% of Xinjiang’s population. It is the truth and is not something that all the anti-Chinese propaganda broadcasts.
Learn something for a change instead of accepting the mindless manipulations…
Since ancient times, Xinjiang has always been a region with a number of religions existing side by side. The major religions in Xinjiang today are Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Catholicism and Daoism. The Chinese government enacts a policy of freedom of religious belief, which the government of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has thoroughly implemented. It protects citizens' rights of freedom of religious belief in accordance with the law, safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of religious circles, and promotes healthy and orderly development of religion.
Freedom of religious belief is a basic right bestowed by the PRC Constitution on all its citizens. It is stipulated in the Constitution as follows: "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion. The state protects normal religious activities." In addition, the State Council promulgated "Regulations on Religious Affairs," which stipulates: "Citizens enjoy freedom of religious belief. No organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in any religion or citizens who do not believe in any religion. Citizens who believe in religions and those who don't shall respect each other and coexist in harmony, as shall citizens who believe in different religions." Other relevant laws and regulations have specific provisions on the protection of citizens' freedom of religious belief. The state emphasizes that all citizens are equal before the law; that the citizens have the freedom to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; that the citizens enjoy the rights of freedom of religious belief and at the same time must carry out corresponding responsibilities; that anyone who violates others' rights of freedom of religious belief shall bear the legal liability; and that both religious citizens and non-religious citizens shall bear the same legal liability for breaking the law.
In Xinjiang, people of all ethnic groups fully enjoy the right of freedom in religious belief. The people's freedom to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion is protected by the law, and no state organ, public organization or individual may interfere with their choice. By the end of 2008, the autonomous region had 24,800 venues for religious activities, including mosques, churches and temples, in addition to over 29,000 clerical personnel, 91 religious organizations and two religious colleges. Since the 1980s, more than 50,000 people from Xinjiang have made pilgrimages to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. In recent years, the number of people from Xinjiang who make the pilgrimage each year has been around 2,700. By 2008, over 1,800 religious personages in Xinjiang had been elected to posts in people's congresses and committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at all levels. They have actively participated in deliberation and administration of state affairs on behalf of religious believers, and in exercising supervision over the government in respect to the implementation of the policy of freedom of religious belief.
The state and the government of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region administer religious affairs and protect the legal rights and interests of believers, religious organizations and venues for religious activities in accordance with the laws. The State Council promulgated the "Regulations on Religious Affairs." The Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region formulated and promulgated the "Regulations for the Administration of Religious Affairs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region." The government of the autonomous region formulated the "Provisional Regulations for the Administration of Religious Activity Venues in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region," "Provisional Regulations for the Administration of Clergy in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region" and "Provisional Regulations for the Administration of Religious Activities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region." These regulations further clarify that the citizens enjoy the right of freedom in religious belief, and the country protects normal religious activities, as well as the legal rights and interests of believers, religious organizations and venues for religious activities in accordance with the law; that believers, religious organizations and venues for religious activities should abide by the Constitution and related laws and regulations, and safeguard national unification, ethnic unity and social stability; that no organization or individual may make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the state educational system, or in activities that harm state and public interests, as well as citizens' legal rights and interests; and that no one should use religion to interfere in the performing of administrative and judicial functions by the state.
According to corresponding laws and regulations, the autonomous region protects all normal religious activities held either at venues for religious activities or in believers' own homes in accordance with customary religious practices, such as worshipping Buddha, reciting scriptures, burning incense, worshipping, praying, preaching, attending Mass, being baptized or ordained, celebrating religious festivals, observing extreme unction, and holding memorial ceremonies, which are all protected by law as the affairs of religious bodies or believers themselves and may not be interfered with. However, the autonomous region shall ban, in accordance with the law, activities that make use of religion to intervene in the performing of administrative and judicial functions of the state, as well as education, marriage or civil lawsuits.
Religious affairs are developing in a normal and orderly manner in Xinjiang. Religious classics and books and magazines have been published, including the Koran, Selections from Al-Sahih Muhammad Ibn-Ismail al-Bukhari, Koran with Annotations and Selected Works of Waez, in Uyghur, Han, Kazak and Kirgiz languages, as well as the New Collection of Waez's Speeches series and the magazine China's Muslims in Uyghur and Han languages, the later with a circulation of over one million. Large numbers of mosques in Xinjiang have been designated as key cultural relics sites under the protection of the state, the autonomous region and the various counties. In 1999, the central government allocated 7.6 million yuan for the reconstruction of the Yanghang Mosque in Urumqi, the Baytulla Mosque in Yining and the Jamae Mosque in Hotan. The government has also, on several occasions, allocated special funds for the maintenance and repair of the Idkah Mosque in Kashi and Tomb of the Fragrant Imperial Concubine (Apak Hoja Mazzar), and Sulayman's Minaret in Turpan. In 2008 alone, 33 million yuan was allocated by the state for the maintenance and repair of Idkah Mosque and the Tomb of the Fragrant Imperial Concubine.
Now, most people of Xinjiang's 10 major ethnic minority groups, with a total population of over 11.3 million, believe in Islam. The number of Islamic mosques has soared from 2,000 in the early days of the reform and opening-up drive to 24,300 now, and the body of clergy from 3,000 to over 28,000. Since its founding, the Xinjiang Islamic Institute gives lessons in Uyghur and other minority languages and has trained 489 Imams, Hatips or other teachers for religious schools in the autonomous region. It currently has 161 students. From 2001 to 2008, the Xinjiang Islamic School trained more than 20,000 clerics. In addition, 3,133 Talips were trained by religious personages, in Islamic schools and classes operated by Islamic associations in the various prefectures and prefecture-level cities. Among them, 1,518 have graduated and 803 taken up clerical posts. In an attempt to cultivate high-caliber clerical personnel of Islam, since 2001, the regional government has sent 47 clerics for training in colleges and universities in Egypt and Pakistan.
Historically, the region witnessed many conflicts between different religions and between different sects of the same religion. In the mid-10th century, the Islamic Karahan Kingdom waged a religious war against the Buddhist kingdom of Yutian, lasting for more than 40 years. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, religious battles continued for several hundred years within Islamic circles. These wars between and within religions seriously jeopardized the unity between different religions and between different sects, as well as general social harmony and stability. Since the founding of the PRC, the implementation of the policy of freedom in religious belief and administration of religious affairs in accordance with the law have promoted peace and harmony between different religions in Xinjiang, as well as mutual respect and understanding between religious and non-religious citizens and between citizens believing in different religions. There have been no modern conflicts or clashes caused by differences in religion or religious sect.
- Development and Progress in Xinjiang
The American reaction…
Hows Stuff Works is for fags. Electrolytes are what plants crave. Duh.
Hows Stuff Works is for fags. Electrolytes are what plants crave. Duh.
Types of Uyghur Muslims
Now, let’s break down the facts. There are four types of Uyghur Muslims:
Well-educated Uyghurs who are moderate/secular Muslims
Poor and lower middle-class Uyghurs
Nomads
Separatists and terrorists
And let’s talk about them one by one. OK?
Moderate/Secular Uyghurs
These are middle or upper middle-class Muslims who enjoy normal lives, have good jobs, and integrate easily with the mainstream Chinese culture. There are even popular Uyghur musicians, TV hosts, rappers (!) etc. in China.
Here are two famous Uyghur actresses — Guli Nazha and Dilraba Dilmurat.
Guli Nazha’s Fashion Look on Instagram on May 2, 2019.
The beauty of the Uyghur Muslims is stunning.
Dilraba Dilmurat is a famous Uyghur Xinjiang, Chinese actress that is beloved all over China.
Uyghur kids from educated families go to schools, live normal lives and have a lot of fun on social media like Tik Tok (“Douyin” in China). Women post selfies and have followings. Many of which are wealthy Chinese elites from the East Coast.
A not-famous young Uyghur woman who posts on Chinese media and who has a rather large following of Chinese followers. You go Girl!
All through China, whether it is in Xingjiang or in Dongguang, the Chinese government supports education, and harmony though peaceful pursuits. Yes, I know, I sound like a propagandist. But, it is true.
The raising of children in a happy and secure world is the goal of the Chinese government, and the last four decades has proven this to be their objective.
Chinese football may have long been mostly known for its underachieving national team and their dismal record against rivals South Korea and Japan, but there is a football team in China that is without doubt the best in Asia, if not the whole world. Known as Wuxiao in Chinese, the team were crowned champions at the National Youth Campus Football Championship Finals four times in a row from 2012 to 2015, the only four years the national tournament has been held. On the continental stage, they won all four under-13 titles at the international Weifang Cup in Weifang, East China’s Shandong Province since they were invited to play in 2011. And they repeatedly beat teams from South Korea and Japan with a winning margin of nearly 10 goals during their run of success at the tournament.
Most Americans have no idea that there is prosperity in Xinjiang. All that they know is that China is bad and eats dogs. China is communist and represses everyone, and the Muslims in Xinjiang want “freedom” and “democracy” most urgently.
And Brawndo is what plant’s crave. It’s got electrolytes.
Most Americans have no idea that there is prosperity in Xinjiang. All that they know is that China is bad and eats dogs. China is communist and represses everyone, and the Muslims in Xinjiang want “freedom” and “democracy” most urgently. Oh, and Brando is good for you. It has electrolytes.
Working Class Uyghurs
There are also many working class Uyghurs who may own restaurants and gift shops or work as artists and craftsmen in touristy places. Their lives aren’t bad and most of them don’t get into trouble with the government.
Like anywhere in China, the families try to be upwardly mobile. That means, in China, through achievement and scholarship. The best students are granted the ability to move to the best schools and doors of opportunity open up for them and their families.
Thousands of kilometers from home, in a strange city with a sometimes loose grasp of the language, teenagers from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region find themselves homesick, lonely and struggling to communicate.
But their dreams of a better education help them to persevere through the tough beginnings at one of the pilot schools in Beijing that have been recruiting Xinjiang students since 2000, when the central government started a program to help improve their education.
"Although the school is 3,000 kilometers away from home, it's still worth studying here," said Dilara, a senior from Hami, who is now studying at Luhe High School in eastern Beijing's Tongzhou district.
Students apply for the program and those who pass entrance exams organized by local governments are admitted to 93 inland city schools in Beijing, Shanghai and 43 other cities. So far, 80,200 students have participated. They study for free and receive a 650 yuan ($100) monthly living allowance.
"It's really attractive to me that the included schools are located in developed cities like Beijing and Shanghai," said Dilara, a Uygur student who had lived with her grandmother since she was a child.
"We don't have to pay any tuition and even get monthly subsidy. That's quite a relief for me and my grandma."
Arriving in Beijing at the age of 14, Dilara initially was bothered by homesickness and the challenge of communicating." I felt ashamed to communicate with teachers here because of my poor Mandarin," she said.
The school provides one year of training to help the Xinjiang students improve their language skills and offers psychological advice before they start their high school curriculum.
Early on, Dilara turned to Ayturan, a teacher from Ili who joined the students at the Beijing school, but she soon adapted and made friends with local students.
Sometimes she and other students from Xinjiang are invited home by local students, especially during winter vacations, when most of them would rather stay at school than take the 30-hour train ride back home.
Dilara recalled a recent visit to the home of her classmate Cui Xi.
"His mother cooked mutton chops for us, which is exactly what I missed so much, and his father encouraged me, just like my own father does," she recalled.
Cui Xi said daily life became more fun after the Xinjiang students joined the class.
"We celebrate Eid al-Adha, the traditional festival, usually celebrated by the Uygur in September, a fancy day filled with the aroma of roast lamb and the ecstasy of carnival," Cui said.
Now an 18-year-old senior, Dilara plans to further her education at Beijing International Studies University. "I always hoped to study tourism and promote my hometown to the world one day," she said.
Li Tongshu, director of students at Luhe, said the success of the graduates over the past 16 years gives her confidence that Dilara's dream－and the dreams of the other students－will come true.
"Nearly 1,400 Xinjiang graduates have been admitted by universities at home and abroad, and among those, 800 have devoted themselves to further building their hometowns," Li proudly said.
-China Daily
Really Poor Uyghurs
Then there are really poor Uyghurs who live in slums.
Like anywhere else in the world, these are prime targets for recruitment by jihadists. Many of these Uyghur kids work on the streets and shine shoes or help their families with menial jobs like taking care of donkeys or other animals.
Like anywhere else in the world, these are prime targets for recruitment by jihadists. The promise of meaning, value and worth and a bigger plan that includes spiritual involvement is very alluring.
When the Chinese government mandates that these children go to school, the Western media scream bloody murder…
If these Uyghurs come to the US, the children will be forced to attend schools as well. In fact, in America the parents would be arrested if they tried to home-school their children.
Here is a school that the “evil Communists” forces the Uyghur kids to attend:
No. 66 Middle School in Urumqi, northwest China is home to 2,400 children from 13 different ethnic groups. They are all part of a Chinese government programme helping ethnically diverse students in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to receive higher quality of education.
Known as the Xinjiang Class, the programme was introduced in 2000 to offer children living in the region’s remote areas the possibility to attend a top junior high school (ages 12-15), preparing students to then attend a senior high school in one of 17 cities across the country.
The state is committed to the cultivation of high-caliber professionals from minority backgrounds, sending promising students for overseas studies and through programs such as Specialized Training for Xinjiang Minority Sci-Tech Personnel and the High-Level Minority Talents Program.
To develop education for ethnic minorities, it encourages the use of minority languages in classroom teaching. For ethnic groups with their own written languages in Xinjiang, school education is conducted in their own languages.
Over the years, special state funds have been earmarked for the compilation and printing of textbooks in Uyghur, Kazak, Mongolian, Xibe and Kirgiz languages, satisfying the needs of minority students for textbooks of major courses.
In Xinjiang, test papers for the annual national college entrance examinations are printed in Uyghur, Han, Kazak and Mongolian languages.
- Development and Progress in Xinjiang
Some of these kids don’t even speak Chinese, which greatly limits their abilities to find jobs later on as adults. So when they learn Chinese in school, the western propaganda screams, “cultural genocide.”
Sheer idiocy!
The BBC admits that the “communist” (gasp!) government has spent $1.2 billion in the last five years on upgrading and building new schools for children in Xinjiang. How many billions of USD has the American government spent on schools lately?
Oh, yes, the Department of Education is funded lavishly.
But I am not talking about salaries for bureaucratic cronies of whatever administration is in power. I am talking about the brick and mortar schools. Not being funded properly, and certainly not being managed well. Or haven’t you noticed?
This should be applauded, not demonized!
The Chinese government has done a phenomenal job by lifting 1.85 million Uyghur Muslims out of poverty between 2014 and 2017. Of course, the western media will never talk about it.
Before the founding of the PRC in 1949, Xinjiang had but one college, nine secondary schools and 1,355 primary schools. Only 19.8% of school-age children attended primary school, and the overall illiteracy rate was a shocking 90%.
Unprecedented changes have taken place in education in Xinjiang after 1949.
At present, Xinjiang has basically made the nine-year compulsory education universal and eliminated illiteracy in the young and middle-aged population. Adult and vocational education started from scratch, and has been developing steadily.
Since 2006, with the introduction of a new mechanism that guarantees rural education funding, Xinjiang's primary and secondary school students have enjoyed free compulsory education.
In 2008, the government granted living subsidies to all underprivileged students who live at school and exempted urban students from tuition fees during their compulsory education period. Since 2007, the state has initiated an annual budget of 129 million yuan for the education of 51,000 very poor university students and 95,000 secondary and higher vocational school students, 70% of whom come from ethnic minorities.
In 2008, the Xinjiang autonomous region government invested a total of 18.77 billion yuan in the region's education system, representing a year-on-year increase of 32.3%. Statistics from that year show that Xinjiang had 4,159 primary schools with 2,012,000 students, and a 99.6% enrollment rate for school-age children. There were 1,973 secondary schools with 1,722,000 students, and 32 institutions of higher learning with 241,000 undergraduate and 10,300 graduate students in total.
- Development and Progress in Xinjiang
Nomadic Uighurs
Then there are Uyghurs who are herders and nomads in the vast Xinjiang region.
The Changing World of the Yugur Nomads. Chinese scholars say both the Uighurs and the Yugurs (sometimes called the Yellow Uighurs) are descendants of an ethnic group called the Huihu, a Turkic-speaking nomadic people who had an empire in the eighth to ninth centuries on the steppes of present-day Mongolia. Western scholars use the term Uighur or Uyghur to describe that earlier group.
-New York Times
Although it seems romantic, their lives are not compatible with modern days. Most of them are stuck in extreme poverty and their kids also grow up completely illiterate. Sometimes the Chinese government relocates tens of thousands of these people into the cities and gives them jobs, free housing, health care etc.
Of course, US media will spin this as “ethnic cleansing.” (The government has helped millions of Chinese people in other areas get out of extreme poverty by similar relocation projects as well).
Relocation of nomads into cities = “Ethnic Cleansing”.
Many of these nomads appreciate the new life:
“With central heating, gas, running water, Internet and cable TV, we no
longer need to worry about things that troubled us in the past.”
Many of these nomads appreciate the new life: “With central heating, gas, running water, Internet and cable TV, we no longer need to worry about things that troubled us in the past.”
Sometimes, if the parents don’t want to give up their nomadic lives, the government may move the children to boarding schools, where they get free lodging, meals and education.
The primary concern of the government is that unless the nomadic Uyghurs are educated, they will be stuck within a terrible cycle of poverty. And poverty breeds crime and social unrest.
Separatists and Terrorists
What is not mentioned in the mainstream media is that the West has been stroking separatism in Xinjiang since the 1950s!
Addressing the National Press Club in Australia's capital Canberra on Tuesday, the chairwoman of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) lied again, right to the reporters' faces.
Kadeer accused Chinese authorities of removing Uyghur-language lessons from schools and forcing the Uighurs to learn Chinese.
"I think the Chinese government should stop its invasive policy of single-language (Chinese) education and allow students and their parents to choose whatever language they aspire to learn," she said through an interpreter.
Interestingly though, Kadeer made her remarks in Uyghur, the language she would not have been able to speak should the Chinese government have deprived her of her right to learn it.
China, Kadeer said, has adopted "biased policies towards ethnic minorities" in the past 60 years, exploited the Uyghurs and pushed all of them into a "state of extreme poverty."
But she herself was once a "millionairess" in Xinjiang and stood as a strong testament to China's preferential policies toward ethnic minorities there.
Starting from a small business in the 1980s, Kadeer worked her way up to become the richest woman in Xinjiang before she broke Chinese law and was sentenced to jail.
Still, during her appearance at the press club, Kadeer continued to tell lies in a vain attempt to cover the bare facts and her separatist intentions.
Throughout her "speech," Kadeer called China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region "East Turkistan," and publicly proclaimed that Xinjiang was an "independent country" before 1949 and that Chinese troops "invaded" and "annexed" the region.
Books compiled by Western historians never said Xinjiang was an independent country before 1949, not to mention that there was no such ridiculous record of it in Chinese history.
- Rebiya Kadeer lies again
When the Chinese communists won in 1949 (by defeating US-supported faction, which went on to establish Taiwan), the US started arming/funding separatists in Tibet and Xinjiang.
Notice the signs. Who do you think the signs are directed towards? The Chinese government? Or, Americans? And why are they in American English, and not (say) British English. Who wrote the signs, when they are supposedly illiterate? Why aren’t the signs in Chinese, the national language? Who are the signs directed towards?
The US brought in a lot of these extremists into Germany in the 1970s and helped them foment a movement for “East Turkestan.”
Currently, the so-called “World Uyghur Congress” (WUC) is funded and glorified by the US government through NGOs such as National Endowment of Democracy (NED) — which also played a major role in the Tiananmen Square clashes in 1989 (see this article).
By the way, the story of “1 million Muslims in concentration camps” (sometimes it’s 2 or 3 million!) comes from testimonies of WUC members.
However, to the dismay of propagandists, no Muslim country is buying the “concentration camps” narrative. They are ALL on the side of China.
In 2005, Rebiya fled to the US after being released on bail for medical treatment and now lives in Fairfax, Virginia, south of Washington DC. Before going abroad, she had repeatedly promised the Chinese government that she would never participate in any activity that might jeopardize national security.
Once she arrived in the US however, she has been committed to "Xinjiang independence" activities. In the same year, she founded the US-based International Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy Foundation (IUHRDF). In 2006, she became president of the Uyghur American Association (UAA) and was elected as president of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) at its Second General Assembly in the same year.
As soon as Rebiya arrived in the US, the "renowned" National Endowment for Democracy (NED) came to visit her, expressing a willingness to offer financial support. The sponsor behind the foundation is the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
It has been disclosed that the NED annually grants 200,000 USD to the UAA. In 2007, East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) organizations, including the WUC and IUHRDF led by Rebiya, received a total of 520,000 USD of financial support from the NED.
In addition, some anti-China US congressmen have become guests of honor for Rebiya, and frequently invited her to deliver speeches at the so-called "Congressional Human Rights Caucus Meeting."
Even former president George W. Bush met with Rebiya twice in 2007 and 2008 prior to the Beijing Olympics, calling her a freedom warrior. Members of the CIA often disguised as reporters and non-government organization (NGO) volunteers expressed their concerns to her, keeping close touch with her on the issue of ETIM prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
Since the beginning of 2009, the WUC had prepared for its third General Assembly, which also received support from American congressmen and the NED.
Rebiya once said they would plan some penetration and sabotage activities at the third General Assembly targeting the grand celebration for the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China; and formulate a plan of "three phases for Xinjiang independence in 50 years."
The WUC website impressively showed that the WUC Third General Assembly was unexpectedly held in the South Congressional Meeting Room with the participation of nearly 10 US congressmen. Most of these congressmen are veteran anti-China politicians.
On the second day following the July 5 incident, Rebiya made a speech at a press conference held at the National Press Club, saying that the Chinese government's accusations were "completely false." However, the club is an institution under the US Department of State.
Some US-based media have also become a "megaphone" for Rebiya. On June 1, US-based WPFW Pacifica radio interviewed Rebiya, in which she even claimed that historically, Tibet and Xinjiang were not part of China, and stated that "repression, imprisonment, and executions" in Xinjiang "had actually increased dramatically since 9/11."
She claimed that the best way to make the outside world understand the situation in Xijiang was to inform foreign officials, especially those of the US, "Because they had always been very concerned with the human rights situation in China. The Uyghur people always have this strong faith in the United States."
The New York Times disclosed on April 23 that Rebiya had said, "Politicians and human rights organizations from all over the world were active on behalf of Tibet. The conditions in the Uyghur nation were much the same. But interest from abroad in the two...could not have been more dissimilar." Rebiya also tried to smear China by writing articles for the Washington Post, attempting to gain sympathy from the West by means of the so-called pursuit of democracy and human rights.
- Rebiya Kadeer's funding sources
Turkey is the closest to Uyghurs, who are of Turkic origin. Turkish leader Erdogan was in China few days ago and said that the Uyghur re-education centers won’t affect China-Turkey relations.
Turkish leader Erdogan was in China few days ago and said that the Uyghur re-education centers won’t affect China-Turkey relations.
Indonesia — the largest Muslim country in the world —has also said that it understands China’s predicament of dealing with separatists.
Similarly Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and even Saudi Arabia have dismissed the sensational stories. Many diplomats and reporters have visited these camps and have come out reassured.
One more historical perspective: After the Mujahideen war in Afghanistan ended in 1989, many of those fighters went to Central Asia. And the disease of Wahhabism spread to Xinjiang as well.
One more historical perspective: After the Mujahideen war in Afghanistan ended in 1989, many of those fighters went to Central Asia. And the disease of Wahhabism spread to Xinjiang as well.
From 2009 to 2015, there was a significant number of terrorist attacks by the Uyghur jihadists (here’s an example). That’s when China decided to really crack down.
In the 1980’s, when China first opened up to the West, the two points of entry were Taiwan and Hong Kong. Of that, Hong Kong was the primary entry point to the Chinese resources and market. Thus, from the 1980’s to today, Hong Kong grew exponentially. It went from a small, forgotten, British back-water colony to the major financial and banking center that it is today.
You can attribute it’s rise to the role that it had as the entry port for trade with the mainland.
In a like way, the Chinese government is planning a similar role for their “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI). Those people who now live in Xinjiang are completely poised to become the next generation super-wealthy of China. It will benefit the local Xinjiang people, the neighboring nations, and the Chinese nation as whole.
To this end, the existing global structure is being bypassed, and they do not like that
Thus, the future of Xinjiang also has a lot of economic implications.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has 1000s of freight trains and trucks carrying goods between China and Europe every year; and most of these trains and trucks go through Xinjiang. There are also many oil/gas pipelines from Central Asia that go through Xinjiang to power China’s industrial economy.
The Uyghur people are expected to become “Dubai Wealthy” in the next few decades. Provided of course, that the United States stands aside and let’s them live in peace and prosperity.
An unstable Xinjiang will wreak havoc on the Chinese economy.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has 1000s of freight trains and trucks carrying goods between China and Europe every year; and most of these trains and trucks go through Xinjiang. There are also many oil/gas pipelines from Central Asia that go through Xinjiang to power China’s industrial economy.
The Chinese government is trying to help the poor people and fight the jihadists at the same time.
The US really needs to fix its foreign policy, which is now based on chaos, confrontation, wars, Machiavellian divide-and-conquer strategies, and endless propaganda. The US needs a positive approach that’s based on cooperation, friendly competition and ethical policies.
Statement that the UN supports China on Xinjiang
Valentin Rybakov, center, permanent representative of Belarus to the UN, makes a joint statement on behalf of 54 countries in firm support of China’s counter-terrorism and de-radicalization measures in Xinjiang during the discussion on human rights at the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday at the UN headquarters in New York. Liao Pan/CNS
Belarus made a joint statement Tuesday on behalf of 54 countries in
firm support of China’s counterterrorism and de-radicalization measures
in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
During a discussion on human rights at the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, Belarus made the statement on behalf of countries including Pakistan, Russia, Egypt, Bolivia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Serbia. It praised China’s people-centered development philosophy and development achievements.
The statement spoke positively of the results of counterterrorism and de-radicalization measures in Xinjiang, noting that these measures have effectively safeguarded the basic human rights of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.
The statement said that terrorism, separatism and religious extremism have caused enormous damage to all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, which has seriously infringed upon human rights, including the right to life, health and development.
“China has undertaken a series of counterterrorism and de-radicalization measures in Xinjiang, including setting up vocational education and training centers,” the statement said, adding that safety and security have returned to Xinjiang now and “the fundamental human rights of people of all ethnic groups there are safeguarded”.
The statement also supported China’s commitment to openness and transparency, mentioning it has invited a number of diplomats, international organizations, officials and journalists to Xinjiang to witness the progress of the human rights cause and the outcomes of counterterrorism and de-radicalization.
“What they saw and heard in Xinjiang completely contradicted what was reported in the (Western) media,” it wrote.
The statement expressed opposition to relevant countries politicizing the human rights issue and called on them to stop baseless accusations against China.
“We express our firm opposition to relevant countries’ practice of politicizing human rights issues, by naming and shaming, and publicly exerting pressures on other countries,” it wrote.
“We call on relevant countries to refrain from employing unfounded charges against China based on unconfirmed information before they visit Xinjiang,” it wrote.
At the meeting, more than 30 countries, including Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Cuba and Nicaragua, voiced support for China’s position and measures on human rights.
The Kyrgyzstan representative said the Kyrgyzstan Republic considers Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region affairs to be purely an internal affair of China and “appreciates the efforts of the government of China to preserve the Uygur culture and religious freedom and freedom of nationalities of Xinjiang and supports the measures taken by the Chinese side to ensure Xinjiang’s security, stability and development”.
“The measures taken by China to address the situation and continue the economic development in Xinjiang are fundamental for the people of China, which is supported and appreciated by the international community,” said the Cambodia representative.
“We commend China’s efforts to combat terrorism and extremism in Xinjiang in accordance with the laws. We would like to reiterate our opposition to any countries to use human rights as an excuse to interfere any country’s internal affairs and attempts to put pressure in the name of human rights should be avoided,” said the representative from Myanmar.
Zhang Jun, permanent representative of China to the UN, refuted the “baseless” comments on Xinjiang made by the United States and some other countries.
Zhang said that the US and a few other countries made “groundless accusations” against China, which is “gross interference in China’s internal affairs and a deliberate provocation of confrontation”.
“China firmly opposes and rejects it,” he said.
He reiterated that Xinjiang’s preventive measures of counterterrorism and de-radicalization are based on law and consistent with the will of the people.
“This is not about human rights and has nothing to do with racial discrimination,” he said. “China wants to tell the United States and other countries not to confront the international community and not to go any further on the wrong path.”
“This is not about human rights and has nothing to do with racial discrimination,” he said. “China wants to tell the United States (and other countries) NOT to confront the international community and NOT to go any further on the wrong path.”
The CIA declined to comment.
Godfree Roberts Study
Here is the complete write up on this issue by Godfree Roberts. It’s terribly long, but full of outstanding details. All credit to the author…
Many
Chinese consider Uyghurs the descendants of a marooned, white
imperialist army living on land that was China’s long before they
arrived. Edgar Snow[1]
visited Xinjiang in 1937 and reported, “Especially in the ninth
century, when vast hordes of Ouigour Turks (whose great leader Seljuk
had not yet been born) were summoned to the aid of the T’ang Court to
suppress rebellion, Islamism entrenched itself in China. Following their
success, many of the Ouigours were rewarded with titles and great
estates and settled in the Northwest and in Szechuan and Yunnan. Over a
period of centuries the Mohammedans stoutly resisted Chinese absorption
but gradually lost their Turkish culture, adopted much that was Chinese,
and became more or less submissive to Chinese law. Yet in the
nineteenth century they were still powerful enough to make two great
bids for power: one when Tu Wei-hsiu for a time set up a kingdom in
Yunnan and proclaimed himself Sultan Suleiman; and the last, in 1864,
when Mohammedans seized control of all the Northwest and even invaded
Hupeh.”
Islam
is neither the Uyghurs’ native religion nor their only one but, in its
Wahabbi form, it has caused problems around the world, for which we can
thank to two fervent Christians, Jimmy Carter and Zbigniew Brzezinski,[2] who considered a united Eurasia, “The only possible challenge to American hegemony.”
In
1979, months before the Soviet entry into Afghanistan, Brzezinski
drafted and Carter signed a top-secret Presidential Order authorizing
the CIA to train fundamentalist Muslims to wage Jihad against the Soviet
Communist infidels and all unbelievers of conservative Sunni Islam and
the Mujahideen terror war against Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan became
the largest covert action in CIA history.[2]
Brzezinski’s ‘Arc of Crisis’ strategy inflamed Muslims in Central Asia
to destabilize the USSR during its economic crisis and, when Le Nouvel Observateur
later asked if he had any regrets, Brzezinski snapped, “What is most
important to the history of the world? Some stirred-up Muslims or the
liberation of Central Europe?”
The
Uyghurs had collaborated with the Japanese in WWII and Rebiya Kadeer,
‘Mother of the Uyghurs’ and a US Government client, after kissing the
ground at Yasukuni Shrine, called Xinjiang’s postwar reversion to
Chinese administration a ‘reconquest.’ Ms Kadeer’s connections are
interesting. In the late 1990s Hasan Mahsum, founder of the East
Turkestan Islamic Movement, ETIM, moved its headquarters to Kabul and
met with Osama bin Laden and the CIA-trained Taliban to coordinate
action across Central Asia. In 1995 Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
then mayor of Istanbul declared, “Eastern Turkestan [Xinjiang] is not
only the home of the Turkic peoples but also the cradle of Turkic
history, civilization and culture. To forget that would lead to the
ignorance of our own history, civilizati on and culture. The martyrs of Eastern Turkestan are our martyrs.” Under Erdogan Turkey became the transit point for international terrorists destined for Syria and Turkish airports were filled with Uyghurs traveling on Turkish passports.
Twenty
years later, in 1999, the CIA’s Islam strategist, Graham E. Fuller,
announced, “The policy of guiding the evolution of Islam and of helping
them against our adversaries worked marvelously well in Afghanistan
against the Russians. The same doctrines can still be used to
destabilize what remains of Russian power, and especially to counter the
Chinese influence in Central Asia.”[3]
We will return to Mr. Fuller anon but, first, some background from F. William Engdahl,
“Today the West–and especially Washington–is engaged in full-scale
irregular war against the stability of China. In recent months Western
media and the Washington Administration have begun to raise a hue and
cry over alleged mass internment camps in China’s northwestern Xinjiang
where supposedly up to one million ethnic Uyghur Chinese are being
detained and submitted to various forms of ‘re-education.’ Several
things about the charges are notable, not the least that all originate
from Western media and ‘democracy’ NGOs like Human Rights Watch, whose
record for veracity leaves something to be desired.”
Tarring
China with the brush of intolerance will be hard work. The colophon of
the earliest dated, printed book in existence–a ninth century Chinese
translation of the Diamond Sutra–reads, ‘For universal free
distribution.’ Though two-thirds of Chinese are atheists in the Western
sense and one-fourth are non-religious Taoists, their Constitution
guarantees freedom of worship in government-sanctioned religious
organizations and their government supports seventy-four seminaries, one
thousand seven hundred Tibetan monasteries, three thousand religious
organizations, 85,000 religious sites and 300,000 full time Catholic,
Protestant, Buddhist, Ancient Chinese, Taoist and Muslim clergy. The
2000 census recorded 20.3 million Muslims: 1.25 million Kazakhs, 8.4
million Uyghurs and 9.8 million Hui. Neither the Kazakh nor the Hui
Muslims have caused trouble.
Mr.
Fuller is on a first name basis with Uyghur leaders. Ruslan Tsarni,
uncle of the Boston Marathon Tsarnaev brothers, was married to Fuller’s
daughter Samantha in the 1990s and was an employee of the CIA-contracted
RAND Corporation. In media interviews in the aftermath of the 2013
Boston bombing, ‘Uncle Ruslan’ gave an overdone performance condemning
his two nephews while verifying the FBI’s portrayal of them. The media
ignored the fact that Tsarni not only worked as a consultant for CIA
fronts like RAND and USAID and as a contractor for Halliburton but even
established an entity called the Congress of Chechen International
Organizations which supported Islamic separatist militants in the
Caucasus, using Fuller’s Maryland home as its registered address.
After deploying
Islamists in Pakistan in the 2000s to disrupt Chinese infrastructure,
in Myanmar to disrupt the China-Myanmar energy assets and across Sudan,
Libya and Syria to choke off China’s oil and gas Fuller said, “Uyghurs
are indeed in touch with Muslim groups outside Xinjiang, some of them
have been radicalized into broader jihadist politics in the process, a
handful were earlier involved in guerrilla or terrorist training in
Afghanistan, and some are in touch with international Muslim mujahideen
struggling for Muslim causes of independence worldwide.” Fuller assigned
them to capitalize on the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, weaken trust in
China’s government and provoke repression that Western media could
condemn as ‘human rights crimes.’ Three weeks before the Games he
sponsored a conference, “East Turkestan: 60 Years under Communist
Chinese Rule” and the National Endowment for Democracy, NED,[4] handled PR for the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) the emigré group headed by billionaire Rebiya Kadeer[5] and her husband, Sidiq Rouzi, a Voice of America employee. Their ideology[6] is familiar.
On
the eve of the Olympics an attempted suicide bombing on a China Southern
Airlines flight was thwarted but terrorists in Kashgar, Southern
Xinjiang, killed sixteen police officers four days before the opening.
The next year Uighur extremists murdered another two hundred in Urumqi
but Western media refused to characterize the attacks as acts of
terrorism and the violence continued:
October 2013: ETIM attack at Tiananmen Square in Beijing killed five.
February 2014: A knife attack at a train station in Kunming killed 30.
April 2014: A knife and bomb attack in Urumqi killed three and wounded 79.
May 2014: Two cars crashed into a market in Urumqi and the attackers lobbed explosives, killing 31 people.
September 2014: Suicide bombers and clashes left 50 people dead and 50 injured.
October 2015: A knife attack on a coalmine killed 50.
Then
came the Syrian War and, on the sidelines of a May 2017 meeting between
Syrian and Chinese businessmen in Beijing, Syria’s ambassador[7]
to China startled reporters with a surprising number, 5000, the number
of Uighurs he claimed were fighting in Syria for various jihadist
groups. Many have since returned to China and 12,900 (Uyghur families
insist on traveling and staying together, even in prison) have been
sentenced to up to two years, mostly for illegally entering the country
and are held in re-education camps. The NED is not hiding its
involvement:
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY
China (Xinjiang/East Turkistan). ASIA China [Xinjiang/East Turkistan] Advocacy and Outreach for Uyghur Human Rights Project. $310,000.
To raise awareness about Uyghur human rights issues and to bring such issues to prominence globally. The grantee will research, document, and provide independent and accurate information about human rights violations affecting Uyghurs in China. It will also conduct outreach to Chinese citizens in an effort to improve the human rights conditions for Uyghurs. The grantee will organize leadership and advocacy training seminars for Uyghur youth; monitor, document, and highlight human rights violations in East Turkestan/Xinjiang; and strengthen advocacy on Uyghur issues at the United Nations and the European Parliament.
Faced
with an armed insurrection, most states impose martial law or a state
of emergency, as Britain did in Malaya from 1945 to 1957 and the US did
with the Patriot Act, but China decided–despite popular outrage–to write
off its losses and play the long game.
China founded The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO),[1]
a political, economic, and security alliance, with Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, who stopped funneling
money and providing corridors for Uyghur terrorists to move into and out
of China. The SCO has since expanded to include India and Pakistan and
Iran has begun the accession process, making it world’s largest security
pact in both area and population and the only one whose membership
includes four nuclear powers.
Forming
the SCO was easier than assuaging public outrage. An unheard-of lawsuit
by victims’ relatives accused the government of reverse discrimination
so they stepped up security and published their objectives:
restore law and order
prevent terrorists from inflicting more violence
use ‘high-intensity regulation’
contain the spread of terrorism beyond Xinjiang
purge extremists and separatists from society.
Neighborhood
community centres–labelled ‘concentration camps’ in the western
press–educate rural Uyghurs about the perils of religious extremism and
train them for urban jobs.
In
2013 President Xi toured Eurasia and proposed the Belt and Road
Initiative for three billion people, designed to create the biggest
market in the world with unparalleled development potential, and built a
gas pipeline to China from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan
and Kyrgyzstan which, like China’s other western pipelines, power lines,
and rail and road networks, runs through the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
Region.
Beijing
then moved jobs to Xinjiang and opened vocational schools to train
rural youth in literacy and job skills and swore to protect its
neighbors from terrorism in exchange for their pledge to reciprocate. To
create jobs in the province Xi directed investment from forty-five of
China’s top companies and eighty Fortune 500 manufacturers to Urumqi.
Corporate investment increased from $10 billion in 2015 to $15 billion
in 2017 and infrastructure investments of $70 billion in both 2017 and
2018 lifted the annual goods shipments past 100 million tons with a goal
of hourly departures to fifteen European capitals. Half a million
Uyghurs have relocated from remote villages to cities and, as a reult,
600,000 Uighurs were lifted out of poverty in 2016, 312,000 in 2017 and
400,000 in 2018. The last poor Uyghurs will join the cash economy in mid-2020.
The
real war is being fought in our media and an engineer encountered a
classic example in the heartbreaking tale of savage destruction of
historic Kashgar Old Town, which The Washington Post called, “An Ancient Culture, Bulldozed Away,” The New York Times, “To Protect an Ancient City, China Moves to Raze It,” TIME, “Tearing Down Old Kashgar: Another Blow to the Uighurs.” Professor Patrik Meyer takes up the story:
As a tourist, those headlines resonate with me, too. I wish to keep the Kashgar Old Town untouched and to be able to wander along its narrow, shaded alleys lined by adobe houses. However, if I were responsible for the living conditions and safety of its residents, as well as for the modernization of Kashgar writ large, then I would see Beijing’s transformation in a more positive light. Given the almost unprecedented access I was granted between 2010 and 2013 to conduct ethno-political research in Xinjiang and my robust background in civil engineering, I consider myself well positioned to provide a broader perspective on the issues raised by Western journalists when criticizing the KOT renewal project. A simple survey of Western media outlets shows that harsh criticism of Beijing’s renewal of the KOT is built on four central arguments: demolition of Uyghur’s historical heritage, destruction of Uyghur’s social fabric, absence of Uyghurs’ voices in the project, and the sufficient seismic performance of existing houses. Moreover, Western journalists often argue that the goal of Beijing’s works in Kashgar is to weaken, or even erase, Uyghur identity, not to improve their living conditions.
KOT’s historical value is indisputable, but it is not as significant as assumed by the Western critics. While some houses are centennial, with charismatic courtyards and beautifully decorated wooden frames, the majority are a poorly built patchwork of old and new mud and masonry walls. Hence, while the old town as whole has significant historical value, many of its houses are not historically valuable. Kashgar is one of the few Chinese cities where the old town is being partly preserved and remodeled following traditional standards. There is indeed some damage being caused to the Uyghurs’ historical heritage, but it is far less significant than the Western critics claim and it is intended to modernize Kashgar, not to “Demolish the Uyghur History” as argued by the Smithsonian. The second dominant argument, the tearing apart the Uyghur identity, is also happening, but again, not to the extent or for the purpose that it is being reported in the West. China’s fast modernization results in numerous communities being reshaped and displaced, including the one in the KOT. However, when asked for their view about Beijing’s renewal of the KOT, most of its dwellers welcome it. And for good reasons. Their houses are often very small, poorly ventilated, dusty and dark, have no toilets, and are unpractical. It is those who do not live in the old town–Uyghurs, tourist, and Western journalists–who are most critical of the renewal project. Hence, I believe that the KOT project is causing Uyghur identity change, not its destruction, as argued by the West.
As for the third argument, that the Uyghurs have no say in the project, it is again only partially correct. Their voice is indeed absent from the upper levels of the project’s decision making process. However, the majority of homeowners decide whether to stay or leave the KOT and how to proceed with the repair of their houses. They are offered three options, the first being to permanently move to a free, new apartment larger their old house. Second, they can opt to let the government tear down the old house and replace it with a new structure for free, which does not included finishing works such as flooring, windows, and decoration. During the time that this work is being done, the families can rent an apartment subsidized by the government at about $900 per year. In case the house is deemed to be structurally sound, the homeowners are given a subsidy (about US$90/m2) to upgrade the house themselves. Additional subsidies are also offered for those willing to finish the façade using traditional Uyghur style. While there might be some irregularities within this system, most homeowners affected by the renewal of the KOT have the choice to stay or leave, which the Western critics seems to ignore.
Finally, a fourth dominant argument against Beijing’s KOT project is that the old town must be seismically safe because it has survived hundreds of years without being destroyed. Again, this is only partly true. There are a number of houses that were built properly over a hundred years ago, but the majority have been either poorly built or structurally modified in the last 30-50 years, making them prone to structural damage in case of a significant seismic event. Based on my expertise in seismic performance of adobe structures and my countless visits to the KOT, I can confirm that it is not feasible to retrofit most of its houses because of their deficient structural condition.
But
the destruction of KOT was small beer compared to the onslaught that
began in August, 2018, at the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination, then conducting its regular review of China’s compliance
with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination. Gay McDougall, an American lay member of an
independent UN body, claimed that China was interning one million
Muslims. The OHCHR’s official news release
showed that its sole American member made the only mention of alleged
re-education camps and said she was “deeply concerned” about “credible
reports” alleging mass detentions of millions of Uighurs Muslim
minorities in “internment camps.” AP
reported that McDougall ‘did not specify a source for that information
in her remarks at the hearing’ and video from the session confirms that
McDougall provided no source for her claim. Though she failed to name a
single source Reuters reported, “UN SAYS IT HAS CREDIBLE REPORTS THAT CHINA HOLDS A MILLION UIGHURS IN SECRET CAMPS.”
China
then invited the UN, the EU and the World Muslim Congress to send
inspectors to for independent investigations. Eleven muslim nations
accepted while the EU and Turkey declined. The Muslim Council’s report commended China for its treatment of Muslims and one inspector, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, gave an interview to The Times of India:
“During this visit, I did not find any instances of forced labour or cultural and religious repression,” Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the Charge d‘affaires, Pakistan‘s Embassy in China, told the state-run Global Times on Thursday.
“The imams we met at the mosques and the students and teachers at the Xinjiang Islamic Institute told us that they enjoy freedom in practicing Islam and that the Chinese government extends support for maintenance of mosques all over Xinjiang,” said Baloch, who visited Xinjiang as part of delegation of diplomats.
“Similarly, I did not see any sign of cultural repression. The Uighur culture as demonstrated by their language, music and dance is very much part of the life of the people of Xinjiang,” she said.
Asked about the security situation in Xinjiang, which has been “beset by terrorism”, Baloch said, “We learned that the recent measures have resulted in improvement of the security situation in Xinjiang and there have been no incidents of terrorism in recent months.”
“The counter-terrorism measures being taken are multidimensional and do not simply focus on law enforcement aspects. Education, poverty alleviation and development are key to the counter-terrorism strategy of the Chinese government,” she said.
Xinjiang‘s regional government invited diplomatic envoys as well as representatives from Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Thailand, and Kuwait following reports about detention of thousands of Uighur and other Muslims in massive education camps.
The UN‘s Geneva-based Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination last year said that it was alarmed by “numerous reports of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities” being detained in Xinjiang region and called for their immediate release.
Estimates about them “range from tens of thousands to upwards of a million,” it had said.
China defended the camps, saying they are re-education camps aimed at de-radicalising sections of the Uighur population from extremism and separatism.
The US and several other countries besides UN officials have expressed concern over the camps.
China has been carrying out massive crackdown on the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) in Xinjiang province, where Uyghurs who formed majority in the region were restive over the increasing settlements of Han community.
Pakistan and several other Muslim countries faced criticism about their silence over China‘s crackdown on Muslims in Xinjiang.
China has about 20 million Muslims who are mostly Uighurs, an ethnic group of Turkic origin, and Hui Muslims, who are of the Chinese ethnic origin. While Uighurs lived in Xinjiang, bordering Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Hui Muslims resided in Ningxia province.
A recent report in the Global Times said China passed a five-year plan to ‘sinicize Islam‘ in a bid to make it compatible with its version of socialism.
“This is China‘s important act to explore ways of governing religion in modern countries,” the report said.
Baloch said the delegation was given full and open access to the three centres that they visited in Kashgar and Hotan.
“The training program includes teaching of national common language (Chinese), law and constitution and vocational skills. The students also participate in recreational activities like sports, music and dance. We witnessed several skill classes being offered in these centres,” she said.
“During the visits to these centres, we had the opportunity to interact with both the management and the students. We observed the students to be in good physical health. The living facilities are fairly modern and comfortable with separate dormitories for men and women. They are being served halal food,” she said.
She said the Uighur language is being used in official establishments, airports, subway stations, police stations or hotels.
“Even the copies of the Koran that we saw in the mosques and the Islamic centre were translated into the Uighur language. The most visible sign of protection of Uighur culture by the government is the government-run bilingual kindergarten schools where children learn Putonghua as well as Uighur language and culture from a very young age,” she said.
A Chinese friend, Xiao Zhang, writes,
“I have a friend who just came back from Xinjiang and he has visited some of the re-education camps and talked with people there. He told me that Uighurs really received vocational education inside, not kidding, and cannot get out until completion of courses. The government in Xinjiang simply kept all the potential “trouble makers” they could find in detention based on the reports they received from various sources, among which reports from communities make up a major part. The government has known for years that poorly-educated, unemployed people are more easily radicalized. Now they take actions to ensure they won’t make trouble. This is another example of Chinese style of government behaviour, just like one-child policy.”
Another wrote,
“I have personally been to Xinjiang for around 20 days this summer. I went totally on my own. I did not sign up in any travel agencies for any travel groups. I did not drive but took the train, the bus, or the car, or the horse. From my personal experience, firstly, the Uyghurs are not the only minority in Xinjiang. I saw Mongols, Kazakhs, Hui Muslims and many other minorities. Here I mean Xinjiang is not a place that is dominated by Uyghurs, even if we don’t take the Han Chinese into consideration. It is a far more diverse place. Secondly, Uyghurs keep their different habits, traditions, language, and religions that are exotic to most Chinese. But they also face westernisation in clothing and habits just like people in other areas of China. People worry about the preservation of their cultures across China.
Interestingly, people in Urumqi were hardly dressed in a very religious way, although there were a great number of Muslims. I was told that the local government regarded some of the religious clothing as extremism, for they were not consistent with the local tradition. Maybe what they meant was that the local Muslims should not be dressed like extremists following strict religious laws, since there was no such law in China. People were mostly dressed in a quite modern look, or in their traditional clothing, yet no women will cover their face with black silk.
Thirdly, there is distrust between different ethnic groups. I have to admit that, because I feel that even people of the same ethnicity do not trust each other, let alone the distrust between ethnic groups. In Urumqi, the security check is very strict and almost everywhere. At the gate of a park in the city, I passed the checkpoint within seconds, but a Uyghur-looking man after me took much longer time to pass. Even though the security guard herself also seems to be Uyghur, she still checked the man’s ID cards and computer profiles very carefully. In many other places, I also feel the ‘privilege’ of being a Han Chinese. In Ili, where the East Turkestan Republic is located, I was told that Uyghur police officers were killed in an ATM nearby a year ago by the Uyghur terrorists with long swords. The terrorists were hoping to acquire guns from the officer. So the city restricted all activity in late night. Anyone who are out after midnight will be considered suspicious and the police can check their ID in the street or in the office. Here I want to make further explanation, for in most Chinese cities, it is totally safe to hang out at night at any time you want, and the police won’t patrol in the street checking your ID unless someone complains about noise and etc.
Surely there is racism arising in the distrust. In Urumqi, I asked why ethnic minorities were treated in an unfriendly way and they tried to tell me that it was because of the very unique situations in Xinjiang. Sounds like the discrimination is natural but I cannot judge based on what I learnt. A taxi driver told me that it was the Islam belief that makes the Uyghur not in harmony with the recent society led by the Communist Party and that the religion was toxic. I thought he was referring to Islamic extremism but in a seemingly biased way.
Fourth, I tried to learn about people’s attitudes towards the 2009 riots and got similar responses from Uyghurs and Han. They both feared the riots and tried to tell me how horrible that day was. Some Uyghurs who were Urumqi locals claimed that all those terrorists were not local to the city and tried to kill all the citizens with regardless of ethnicity which made them dreadful. In my journey, most of the Uyghurs I met were friendly farmers, some of whom were even willing to accommodate me for free. On one time, I was taking a 6-hour bus, I talked with a Uyghur guy sitting next to me. We almost talked about everything, including our hometowns, our families and so on. The guy was very talkative and friendly, leaving me a very good impression towards the Uyghur.
Lastly, I mean, I never heard of the re-education camp. So I guess this was not related to normal people’s life. The minorities I met were usually very talkative and complained to me about many things including the policies, the government, the relation between the Han and the minorities, except the camp. I think most Chinese people just want to live a peaceful life no matter in Xinjiang or outside Xinjiang. I was so lucky to travel in Xinjiang, because the scenery I spotted was so great that I would probably pay another visit in the future.
“Xinjiang appears to have no criminality whatsoever and the police in the streets are unarmed. The checkpoints aren’t too time consuming if you have a Chinese ID card and know the security guards from daily contact. At the checkpoints we visited, on the other hand, annoyed police or security guards struggled with the protocol on how to handle foreigners. We all drank until late and went home without the slightest issue. Our group was coming from many places in the West where stumbling out of a bar late at night can often be quite dangerous. We had to admit that you feel safe at night in Xinjiang. Completely safe. Most places just asked for our passports, took a look, and let us through, sometimes asking which country we came from. A few guards didn’t want to deal with the hassle and just told us to bypass the metal scanner and get out of their sight. As everything in China, enforcement is sometimes spotty. But those were the exceptions; discipline in the surveillance apparatus was generally quite high. We walked leisurely through the city, and while we attracted some attention, we were neither stopped, nor stared at, nor (I think) followed. As I mentioned, there are police everywhere; standing, walking, and driving. They’re not aggressive, or intimidating, or stopping people at random. They’re just there making themselves present.
One big difference between Turpan and Urumqi was that, again, most people were Uyghur. But the police were Uyghur, too. The people manning the checkpoints and the “convenience police stations,” and driving the patrol cars were all Uyghur. It’s worth emphasizing that whatever is happening in Xinjiang is not just an invasion by a foreign army hell-bent on annoying the locals. The locals are quite annoyed, indeed, but it’s their fellow tribesmen doing the grunt work. Or most of it, anyway. I must say that the Uyghur police we saw were more easy-going than the Han police we saw in Urumqi. More chill. Less zealous, you could say. At any rate, they never gave us a hard time, and we got plenty of smiles and easy treatment. Meanwhile France has soldiers, not police, patrolling the streets of Paris. Considering his post-resignation declaration about radical Islam replacing the Republic, I have to wonder what the former French Minister of the Interior, Gérard Collomb, would make of Xinjiang?
China’s Ambassador to Kazakhstan talked to local journalists:
Since the 1990s, the three evil forces – terrorism, religious extremism and separatism– have been a scourge in China’s Xinjiang and implemented a series of appalling terrorist attacks, including the incident in Urumqi on July 5, 2009. What should we do? Aside from taking strong measures, we also need to remove the soil for the three evil forces. All these measures aim to help people who were instigated by the three evil forces or influenced by extremism to come back to reason and to return to society to live a normal life. In order to achieve this purpose, China set up the training centers in accordance with China’s Constitution, the Counterterrorism Law and the Regulations of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on De-radicalization and by referring to the successful experience on counterterrorism from other countries.
The training centers in Xinjiang do not target any ethnic group or certain religion and all people there are treated equally without discrimination. There are two criteria for whether an individual should be in the centers – whether they participated in illegal activities of the three evil forces and whether they pose a threat to the society.
For example, some individuals used social media, such as WhatsApp to promote jihad online or spread videos on violence in circumstances that were not serious enough to constitute a crime. These people go to the training centers. Some people, who received prison sentence for participating in terrorist or extremist activities but refuse to abandon extremism and plan to take revenge, also need to go to the training centers.
To put it simply, people who obey laws and regulations and commit no wrong deeds do not need to worry about “going to the training centers” no matter which ethnic group they are from and whatever their religion is. The training center is not prison, but a school for the public. There is only one goal for the school – to educate people and to stop good people becoming bad. What do people learn in the center? They learn Putonghua to make sure that all Chinese citizens can understand, can speak and can write the national common language. This is the basic requirement and responsibility for a citizen from any civilized country.
Trainees learn knowledge on laws so that all Chinese citizens understand that they live in the 21st Century where laws are put in place and strictly enforced and anyone who violates the laws will be held accountable. The trainees should have the basic awareness of laws so they are not so easily tempted by extremism. They also learn vocational skills at the centers, including pastry making, weaving and textile printing, shoes-making and fixing machinery, hairdressing and make-up and e-commerce. Trainees can choose one to two skills to learn based on their interests. There will be more chance for them to get employment and less risk of becoming involving with the three evil forces.
With the work of these training centers being implemented in order, more and more trainees have graduated from the centers and returned to society and earned a better life. There is no torture in these training centers but only protection and respect for human rights. In contrast to the fake news, trainees’ religions and traditions are fully respected – all the centers offer various kinds of food, including halal food for them to choose. There are different entertainment activities, including singing songs, dancing, chanting or playing basketball for their physical health. Speaking of human rights, let me ask a question, if a modern person could not understand or write the country’s common language, has no idea about modern marriage or zero vocational skills and only enslaves his wife at home or is mistreated by her arranged husband and are used or brainwashed by the three evil forces, how could you say he or she understands human rights?
All the facts have told that the work of training centers has been effective and helpful. For now, the stability and situation in China’s Xinjiang has been improved and there have been no violent incidents in the region for more than two years. It is not only a positive influence on Xinjiang’s work on maintaining security but also makes a great contribution to safeguarding the stability of the adjacent Central Asia area.
Shohrat Zakir, Chairman of the Government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region:
Xinjiang has established a training model with professional vocational training institutions as the platform: learning the country’s common language, legal knowledge, vocational skills, along with de-extremization education as the main content, with achieving employment as the key direction. The vocational training institutions have set up departments of teaching, management, medical care, logistics and security, and allocated a corresponding number of faculty, class advisors, medical, catering, logistics and security staff. In the process of learning and training, the trainees will advance from learning the country’s common language to learning legal knowledge and vocational skills. Firstly, the trainees will take learning the country’s common language as the basis to improve their communication abilities, gain modern science knowledge and enhance their understanding of Chinese history, culture and national conditions. The teaching follows standardized plans, textbooks, materials and systems. The trainees are taught in various methods suited to their literacy to raise their abilities to use the country’s common language as soon as possible. Secondly, the learning of legal knowledge is taken as a key part of cultivating the trainees’ awareness of the nation, citizenship and rule of law. Legal experts are hired to lecture on the Constitution, the criminal law and the civil law, etc., and judges, prosecutors and lawyers are invited to teach the criminal law, the law on public security administration, the anti-terrorism law, the marriage law, the education law and Xinjiang’s de-extremization regulations. Thirdly, vocational learning is taken as a key way to help trainees find employment. Courses on clothing and footwear making, food processing, electronic product assembly, typesetting and printing, hairdressing and e-commerce have been set up to suit local social needs and job market. Multi-skill training is provided to trainees who have the desire and capability to learn, so that they acquire one to two vocational skills upon graduation. Businesses in garment making, mobile phone assembly and ethnic cuisine catering are arranged to offer trainees practical opportunities. In the meantime, they are paid basic incomes and a bonus. The mechanism has taken shape in which the trainees can ‘learn, practice and earn money.
In daily life, vocational institutions and schools strictly implement the spirit of laws and regulations, including the Constitution and religious affairs regulations, and respect and protect the customs and habits of various ethnic groups and their beliefs in diet and daily life. Faculties of the institutions and schools also try their best to ensure and meet the trainees’ needs in study, life, and entertainment on the basis of free education. The cafeteria prepares nutritious free diets, and the dormitories are fully equipped with radio, TV, air conditioning, bathroom and shower. Indoor and outdoor sports venues for basketball, volleyball and table tennis have been built, along with reading rooms, computer labs, film screening rooms, as well as performance venues such as small auditoriums and open-air stages. Various activities such as contests on speech, writing, dancing, singing and sports are organized. Many trainees have said that they were previously affected by extremist thought and had never participated in such kinds of art and sports activities, and now they have realized that life can be so colorful.
Moreover, the vocational institutions and schools pay high attention to the trainees’ mental health and helped them solve problems in life. They not only provide professional psychological counseling services, but also duly deal with complaints from the trainees and their families. All this shows that the management of the vocational institutions and schools are people-oriented.
China’s censor banned
the use of ‘anti-Islamic’ words on social media after a clash that
involved Muslims fighting at a toll booth went viral. Weibo blocked
phrases disrespectful to Muslims and search engines block insults,
mockery and defamatory terms, “It’s time to remove radical phrases that
discriminate against Islam and are biased against Muslims to prevent
worsening online hatred towards them. Those phrases severely undermine
religious harmony and ethnic unity,” said Xiong Kunxin, a professor at
Beijing’s Minzu University of China in Beijing. “China closes streets
for Eid prayers, pays for Muslim Chinese to make the hajj and
censors the internet and social media to prevent criticisms of Islam
that might inflame social tensions. The idea that they should suddenly
demand that the Muslims turn over their Qurans and Prayer mats is
classic fake news and state propaganda. As a result, peace may break out
and the recent deluge of fake news from Western corporate media paints
the Chinese government as a gross violator of human rights while the
Empire has droned, bombed, starved and killed millions of Muslim
children, women from Afghanistan to Yemen and displaced millions more.”
Translation: “The center provides professional training in clothing making, food preparation and IT. The guy named Ailijiang Masaidi said he received RMB 2800/month and sending RM2600 home. His family is very happy. The 2nd guy named Ahbulaihaidi is now working in a shoe making factory. He said he has mastered most skills and would get RMB 4000-5000/month soon, that would means RMB 60-70k a year. His technical manager says his company fully supports the factory’s effort in Hetian. The 2nd guy says that clothing factory has been set up in Yutian. The lady named Humakuli says she now work in a factory near her home Kashgar. She is working and learning at the same time. Training includes cultural learning about history about Xinjiang and about Zhonghua civilization. The narratives then says the center provides cultural and sports activities including painting, dance and Peking opera etc. The guy who dress as consort Yang is Abdula. He said every one admires him now because he is the best singer. Before he attend the center he was told that all sort of entertainment including singing and dancing is sinful. He said his life used to be gray and now is colorful. Then Kashgar National Congress Deputy Chairman Mijidi said he wants the people to learn about the traditional culture of the Uighur people. Singing and dancing are all acceptable.” The program was implemented in 2014, and since then no terrorist attack has happened in China. So it was considered a major success and was expanded greatly.
Notes
[1] Red Star Over China. Edgar Snow. 1937. Atlantic Books.
[4]
In 2017 the American government funded 48 anti-China groups and
organizations through the National Endowment for Democracy, NED, to
oppose and harm China’s reputation and to create social and ethnic
tensions and conflicts within China. https://www.ned.org.
[5]
A Chinese friend provided her background: She had 11 children, which
confirms that Uighurs were not subject to China’s One Child Policy.. She
was born to a family with no background. She started her business with a
roadside convenience store and worked her way to be THE richest person
in the province of Xinjiang. This proved Uighurs can earn their business
success through hard work. She was a senior member of the People’s
Congress of Xinjiang, and a senior member of the National People’s
Congress of China. This shows Uighurs were not excluded from political
life in China. She was arrested because she provided funding to Eastern
Turkestan Independence Movement, labeled as terrorist organization by
the US.
[6]
“We have to conquer our own country and purify it of all infidels.
Then we should conquer the infidels’ countries and spread Islam. The
infidels who are usurping our countries have announced war against Islam
and Muslims, forcing Muslims to abandon Islam and change their
beliefs.” Abdullah Mansour, leader of the Uyghur ETIM. “The Duty of
Faith and Support,” Voice of Islam/al-Fajr Media Center, August 26,
2009.
[7] “ISIS militants from China’s Muslim minority group vow to return home and ‘shed blood like rivers’ in the terror group’s first video to target the country By GARETH DAVIES FOR Daily Mail Online PUBLISHED 08:39 BST, 1 March 2017.
Conclusion
The Uyghur “situation” in the Xinjiang state of China is a “red Herring” designed to create friction in that area to destabilize China. It is a way to interfere in the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative that is creating a strong and unified Asia.
Chinese President Xi Jinping six years ago launched New Silk Roads, now better known as the Belt and Road Initiative, the largest, most ambitious, pan-Eurasian infrastructure project of the 21st century.
Under the Trump administration, Belt and Road has been utterly demonized 24/7: a toxic cocktail of fear and doubt, with Beijing blamed for everything from plunging poor nations into a “debt trap” to evil designs of world domination.
Now finally comes what might be described as the institutional American response to Belt and Road: the Blue Dot Network.
Blue Dot is described, officially, as promoting global, multi-stakeholder “sustainable infrastructure development in the Indo-Pacific region and around the world.”
It is a joint project of the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation, in partnership with Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
Now compare it with what just happened this same week at the inauguration of the China International Import Expo in Shanghai.
As Xi stressed:
“To date, China has signed 197 documents on Belt and Road cooperation with 137 countries and 30 international organizations.”
This is what Blue Dot is up against – especially across the Global South. Well, not really. Global South diplomats, informally contacted, are not exactly impressed. They might see Blue Dot as an aspiring competitor to BRI, but one that’s moved by private finance – mostly, in theory, American.
They scoff at the prospect that Blue Dot will include some sort of ratings mechanism that will be positioned to vet and downgrade Belt and Road projects. Washington will spin it as a “certification” process setting “international standards” – implying Belt and Road is sub-standard. Whether Global South nations will pay attention to these new ratings is an open question.
- A “Blue Dot” Barely Visible from China’s “New Silk Roads”
As China’s only threat to the current global power-balance is economic, the United States is threatened by China’s rise. Thus there are numerous efforts made to create strife and destabilize Asia.
Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.
Millennial youth in Hong Kong.
Pork producers in Guangdong.
Western markets for Huawei products.
Taiwan “independence”.
To this end, neocons have been active with the CIA and NED / NID to create strife in the region. This includes a full-on propaganda onslaught, where most Americans are becoming conditioned for yet another proxy war in a far-off land.
This is welcomed by the neocons as [1] a magnificent source of personal (tax free) revenue, and [2] it’s “just” another in a long series of proxy wars. The thing is, China is not a third-world country and they will only accept CIA “pro-democracy” regime change activities only for so long.
It is possible that continued CIA psyops within China could result in a backlash of Nuclear Armageddon on American soil.
This is what New York City will look like if America tries to initiate another proxy war with a major nuclear-armed superpower. They are a serious, serious nation. They DO NOT PLAY. Do not be under the misguided impression that an American nuclear armed cruiser could sit off the coast of Taiwan and lob nuclear tipped missiles into China. China and Russia would both team up to bitch-slap America into the stone age. Take heed.
Another great link showing just who is behind this CIA narrative…
Claims that China has detained millions of Uyghur Muslims are based largely on two studies. A closer look at these papers reveals US government backing, absurdly shoddy methodologies, and a rapture-ready evangelical researcher named Adrian Zenz.
By Ajit Singh and Max Blumenthal
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
I believe that it is time for all Americans to take a serious re-look at what America stands for; our “democracy”, and our way of life as it exists today. Is it really all that great?
Is America living up to the grand ideals set forth in the “Great Experiment of 1776”?
Or, it is just going to be yet another big mistake heading towards the “great collapse” of society?
I think that a serious reappraisal of [1] what America is, [2] what notions it is founded upon, and [3] how it is structured needs to be re-thought out. It is time to take a good long hard look at [4] what America has become, and [5] how we got here. And [6] what needs to change once [7] corrective measures have been put in place.
I ask this.
Really, is democracy; “rule by popularity” ideal for Americans?
A typical American, inappropriately dressed (obviously), shopping at Wal-Mart. Really, is democracy; “rule by popularity” ideal for Americans? Or should America be run by talented people who earned their role through merit rather than popularity? Think about it.
Can the Constitution be protected from “well meaning”, or “the greedy”, or “evil” such as President Wilson, or FDR, or Obama from rewriting and re-interpreting it to fit their various nefarious ends?
Well, can it?
Because if we cannot, using the current governmental structure, then we must change it into something different.
Indeed, simply hoping that our progeny will be “ever vigilant” is just wishful thinking, and history has proven, for certain, that it does not work. And at that, we must well understand that it will NEVER WORK in the future.
Can the Constitution be protected from “well meaning”, or “the greedy”, or “evil” such as President Wilson, or FDR, or Obama from rewriting and re-interpreting it to fit their various nefarious ends?
What’s going to stop another Wilson, another FDR, another Obama, another Bush from rewriting the Constitution, or reinterpreting it to fit their nefarious ends? What’s it going to take?
What is it going to take?
But my thoughts are this matter are perhaps a little too harsh to the general American public. No one wants to hear that a democracy is flawed, or rather so flawed that America will collapse upon itself within a decade. No one wants to hear this.
Americans have a Pavlovian response to the phrase “freedom and democracy,” and it’s no surprise that so many of them are rooting for the protesters in Hong Kong.
-World Affairs Blog
Well, others, better word-smiths than myself have some things to say about this subject. One of the best comes from Mr. Noonan in his article titled “A Clean Break“. He wrote this article on 29 September 2019, and I personally think that it is brilliant. He isn’t so prone to offending people as I am.
For I earnestly believe that America has neither "democracy" nor "freedom". We just parrot the words without talking a good look around us at what America has devolved into.
Here I present it for your viewing pleasure.
This article is copied as written without much editing aside from some paragraph formatting and the fonts used in this template.
I added some "pull away" text for highlighting and maybe interjected on or two personal comments along the way (though you will be able to easily see that they are from your's truly.)
I have added my own pictures to help illustrate some of his fine points.
After reading the article, I would suggest the reader go to his original article and read some of his other works. This fellow is brilliant and a word-smith.
All credit to the author Mr. Noonan writing in Blogs for Victory.
As the last few weeks have played out in politics, it has forced me to do a complete re-assessment of how I’ve looked at the world for my entire adult life.
To be sure, this reconsideration has been ongoing for about a decade, or maybe a little more, but it has really crystalized out recently. It is time for a complete, clean break with what went before and to chart a new path forward.
As the last few weeks have played out in politics, it has forced me to do a complete re-assessment of how I’ve looked at the world for my entire adult life. It is time for a complete, clean break with what went before and to chart a new path forward. Maybe the American Constitution is flawed in some very serious ways, and it is up to use to seek out those flaws and eliminate them completely.
What Hunter Biden did is nothing new; it isn’t in the least remarkable.
He was merely the recipient of what people in his position routinely receive: a special deal which allows him to be very rich for little or no effort.
Hunter Biden was merely the recipient of what people in his position routinely receive: a special deal which allows him to be very rich for little or no effort.
This way his life can be devoted to what really matters: hanging around with other rich people, attending conferences and galas and generally having a swell time.
And if he decided to follow in Daddy’s political footsteps, the way would be cleared for him in some safe (Congressional) seat.
If you start looking into it – as Matt and I did in our 2007 book, Caucus of Corruption – you just see that it is everywhere. In that book, for political reasons, we concentrated on the Democrat side of the aisle (given that our goal was to show the absurdity of the Democrats 2006 campaign against a so-called “GOP culture of corruption”), but we could easily have written it about politics, in general.
If you start looking into it – as Matt and I did in our 2007 book, Caucus of Corruption – you just see that it is everywhere. In that book, for political reasons, we concentrated on the Democrat side of the aisle (given that our goal was to show the absurdity of the Democrats 2006 campaign against a so-called “GOP culture of corruption”), but we could easily have written it about politics, in general.
Corruption is everywhere in the United States.
What it really shows is that people who go into politics – with a few very rare exceptions – are in it for themselves.
The advent of legalized corruption launched by the Supreme Court empowers the superrich to fund their own presidential and congressional campaigns as pet projects, to foster pet policies, and to represent pet political enclaves. You have a billion, or even several hundred million, then purchase a candidate from the endless reserve bench of minor politicians and make him or her a star, a mouthpiece for any cause or purpose however questionable, and that candidate will mouth your script in endless political debates and through as many television spots as you are willing to pay for. All legal now.To compound the political felony, much, if not most, campaign financing is now carried out in secret, so that everyday citizens have a decreasing ability to determine to whom their elected officials are beholden and to whom they must now give special access. As recently as the 2014 election, the facts documented this government of influence by secrecy: “More than half of the general election advertising aired by outside groups in the battle for control of Congress,” according to the New York Times, “has come from organizations that disclose little or nothing about their donors, a flood of secret money that is now at the center of a debate over the line between free speech and corruption.”Of this handful, the largest by far is WPP (originally called Wire and Plastic Products; is there a metaphor here?), which has its headquarters in London and more than 150,000 employees in 2,500 offices spread around 107 countries. It, together with one or two conglomerating competitors, represents a fourth branch of government, vacuuming up former senators and House members and their spouses and families, key committee staff, former senior administration officials of both parties and several administrations, and ambassadors, diplomats, and retired senior military officers.WPP has swallowed giant public relations, advertising, and lobbying outfits such as Hill & Knowlton and BursonMarsteller, along with dozens of smaller members of the highly lucrative special interest and influence-manipulation world. Close behind WPP is the Orwellian-named Omnicom Group and another converger vaguely called the Interpublic Group of Companies. According to Mr. Edsall, WPP had billings last year of $72.3 billion, larger than the budgets of quite a number of countries.
– From the Gary Hart article, Gary Hart: America’s Founding Principles Are in Danger of Corruption
Corruption is part of democracy.
They want power and money and attention and fame and praise and so they go into politics – and almost invariably, if they are even modestly successful at winning office, wind up richer than they did when they started.
And it has been going on for a long time, folks; throughout all the Western democracies.
When you study the motivations of those in politics, you discover what drives them. They want power and money and attention and fame and praise and so they go into politics – and almost invariably, if they are even modestly successful at winning office, wind up richer than they did when they started. And it has been going on for a long time, folks; throughout all the Western democracies.
There are, I believe, some who still deny that England is governed by an oligarchy.
It is quite enough for me to know that a man might have gone to sleep some thirty years ago over the day’s newspaper and woke up last week over the later newspaper, and fancied he was reading about the same people.
In one paper he would have found a Lord Robert Cecil, a Mr. Gladstone, a Mr. Lyttleton, a Churchill, a Chamberlain, a Trevelyan, an Acland.
In the other paper he would find a Lord Robert Cecil, a Mr. Gladstone, a Mr. Lyttleton, a Churchill, a Chamberlain, a Trevelyan, an Acland.
If this is not being governed by families I cannot imagine what it is. I suppose it is being governed by extraordinary democratic coincidences.
…extraordinary democratic coincidences.
Funny, huh? How people from the same family can keep winding up on top. Either they are families of geniuses, or someone is making things happen.
What are the odds that the son of an American Senator would be just the person an oil company needs to pay $50,000.00 a month to?
But, it just keeps happening and happening because, well, that’s just the way it is. And it wouldn’t be so bad if they were at least any good at being an oligarchy!
But they aren’t.
After you study this issue, you discover that it just keeps happening and happening. And the reason why, is because, well, that’s just the way it is. And it wouldn’t be so bad if they were at least any good at being an oligarchy!
Back in Chesterton’s day, there was the cold, hard reality that Winston Churchill was at least as talented as his father, Randolph. There was something there – there was, that is, a justification for Winston getting a leg up (and he did) to enter politics based on his father’s previous efforts.
These days, you get to benefit even if the previous person in line was a complete, rotten failure. And rotten failure is all we’ve gotten – and I’m getting very ecumenical in that, by the way. I’m not excusing anyone on partisan grounds any longer.
To be sure, the Republicans I voted for in the past were at least better than the Democrats I voted against (with the exception of McCain: knowing that I’m the co-author of Worst President, please understand that I believe McCain would have been even worse than Obama proved to be).
But they were only better in degree, not in kind.
Republicans are corrupt.
I mean, let’s face some cold, hard facts here: President Bush the Younger was re-elected with 51% of the vote in 2004 and came into his second term with high approval ratings and a Republican Congress.
With all this, he couldn’t even manage to de-fund Planned Parenthood or NPR!
I mean, let’s face some cold, hard facts here: President Bush the Younger was re-elected with 51% of the vote in 2004 and came into his second term with high approval ratings and a Republican Congress. With all this, he couldn’t even manage to de-fund Planned Parenthood or NPR! He did not care for the conservative cause(s), he only campaigned on them to hood-wink all of us for voting for him. He knew which levers to push, and which buttons to push.
It could have been done, easily, in a budget reconciliation between House and Senate and there would have been nothing the Democrats could have done about it.
On a more personal level, how can public service be promoted as an ideal to young people when this sewer corrupts our Republic? At this point in early twenty-first-century America, the greatest service our nation’s young people could provide is to lead an army of outraged young Americans armed with brooms on a crusade to sweep out the rascals and rid our capital of the money changers, rent seekers, revolving door dancers, and special interest deal makers and power brokers and send them back home to make an honest living, that is, if they still remember how to do so.Our ancestors did not depart Europe and elsewhere to seek freedom and self-government alone. They came to these shores to escape social and political systems that were corrosive and corrupt. Two and a quarter centuries later, we are returning to those European practices. We are in danger of becoming a different kind of nation, one our founders would not recognize and would deplore.In addition to the rise of the national security state, and the concentration of wealth and power in America, no development in modern times sets us apart more from the nation originally bequeathed to us than the rise of the special interest state.There is a Gresham’s law related to the republican ideal. Bad politics drives out good politics. Legalized corruption drives men and women of stature, honor, and dignity out of the halls of government. Self-respecting individuals cannot long tolerate a system of election and reelection so dependent on cultivating the favor of those known to expect access in return. Such a system is corrosive to the soul.
– From the Gary Hart article, Gary Hart: America’s Founding Principles Are in Danger of Corruption
This was “better” than a President Kerry who probably would have increased PP funding, but not really better in that the taxes of pro-life Americans were still going to fund something they consider abhorrent…and which Bush and the entire GOP campaigned on getting rid of.
I know some will say that this is just our GOP screwing it’s base and that the Democrats don’t do that. But, they do.
Both the republicans and the democrats are corrupt to the core. They only care about themselves and their little tribe of corrupt underlings. No one else.
Democrats are corrupt.
Obama was elected in 2008 with 53% of the vote and came into office with a Democrat Congress and a filibuster-proof Senate majority…and he couldn’t even get the single payer health system Democrats say they want.
It would have been easy.
The GOP could have done nothing to stop it. Enact a 10% payroll tax to fund it and just start passing out the cash to people who need health care.
A former senator from Colorado, Gary Hart, has written an extremely powerful and accurate critique of the unfathomably corrupt and crony state of the U.S. government in 2015. It covers several very important angles, including how appalled and disgusted our founders would be at the current state of affairs. How a once great republic has devolved into a thieving oligarchy in which the pursuit of money at power at the expense of the public good has been elevated into something that’s not just tolerated, but actually celebrated and encouraged amongst an ethics deprived status quo.
-Liberty Blitzkreig
That you and I know it would have been a disaster is neither here nor there – our side had lost the election and the Democrats won all the power they could possibly need to make all Democrat dreams come true…and they couldn’t do something like that.
Once you are in politics, it’s all on for party-on good times. You swindle and funnel money left and right and no one gives a damn about the American people. This includes both sides of the Congress, and all their cronies from the war-mongering generals to the intellectuals pushing climate change, and radical social change down our collective throats.
They instead wound up with the abomination known as Obamacare which even if it had worked as planned would still have left millions out in the cold and cost like the devil – but they couldn’t even write something that worked!
Meanwhile, not only did Obama not end the wars they campaigned against in 2008, he started new one’s…
droning the living sh** out of every poor, brown skinned person they could target (well, those they weren’t letting in as unvetted refugees, that is).
A public works bonanza that didn’t create any public works.
A slew of new spending which improved nothing.
This is what the Democrat voters get for investing their time and effort? Yep – in other words, nothing: but lots and lots for whomever is the crony. Democrat cronies made out like bandits. But your average purple-haired Democrat wanting more safe spaces? Not much.
This is what the Democrat voters get for investing their time and effort? Yep – in other words, nothing: but lots and lots for whomever is the crony. Democrat cronies made out like bandits. But your average purple-haired Democrat wanting more safe spaces? Not much.
By that standard, can anyone seriously doubt that our republic, our government, is corrupt? There have been Teapot Domes and financial scandals of one kind or another throughout our nation’s history. There has never been a time, however, when the government of the United States was so perversely and systematically dedicated to special interests, earmarks, side deals, log-rolling, vote-trading, and sweetheart deals of one kind or another.What brought us to this? A sinister system combining staggering campaign costs, political contributions, political action committees, special interest payments for access, and, most of all, the rise of the lobbying class.Worst of all, the army of lobbyists that started relatively small in the mid-twentieth century has now grown to big battalions of law firms and lobbying firms of the right, left, and an amalgam of both. And that gargantuan, if not reptilian, industry now takes on board former members of the House and the Senate and their personal and committee staffs. And they are all getting fabulously rich.Frustrated, irate discussions of this legalized corruption are met in the Washington media with a shrug. So what? Didn’t we just have dinner with that lobbyist for the banking industry, or the teachers’ union, or the airline industry at that well-known journalist’s house only two nights ago? Fine lady, and she used to be the chairman of one of those powerful committees. I gather she is using her Rolodex rather skillfully on behalf of her new clients. Illegal? Not at all. Just smart . . . and so charming.There is little wonder that Americans of the right and many in the middle are apoplectic at their government and absolutely, and rightly, convinced that the game of government is rigged in favor of the elite and the powerful. Occupiers see even more wealth rising to the top at the expense of the poor and the middle class. And Tea Partiers believe their tax dollars are going to well-organized welfare parasites and government bureaucrats.
– From the Gary Hart article, Gary Hart: America’s Founding Principles Are in Danger of Corruption
And as far as the social disintegration we’ve seen over the past 60 years – we’ve been blinded by the Democrats pushing the disintegration that we haven’t noticed the Republicans letting them do it.
And when they have power to roll it back, doing nothing of the sort.
And as far as the social disintegration we’ve seen over the past 60 years – we’ve been blinded by the Democrats pushing the disintegration that we haven’t noticed the Republicans letting them do it. And when they have power to roll it back, doing nothing of the sort. They just smile for the cameras, enjoy their high-priced meals in fancy restaurants, free hookers, and retire for their closed “boys clubs”.
The Administrative state and its regulators, a creation of previous congress’s, have grown into a bureaucracy so entrenched that worker’s can’t even be fired. They lurk in the darkness of their own regulations and use their powers to punish those who fail to comply. Regulators are great for making and executing rules and regulations, and taxing, but not so good at designing those regulations to advance unproven political theories, that most often come undone.
The unrealized dangers of delegating rules and regulations making, is that Congress removes itself from accountability. Legislators govern by theory, proposing ideas that are then delegated to an agency charged to “make” it work. To ensure their schemes work, Congress politicized the Federal judicial benches, including the Supreme Court, to support their legislative agenda regardless of the unconstitutionality, through judicial activism. Judges don’t make laws!
- Why Should We Accept Corrupt Government?
Their actions are disgusting.
And now we see in the Epstein case the reason why it might have all been allowed to happen: Lord only knows how many of the high and mighty are caught in that web…
…but what better way to get out from under that rock than by making the rock legal?
Hey, Paul Ryan, you’re the guy in charge of the House. You’re the Speaker of the House. [1] You had half a decade to figure out what to REPLACE Obamacare with and you came up with … bupkis? [2]. Hey, Paul Ryan, you had more than a hundred days to fashion a piece of legislation after you knew President Trump won — even with all the “budget resolution”, three tranche, inside baseball baloney and it came as a surprise that the Freedom Caucus wasn’t on board? [Pro tip: Check with your own caucus first. OK, that’s better.] Hello, America, Paul, babe — that was your job. We gave you one stinking job — to fashion a clean repeal and replacement of Obamacare — and you were surprised the Freedom Caucus wasn’t genuflecting and kissing your ring? A week out, you tell the President you “have the votes” and the day of the vote you come to the White House and say, “Uhhh, maybe not. Maybe not, Mr. President. Poorly played, Paulie. Very poorly played. [3]. Hey, Paul Ryan, this shit is on you not the President. You suck at your job.
By making you, a normal person, the bad guy if you point out some of the disgusting actions?
Illegal immigration to provide votes for Democrats and cheap labor for Republicans.
Wars which don’t end in victory or defeat.
Enforcing immorality against popular wishes.
Providing government sinecures to anyone who will toe the line – and who won’t be got rid of no matter how corrupt or stupid they prove.
Accepting money from foreign entities who want the United States destroyed.
Will you fucking Republicans stop criticizing President Trump for following through on his campaign promises?
He ran on them. He told you what they were. He won on them. He is delivering on them and you snowflakes act like you just discovered them.
Both sides, all the time – and on top of being this stupidly destructive, raking it in for themselves, their families and their friends. It is time to bring an end to all that. By peaceful means if possible but, ultimately, by any means necessary.
Our peaceful means are “President Trump”.
President Trump is the hero of the common man.
Trump isn’t part of the system, you see.
Dimwits look at his billions and go, “he must be one of them”. But, the bottom line is that he’s not.
He’ll hang out with them. Be friends with them. But he never was of them. He made his own way and got his pile of money…and then looked around and saw, from the 1980’s, what was happening to his country and started to wonder why, and if there were anything he could do about it?
He essentially first let Bill Clinton have his chance.
Then Bush the Younger.
Then even Obama.
But he found out something – it didn’t matter who was in charge, they were all in on it, together. That is, regardless of stated political philosophy, the primary goal of nearly everyone in politics was personal enrichment and making sure no outsider pushed his or her way in.
Trump found out something – it didn’t matter who was in charge, they were all in on it, together. That is, regardless of stated political philosophy, the primary goal of nearly everyone in politics was personal enrichment and making sure no outsider pushed his or her way in.
Trump decided to push his way in.
And now he’s there – and outside of a precious few (Cruz, Paul…and, oddly, McConnell), he’s nearly alone fighting for one thing: us.
The United States of America.
We, the people.
And everyone inside is furious and terrified and so are lashing back as much as they can hoping that something, anything will turn up to get rid of Trump.
And, make no mistake about it, they are already planning on punishing us for electing Trump. They don’t propose to allow this sort of thing to happen again.
And, make no mistake about it, they are already planning on punishing us for electing Trump. They don’t propose to allow this sort of thing to happen again.
And everyone inside is furious and terrified and so are lashing back as much as they can hoping that something, anything will turn up to get rid of Trump. And, make no mistake about it, they are already planning on punishing us for electing Trump. They don’t propose to allow this sort of thing to happen again.
The “big con game” is up.
I’ve mostly stopped arguing with liberals these days – first off, it is pointless but, secondly, I’m starting to pity them; nearly as much as I pity that shrinking number on the right who still stand aloof from Trump: they simply can’t shake free from the line they’ve been fed.
And none of us can get high and mighty about that: to one degree or another, all of us were suckered at one time or another.
No other government is as corrupt as the United States government.
All of us believed in some aspect of the con being used to keep us confused, frightened and divided while the Ruling Class stays fat and happy.
All of us. Including myself.
But for those of us who have awakened from the con, it is time for a clean break – a refusal to accept that anything over the past 60 years was any good…a desire, that is, to move forward in an entirely new way, unshackled to whatever we might have said or done in the past.
We have learned all about the great con game, and we are fed up. We know know what is going on and we are pissed, and desire real, substantive change. Now, for those of us who have awakened from the con, it is time for a clean break – a refusal to accept that anything over the past 60 years was any good…a desire, that is, to move forward in an entirely new way, unshackled to whatever we might have said or done in the past.
We can see what happened; we can see what needs to be done – we can’t trip ourselves up (nor allow our opponents to slow us down) by fussing over what views we might have expressed previously.
Our desire is a Constitutional Republic of free people – our means of getting there must be “whatever works”, not adherence to a dogma which might, upon review, only have been a means whereby the con artists kept us in line in the past.
I, for one, will only defend what I find defensible and will attack whatever I see as wrong.
Republicans Are Terrified Because Their Candidates Are So Fucking Lazy. As a number of Democrats win high-profile special election victories in deep red districts, fewer and fewer safe Republican strongholds seem to be off limits.
We still have a magnificent window to win this thing and fix our nation – naturally, the first requirement is protecting President Trump.
We need a complete review of EVERYTHING and ask “is it good”
But the next step is just as important: a complete review of everything and asking the question, “Is this good?”.
We’ve already learned that so-called “Free Trade” wasn’t what many of us thought it was – take that as your template and ask yourself, “is this thing I’ve adhered to really in the interests of a free people? Or is it something which only serves the well-connected?”.
As Lincoln once said, it is time to think anew and act anew: not to create something different (nothing can be more magnificent than the United States, as far as human effort allows), but to recreate what we had, but even better than before.
It is time to think anew and act anew: not to create something different, but to recreate what we had, but even better than before.
And if that mission requires us to knock a few off their pedestals, then that’s just what will have to happen.
The problems of government are systemic. The reason for government should be a primary concern of anyone wanting a better government but this cannot be accomplished with people of socialist persuasion who scream, yell and interrupt other speakers in an effort to kill free speech.
Trump has thrown a wrench into the gears of socialisms advancement. Socialists are reeling in confusion but don’t count on them staying there. A revolution is coming. The question is, who’s going to lead it, them or us?
- Why Should We Accept Corrupt Government?
SHTF Related Index
This is a collection of my posts related to prepping, SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Some prepper humor…
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
The American civil war set the South on fire. There in the heart of the United States was endless desolation, death, crime, and violence on a very, very personal scale. It tore at the heart of America. In the midst of all this, was an exit of Americans who fled American for a life elsewhere. The confederates that fled the United States didn’t do so to set up a nation where slavery was legal. They went elsewhere to set up a state where they the people had more power than the local government there.
This is their story.
Lost but not defeated. The Confederacy left America and set up shop in Brazil.
History.
History is very interesting, and one of the most interesting things about it is that it is constantly changing. Our reality, our knowledge of history is under constant assault, and under constant revision.
I grew up being taught that Christopher Columbus discovered America, and that the native Indians entered via a Bering Sea “land bridge”. Today, it is pretty well established that there have been numerous explorations of North America by everyone from the Ancient Egyptians to the Vikings, and even the Chinese. And as time progresses we have a better understanding that ancient man, those who inhabited North America, had the ability to create boats and sail on the high seas in earnest without fear.
Surprise Discovery That Ancient Tin Ingots Found in Israel Came From England ... the British Isles had developed maritime trade routes with the rest of the world as early as the Bronze Age.
-Ancient Origins
But it’s not just that.
History is being rewritten to fit political narratives. Everything from “Islam is a nation of peace”, to “the Nazi Holocaust did not occur”. Everything is being rewritten. It’s a common theme, this reconstruction of history, and erasure of the past. We see it all the time, in every nation.
From the Taliban (and their friends the) ISIS destroying the statues of Buddha in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq to the destruction of statues in America and the rewrite of the political narratives for political expediency. It is everywhere. Once the Internet made mass erasure of the past expedient (a re-writable “white board”, if you will), everything has become prone to being erased and a new narrative written over it.
Enter President Obama
"Barack knows that we are going to have to make sacrifices; we are going to have to change our conversation; we're going to have to change our traditions, our history; we're going to have to move into a different place as a nation."
-Michelle Obama
Up until 2013, under President Obama, every single textbook and history book in the United States stated that the primary cause of the American Civil War was related to abuses of the tenth amendment. (Don’t believe me? Go visit a used book store, why won’t ya?)
They all were in lock-step with this narrative.
In American political discourse, states' rights are political powers held for the state governments rather than the federal government according to the United States Constitution, reflecting especially the enumerated powers of Congress and the Tenth Amendment.
The enumerated powers that are listed in the Constitution include exclusive federal powers, as well as concurrent powers that are shared with the states, and all of those powers are contrasted with the reserved powers—also called states' rights—that only the states possess.
-Wikipedia
For political reasons, and to reinforce his base, President Obama (around 2009 through 2014) rewrote history. Changing all internet references to the causes of the American Civil War from “States Rights” to “Slavery”. Today, if you visit any internet website on the causes of the American Civil War, you will discover that the causes are not listed as [1] Slavery, with a selection of [2] other causes that include “States Rights”.
Fun exercise;
Go to Wikipedia "The causes for the Civil War". Then go to the Revision History page. Check out the activity there, and the dates of the changes, as well as where the changes originated from.
This is interesting on numerous levels.
I find it interesting simply because all of the States that joined the Confederacy wrote up “Documents of Succession” that gave their reasons for leaving the United States union. And in those reasons, the top-most, A #1, most important reason was ‘States Rights”.
I mean, it’s RIGHT THERE.
There is no ambiguity there. The documents of succession list the reasons in great detail. (If a bit wordy.)
It’s in black and white.
It’s there, as plain as day. Not to mention that all of the discussions on succession that took place in the State capitals, and in the Federal Senate and Congress clearly state… unequivocally, that they left because the Federal government was interfering on the local and state level.
We won’t get too far into the rewriting discourse. That’s a subject for another time. Anyways, you can read about this rewriting of history and the reasons for it below. Don’t worry, the link opens up in a new tab.
The rights of the people
This is the “States Rights” issue. Where the United States Constitution plainly stated that the Rights of the people shall be held by them, or by their States. Not by the Federal Government.
After all, the PEOPLE created the government. And it must answer to them.
The American Constitution placed the power of the people over that of the government. This is a non-debatable issues, as all; every single document during the founding made this point quite clear and pronounced.
This did not go well in Washington D.C. for absolute power corrupts absolutely. They wanted more power. They wanted centralized power. They wanted it all.
They wanted it so much, that they fought a war over it.
And many, many people died.
Governments are created by citizens. They answer to the people. When they start to ignore them, it is the duty for the citizens to take back their government from the tyrants in power. This will often be very dangerous, bloody and nasty.
“We the people” lost the Civil War
Those who lost, lost everything. They ended up losing the independence of their States, as well as many of their freedoms. They also discovered that they now answered to a singular centralized government located in Washington D.C..
After the American civil war, for the most part, the Bill of Rights was proven to be a sham.
If you negate one enumerated Right, you negate them all. It's only a simple matter of time.
Confederate Soldier.
Then, in 2013 President Obama, in one of his many efforts to rewrite history, started the narrative that the Civil War was fought over slavery. And that most “white people” still wanted slavery and that “white people” should be punished for their “privilege”.
You can see this narrative being reinforced in the mainstream American media, in the universities, and by “diversity officers” in the corporate board rooms.
"I've never owned, or was a slave, and a large percentage of our forefathers weren't wealthy enough to own one either. Please stop blaming me because some prior white people were idiots -- and remember, tons of white, Indian, Chinese, and other races have been enslaved too -- it was wrong for every one of them. "
-Ted Nugent
An Obama follower (Cashing in on the “community organizer” scam.) instructing “white people” on their privilege…
Rewriting history to demonize a particular demographic is necessary to create “race wars” that lead to democide. This is a very important first step in all genocides. You select a group of people. You demonize them relentlessly. You disarm them. Then you kill them in mass. It is a historical norm, and well documented. In fact, it is almost one of the crowning achievements of the Marxism in the 20th century.
Abruptly and suddenly all historical narratives on the internet were rewritten to embrace this idea. And of course, news, media and academia marched lock-step to promote it.
"Mr. Obama never missed an opportunity to sew racial divide.
During his term in the Oval Office, racial relations literally went off the cliff. Mr. Obama and first lady Michelle promoted the false narrative that white America was literally guilty of hunting down blacks with glee.
They whipped up resentment in minority communities against the police, even though a Harvard study found that blacks are no more likely to be killed by police than whites."
-L. Todd Wood
Ah. But what of history?
Yes.
History.
Looking at history as a thinking person…
If the American confederates were so enraptured with slavery, wouldn’t they try to escape from the clutches of the Federal government when it appeared that the war was ending? Wouldn’t they flee with their favorite slaves? Wouldn’t they they relocate elsewhere to promote the core ideas slavery based Confederacy elsewhere?
Well, yes. You would think so.
Only, history tells us a different narrative.
The confederates that fled the United States didn’t do so to set up a nation where slavery was legal. They went elsewhere to set up a state where the people had more power than the government there.
Surprise! It just doesn't fit that "deplorable, Nazi, white privilege" narrative being shoved down our collective throats by the mainstream American media and their handlers the progressive Marxist Democrats.
As such, a study of these people who fled the Confederacy would be able to tell us all a lot about the causes of the American Civil War, and the things that were important to the membership of the Confederacy.
Let’s take a look at that.
The Confederados
Today... even though most of the Confederado descendants, being mainly of mixed race now, have fanned out to other parts of Brazil.
Many of the descendants from the original Confedrados, with the typical Brazilian flair, have an affinity for and carry on the traditions from their homeland; Such as Confederate uniforms and it's flag, southern food and their protestant Baptist religion.
Even though they identify with their past, they do consider themselves loyal Brazilian citizens. Maintaining a headquarters, as well as memorials and museums of their original descendant organization at the Campo center in Santa Bárbara D'Oeste.
-Historum
Brazil is well-known for being a cultural hub of South American life with its unmatched love for football, its fun and sexy dances like the samba, and its Latin people. It in so many ways, no way resembles anything like the Confederate States of America in the 19th-century South.
The Confederacy is alive and well within Brazil. There a man can be a gentleman, he can smoke a cigar and have a fine glass of XO while addressing young lasses as they stroll along the venue.
So what kind of fiction do we have to invent to combine the two and make them fit together?
The answer is none.
Because that’s exactly what happened in Americana, a municipality of Sao Paulo, Brazil. There, the residents call themselves the Confederados. As they are descendants of the 19th-century residents of the Confederate States of America.
The descendants of the Confederate States of America, living as expats in Brazil By studying the Confederatados one can better understand the motivations of people who decided to leave America for another nation.
The Confederados carry on all the cultural artifacts of the Confederacy. This includes the Confederate flag, Confederate army uniforms, and Confederate-style dancing with its own Brazilian flair.
It’s their heritage.
So how did this come to be?
By mid-1865 the American Civil War was over and the South had lost—everything.
It was over.
Her cities and farmland were destroyed, political rights denied, the finest of her husbands, fathers, and sons dead or disabled. With Lincoln dead and Radical Republican revenge on the horizon, the occupied territory of the southern United States did not appear to be a promising place for the foreseeable future.
The Confederados are a proud people with a proud and just heritage. They are thriving and they have embraced Brazilian culture while embracing their history.
Can you visualize what it must have been like?
Can you, really?
After the Civil War, many families from the old South were left landless and destitute. They probably hated living under a conquering army of Yankees.
Brazilian emperor Dom Pedro II realized this group of disenchanted Americans could be a solution to one of his problems: how to develop the sparsely-settled areas of his country. He was especially interested in developing the cultivation of cotton, a crop well-known to the former Confederates. He provided incentives to people who knew how to raise cotton, offering land at twenty-two cents an acre with four years credit and passage to Brazil for thirty Yankee dollars. Each family was encouraged to bring a tent, light-weight furniture, farming supplies and seeds, and provisions to last six months.
Dom Pedro II sent recruiters into Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas in search of experienced cotton farmers for his country. Many southerners saw this as their only option for happiness, to build a community with southern values in the jungle of Brazil. They would become known as the Confederados.
-EOGN
Imagine today, in today’s polarized society. When the members of the OTHER political party gains the upper-hand and are Hell-bent on running things their way. Would you be willing to stay?
Would YOU?
Out-of-touch and insane liberal Rep. Maxine Waters has been in the hot seat over her calls for violence. Has she learned? Nope! In a recent interview, she demanded more liberals go after conservatives. he continued, “And I’m hopeful that even Democrats having seen the kind of outpouring of protests over 700 incidences of protests this weekend, seeing that they will be more forceful, more confrontational and more prepared to push back on this administration. I think that the people are showing them, this-this is what they would have us do.” [Source: Breitbart]
Given this level of politicized violence, a life as a second-rate citizen, and all your livelihood destroyed, with a Federally sanctioned attack on your culture, many Southerners decided to leave.
And so they did.
They skedaddled.
See ya! Bye!
The descendants of the expats of the Confederacy have embraced heir history, their heritage and their cuture without shame of sadness. They never had to endure the century of having their culture and their society belittled and made fun of.
Some resettled out west, others even relocated in the North, and some went as far as friendly England. But the most popular destination for expatriate Confederates was a country further south: Brazil, where summer is perpetual and the harvest year-round.
The colonists were ecstatic about what they saw, and one wrote back to the Mobile Daily Register:
“I have sugar cane, cotton, pumpkins, squash, five kinds of sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, cornfield peas, snap beans, butter beans, ochre [probably okra], tomatoes and fine chance at tobacco. I have a great variety of fruits on my place. I have made enough to live well on and am better pleased than other.”
-EOGN
Time to leave.
When the Civil War ended in 1865, many Southerners felt that they no longer fit in the United States. As such, they decided to go to a place where they could find cheap land to build new lives.
The Confederados all dressed up to reenact their history, their heritage and their society. When the Confederacy lost, they did not bow down to a tyrannical Federal government. They left. Today they are thriving, while their families who stayed behind now lives a life that is dictated out of Washington D.C. instead of locally managed.
In 1865, the Civil War ended with a Confederate loss and the Union abolishing slavery. The bloody conflict caused more than 600,000 military casualties and nearly depleted the Southern economy.
The North disbanded the Confederate army and began a period known as the Reconstruction. It wasn’t exactly welcomed in the South, and some decided to leave the United States for somewhere else.
-The Vintage News
Though General Robert E. Lee discouraged them from leaving, around 20,000 Southerners set sail for Brazil, the only time in American history where people left the country in large numbers for another one.
Square dances, Southern hospitality and fine Southern cooking are all traditions that are maintained and embraced inside of Brazil.
Accounts vary on how many left.
They vary from 10,000 to 20,000 families. We know that at a minimum of 10,000 boarded ships and went by sea. Those that took trains, or wagons down through Mexico are much more difficult to track.
Nor, do we do not know what happened to many of them. Obviously some died due to illness and sickness in the harsh tropics. Some just moved on elsewhere, and ended up in Argentina, and other South American nations. We do know that some of those who went to Brazil eventually sailed back to the US eventually. Well, because building a new life is surprisingly hard.
Today, we know that 94 of the original American families remained as their “blood lines” and “family names” are all predominant in the Americanized communities. These families became rich from growing cotton and sugarcane.
They are also the people from whom the modern-day Confederados are descended.
At least one shipload of Southerners docked in the port of Belém, set sail down the Amazon River and survived on berries and monkey meat, but perished from malaria. The only community of Confederates that survived was the group that got to the place they called Americana, which they chose because it most closely paralleled their home in Georgia.”
-News Punch
The saying “The South will Rise Again!” isn’t a fiction. It really has risen again. It rose in a place where there was liberty and freedom. And where talented Americans could thrive – Brazil.
They balkanized Brazil.
Those that arrived refused to integrate.
This group refused to learn Portuguese, built Baptist churches and their own schools, and made their own traditional meals like biscuits and gravy, pecan pie, and black-eyed peas. They believed that their ways of the Confederacy and their Southern lifestyle was superior to anything found in Brazil at the time.
Over the last 100 years, the original Confederate bloodlines were slowly diluted, resulting in today’s part-Spanish, part-Confederate descendants who speak mostly Portuguese but also speak English with a Southern drawl.
Brazil Welcomes the Confederacy
When the Confederacy was defeated in the US Civil War, Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil, a staunch ally of the Confederate cause, welcomed Confederate soldiers and sympathizers wishing to start a new life.
Thousands of Southerners, motivated by a hate of the wartime enemy and an instinctive urge to preserve Southern cultural values, flocked to Brazil.
They moved to a climate that in many ways resembled the American South. They moved to a place where they were permitted to keep their society, their culture and their heritage. They moved to a place where they were accepted as themselves.
Proud to be Confederate. Proud of their lifestyle. Proud of their heritage. Proud of their lifestyle.
“The Confederados, despite the usual problems of colonization, thrived in an environment that had defeated many settlers before them. Americana became an image of the antebellum period of the American south. Many of the first Baptist churches in Brazil were started there. They built public schools and provided education for their female children, something that was rare in Brazil. They flew the Confederate flag and enjoyed the traditional southern meals of biscuits and gravy, black-eyed peas and, of course, grits.The settlers had very European names like Stonewall and Butler. They would bake pecan pies, have debutante balls, and sing southern hymns. Only recently was the Confederate flag removed from the city’s crest. In 1906, US Secretary of State Elihu Root made a quick stop in Americana, but had little to say to the expatriates. Root later told his biographer that he left Americana weepy and had told the Confederados they’d never be welcome in the United States again.”
-News Punch
There was nothing random about the Southerners’ choice.
At the war’s end Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil, a Mason, began an extensive recruitment campaign. He did this primarily among his fellow Masonic brothers. He offered quite a bit. Indeed, he offered the world’s leading cotton-growing experts (American Southerners) some of the best cotton-growing land at twenty-two cents an acre, hoping to boost his own country’s developing economy.
Brazil Confederados showing the American stars and Bars with great pride.
The South’s most respected Robert E. Lee and other leaders throughout the South urged Southerners to resist the offers. They did not want to see a “brain drain” dilute the “strength of the South”. Indeed, the South had lost too many of her best men already.
Defeated and rejected in their own land, however, many Southerners responded to the warm welcome extended by the Brazilians, and Dom Pedro’s plan worked to the good of both parties.
Waves of Confederate immigrants
Over the next two decades as many as 20,000 Confederate refugees relocated to Brazil. We know that some of them eventually returned to the United States while others succumbed to deadly tropical disease. But several thousand brave pioneers remained permanently, not only forging a new life in a strange land but succeeding in it and making valuable contributions to their new country.
Proud Brazilian Confederados. They are the descendants of the expats who fled America over States Rights when the Federal government became far too large and trampled their lifestyle.
In 1866 an ex-senator from Alabama, Colonel William Norris, became the first American settler in Brazil. He purchased land near the Quilombo River in the state of São Paulo.
The William Hutchinson Norris from Alabama served in the Alabama Legislature as a member of the House of Representatives and later as a State Senator during the 1830's and 1840's...In 1861 he was the Grand Master of Masons in Alabama. No record has yet been found of him having served in the military during the Civil War period, or in any other period. During the 1820's he did serve in a Militia Unit in Wilcox County dealing with the Indians.
It should be noted that 6 of his sons served in the War and they were James Reece Norris, Robert Cicero, Francis Johnson, Henry Clay, Samuel Leonidas and Benjamin Harrison Norris. All except Francis Johnson Norris migrated to Brazil with the rest of the family. James Reece, Benjamin and Samuel returned to this country after several years in Brazil.
- The Alabama in the Civil War Message Board - Archive
A year later many more Americans followed. They came to settle in or near the “Norris colony” and in other areas throughout Brazil.
The Confederacy is alive and well in Brazil. Only they call it the Confederados.
When new arrivals saw 100% returns on their first two-year cotton plantings, the success stories brought new waves of Southerners fleeing worsening conditions (Please reference “Carpetbaggers & Scalawags“) back home.
In 1875 the Brazilian government built a railway station near Norris’s settlement—one hundred cars were needed to haul the popular watermelon crop alone in the late 1800’s—and the village that grew up around it soon became known popularly as Villa dos Americanos, “Town of the Americans.”
Confederados keeping their society and history alive. They are the only ones doing it. In America the South was lost and crumbled under the weight of the “new reformation” under the federal government.
Some of the families that settled
Many citizens of the Confederacy disappeared from public records at the end of the Civil War or soon thereafter. Of course, record keeping was spotty at best in the turmoil that followed the defeat of the Confederacy. If you can’t find your relatives during that time, you might be tempted to say, “Oh well, he (or she) probably died in the war.”
Don’t be so sure.
In 1868, a number of families from former Confederate states in the South fled the Reconstruction policies for Brazil. They settled in various regions of the country but, within a few years, concentrated near the current towns of Americana and Santa Barbara, Sao Paulo State.
These settlements were approximately 100 miles inland from the city of Sao Paulo. The family of Colonel William H. Norris was the first to arrive from Alabama. His son Robert C. Norris and daughter-in-law Martha Temperance [Patti] Steagall as well as his own daughter Angela Norris accompanied the Colonel, but son Saunders Norris remained at the family home of Mt. Pleasant, Alabama, 40 miles northeast of Mobile.
Robert Cicero Norris
Robert Cicero Norris was the son of Col. William Hutchison Norris. He was born in Perry County, Ala., March 7, 1837. His boyhood days were spent in Dallas County, Ala. From 1850 to 1856 he was a student at Fulton Academy, one of the best educational institutions of the State. Having finished the course there, he studied law under his father, though not intending to practice this profession; but he wished to inform himself concerning the laws of the country.
At the age of twenty he taught in a public school for a year, and then he went to Brundidge, Ala., where he studied medicine under Dr. J.H. Dewberry as preceptor. He matriculated in the Mobile Medical College (now University of Alabama). On January 28, 1861, his studies were interrupted when he went with other volunteers under Capt. Theodore O'Hara to Pensacola to seize the navy yards. He then returned to his studies.
On July 3, 1861, he enlisted in Company F, 15th Alabama Regiment, and went to Fort Mitchell for organization, and from there to Virginia, where his regiment served in Stonewall Jackson's brigade. In 1862 he was made sergeant major, serving in this capacity until 1864, and acted as adjutant much of the time. He was later assigned to Company A, 60th Alabama Regiment, and promoted to first lieutenant. In an engagement on Hatcher's Run he was captured and sent as a prisoner to Fort Delaware, where he was kept until June 17, 1865.
He arrived at his old home in Alabama on the 5th of July. During the four years' service he was wounded three times. He served in many battles and skirmishes, including Front Royal, Port Republic, Harper's Ferry, Cross Keys, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, Cedar Run, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Brown's Ferry, Wilderness, Spottsylvania Courthouse, Second Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Darbytown Road, and Williamsburg Road.
At the end of 1865 he traveled to Brazil and settled in Villa Americana, State of Sao Paulo, being the first American to settle in that section of the country. Afterwards a flourishing American colony was established there. He returned to the Mobile in 1890 to study medicine. After completing his studies, he rejoined his wife and their 10 children in Brazil, where he established a successful practice. He retired from active life in 1911.
He was made a Mason in 1858 in the Fulton Lodge, Dallas County. In Brazil he took an active part in organizing a lodge, A.Y.M., in Santa Barbara, of which he was Senior Warden for two years, afterwards being elected to the position of Grand Master, which he held until his death. Dr. Robert C. Norris departed this life on May 14, 1913.
- see CONFEDERATE VETERAN, November 1913, Vol. 21, No. 11
Martha Temperance Steagall
Martha Temperance Steagall was born on February 4, 1850 in Union City, Obion County, Tennessee. She was the daughter of Henry Farrar Steagall and Delia Elizabeth (Peck) Steagall. She relocated with the rest of her family and her husband Robert C. Norris to Brazil in 1867. She and her husband had two daughters, Kennie and Julia and a son Robert Clay Norris. She died on September 16, 1933 in Washington, D.C.
- Special Collections & Archives Department Homepage
Robert Clay Norris
Robert Clay Norris was born January 5, 1872 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, Sao Paulo, Brazil. He studied dentistry in Sao Paulo and assisted in the practice of Dr. I. G. Baumgardner before his untimely death on December 10, 1906. He married Ana Candida Escobar 1895 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
- Special Collections & Archives Department Homepage
John Ridley Bufird
Prior to relocating to the American Civil War, John Ridley Buford was a resident of Eufaula, Alabama. He enlisted in April 1862, at Eufaula, Alabama and was appointed Sergeant in Captain Reuben Koulb's Battery of the Barbour Alabama Light Artillery. He was transferred on November 6, 1864, with the rank of private to the Eufaula Battery of Alabama Light Artillery. He was in St. Mary's Hospital at Union Springs, Alabama from September 29,1864, until November 6, 1864. Buford took part in the battles of Kentucky Campaign, Hood's Tennessee Campaign, and Chickamauga, and was paroled at Meridian, Mississippi, on May 10, 1865. At his parole, he listed his residence as Eufaula. In late February of 1867, Buford
moved to Santa Barbara, Brazil where he farmed tobacco. He was alive in 1913 at age of 72.
- Special Collections & Archives Department Homepage
While the Confederates that moved to Brazil came from all over the South, it does seem like the most notable ones originated out of Alabama for some reason. Curious.
I wonder why.
Alabama in one picture.
At the opening of the twentieth century officials adopted the name Villa Americana, and today the city begun by Confederate Americans, with a population of over 200,000, is called simply “Americana.”
Americana
A small town soon formed, and a train station was built when the first railroad line was constructed through the area in 1875. The train station was officially named “Villa da Estação de Santa Bárbara” (Santa Bárbara Station Town), but the nearby town became popularly known as “Villa dos Americanos” (Town of the Americans). The town was later officially named Americana.
-EOGN
Americana is still home to about 20,000 direct descendants of these original Southern planters. Though, Italian immigrants quickly moved in and eventually outnumbered them. However, there may be as many as ten times that number distributed all over, and throughout, all of Brazil.
Southern manners, gestures, and society is maintained and living well within Brazil. The expats who left the United States Confederacy set up a life inside of Brazil to maintain their culture and way of life.
The colonies remained a cloistered community for years to come. The Confederate refugees married among themselves and spoke only English. They also invested in separate schools, churches, and cemeteries, importing priests and teachers from the United States.
The colonists founded the first Baptist Church in Brazil, together with the Campo Cemetery in which members of the Protestant religion were buried, according to their tradition.
Alison Jones, who was a third-generation descendant of the original settlers, described her experience growing up in such an environment to the Seattle Times in a 1995 interview: “I remember when I was 4 years old, I was lost in a textile factory and I couldn’t tell the people anything because I only spoke English. I didn’t learn Portuguese until I started school.”
-The Vintage News
They are in their fifth and sixth generations now.
On the whole, despite English-sounding names and lingering Southern accents for some, these down-stream Confederados think, look, and act like other Brazilians.
Young Confederados keeping their history, their society, and their traditions alive.
New waves of immigrants settled in and near Americana, notably large numbers of Italians and Germans in the 1880s. The families intermarried over the years, and today Americana’s population is described as a mixture of Luso-Afro-Brazilians (Luso meaning Portuguese) and immigrants, mainly Italian, Portuguese, German, and Arabic. The name of Americana still survives, and because of intermarriages, almost all of today’s citizens of the area can claim some Confederados ancestry. Indeed, English (with a southern accent) is the unofficial second language of the area and is still spoken by many in the area.
Today Americana is a city of 120,000 people. The ties to the old South live on. Festa Confederada is a celebration that takes place in the cemetery where the old Confederates are buried. The food served includes southern fried chicken, vinegar pie, chess pie, and biscuits. Banjos are played and Confederate songs are sung. The men wear Confederate uniforms, and the women dress in pink and blue and wear matching ribbons in their hair. The festival often looks like scenes from “Gone With the Wind.”
-EOGN
Though, you know, holding on to heritage and traditions is a good thing. Today in the Untied States we have forgotten many traditions and our heritage. Instead, we have replaced our history with pale versions.
Instead of eating fine home cooked meals, we eat progressive and modern fake-meat at McDonald’s. Instead of having a good home made baked pie, we get a mocha caramel latte smoothy from Starbucks. Instead of having home-made sweet-potato pie, we eat a Oreo cookie from the local 7-11.
I think we are missing out.
Pecan pie done right. We have lost things that used to matter to us, and what made our lives special and important.
Slavery
The conventional (Obama era) narrative is that the Confederacy was all about slavery. The idea was that the Civil War was all about “white people” desirous of having and owning slaves. That is the causes of the American Civil War they say. They argue that a war needed to be fought not only to “free the slaves” but to teach a lesson to all those “white people” who have the deplorable notion that slavery can be institutionalized.
If this narrative is what is being portrayed as the reason, history says otherwise.
Of the 20,000 confederate immigrant families, only four people owned slaves.
Four People.
This held true, even though slavery was legal in Brazil. As well as legal in almost all of South America at that time.Why didn’t the survivors of the Confederacy create an expat Confederacy with slavery?
Why didn’t they?
It’s strange, and doesn’t fit the progressive liberal Obama-era narrative.
This has been born out by the work of Alcides Gussi, an independent researcher of the State University of Campinas, Sao Paolo. Who claims that only four families actually owned slave labor, with a total number of 66 slaves, in the period between 1868 to 1875.
Some cases were recorded in which the freed slaves decided to accompany their former masters. Most notable was the story of Steve Watson. Watson went to Brazil, together with Judge Dyer of Texas, his former owner, who assigned him to be an administrator of a sawmill. At one point, Dyer decided to return to the U.S., due to a combination of homesickness and financial failure. He left all his property in Brazil to Watson.
Judith McKnight Jones, a great-granddaughter of one of the original American settlers, tried to explain the reasons for her family’s departure from Texas during the migration to the Seattle Times:
“They came here because they felt that their ‘country’ had been invaded and their land confiscated. To them, there was nothing left there. So, they came here to try to re-create what they had before the war. I grew up listening to the stories. They were angry and bitter. When they talked about it, moving here, the war, leaving their homes, it was always a very sore subject for them.”
-The Vintage News
Proud to be a Confederado. How many Americans can be so open and brazen about their history, their society and their heritage? Not many. That’s why the confederates fled the United States. They yearned for Freedom and Liberty.
The Festa Confederada
Once a year, however, at the Festa Confederada, the South rises in their blood to celebrate their heritage.
The correct name for the celebration is FEsta Confederada (FIEsta is Spanish, not Portuguese): http://festaconfederada.com.br/.
Proud descendants, most of mixed races, fly the Confederate flag—there is no racial stigma attached to it in Brazil.
Some pretty Confederate lasses doing and living well inside Brazil.
Women deck out as Southern belles, complete with hoop skirts, while the men don uniforms of Confederate gray, dance with the girls, and drink over the War.
On the menu are Southern fried chicken, chess pie, and mouth-watering biscuits; “Dixie” plays in the background. Were it not for the Portuguese being spoken by participants, an observer might imagine himself in Mississippi or Alabama of a hundred and fifty years ago.
Southern belles of the Confederacy living fine and well in Brazil.
The meeting ground is Campo Cemetery near neighboring Santa Barbara d’Oeste, where most of their ancestors are buried. Confederados built the cemetery, near the first Presbyterian church in Brazil, when Catholics would not permit space for Protestant burial in their own churchyards.
An imposing memorial, boasting the stars-and-bars of the Confederate battle flag, stands in the middle of the cemetery, bearing the names of the early Confederados, the great-great-grandfathers and grandmothers of those who sing and dance and remember the land their families used to call home.
Today
Indeed, to this day, throughout towns in Brazil, the Confederacy and Southern US culture is celebrated annually. It is done so by the many thousands of descendants of these Americans, known locally as Confedorados. Now, after six or seven generations, many of whom now have non-white and African heritage.
The expats of the descendants of the American Confederacy are living well and good in Brazil.
Square dances are held, and confederate flags are flown proudly. Any racial connotations are long lost and remain tied to American special-interest groups fighting for political supremacy. Meanwhile, the Confederados maintain their society, one of many, amid the sea of racial diversity in Brazil.
The Confederados pay tribute to their history and their culture, deep within the forests of Brazil. For in many ways, it well resembled their homeland in Georgia and Mississippi.
Some Links for further study…
You can learn more about this settlement and the families who lived there by starting online. Auburn University has a large Confederados Collection; a guide to the collection may be found at http://www.lib.auburn.edu/archive/find-aid/958.htm.
A web site of the history of the Confederados may be found at http://www.confederados.com.br/. This web site also contains a list of Confederados families.
Much more information may be found in The Confederados: Old South Immigrants in Brazil,
a book by by Cyrus B. Dawsey (Editor), James M. Dawsey (Editor),
Michael L. Conniff (Foreword), & 9 more, available on Amazon at http://goo.gl/8IOgcs.
And now for my opinion…
Finally, my take on Obama rewriting history so that myself and others like me can be erased for our “white privilege” and a new Marxist society can be built upon our salted graves…
My relatives were too busy struggling with a potato blight in Ireland , and having to get drawn into servitude to escape it, and enslavement by the Russians in Poland. Don’t know about that, do you? It doesn’t fit the desired political narrative. Yeah. Just like your pampered baby who cries when it tosses it’s food on the floor. Life is hard. Get over it.
Get. Over. It.
What I opine about is not about the things that I personally experienced regarding the American Civil War. As I have no experiences, have you? Nope. The American Civil War ended a long, long time ago. Everyone who participated in it is now DEAD. They are dead. Long, long dead. If you did dig them up, you will see rotting flesh and foul odors.
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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.
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.
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…
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 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 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 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.
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.
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 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.
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
Fu Guohao, reporter of Chinese media Global Times website, is tied by protesters during a mass demonstration at the Hong Kong international airport, in Hong Kong, China, August 13, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
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 (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!
People, it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with American presidential aides in the HK Marriot hotel!
This is very very embarrassing. Julie Eadeh, a US diplomat in Hong Kong, was caught meeting HK protest leaders. It would be hard to imagine the US reaction if Chinese diplomat were meeting leaders of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter or Never Trump protesters. pic.twitter.com/JfiU2O2HZq
— Chen Weihua (@chenweihua) August 8, 2019
Of course, this kind of nonsense won’t be tolerated by China.
The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong submitted a formal complaint with the US consulate general, calling on the US “to immediately make a clean break from anti-China forces who stir up trouble in Hong Kong, stop sending out wrong signals to violent offenders, refrain from meddling with Hong Kong affairs and avoid going further down the wrong path.”
The 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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
Rubio and his colleagues nominated the trio of Wong, Law, and Chow for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize.
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)
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.
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.
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!
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 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 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.
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
John Bolton – National Security Advisor to Donald Trump.
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.
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.
Edward Leung Tin-kei (Chinese : 梁天琦 ; born 2 June 1991) is a Hong Kong student and activist. He is the former spokesman of Hong Kong Indigenous, a localist group. He took a leading role and was arrested in the 2016 Mong Kok civil unrest.
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.
“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”.
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.
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.
US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz believes that supporting the HK protestors will not have any adverse actions and that America will continue to be the most powerful and “free nation” on the planet.
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.
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.
Policemen arrest a protester during a demonstration at the Airport in Hong Kong, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019. Chaos has broken out at Hong Kong’s airport as riot police moved into the terminal to confront protesters who shut down operations at the busy transport hub for two straight days. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
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.
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/jvCk2QBNhKhttps://t.co/I8oGScbpsSpic.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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.“
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.
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”.
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.
Protestors assault an international traveler near the subway in the HK airport.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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…
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
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
Not, that I want to get too political, but this video that is playing all across China pretty much says it all. It’s all about the Trump Trade War. And it shows how the Chinese feel about it.
This post is about a movie that is playing all over China this Summer. It is allegorical. While it is a story about a British Boxing champion, and his involvement within China, there are very CLEAR parallels about what is going on in the Trump Tariff situation.
China has this allegorical movie about the Trump USA trade war with China that has been playing all over China during the Summer of 2019. It’s well worth the watch, and it says quite a bit if you only just listen.
Viewing it garners mixed feelings from the precious few Americans who have watched it. There are two types of reactions;
[1] On one hand, Yeah! They don’t like the tariffs and trade situation. Great! Well, tough cookies! Suffer! See what we care. We can wait this out. You must play by our rules. If you don’t like it, well then too bad! We can always find other trading partners.
[2] On the other hand, well… um… maybe China would be a far better friend than an enemy. Who knows what they are really capable of or have planned.
Rush Limbaugh comments
To understand the situation let’s look at Rush Limbaugh. He’s a major voice in Conservative circles in America, and perhaps one of the few Republicans that haven’t sold out the American people for some song and dance. You know, like Jeff Sessions, Jeb Bush, and John McCain has. He’s still a trooper, slogging through the Washington swamp, and enduring the slings and missiles from the American mainstream media.
Here’s what Rush (El’ Rush-bo) has to say on the “Trump Chinese Tariff issue”…
RUSH:
So the president started here with China. He is dead set on winning this trade war with the ChiComs.
Now, the thing about this that I think will go over a lot of people’s heads unless there’s somebody like me explaining this, is he takes what to most people is a complex issue: The China trade deals.
I mean, it is a miasma to a lot of people.
It’s so convoluted and confusing that nobody knows really what the stakes are.
Why is it happening?
What’s it all about?
Trump takes this complex issue that nobody has even paid attention to for decades and does his best to make it understandable and important, and here is how that sounded.
THE PRESIDENT:
We’re talking to China. We’re not ready to make a deal. But we’ll see what happens. But, you know, we’ve been hurt by China for 25, 30 years. Nobody’s done anything about it, and we have no choice but to do what we’re doing. We called them on manipulation, and they brought their numbers back, and they brought ’em back rapidly. We have an open dialogue. We’ll see whether or not we keep our meeting in September. If we do, that’s fine; if we don’t, that’s fine. But it’s time that somebody does what we are doing.
RUSH:
When he talks about “the numbers,” he’s talking about their currency manipulation. They tried to deflate their currency on Wednesday, and it worked to the point of rocking our stock market down 900-some-odd points, and then Trump had some harsh words for ’em and they revalued the next night, and the stock market rebounded.
Of course, the panic that ensued on that one day when the market dropped 900 points was typical of the kind of reporting we get in the media today.
Rush is correct. This is exactly what has happened. (More or less.)
Though, the truth is closer to the fact that China has been keeping the USD-to-Yuan rate artificial for the last twenty years or so. Not, as you might have the impression, naturally at 6.3:1 and then suddenly changed. So yes. They stopped propping up the rate, and it fell like a brick and messed up the USA stocks.
However, how it is being reported is a bit of a lie and a manipulation.
As reported; The USD to Yuan rate has been normal for the last twenty years. Suddenly China manipulated it’s currency to hurt the USD.
But that is a partial truth, equating to an outright lie. The last twenty years has been anything but normal. Here’s a better picture…
The True Situation: China has been artificially propping up the USD – Yuan exchange rate to slow down it’s hyper-active business section for the last twenty years. It has done this for selfish reasons, and the USA has benefited with this exchange rate. When the Trump Tariff wars hit a “road bump” the Chinese stopped propping up the exchange rate. They did so purposefully, (I personally believe) in order to aid in their tariff negotiations with President Trump. They did this to achieve negotiation advantage.
The trade wars initiated by Donald Trump has had an effect on China, though it is not as severe as the mainstream America makes it out to be.
So yeah. The exchange rate was artificial.
And yeah, China affected it, causing a drop in the USA stock exchange.
However, the details on this event and this exchange are not being reported accurately at all. Instead it is being reported in such a way as to make it appear that China is manipulating the currency exchange rate for their benefit. When the exact opposite occurred. They STOPPED manipulating their currency rate.
So even El’ Rush-bo is confused. He’s sitting pretty in the USA. He’s never been to China. Knows nothing about China except what he’s read from “experts”. Most of whom haven’t been to China in years.
Hey! If I am going to talk about golfing (for example). I sure as heck better know the difference between a driver and a putter. What a slice is, and how it differs from a hook. As well as to know what a "slow green" is.
I just can't watch a baseball game, eat a hotdog and chat about golf, when I have never been on a golf course. Played a round. Or owned any clubs.
Rush calls them “Chi-Coms”, Chinese Communists. Which they actually call themselves, but which means something totally different when heard by a Chinese compared to an American.
American Person;
"Chinese Communism" means hard-core tyrannical Marxist government. Similar to what is present in North Korea, and Cuba.
Chinese Person;
"Chinese Communism" is socialism with Chinese characteristics.
There are no political parties as all of the Chinese people want the same thing; a traditional life that is safe from interference. Free Market Reaganomics implemented by Mr. Deng in the 1980's led to the "great recovery" resulting in what China is today.
I would say that the problem with American media is that no one ever really … I mean… really reports. They just put their own individual “spin” on the day’s events. Their popularity within America is determined whether their audience agrees or disagrees with what they have to say.
Even if it is completely and totally wrong.
How the American mainstream media reports the effect of the Trump Tariffs on China as a whole. Absolutely not accurate at all. Bloodied, but in no way knocked out of the going.
The goal of the American mainstream media is to manipulate the people. This manipulation serves a purpose. It keeps Americans living in a constant state of fear and anxiety, from which they can be easily manipulated. Much like sheep, cattle, or chickens. They have been doing so for decades.
American mainstream media manipulation of reported content to invoke fear and mob-behaviors in the public by controlling the dialog.
The Movie
Now, this here is the Chinese response to the Donald Trump “Trade War” with China. It is a (sort of) friendly warning (China to President Trump) that is playing in all the movie theaters in China this Summer.
Bet you all weren’t aware of that!
I wonder why? Where’s all those “Chinese experts” and “China policy planners”, aren’t they aware of this? What about all those “talking heads” on the mainstream news, and the conservative political commentators?
No where to be found.
That is simply because they are all actors playing a role. Which, of course, is to manipulate. They tell you what YOU WANT TO HEAR, or arouse a fear to manipulate you to take some kind of action.
Nah. They have about as much awareness about China, as you the reader does about the block buster Pop hit 芒种. Which is absolutely zilch.
News reporting in America is dead. It only took about twenty years for the people to start realizing it. Today, it’s all just actors and actresses reading scripted lines. Those rare few that remain genuine to their beliefs, such as Rush Limbaugh, are only as good as their experiences. Without personal first-hand experiences, they are just fellow strangers espousing opinions.
Anyways…
This micro video runs for 1.47 minutes. It’s short but sweet and is a message straight from Beijing to Washington. I do think that it is worth a watch, even if you don’t like China, Chinese people, or Chinese food.
Watch it for the reasons why other Americans have watched it… to either gloat and feel superior, or to sit back and ponder the enormity of the situation.
I think it is well worth the watch, and so here it is…
Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.
—– Video Start
—- Video End
WISE UP!
The “old rules” of global politics will no longer work.
Oh, you don’t think that it has anything to do with trade? Watch the clip again, and pay attention to the English dialog…
Who do you think you are?
You collect money from me. You don't share it.
Do as I say.
You are not qualified to make deals with me.
And the discussion continues…
If you quit, you can take this business too. I can get anybody to take care of it.
And then, the sheer arrogance of the Westerners reaches an explosion point when he says…
Will somebody get this yellow piece of fat to get out of here!
After that we see how the Westerner battles and demolishes the Chinese man. It’s strong. It’s vicious, and he dies.
He’s dead. The Westerner has won.
Then, it’s payback time.
That's the clip and that's the message. The point is that Westerners misunderstand politeness for strength and advantage. It takes merit, skill and ability to defeat arrogance, bravado and strength.
Now, let me tell you my take…
America is a global power on the decline.
China is a rising global power.
China would prefer to work with America for their own benefit. While America would like to use China to advance their social-economical standing.
Well… duh!
You might not want to hear this, but it is true. Compare the stats. How many new parks were built in the USA compared to China? How many skyscrapers? How many bridges? How many High Speed Trains? How many hospitals? How many new schools.
Of course, the statist would simply point and say “ah, well… China is a third world nation, it doesn’t take much to move it forward“. Except that it isn’t, and wasn’t. The tyranny of communism devastated it. It took up until 1976 until it was finally vanquished, and Reaganomics was instituted by Mr. Deng that turned the nation around.
Don't thank Mr. Deng. Yes, he introduced it, but it was the Great Ronald Reagan that introduced the technique to the world. Too bad that the Bush dynasty made fun of it, and allowed progressive politics under the guise of RINO activists to force America to become what it is today.
Meanwhile, [1] China is growing. That is simply not mistakable.
And [2] America, held down with the burden of progressive Marxism, a swamp-like government filled with crooks and swindlers, is on the decline.
But don’t believe me. Look at the charts why don’t ya…
Whether you believe me or not, this chart tells the entire story quite succinctly. The “trade wars” is happening and reaching a peak in 2019 simply because the United States wants to remain the dominant economic leader in the world. It’s all really that simple.
These kind of charts abound, and while they might differ by a few months one way or the other, the message is all quite clear. The USA is in decline, and China is ascendant.
Chart of real GDP comparing the United States with China. Check out the dates. Now compare the dates with the implementation of the Trump Tariff Wars.
Americans don’t want either of these two things to occur. They want the status quo. They want inflation to stop, and for the march of progressiveness to end, and for them to get back just a few of the freedoms that they have lost over the years. Nothing too demanding. Just a few things…
Some things to ponder
It’s pretty difficult to “bring back American industry” to America when all the manufacturing talent is Chinese. Yeah. That’s right. Who the heck do you all think has been making those products that you have been buying for the last 20 to 30 years? Elves? Dwarfs?
Here, Manufacturing Talent represents skilled and educated factory professionals. Process engineers, manufacturing engineers, build planners, tool and die makers, test and quality experts and other similarly skilled people.
America used to have them. But spending twenty years in soup kitchen lines has caused many of them to change careers and take up other occupations. Most especially during the Obama presidency.
It’s going to be pretty difficult to disassemble the manufacturing equipment, and process tanks when they are now the property of Chinese nationals. When a non-Chinese company wants to operate in China they must create a joint-venture with a Chinese national. This person will, by law, own 51% of the company and if forbidden by law to give controlling interest to a non-Chinese person. (Which is why WOFE business structures were created in China.)
Just to put this in perspective, a single automated "break"... the machine that cuts and folds sheet metal panels is the cost of an Lamborghini. A company is not going to start from scratch and order up five or six of these units without passing on the costs to the consumer.
It’s going to be pretty difficult to train American workers to work in the (brought back) factories. American can do the work. Though it will be at roughly 10x the rate of the Chinese worker, and maybe 20x if it is a union factory.
You see the only people that can train them will be denied the required H1-B or Q1 visas (as all are now in the hands of software engineers out of India).
Even if everything went well, it will take a minimum of two years to “bring a factory back” to the United States. There are regulations to meet, people to pay off (and yes, boys and girls, capital-project bribery is common in the United States), and agency approvals to meet. After all, consider the difficulties and hurtles one must go through to make sure that the tiger-striped bo-bo fly isn’t endangered.
These are all HARD and REAL issues that no one is addressing.
At that, the company owners will need to make a strong business decision.
China does not mess around. They are a serious, serious nation that deserves respect. Do not poke the dragon. They have read the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, and they well know Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally .
This decision is, “what is the easiest and most cost effective solution to the Trump Tariff Wars with China?”
Leave the factory in China. Allow the USD-Yuan exchange rate to plummet, and charge American consumers for the difference.
Relocate the factory to the United States. Retrain staff from scratch. Order brand new processing equipment all over again, from non-Chinese sources. Have the equipment paid for out of the capital budget (somehow). Wait until it is made, debugged, and then start trial production in two years. In the mean time, work out other temporary “work around” solutions.
Relocate the factory to a cheap labor nation other than China. Here there would be the same issues as with relocating the factory to the United States. However, it will cost less to do, have far less regulation to deal with, and will have substantially reduced labor costs.
The answer is clear.
So, if American companies start to do this, how will it benefit America and Americans?
The Bigger Picture
Both the IMF and the World Bank now rate China as the world’s largest economy based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), a measure that adjusts countries’ GDPs for differences in prices. In simple terms, this means that because your money stretches further in China than it would in the US, China’s GDP is adjusted upwards.
And it won’t be too long before China’s economy surpasses the US’s by other measures, too. The Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) predicts it will happen in 2029.
- The World Economic Forum
Every world leader can see the trends and using the forecasts as a kind of crystal ball, they can see where to “place their bets” for long term trading and economic policy. It’s not with the United States.
Ah. You don’t believe me? Well, check out the data…
Europe views China as the world’s leading economic partner. Not the USA, and long term strategies and alliances will increasingly indicate that fact.
And while there are all sort of other factors that might enter the picture, and alter the outcome to some degree or the other, the fact is quite clear…
The USA can no longer afford to conduct business as usual. The world is changing. And like the contentious business climate (1980’s through 2010) that forced companies to down-size, up-size, re-size, re-structure and go though all sorts of gyrations (while the bloated US government just got bigger and bigger), the US government will have to go through that as well.
Requires a serious downsizing of the military and the scope of it’s use. America can no longer afford fighting eight nations simultaneously, policing the globe, operating thousands of military bases on foreign lands and being the proxy fighting force for the global oligarchy.
America requires a serious downsizing, or elimination, of numerous agencies. They are too large. Far too bloated. Filled and staffed with inefficient workers that take in far too much operational costs compared to their output.
Requires “Business Level” staff cuts, and budget cuts all across the Federal Government.
Requires a serious replacement for the Federal Reserve. (Of course!)
None of this will be easy, and it will be fought aggressively by the progressive cabal.
Group photo of the American Senate in 2019.
Knowing this, and the reader must agree, these steps must be taken immediately to sustain and continued American economic dominance in the global arena.
Oh, and about 芒种…
Now, here’s your opportunity to “get a leg up” on all those “experts” pontificating on China and the Trump “trade war”. Learns something that these “experts” haven’t a clue about, why don’t ya.
Yeah, 芒种 is a very popular song all over China, and everyone is singing and dancing to it. It’s sort of a Austin, Texas version of a Korean pop song, done to Chinese traditional beat.
Look, all that I am saying is that unless you open your eyes to see things AS THEY REALLY ARE, and stop listen to the news that tells you what you want to hear you will follow the pied piper to a very dark place.
Most Americans haven’t a clue as to what China is, how it operates, and how formidable it is. They think it is a backward, but huge, version of Mexico, North Korea, or Cuba.
They are convinced that the ONLY things China makes is cheap and inexpensive junk products. Not realizing that China has been supplying most of the world’s electronics for decades and designing and manufacturing the engines, mechanisms, and equipment used in high end cars and jet aircraft for years as well.
Americans pontificate on this false narrative, carrying on and on about the “junk” that “China floods” the USA with. Not at all giving credit to the American retailers that are actually the ones doing it. Factually, China manufactures just about everything. But most of the low-quality and cheap products end up in the USA simply because the American retailers want it that way.
Which is really strange when you think about it. The disconnect between reality and perception is so amazing and so stark that it is mind-blowing to me.
"OMG! What my friends and family think about China is so... so... off the wall, and nonsensical that it blows my mind. China is really, really, REALLY not what everyone thinks. They seriously have no idea, and they are wrong... really wrong about everything."
-My intern Aijia (from London) discussing the perceptions her friends have of China compared to her experiences after spending one month in China.
As far as all that “freedom” that everyone talks about having in America…
The USA hasn’t been a Republic since the 12th amendment.
It hasn’t been for small government since the American Civil War, and the citizens haven’t had any Rights since President Wilson and FDR changed the Constitution. Not to mention given Congressional power to the Judicial courts, and Federal agencies.
What Rights do you have if you have to pee in a cup to work?
Today America is a progressive Marxist “utopia” and it is only a few short years away from full implementation of hard-line Stalinist controls. Yes. It is. It really, really is.
How democracy ends.
Just follow all the “bread crumbs” from President Wilson , through FDR up to and including Clinton and Obama. America today looks nothing like the 1789 Constitution. (1776 Constitution + 1789 Bill of Rights.)
Point of no return.
America is not what everyone thinks it is.
With that being plainly understood take note. China is not what everyone thinks it is either.
The fastest trains are in China.
Ya all, best open up your eyes before it’s too late.
Trade wars are dangerous things to get involved in. Ultimately you want a win-win situation where every party gets some advantage.
While I do appreciate what Donald Trump is trying to do with the Chinese, he’d best stop listening to the moron (deep state RINO plants) that are advising him. They are only going to get the USA backed into situations that will be very uncomfortable.
How America handles this ascendancy of China at this time, will determine the future relationship with the largest and (will be) the most important nation on the planet. I do think it would be a very good idea to keep on their good side.
For our children.
Just sayin’ you all.
Links about China
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
Here, I argue that Hollywood is not using their innate and basic movie-making skills when pandering to their progressive causes. I argue that not only are they losing money in the process, but they are alienating their viewership base. I thus offer some suggestions to this end to prevent a hemorrhaging of the Hollywood profit model.
Ah. Hollywood.
So famous, and so taken for granted.
The more that I think about it, the more that I am convinced. Indeed, I am convinced that those in Hollywood have found a new profit model. As, it seems, the movies that they are releasing today do not follow the traditional profit model.
Traditional Hollywood Profit Model
You know; you make a good movie, and people pay to watch it. If the movie is really good you get rich. If the movie is poor, you lose money.
Today, however, it seems that there is a totally different profit model being followed.
Contemporaneous Hollywood Profit Model
Some wealthy oligarch gives you an enormous sum of money to promote some sort of social justice cause and you pocket the money. Whether the movie is popular or not has no bearing on the profit motive.
Yeah. That’s pretty much it. Isn’t it?
Hollywood has become a SJW propaganda arm.
Listen to me.
It’s like a nightmare that no matter how hard you try to run, it never ends. It’s like wack-a-mole. As soon as you hear about one bout of obscenity, there pops up another. Ugh!
License To Drive, the comedy that starred the two Coreys (Haim and Feldman) and a young Heather Graham in 1988, is being rebooted with female leads thanks to producer John Davis and 20th Century Fox.
-Deadline
These kinds of reports flow pretty hard and fast. Yet, I wonder. Just who is this John Davis, and what inspired him to make all-female leads?
League of Extraordinary Ladies
Ah. But this is not the only all-female Hollywood production. If it was, we would just accept it as it is on face value. But, no. It is part of a long on-going trend towards flooding the American movie scene with pale imitations of great movies. All of which that pander to the feminist-wing of the SJW movement.
The first film of Kevin O'Neill and Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentleman remains most known for the fallout between star Sean Connery and director Stephen Norrington. Connery hasn't acted since, and Norrington hasn't directed.
The new film is being produced by John Davis, and he's promises a more "female-centric" take on the material for the upcoming reboot. No director has thus far been appointed, though, but it's very much an active project.
-Den of Geek
Yeah. John Davis strikes again! Just who is this John Davis, and why does he want to do this?
I’m being truthful in this. So please, hear me out.
My off-hand impression is that he wants to avoid the SJW backlash and be associated with the Casting Couch like Harvey Weinstein. He needs to protect himself. So he panders to the SJW folk.
I do not know if this is the actual true case or not. What I do know is that is the most likely explanation for the observed trends. Yes. In my “outsider” mind, the most likely scenario.
Harvey Weinstein “Casting Couch” Oscars on Hollywood Blvd by artist Plastic Jesus.
I’ll bet you all that there’s a lot of truth in this supposition. Trust your gut instincts, boys and girls.
And for what?
That we, the movie watching public has to endure SJW crap all because John Davis took liberties with his casting couch. Is that why Americans need to put up with all these pale imitations of our treasured movies? Because the producers in Hollywood are afraid of the Weinstein-backlash?
OK.
So the The League of Extraordinary Gentleman is going to be redone. What’s it gonna be called? The League of Extraordinary Ladies. After all, “he promises a more “female-centric” take“. Groan.
It’s a new world.
I used to treasure going to the movies.
Then for a while, I worked as a Movie Theater Manager for a cineplex in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Mann National Twin.) I loved everything about it. I loved the atmosphere, the smell of popcorn, the drapes, the lights and the projector booth. Yes, the hours sucked, but it was “showbiz”.
I loved the movies.
It was important to me. I enjoyed it. It was a good two hours of relaxed imagination. I could go to a movie and be teleported into another world, into another time and another place. If the movie was truly great, I would be moved, put into a great mood, and ponder the lessons of the movie for weeks afterwards.
People, it is not our similarity to others that makes us special. It is the uniqueness, and our differences. Yes, being a full woman is just as great as being a full-on man. Why try to pretend that our roles and feelings are interchangeable? We are unique individuals with strengths, emotions, and all the warts that one can well imagine. It is our differences that we should promote and admire, not our similarities.
Not so today.
I don’t know about youse guys, but I have stopped watching movies. I ditched Netflx, and any movies I use are either bought, viewed though a much cheaper paid service or through Torrents. These new “improved” movies are all dog shit.
They really, really are.
Why the “new” movies suck.
These new movies promote the progressive socialist narrative. Which is;
Everyone is inherently equal.
Differences between all of us must be eliminated.
There are no biological differences in gender.
Anyone who does not agree with the above is evil.
Yet, for all the promotion of this nonsense, the fact remains that only women can naturally have babies. That babies cannot be created naturally without a male sperm. And that these differences manifest in all sorts of social and cultural constructs that have similarity to each other irregardless of geolocation or historical venue.
So, now we have Hollywood wanting progressive equality. You know like in China where everyone wore the same type of clothing. Or in Cambodia where all the intelligent people were killed.
When you try to PUSH that narrative on Americans, we tune it out and walk away.
Oceans 11 Reboot
The trailer for the new all-female “Ocean’s 11” reboot was unveiled this week. The Hollywood Reporter called it "the capstone 2017 needed."
Most regular people called it awful and stupid.
What else could it be other than awful and stupid? It’s a reboot of a remake of a remake, which means it already has all the fun and freshness of dried vomit.
The feminist twist just gives it an extra touch of preachiness and pandering, like a vomit stain that comes to life and lectures you about the patriarchy.
-Dailywire
Hey, I have a message for all the Hollywood Producers out there. Stop doing things out of fear of the SJW crowd. It has been my experience that most of what we are afraid of never happens.
To quote from the great movie “Strictly Ballroom“; A life lived in fear is a life half-lived.
“A life lived in fear is a life half lived.”
-Fran (Strictly Ballroom)
Out of touch with the movie audience.
I sat through the (all female) remake of The Ghost-busters and it was like watching people push needles in little puppies eyes. Ouch it hurt that much. Seriously, just how out of touch can people in Hollywood be to produce such a horrific and painful movie?
The answer is way…way… WAY out of touch.
Seriously. Do you, yourself, personally want to spend time watching this kind of drivel that you are producing? Or, do you think that "normal" Americans are some sort of cattle that you can prod about and feed what ever GMO-enhanced nonsense you desire?
How in the world can anyone, most especially a talented producer, even try to improve upon the Ghost-buster franchise with an all-female flick? Don’t they realize the huge numbers of people that they will alienate?
Message to Hollywood;
Are you all that friggin' blind NOT to realize how out of touch you are with your audience?
You need to fire your marketing groups because they are spending way too much time in urban high-end Starbucks, and not doing enough "grass roots" research.
Hollywood is a business model. And you, yes you (!) are throwing it out the window so nonchalantly that it astounds me and just about everyone else in America. What exactly is your malfunction?
Maybe that’s it. They don’t understand that they are being very offensive to Joe and Suzy Normal in viewership land. Or… maybe they know, but do not care.
Listen to me.
Yes. Radical feminism, even when presented comically, is offensive.
Radical Feminism is Offensive.
But I expect it won’t be any worse than the fantastically terrible and pointless female “Ghostbusters” film from a few years ago.
That one set the bar for the others, a group that will soon include a female remake of “Lord of the Flies,” and a female remake of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” and a female remake of “The Rocketeer.”
There's also a female remake of some movie called "License to Drive," originally starring Corey Feldman and Corey Haim. The movie is being described as a "female version of 'Superbad.'"
I was going to joke that they’re even planning a female “Expendables” but then I checked and apparently they really are planning a female “Expendables.”
-Dailywire
Hey! I don’t want to be rude, but for Pete’s Sakes!
Are you all so afraid of the twitter mobs, and SJW types that you would willingly torpedo your friggin’ life’s work? Are you so timid, and worried about what they might think? Are you so terrified that you might end up in prison?
If so, then you disgust me.
We had the chance, but we were scared. We walked away. WE LIVED OUR LIVES IN FEAR.
-Doug Hastings (Strictly Ballroom)
In the movie “Strictly Ballroom”, the father sees a repeat of his mistakes in his son’s actions. During the pause when the son is deciding on what to do, the father screams out (don’t make the same mistakes we made) ” We had the chance, but we were scared. We walked away. WE LIVED OUR LIVES IN FEAR. “.
Do not live a life in FEAR.
I am actually astounded that so many well-known and well-established Hollywood producers are so timid and fearful. You have created great works over the decades. You have made movies that us “normals” loved and admired.
Yet, you are all willing to throw all that away, and replace your great works and talent on producing mediocre sub-par movies to appease the radical feminist movement.
In fact, what is so astounding about this, is that the (so called) movement only has a mere handful of active radicals. The rest is all twitter farms, Facebook farms, and other electronic illusionary measures. They look bigger than they really are.
You can stand up to your fears. “In all likelihood, Luhrmann’s film’s attacks on the Dance Federation are just… attacks on the Dance Federation. Luhrmann’s mum was a ballroom dance teacher herself (much like Scott’s parents in the film), so the director presumably grew up with more than a little exposure to the world of competitive dance. There’s a broader message about close-mindedness running through the film – a message that might be even broader than you’d think, if this Luhrmann quote is anything to go by: “It sounds incredible, but we did it at first in response to the Cold War…it was a statement that the individual is not ALWAYS without power.””
Here’s how the rest of America reacts to these progressive causes…
When the Football game on the television set in the local sports-bar starts having (what can best be described as) a Black-hate-fest against “White Privilege” Neo-Nazi rally style that television set gets turned OFF.
When a commercial tries to accuse me of toxic masculinity, I stop using their products. Hey! Growing up, I was the kid being picked on. I do not, absolutely and positively, do NOT appreciate being lumped in with bullies simply because we share the same gender. I set my sights on that product range to OFF.
And when a movie, television show, or actor wants to preach to me in ways that I find RUDE, demeaning, insulting, or in any other way, distasteful, I leave and turn it all OFF.
What’s the matter with youse guys? Or are you all too weak limp-wristed to understand what an insult is and what isn’t?
Tony Soprano tells it like it is. Maybe you don’t like his frankness, or his tones, or the choice of words that he uses. However, he is speaking clearly and directly.
Listen to me now.
Or is everyone in Hollywood stuck in an echo-chamber? Are you all being lead around by the cleat in your noses by some radicals that enslave you by fear? Is that what you are?
Whatever the intent, Strictly Ballroom’s moral has a simple resonance. As you’d expect, the film concludes with a triumphant scene of Scott and Fran quite literally dancing to their own beat at the Pan-Pacific Championships. We’ve learned that Barry’s tale of Scott’s father (Barry Otto) jettisoning his chances through refusing to bow to convention was a lie. We’ve learned that Barry’s reign as president was fundamentally corrupt. But, critically, we never learn who wins. While the precise target of Strictly Ballroom’s satire might be unclear, its underlying philosophy – that art is about creativity, not awards – is unmistakable.
I write this to Hollywood, the producers and all those people who have added life, adventure, and romance to the films that I have loved. Do not allow your great works to fade into rust. Do not allow those who want to force you into fear-controlled boxes, destroy your great works. For they are doing so.
Do great things. Stop pandering to those who are driving your actions by fear.
Meanwhile…
Female James Bond
Watch out! Here comes a new “improved” 007 James Bond!
They’ve decided to kill the James Bond franchise by making the next 007 a woman.
This is just stupid. Bond is a male fantasy: we kill the bad guys while
dressed well and looking sharp and get all the hot women. No man will
want to go see Super Chick do that…nor will women, I suspect.
The James Bond franchise will shake things up completely for its 25th instalment, casting a black actress to take over from Daniel Craig as the new 007 – since re-doing old stories with a PC angle is easier than writing new ones.
The UK’s Daily Mail reports that British actress Lashana Lynch will take over from Craig as codename 007 in the as-yet-untitled film. The movie will reportedly see Craig retain the title role, however, being called out of retirement in Jamaica for one last mission.
The revelation is not so surprising in an era when
political correctness has become something of a new religion – and
naturally, the casting has somewhat ironically prompted much
divisiveness on social media, where there have been both celebrations of
the daring move and anger that the long-established brand of the male,
martini-sipping Bond would be fundamentally changed forever.
People…
What is wrong with Hollywood that they cannot see that this is a big mistake?
The thing that puzzles me is do many women want to see male leads taken by females?
I am a great believer in equal rights and when I was about 13 led a, what now seems very amusing, protest at my school because girls had to take cookery while boys took metalwork and not being particularly interested in cookery I was far more interested in getting my hands on a welding implement! so I naughtily took the majority of my class to stand in line outside the metalwork classroom week after week until the headmaster got fed up and we girls were allowed to have three weeks of metalwork, the metalwork teacher was a lovely man who was very much on our side and showed us how to design and make jewellery, i wish I still had the pendant I made. I made a lot of enemies though, the boys in my year hated me because the cookery teacher refused to take them into her classroom and teach them and so they had to do extra maths lessons instead and the cookery teacher never forgave me for being so disruptive. Everything had changed by the time my boys were in school and they had cookery classes with the girls and the girls had what is now called 'design and technology' together with the boys.
But this is just silly, what next? Goldiluke and the the three bears? a remake of the sound of music with a singing monk?
-Cobis
How is the 007 franchise improved? Why, by replacing the lead and iconic male figure with a strong female figure. That’s how! Of course all the social progressives are so excited about this latest remake and are flooding their social media accounts with all sorts of praise!
When is someone going to stand up and say this new female James Bond is a load of bollocks??
The clue is in the title, James Bond is a man, stuff this equality shit! It's a flipping film character! What next? Cinders a male, Jaws 4 as a dolphin! Get a grip ffs
— Telvis (@Telv1s) July 15, 2019
Why I just can’t wait to see a strong female version of James bond, seducing weak-willed men who are just comic jokes and props. Yessur! That will be fun to watch.
NOPE!
Someone needs to BITCH SLAP those idiots that think a re-gendered James Bond is going to be a success. Yeah, just like the re-gendered Star Trek was…
Re-gendered Star Trek
Really bad writing - in fact the worse I have ever seen in a show. They hired show-runner from the CW with no sci-fi experience (and CW is bottom of the barrel in a time when there are tons of good content out there on streaming services).
They hired her because they wanted a female show runner and didn't look past gender when setting up the show. Star Trek Discovery is really really bad - If you wondered what network TV is putting out these days, this is one you should watch one episode of to see how bad a show can get.
This is a perfect example of what happens when someone casts a show based on social justice warrior checklists and has a team of untalented writers putting out garbage. CBS will not cancel the show because it would be embarrassing for them and the ratings they get are from football and not this show (all access).
Forget the social justice warrior nonsense, this show is unwatchable if you watch everything star trek.
-Christopher T (Rotten Tomatoes on Star Trek Discovery)
But hey! If it is so good then why is it universally considered the absolute worst Star Trek franchise out there? Most fans feel like this fellow…
Jesus **** Christ this show is dog **** It's like a horrible soap opera that is terribly written and it couldn't be further from what Star Trek was when it was good. It's a mess that morons are going to lap up. The writers of this show can go **** themselves.
Or this fellow…
This is not Star Trek, it's a show centered in the character of Michael Burnham, and I had enough of her.
The "know it all" attitude, the dramatics, the never stop crying, the every plot centered around her is highly unnerving. I liked Captain Pike a lot and Saru as well, but the other characters get on my nerves as well, the camaraderie between them seems forced, and there is too much drama and crying.
Other problem is the Klingons, that ugly prosthetic that make their faces look rubbery and the muffled voices. Horrible!
Or this fellow…
I am actually glad Gene Roddenberry is dead so he did not have to see this abomination.
Well if he was alive he would not have allowed this awful show to move forward. It might have made a decent action show but this is in no way shape or form a Star Trek.
Just call it something else or cancel, please?
I am almost sorry I lived long enough to see my beloved series destroyed.
It’s pages upon pages of dislike…
Can this tripe get any worse? Don't bother, go watch The Orville instead. The true new home of ST.
People, you should NOT rely on twitter or electronic media to determine whether or not a show is popular. Those things can be easily spoofed by electronic farming. You should go into the fan communities, into the areas where most people enjoy these shows and talk to them FACE-to-FACE.
Meet people who live outside your community. This includes your community of business associates, your community of friends, and your local geographical community. You need to reach out to those outside your world.
You will find that in just about every case, people would prefer a NEW movie franchise based up new characters, instead of altering a well-established franchise to fit a SJW narrative.
Truth This.
Anyways, back to James Bond.
Female James Bond
James Bond in Dr. No. James Bond got into all sorts of interesting situations. Often with women who used their beauty to seduce him into compromise. Though he was better than that and always had the upper hand.
There are actors and actresses timidly commenting on the absurdity of gender-swapping this character…
Mirren added: “But that time was different; we could never even have imagined a woman playing that role.”
The actress’ statement comes just two days after former Bond girl Halle Berry said casting 007 as a woman would be a bad call.
“I want women to be tough but I don't know if Bond should be a woman,” the 50-year-old told Entertainment Tonight.
“I mean, that series is steeped in history, you know from Ian Fleming’s stories. I don't think you can change Bond to a woman.”
The Die Another Day actress went on: “We can create a new Bond character that's a woman, and give her a new name, based on that theory.
“But I don't know if Bond should be a woman.”
- Could Helen Mirren be the first female 007?
There are all sorts of rumors of who will play the new female version of James Bond. Knowing what I know of the idiots in the coastal cities, I wouldn’t be surprised if it is played by Omarosa Manigault.
I call them idiots. Why? Because they are permitting a profitable enterprise to collapse. All to the disdain of its’ shareholders.
What? You think that there are no alternatives to Hollywood? Do you think that it has a forever lock on movies, music, and entertainment? You think that Bollywood will never encroach on the American audience, and that China will never take over...
Have you been paying attention lately?
Nope. You are all in your closed progressive Hollywood bubble, and it is getting smaller and smaller and soon you will suffocate within it.
Progressives are all for change… as long it is change that they can control. But, you know what? It’s a fantasy. Control is only an illusion. Most of your life there are forces that are beyond what you can control. The only thing that you can control is your very own actions.
That’s all.
So for goodness sakes. Don’t live a life in fear. Stop pandering to the radical feminists.
Female Captain Jack Sparrow
Let me get this straight. Casting Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow wouldn’t really be fitting. So, what’s the answer?
Why, you need to cast a strong woman in this role. Sort of a female version of Captain Jack Sparrow. Maybe a Jacklin Sparrow. yeah! That will just bring in swarms of people to sit through a two hour long feature length movie.
So Captain Jack Sparrow is going to be cast as a woman in the latest remake or spawned sequel to the Pirates of the Caribbean. I understand that there have been female pirates in the past, but a gender swap of a famous character is not the way you go about these kinds of things.
Stop pandering to the radical feminists.
All Female Ghostbusters
Director/co-writer Paul Feig's no-one-asked-for "Ghostbusters" remake opens with a big "ugh" and never recovers.
Naturally, it's a joke aimed at Donald Trump and his supporters -- a heavy-handed haha about an "anti-Irish fence."
Yep, even before the movie can even cast its spell, the spell is shattered forever by divisive partisanship. From there, instead of relaxing, you're on guard throughout for the next left-wing sucker punch.
-Daily Wire
Yeah, this went over like a lead balloon.
It was absolutely positive revolting. It was an insult to the original movie, the cast, and all the moviegoers who watched it in theaters when it came out… bought the Betamax tapes, the VHS tapes, the DVD discs, or rented from Blockbuster or viewed it on Netflix.
Screenshot of Ghostbusters review of the all-female version. Captured before the Internet could rewrite the historical dialog.
It was a total and complete cluster-FLUXXX.
Look at this cluster of losers…
One of the worst movies ever made in the history of movies was the ill-advised remake of Ghostbusters. In it they used females in all the leading roles. It fit them like putting a sock over a snail. It did not fit. NO FRIGGIN’ WAY.
Did I like it? Hell no! I’d rather swim in a pool of pig feces than endure that monstrosity… that horrid… horrid insult to humanity ever again. What the Hell were they thinking?
They weren’t. That’s the point.
As expected, Feig's disaster has a flaming feminist chip on its shoulder. Every male character is either an asshole, an idiot, or both.
Which begs the question: Where in the world does this grudge emanate from? Certainly not the original that gave us Weaver's classy, independent, sophisticated Manhattan woman and Annie Potts' knowing, street-smart receptionist.
-Daily Wire
I mean you’ve got Ocean’s eleven all female, and all the classics are being remade into the progressive socialist narrative, of course there will need to be an all female version of Die Hard.
So…
John McClain in the movie “A good day to die hard”. He always plays an average Joe, a regular guy who is confronted with extraordinary circumstances where he and only he alone must confront. Which is the core MALE attribute in all MEN.
These has been no announcements on who would play John or Joan in this role. (My guess is that the backlash has been so negative, that the articles are pulled off the Internet within hours of being posted.) Though, I am betting that it might be someone like Mindy Kaling.
There are more than just a few remakes of movies planned. Some one with deep, deep pockets is flooding Hollywood with all sorts of cash. Seems like a Barrack Obama, or George Soros trademark.
Pause and let that sink in…
I just can't help but think that all those many, many programs that were put in place over the years had some kind of financial feed-back mechanism (illegal, of course) for "social progress".
Or, as I have been saying… stop pandering to the radical feminists.
Well, the original movie featured a guy who was bit by a werewolf while in London. Why not a female? Well… it’s coming true. It’s been announced.
Heck! Why stop there.
Make her a hijab wearing LGBT transgender person. Right? That way the movie goers can get the full force of SJW immersion, as well as sticking a sharp knife into the sides of all those deplorable Trump followers. Eh?
Besides, it’s well known that London is a progressive global city with Muslim majorities. It would make absolutely and perfect sense. There are far, far, FAR more Muslims in London than Americans.
Yeah.
Make the American Werewolf in London a Muslim. It would be quite fitting. Yeah. Everyone would be breaking down the doors to get in.
Escape from New York
Oh, it’s Snake Plissken all right.
Only this time he is dispatched to New York city to save and rescue a female Senator from the clutches of the despicable deplorables entrapped inside that urban ghetto. I’ll bet you 8 to 10 that she will look a little like Hillary Clinton, Maxine Walters or some other prominent liberal democrat.
Great fare for the cash-heavy urban blacks that follow this narrative.
Yeah. An all-women expendables. I suppose that it all began here when some feminists were musing about the take over of the industry.
It has long passed the silly, and entered the world of the absurd.
The original Expendables had enough male movie stars in black to go around. It’s possible some of your relatives are in this picture.
In defiance of history. In defiance with genetics, and the social variances between those with “Y” chromosomes and those without it, this movie is moving forward.
Hey! All youse guys in the room, raise you hand up if you want to watch this absurdity. Obviously the marketing group in Hollywood was on crack when they promoted this film. Why not alienate 99% of the “Expendable” viewing audience, won’t ya?
Stop living your life in Fear of the radical feminists.
Stop living your life in fear of the radical progressive feminists. You need to start living life on YOUR terms, and not let others define what your legacy will become.
Stop living your life in fear. Stop pandering to the radical feminists. Stop allowing them to define what your film legacy will become.
All of Me
Instead of Steve Martin, you now have a woman in the role.
A dying millionaire finds her soul has been transferred to the body of her lawyer. A remake of the 1984 comedy 'All of Me'.
-IMDB
A life that is lived in fear is a life that is half-lived. Stop allowing your fear of the radical feminists to define your legacy.
Overboard (2018)
It’s a role reversal of the original comedy. Instead of a rich woman falling overboard and forgetting who she is, it’s a rich man who falls overboard.
Kate Sullivan is a single mom of three daughters who works two jobs while studying to be a nurse. She is assigned to clean carpets on a yacht owned by spoiled, arrogant playboy Leonardo 'Leo' Montenegro. Leo makes rude remarks towards Kate and fires her without pay when she refuses to bring him food. When Kate calls out his behavior, Leo pushes her off the boat along with her cleaning equipment. Meanwhile, in Mexico, Leo's sisters Magdalena and Sofia are tending to their ailing father. Furious when Leo is announced as his successor to run the family-owned company, Magda decides to visit him. That night, Leo slips off the yacht and falls into the ocean unnoticed. He wakes up on a beach with amnesia and no recollection of his identity. He wanders through town and eventually reaches the hospital. Magda finds him and leaves him there unclaimed after learning he has amnesia. She returns home and falsely reports that Leo has died. Sofia suspects Magda is lying.
-IMDB
Stop allowing the radical feminists to define your life.
Ocean’s Eight (2018)
Debbie Ocean gathers an all-female crew to attempt an impossible heist at New York City’s yearly Met Gala. Pretty much the same plot as the original Ocean’s Eight, only with role reversal. It’s expected to be a great hit with all the progressive millennials in the Untied States today.
This is just another Hollywood attempt at "Hey! Lets take a classic movie and flip the casts gender!!!" It's pure pc propaganda. The only reason that I'm giving it a 2 is because I don't trust these ratings sites algorithms to take 0's and 1's into account. They may be getting smarter though and will stop dropping any score below 5.
-MysticDingo
Just an all female Reboot of a good and beloved Movie Trilogy. Rihannas poorly acting skills make this film unwatchable. Don´t do this to yourself and watch that movie, except you are a fat Feminazi that rather watches a bad movie with female cast than an actually good movie with diverse group of men.
-Metacritic
Another gender swap movie trying to show equality and how "empowered" women are.. It belongs in the garbage bin along with the people it caters to.
- Zisis151 Jun 10, 2018
Stop living your life in fear. Make the best movies that you can make and fear not who you offend.
Make the best films that you are able to. Do not pander to the radical feminists. A life lived in fear is a life half-lived.
What about all these remakes?
Well there certainly seems like everything is up for grabs in Hollywood. Everything, apparently, can be recast now as either all-female roles or gender swapped. It’s the progressive way. Don’t you know.
But all this is being done absolutely wrong. They are redoing successful films to fit a SJW narrative. Of course, it is bound to fail. People, you produce movies and shows to ENTERTAIN. Not to lecture, or push a particular political agenda.
Concentrate on entertainment.
Concentrate on the entertainment of your audience.
Concentrate on entertaining your audience.
Some Ideas
Here’s some ideas on how to properly implement progressive ideas into Hollywood movies in such a way that you will not alienate your viewing audience.
First of all, you can have strong female roles that are uniquely female. You do not have the need to apprehend those roles from men…
Entertainment.
The purpose of movies are to entertain. There are many ways to do this. But, no matter what, do not be under the impression that Hollywood has the sole ownership of this medium.
If Hollywood continues to produce lackluster films, the cash-paying audience will start to ignore the movies as not worthy of their time. They will go elsewhere.
You need to entertain.
Thirdly, absurdity is fine.
It’s ok. Everyone knows that this is fiction. So you can create movies as off-the-wall as you would like.
Now. Here’s some ideas…
Some are all-female.
Some are gender swaps.
Others are race or religion swaps.
It’s all part of the new progressive reality. Come on! You’ve got to be fair about it all, right? But only, this time, please concentrate on entertainment.
The Rat Patrol.
Here we have a famous 1960’s series about four men who fight the Nazi’s in Africa by riding jeeps in the desert. We could gender swap them to four women. We could modernize them. Yeah! That’s right. Four women riding high, machine gunning ISIS warriors in the hot desert heat.
They can all be Muslim, head scarves and all, and are fighting the evil ISIS’s and their paternity, and Privilege. They can all wear veils, and long flowing African outfits and carry Tommy guns and Beretta’s under their flowing garments. They could rescue captured women at slave auctions, perform night raids in ISIS camps, and assassinate ISIS leadership.
Have them attractive. Have them wear attractive Arabic clothing. Something like this beauty…
Beautiful Muslim woman wearing the latest in fashion.
Have them riding specially modified Lamborghini’s and Ferrari’s. You know, with a twin barrelled .50 caliber machine gun, and all sorts of 007 James Bond style high-tech gadgetry. Make it a cross between Raging Women getting back at people who abused them, and a fully equipped mad-scientist lair. Take elements from Miami Vice, and blend it with a little bit of Doctor Phibes.
Make it DIFFERENT.
Oh, and make their outfits extraordinary. Make women want to wear Arabic styled clothing.
You need to understand. By using a “Rat Patrol” template you can create an entirely new series with entirely new characters and situationals without any association from whence the idea was derived from.
Be brave. Push yourself.
The Rat Patrol took place during a tiny sliver of time (5 years) when the Nazi’s actually controlled portions of Northern Africa. I propose the much longer period of time (8+ years) when the ISIS controlled Syria.
The Rat Patrol: The Rat Patrol is an American action and adventure television series that aired on ABC between 1966 and 1968. The show follows the exploits of four Allied soldiers — three Americans and one Englishman — who are part of a long-range desert patrol group in the North African campaign during World War II. Their mission: “to attack, harass and wreak havoc.
The Munsters
We can have comedies.
Here, we could gender-swap Herman Muster for Harriet Munster, and have Lester (instead of Lilly) as his wife. (Or, maybe a same-sex relationship.) Maybe she could be an Uber driver who is also a Rastafarian who uses comically conspired voodoo on riders in her car.
It would be in color instead of black and white. It could take place on 1313 bad luck lane on a hilly portion of San Francisco. They would be on food stamps, and live in a “colorful” section of town.
Use different theme music. Maybe some kind of upbeat rap.
Make it outrageous. Make it stand apart. Make it so offensive to everyone, and make fun of everything, and the more politically incorrect the BETTER.
have jokes that cater to both Conservatives and Progressives. Mix it up. Make it outrageous!
Grandpa will be replaced with a vampire transgender Grandma, you know, like a Frankenstein creature gone loopy. And the kids can stay the same. That would work, wouldn’t you all think? As an added bonus, we could have Eddie Munster a Muslim Female, and his sister a black transgender gender-less person with three boobs.
The more absurd, the better.
The jokes can all be about modern progressive lifestyle where everyone is just as crazy as they are, and how it is like to fit into modern life in San Francisco. Have them fall in love with an Antifa activist, and have them play checkers with lit candles.
The gags can abound.
For instance, Fido can be free-spirited saber-toothed tiger. Each week with a different hair style and color. They could have ties to the Addams Family, and Harriet Munster can work at the county morgue. They can make comments about the staff filming the episodes, and joke about Hollywood insiders.
Just let it out and sway in the wind.
The Munsters is an American sitcom depicting the home life of a family of benign monsters starring Fred Gwynne as Frankenstein’s monster-type head-of-the-household Herman Munster, Yvonne De Carlo as his vampire wife, Lily Munster, Al Lewis as Grandpa, the over-the-hill vampire who relishes talking about the “good old days”.
The Andy Griffith Show
You can take traditional America and turn it on it’s head. Just take a normal traditional show and twist and distort it into something completely different. Use different names, and different circumstances.
How about an all-woman Andy Griffith show.
Yeah in small town Mayberry RFD, a woman sheriff and her female deputy keep order in the town. You’ve got a female Otis, and a female Gomer, and a cast of characters that includes a female hairdresser, a female mayor and the daughter of the sheriff. Call it Mayberry Woman’s Auxiliary RFD.
Put elements of food in it. Each week, nice juicy closeups of food porn. All with oozy melted cheese, and sizzling images of meat, and slow motion cutting of fresh bread.
Now, don’t look at me cross-eyed. It could work.
If you are willing to step outside of your West-coast bubble, do some REAL marketing, and brush off some good-old-fashioned movie skills and work… work… work.
The Andy Griffith Show is a syndicated family situation comedy series created by Sheldon Leonard and Aaron Ruben, which was broadcast on CBS for eight seasons from 1960 to 1968. Episodes involve Sheriff Andy Taylor (played by Andy Griffith) and his family and friends’ life in a small rural town called Mayberry, North Carolina.
All Female remake of Kelly’s Heroes
Of course, we should have a rolling good time with a all-female remake of Kelly’s Heroes. How about that?
During World War II, Lieutenant Kelly learns of a German bank located behind enemy lines containing 16 million dollars in gold bars. His platoon, led by Big Joe, has three days of R&R coming, so, with the aid of hustler Crapgame, anachronistic hippie Oddball, three Sherman tanks and a touch of irreverence, Kelly leads his men deep into French territory to steal the gold for themselves.
-123 Movies
Do it differently. Have the gaggle of gals break into a military base and steal three tanks and then go on a USA-wide bank-robbing spree. Put it in the mid-1990’s and play popular Grunge music from that time period. Have it so that they end up having a parade of people following them sort of like “Forrest Gump” in the running scene.
Model the FBI and other police agencies as a kind of updated “Keystone Cops”.
Have the news media reporting but as a real parody of themselves. Show them making up news, interviewing actors pretending they are eye-witnesses, and generally clueless.
Make it a cross between the movies “9 to 5”, “One Crazy Summer”, and “The Great Train Robbery”.
Follow the same kind of model that was used in the movie “Brother where art thou”; the tales of the adventures of Ulysses. You couldn’t tell the source inspiration for the movie could you?
Film is based upon a true incident. The caper was covered in a book called “Nazi Gold: The Sensational Story of the World’s Greatest Robbery – and the Greatest Criminal Cover-Up” by Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting. The heist was perpetrated by a combination of renegade Nazi and American officers. It was also listed as the “biggest” robbery ever in the Guinness Book of Records, in the 1960s.
The Dukes of Hazzard
In this remake, we can have an urban version of the Dukes of Hazzard.
Only it can be about a gang of black urban youth called “The Dukes” who live in a fictional section of Chicago called “The Hazzard” which is a dangerous old industrial area. (You know with pits of sulfuric acid, rusty chains hanging everywhere, lots of metal grid scaffolding, and tons of long deserted buildings and machinery.) They fight the corrupt “Boss” of the town as they cart meth from one end of the town to another, while dealing with the local constables and a pimp that goes by the name of Boss Hog.
Oh, and they drive in a pimped out white BMW that they call the Lil Layzie . The series can feature different rap songs every episode. It could work. I tell you.
The Dukes of Hazzard is an American action-comedy television series that was aired on CBS from January 26, 1979, to February 8, 1985. The show aired for a total of 147 episodes spanning seven seasons. The series was inspired by the 1975 film Moonrunners, which was also created by Gy Waldron and had many identical or similar character names and concepts.
Roots
Oh boy! I can see all the BLM howling. But, it makes sense, actually. The very first slaves to the Americas were Irish. It might not be the politically correct thing to say, but it is historically truthful.
Of course the progressives have done their best to rewrite this narrative. You can find their rebuttals at the very top of all the Google and Bing search results. But, it's not a fantasy. Personally, it's a small part of my very own family legacy.
Yeah, now let’s have a gender swap and race swap of the television series Roots. Yeah. After all that is what progressiveness is all about, isn’t it?
Or is it about POWER?
Conclusion
You can gender swap all you want using similar themes and context, however the movie (or television show) should stand alone on it’s own merits.
You absolutely cannot produce a female version, or a different racial version, of a long held and long established character, theme or franchise successfully.
The reason for this is simple. People gravitate to the familiar, and are repelled by that they are unaccustomed to.
You should branch out and try something different that can stand alone and aloof. Give it depth and breadth and substance. make it immersive, and people will fall in love with your for it.
Follow the Lord of the Rings model.
You will know that you are successful when few people would associate your new creation with the movie or show that you might have spawned if off of.
The failures (in Hollywood movies) that we see today, are due to inappropriate pandering to an aggressive SJW army for “progressive justice” in lieu of actual content that can be successfully monetized.
I argue that while there might be protective and conservative reasons for accepting this pandering venue, it is counter productive in the long run.
As such I argue that the creative license should be used creatively, and in such a way that the final product cannot, would not, or in any way be associated with some sort of SJW revisionism effort.
Posts Regarding Life and Contentment
Here are
some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you
might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up
in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society
within communist China. As there are some really stark differences
between the two.
More Posts about Life
I have
broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones
actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little
different, in subtle ways.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Today, in fact ever since the 1970’s, it has become easy for Americans to fall into debt. Here we are going to discuss how to gain control of your life financially. We are going to talk about the implementation of the “rule of eight”.
Implementation of “the rule of eight” is the fundamental first step in gaining control of your finances. I know. I know. It’s a boring subject. But, hear me out.
The trick to keeping your money and living the lifestyle that you deserve is in spending your money properly. And, that, boys and girls means that you don’t just spend money on things you want. It means, instead, that you plan on how to spend your money.
You plan on how to spend your money.
Because having full control over your money means that you will obtain full control over your life.
Full control of your money = Full control of your life.
The “rule of eight” is a very simple rule. It just means that everything that you buy must full under the “rule of eight”.
There are three (x3) parts to this rule.
Part 1 – Wait eight days before you buy something.
This little rule destroys impulse buying.
Most credit card purchases are impulse buys. Most of the things that get us into trouble financially are due to impulse buys. In fact, most sales in stores and on-line revolve around “sales” that are intended to get you to perform a purchase on impulse.
In fact, the source of the biggest problems in families today is that there “isn’t enough money” to live off of. Yet, if you look at their budget, you would find that the money has disappeared into a deep deep black hole. This black-hole is impulse purchases.
Stop.
You must end the impulse buying nightmare and get off the treadmill of debt.
By controlling the purchases you make through use of the “rule of eight”, you will be able to have a very successful family budget. As such, you can then gain control of your life and steer it towards what ever goals that you set for our and your family to attain.
In practical application, the person in the household who controls the budget (this would be the woman of the house if you are in a traditional conservative family), or the owner of a wallet (if you are in a progressive family) would have money set aside as “spending cash”. In companies this goes by the term “petty cash” but the idea is simple; a set amount of money is provided for each person to use as they need for minor sundries.
Depending on the person, this could vary from $5 to $20 /week.
The rest of the money is formally budgeted. The budget would consist of “containers” where money is allocated into different uses. Again, in a traditional household, the woman (or house-person if a same-sex household) would do the budgeting.
Since the “Woman’s Rights” movement of the 1970’s came about, having a woman in control of all the money has been demonized. When a man insists on working, and the wife wants to tend to the children and teach them how to grow up and learn, it is considered to be a throw-back to primitive repressive times. Feminists refer to the woman as a “Handmaids Tale”, which is really nonsense. Women, most especially mothers, are far better at budgeting and managing a household than a man is. Men and women both have their strengths and weaknesses. A traditional household leverages those strengths superbly.
Some budget items might include such things as…
Food for home cooked meals.
Eating out for the one or two meals outside.
House payments or rent.
Utilities (electricity and gas)
Savings
The various payments on outstanding debt (car, college)
Planned purchases
“Petty Cash”
In the rule of eight, you wait eight days for purchase of anything outside of “petty cash” or budgeted expenses. This is eight days, or one day more than a week.
Here is an example.
Imagine that you have a traditional conservative household. The man works a 40 hour/week job, and the wife handles the domestic responsibilities of household and childcare. Further assume that the man makes $1000 / month.
He, as a traditional conservative, would give 100% of his salary to the wife. Then she would budget the money accordingly.
Rent - $400
Groceries - $200
Utilities - $50
Savings - $150
Pay off debt - $100
Petty Cash - $50 ($20 to the man, $20 to the wife, and $5 child allowance)
Discretionary Funds - $50
With a budget, you now have a monthly allocation of $50 to use for discretionary purposes. You can plan on what to use it on. That is how a budget works.
Having a budget, and following the “rule of eight” gives you time to determine if the purchased item has value more than a momentary emotional appeal.
You will find, that the rule of eight plays a very important role in the ability to save money, budget food, and master your own household. Instead of a home filled with clutter and junk, most people who follow the rule of eight find their house to become uncluttered, and tend to eat better. They also tend to save money.
When you have a family budget, you have a far better degree of control on what happens to the money that you make. Some families set aside large amounts of money towards saving, while others put an emphasis on delicious home cooked meals. While others spend very little, but what they do purchase is of the very best quality. Having control over your money is a fundamental staple of a happy household.
This first part of the rule of eight, effectively eliminates spontaneous impulse purchasing. As such, it is probably the most important part of this rule.
You wait EIGHT DAYS on the purchase of anything not already budgeted for.
Part 2 – Purchase by quality value.
The next component of the Rule of Eight is the quality component. This little rule assigns value to what your purchase.
What has more value? A breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, and unlimited coffee at a family diner for $4, or an $8 cup of Starbucks coffee?
You start to purchase things based on their value to you.
I well remember a restaurant that I went to. They had a special on their dinner, and the wife and I went inside to try the food and save some money. I will never forget that meal. It was the worst meal that I had ever tasted in my life. People, life is far too short to eat sub-standard quality food.
The idea here is that you start managing the quality of the products that you use.
In general, you try to avoid low-quality items for they will always, eventually one way or the other, detract from your standard of life. And, while you might want to have everything “high quality”, it will be prohibitive to do so, as they tend to be expensive.
Think of the quality of any item you purchase on a 10-point scale: a “one” is the lowest quality/throwaway item and a “10” is the highest quality available.
Free sugar at a fast food restaurant. (Free = zero value.)
Disposable plates and silverware.
Cheap plastic toys for children.
Walmart quality appliances.
Canned food at a supermarket.
Frozen food.
Fresh fruits, vegetables, cuts of meat.
Upper level quality appliances. (The “sweet spot”.)
Best quality anything.
Best quality on a “name brand” item. (Super expensive.)
The Rule of Eight says that once the quality of any purchased item exceeds eight on the 10-point scale, the price rises very rapidly. It rises exponentially. However, the usefulness of the item (economists call this the “utility” of the item) barely changes at all.
For example;
You can buy a second-hand car (maybe two years old) for far less than a brand new car right off the sales lot. Yet, both of them would be able to give you the same kind of functionality in the five-year period of ownership.
Because of this relationship, items that are eight and larger on the scale are considered to be “luxury items”.
Chart of the “rule of eight”. If you plot out the prices of everything sold in the world, you would get a chart a little like this. You can characterize the value of each item by using a numerical value. Eight is the “sweet spot”. This is the area where you would get the most value for your purchase.
The “sweet spot”, or the area where you get the best quality at the most reasonable price is just under the value of eight. This is to the left of the red line.
Obviously not every purchase will be in that area. However, if you use the “rule of eight” to make quality decisions, then you will discover that heavy-use items (such as automobiles, tools, and appliances) should have values from 6 to 9. Most other items can range from 5 to 7.
Good and cheap won’t be fast. Fast and good will not be cheap. Cheap and fast will not be good. These are basic truths that everyone should well understand.
And by the way, keep in mind that forays into the very cheap and the ultra expensive need to be justified by careful thought and consideration.
Part 3 – Control the quantity of items purchased.
The final component of the Rule of Eight is quantity. You need to spend the vast bulk of your money on the items that provides value.
This is an easy one: 80% of your purchases should conform to the Rule of Eight. So, in practice this means that most of your spending will not be on super-high quality brands and items.
Nor will it be on the cheapest junk you can afford.
It will be somewhere in between. If the items are going to be put through daily use, like for instance, a computer or a cell phone, then you need to get a good sturdy reliable model. If, however, the item is going to only be used a few times, then the quality of that item can be far less and you can discard it when finished.
Most of the items you purchase should reside somewhere in the middle 80% of the mainline price range. Remember, you get what you pay for.
When you follow the “rule of eight” you will find that almost all of your products that you purchases will fall within a 80% region. You will stop buying cheap things, and no longer waste money on expensive things. Take coffee for instance. Why go to Starbucks when you can obtain a better up of coffee for a better price?
What does all this mean?
By implementing the “rule of eight” you will start to find that you are in control of your money. Not someone else.
To implement it, most people discover that they need to make some changes in their lives. Most of the changes are fundamental. That is, the most successful families are ones that have adopted traditional ways of running a household.
The household sets up rules that people follow.
Roles are established to process the rules; a “bread-earner”, a “finance manager” , and someone in charge of “domestic affairs”.
Members follow the rules.
There will be a minor period of adjustment to the rules.
What this means, is that once you are in control of your finance, that all sorts of good things start to happen to your life. I have covered them in other posts, and you might want to read about them here…
Here we talk about the two different types of familial structures that are present in the United States and how they work…
If you decide to have a traditional conservative type of family, then you will start to eat better, and the meals at the house will take on an entirely new dimension…
Now, the reason why there is so much confusion as to roles and rules is because society has changed. American society has changed, and no one has been monitoring that change. Here, I talk about it…
Of course, the theme behind this post is that men need guidance on how to carve their life out in the world. As such, I try to offer some support here.
As well as other posts along this same theme…
Posts Regarding Life and Contentment
Here are some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society within communist China. As there are some really stark differences between the two.
Posts about the Changes in America
America is going through a period of change. Change is good… that is, after it occurs. Often however, there are large periods of discomfort as the period of adjustment takes place. Here are some posts that discuss this issue.
More Posts about Life
I have broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little different, in subtle ways.
Stories that Inspired Me
Here are reprints in full text of stories that inspired me, but that are nearly impossible to find in China. I place them here as sort of a personal library that I can use for inspiration. The reader is welcome to come and enjoy a read or two as well.
Articles & Links
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
This is a very detailed discussion on how a Business KTV works in China. This is a pretty large multi-part post. It was originally posted HERE, but it soon became problematic as the videos would not load and the SEO flags weren’t being picked up by the search engines. So I broke it down into smaller bite-sized posts. It’s faster to load, easier to read, and you can see all the videos without problem. Enjoy.
Part 8 of 17.
About the Girls
Let’s talk about the KTV Hostesses.
The Chinese culture is not the same as American culture is. It is very traditional. Girls expect a traditional man, and they take on traditional roles. In their young years, from around 18 to around thirty, the girls will concentrate on building a career (if that is their preference) and attracting a mate. In today’s society, the female is expected to be married, take care of a family and have a baby.
It sounds so strange to us Americans.
For we have had decades of new progressive values rammed down our collective throats. We have been taught that men and woman (as well as just about all of the other 64 genders) have the same values and interests. We are taught that it is very sexist to be attracted to a pretty girl. We are taught that looking at an attractive girl is the same as raping her. We are taught that men don’t own women, and the highest complement that a woman can have is to be superior to a man in every way possible.
It’s no wonder that America is the way it is today.
Meanwhile the rest of the world has traditional values. Women are taught to be attractive. They want to be attractive. They want to be ladylike, and they yearn to become a mother with a family and a man that supports them. They learn how to budget for a family. They know how to cook, care for sick family members, and do what ever it takes to support the man to earn and make money. For in a traditional society, the man is the bread-winner. The wife tends to the home. She tends to the family, and she tends to her man.
In China, young women do what ever they can to increase their chances for finding “Mr. Right”. Though, in Chinese terms, this doesn’t really equate to heart-felt love. Instead it equates to finding a good strong “family man” who will work hard, support the family, and support her family. In a like way, Chinese men feel the same way. They want to become the strong man in charge of the family. They want to be able to provide for their family. They want to participate in the education and growth of their children.
One way of having fun, and meeting a good potential husband is to work in a KTV as a KTV Hostess.
KTV Hostesses
The ladies spend hours getting ready for work.
Prior to showing up at work, typically around four or five, the ladies will be at a hair salon. They will get their hair all fixed. They will have their nails done, and have a professional makeup artist apply the makeup. There is an entire sub-culture of salons that cater only to the KTV trade in this respect. Once all dressed up, they make their way to the KTV and clock in. There, they go to their lockers and see which dresses and outfits that they are assigned to wear for the day.
In Shenzhen, you can often see these gals in the salons in Louhu village getting ready for the night’s adventures.
Once everything gets settled, the lights might come on so that people can check their phones, and notice where the chargers are. As all girls have the latest in cell phone technology. All rooms are fully Wifi enabled. They will typically get out of their costumes and put on party clothes so that they can be more comfortable with the clients. Here, you can see that the girls have changed out of their formal costumes and are wearing their outside clothes. In this case, mostly short party dresses.
The girls typically share an apartment with another girl or two. If they have a string of men that support them, they might have their own apartment that is provided to them by a love-struck hopeful. It’s not really an issue, as typically the men only visit China once every three or four months. They can rearrange their busy schedule (and trust me, for some gals, it is really busy) and make time for their one man to visit China.
Girl Types
The girls are semi-predictable.
Chinese ladies are very beautiful when they are 22 years old. They know how to take care of themselves, and spend a lot of time to look well and dress properly.
The youngest girls at a Business KTV will be no younger than 21 years old typically. The younger girls, of course, use the money they earn for new clothes, phones, and fashion. They tend to make many blunders. They often lose their phones, get too drunk, and get tangled up with bad people. Somehow they always seem to brush it off adroitly. This means that they might end up trying some drugs, or having their money stolen, or get into a fight with another girl. The younger gals that I know are usually out of the business after one or two years. These girls tend to get pregnant really young, maybe 23 years old. In China having a baby under 28 is considered very young.
Girls in their middle 20’s, say 25 to 27, who have already been doing this for a few years have decided to earn money for their own purposes. They are fully ready to get married and channel all their money into looking good and snagging as many hopeful men as possible.
Here is a selection of “typical” 25 year old girls in China. Also just as beautiful as their younger counterparts. However, at this age, they are much more focuses and motivated in finding a good mate and establishing a good family.
The girls in their middle-20’s, if they have the beauty, they migrate to the cities and go to the very expensive KTV’s. Here they can make enormous amounts of money, as well as meet some very powerful people. Again, the end goal is to get married to a “good man” (by Chinese standards) and have a family by the time they are 28.
Those who are older than this, typically are focused on setting up their own business. For one reason or another, they no longer rely on the objective of having a man provide for their family and children. They believe that they can do it on their own. Their objective is thus different. It is to set up their own business, where they can control the finances, and establish a family. This could be anything from their own hair salon, fashion boutique, or food franchise. I have met a girl who owns a number of famous Western franchises in China. I don’t know about you guys, but it would take me a century to save up to buy a McDonald’s franchise on an engineering salary.
Here is a selection of some Chinese ladies that have reached thirty years of age. The Chinese female form certainly ages well. At this point in time of their life, they have decided to move forward on their life alone, and career, business and other pursuits take precedence over finding a mate.
Most of the managers of the girls fit this last profile.
The girls generally get ready for work around 3pm. They get dressed, have their nails and hair done. They show up for work around 5 to 7pm depending on the venue.
The business KTV’s are open up until 6am. Most others tend to close a little earlier.
If you are having fun at a business KTV, then you MUST watch the time. Otherwise, you will be terribly drunk and end up going back to your room around 3, or 4 in the morning.
Now, here is the rub. After a solid 9 to 12 hours of heavy drinking, you (unless you are under 25) will be too exhausted to provide any energy in your penis for sexual activity. And no, Viagra or Cialis will not be much help either. Even if you had the lift, all you will want to do is… sleep.
So…
Use the Cinderella rule. You leave the KTV before 12 midnight. Pick a time somewhere between 11 and 12. No later.
Then, you will no be so exhausted, or sleepy and can be able to get your money’s worth of fun.
Further take note, that the girls all turn into pumpkins at 6 am. So if you are looking forward to some morning heat, remember that it will have to occur before 6am, because the girls will be out of there and on their way to their families.
So another reason to leave the KTV early (before the rest of the guys finish partying) that that if you leave at 3 am, you will only get three hours with that gal, and at that, you will spend most of the time sleeping.
Be advised and take note.
If you want to return to the start of this series, please go HERE.
This is a very detailed discussion on how a Business KTV works in China. This is a pretty large multi-part post. It was originally posted HERE, but it soon became problematic as the videos would not load and the SEO flags weren’t being picked up by the search engines. So I broke it down into smaller bite-sized posts. It’s faster to load, easier to read, and you can see all the videos without problem. Enjoy.
This is part 6 of 17.
Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.
KTV Appearance
The KTV will be lit up like a Casino. You will typically be driven directly to the front door, and an assistant will open the door open for you to exit the car from. It is important that you take your time. Stand straight. Smile, and look around you. The manager of the girls might greet you there. Though, she would make a bee-line to the factory boss first.
You will be led into the lobby.
It will be well-attired and look like the inside of a casino or movie theater from the 1920’s. Lining both sides of the lobby, and forming a path would be two lines of girls. They would be Chinese pretty girls. One on our left, and one on your right. Big KTV’s might have a couple of hundred girls in the line up, while smaller KTV’s might only have a handful.
Here is a typical lineup of girls in the lobby of a KTV. This is obvious a small-town or rural business KTV. There are only a few girls and the establishment is more hotel than KTV. They girls are all wearing identical dresses and welcome you. Typically they might bow and welcome you to the KTV, while the lead girl might take your arm and lead you to the room chosen for you.
The Chinese pretty girls will all be wearing the same style outfit. Typically a dress. It seems like the classier places have the girls wearing long gowns. The girls will all be made up, and smiling. Every time that I go through these kinds of lines, I end up getting a great big grin on my face. The girls see this and start giggling, whispering to themselves, and smiling back.
All are stunning.
After you file though this gauntlet, you will be led to your room. The rooms have as few moving parts as possible. A big long couch lining the back wall, a couple of marble tables, a few TV’s in the front of the room (and one in the back at a classy joint) and one computer. They also have a wall panel in which you can control the temperature, the lighting (you can choose normal lighting, crazy dance lighting–disco ball, flashing lights, etc–or very dark) and the volume.
The KTV staff will wheel in a shopping cart and set up all the snacks and booze for you. This will be the bottles of liquor, the mixers, the cups. They will also give you a microphone condom to put on the microphones for sanitary reasons. This is a pretty good idea as that thing would be covered in gobs of spit by the nights end.
Typical KTV girls. Some wear the same kinds of outfits, while others dress for the theme for the day or week. The girls need to purchase all the clothes that they wear. Most KTV’s require them to wear traditional Chinese dresses with a slit up the one leg and one shoulder bare.
After a while, perhaps ten to twenty five minutes, the girls will be brought in.
Some KTV’s, especially in the smaller towns, cities and rural areas only have a few girls to choose from. You always get a better and bigger selection of girls in the bigger cities. In places like Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Beijing there might have 250 to 600 girls to select from. All are stunning.
I only wish that I could have photos to post about this issue.
Only the Best Girls can be Hostesses
Only the best Chinese pretty girls can be hostesses.
That is true. Since competition to work as a KTV Hostess is so high, the KTV management can be quite picky as to whom they let work there. So forget about the propagandized notions of the “poor kidnapped sex slaves”. That’s a UK fantasy used to sell tabloid magazines.
The truth is quite different.
Hostess clubs in China are nightlife entertainment that only the rich can afford. Similar to the hostess clubs in Japan, in Chinese establishments the rich men pay for an attractive woman’s company, service, and conversations. And, if they like the woman enough, they ask for the girl to leave with them and continue businesses elsewhere.
In Chinese, these type of hostesses are called 女公关, which translates loosely to “female public relations”. Recently, the top hostess club in Zhengzhou was shut down by the government.
HOW TO BECOME A QUALIFIED HOSTESS To become a hostess, you would first need to have the right look, the right figure, and be within the proper age range. Since hostess clubs depend on high-class customers, they can’t allow their hostesses to be from the lower classes, so they prefer white collar workers, models, and art school students.
Step 1: Interview After meeting the initial criteria, you need to be interviewed by 3 to 5 interviewers. Good looks + good body: 60. Highly educated + high alcohol tolerance: 80. Can play the role of a flight attendant: 100. According to a report on Zhengzhou’s Huangjia Yihao, all candidates are interviewed by at least 5 interviewers who rate you based on your appearance, height, education, skills, and culture, and then the overall score is broken down into a price.
Step 2: Professional Training Physique, etiquette, smile, and conversation skills. After the training is completed, a hostess can officially start working.
HOW DO HOSTESSES MAKE MONEY? Work Hours: 9PM to 2AM Main Work Locations: High-class Hostess Clubs, KTV and night clubs, bars Work Responsibilities: Accompany clients, drink with clients, sing, and others
The most famous hostess club in Beijing, Tian Shang Ren Jian (Passion Club), was one of the most expensive clubs in Beijing before it closed. The club was membership only. VIP customers included socialites from China and abroad, entrepreneurs, domestic and international film and TV stars, as well as ambassadors. Clients need to pay an initial fee of 1,000 to 3,000 yuan to talk to girls. To have a girl’s company for an entire night costs at least 5,000 yuan.
Huangjia Yihao was praised as an ideal “platform where politicians and businessmen communicated”. Gold card holders mostly treated others to discuss contracts and projects, or to ask for a favor. The previous report quotes that the club earned over 500,000 yuan per night. The reason that visiting the club became a symbol of social status is that the hostesses only chatted, sang, and drank moderately. A girl’s company cost 400 to 800 yuan, and to take her out was extra.
Where a girl might make 5000 to 10,000 RMB a night, you need to appreciate that this is serious “cheddar”. A middle class salary is from 6,000 RMB to 15,000 RMB/month.
This night rate is on top of everything else. So if the girl dances, sings and meets eligible wealthy and successful businessmen, and has sex with them, they can pretty much earn in the top 5% of everyone in China by having three customers a month.
It’s no wonder that many of the older gals have their own businesses, and own Starbucks, McDonalds and KTC franchises. I don’t know about youse guys, but it would take me a century to save up to buy a McDonalds franchise on a top engineer’s salary.
Demand for the Hostesses is High
In fact, the demand for the girls to work is so high, that the KTV’s often have to turn away girls and charge them to work there. That’s absolutely right. They have to pay a monthly fee for the privilege of working there. However, it makes sense when you really think about it.
The girls are considered Hostesses, as they not only entertain their client during the KTV adventure, but they can sing, and dance as well. I have five years semi-professional ballroom dancing experience, and all can follow quite well. Notice the girls. They all have a darker complexion, wider noses, and shorter in statue. They are obviously from the Southern section of China.
From the girl’s point of view…
The best way for a girl in her 20’s to meet a successful businessman, or middle manager is though a KTV.
That way, she can get picked, and if she likes the man, she can stay in contact with him. Often making other arrangements. Many girls date men this way, and often have a group of guys that follow them around and give them money and such. As the guys, just like the girls, want to pick a high-quality mate.
Most KTV girls have a string of guys that follow them around like puppy dogs. The combination of friendship (with benefits) and their KTV activities enable these girls to rake in enormous amounts of money.
These girls spend all of their time looking good and marketing to find the most desirable men as possible. They aren’t looking for love. They are looking for one of three types of men…
A potential good father for their future children. He owns his own company or has a serious senior role in a company.
A handsome guy with money. The key is that he also has money that he is easy to part with. These men can join a string of like-minded men, that the girl will keep tethered to her with the promise of sex and fun.
A man who is fun to be with. And, of course, who has some kind of advantage that the woman could eventually leverage. Maybe he owns a chateau in France. Maybe he is the son of the owner of Amazon. Maybe, he has a Ferrari that he will let the girl keep.
Notice that love and romance was not included in the calculus above. These girls are beautiful and know it. They know to cater to men and they will have many men eating out of their hands. Be careful!
In China, it is critical that the girls get married before they turn 28. They are considered to be non-marriageable after that date. The Chinese term is “spinster”.
So what the girls tend to do is spend their 20’s looking the best that they can, and doing what they can to attract the most suitable man. Otherwise, their parents will fix them up with a date. While the girl can say no, what usually happens is the girl just gives up and shrugs her shoulders and say “well, he’s good enough”.
To prevent this from happening, many girls work as KTV hostesses if they are in any way attractive.
Attractiveness is a cultural construct. The ideas of what is attractive varies from culture to culture. In China the attractive girls tend to be pale, frail, with big eyes, long black hair and a shape that is known as “fish shaped”. In the states, especially over the last decade or two, the ideas of female attractiveness has migrated towards dark skin, big pouty lips, big breasts and big asses. Which often causes some surprise to the girls who work at the KTV. They ask “why do Americans always pick the ugliest girls”?
Especially when there are many stunning Chinese ladies to choose from.
I’ve got to tell you, there are beautiful women all over the world. I love the girls in Australia with their big long lion manes of hair. I think that there are some amazing girls from Brazil. The girls of Eastern Europe and Russia are just stunning. But, I’ve seriously got to tell you all… China has the most attractive girls in the world.
Ideas about physical beauty vary from culture to culture. In China, the ideal is pale skin, a calm and pleasant demeanor, long black hair, big eyes, and a pleasant smile. They tend to have a fish shape for a body and walk in a calm purposeful manner.
It’s a cultural thing.
If you read my post about the r/K theory, culture and society migrates biologically towards situations that improve species survival. In the United States, it is a r-society. It is a society where there is abundance. So people act similarly to rabbits.
In a K-society, like China it is a land of scarcity. So they tend to be more predatory, like wolves.
That translates into many aspects of society. One of which is conceptions of beauty.
Now, I had best make this clear right off. A hostess doe not necessarily have sex with the clients. No. Instead, they party with them. They play games with them. They drink and dance with them. If there is a mutual interest, the manager can broker a financial payment arrangement that favors the girl.
There is no guarantee that the girl will trade sex for money. In China, the girl controls what will happen. It’s all up to her. The only thing the guy gets to do is pick her out of a line up. Everything else is fully scripted and controlled by the girl.
Whether or not a girl will have sex with a client is a decision made by the girl.
Sometimes she just feels like she wants to have sex. Sometimes she doesn’t, as it might be her period, and in China this is a big no-no. Maybe she isn’t going to have sex because one of her girlfriends in the club is not having sex. Maybe she doesn’t like you. Maybe you stink, or remind her of someone else. Maybe you are too old, too young, too poor, or just too drunk. Maybe your skin color is too dark, or you are Arabic, or you showed a lack of manners. In all cases… she decides what will happen.
In any event, the girl’s manager will know exactly what is going on and will steer more willing and able girls your way if need be.
The KTV rooms are often lavish. They are nice and typically dark so that all kinds of activities and things can occur. The bosses aide will get the thing going by talking to the room manager and arranging for food and drink to be brought forth.
Sorry for this digression. Ok, now where was I? Oh…
When you enter the KTV, you will typically walk through the gauntlet of girls, totally overwhelmed, and be led to your KTV room. These are nice private rooms with bathroom facilities, food trays and all sorts of drinks. As you go in, you pick a seat and make yourself at home.
Soon enough, they will start bringing the girls in. They will bring them in at 20 a time. They girls will parade in front and form a line. Then upon command they will turn around so that you can see their back. They will then strike a pose. There are numerous poses that they take on. All are very becoming and quite attractive.
Chinese KTV Hostesses waiting in readiness for a line up. Typically they get together and stage themselves in an empty KTV room or in the hallway.
Nothing out of Jerry Springier, and no fat girls waving their enormous spandex tight asses. That is reserved for President Obama’s America. No. Here, the girls are demure, polite and act respectful. After all, day in and day out, they are paraded in front of factory bosses, internet CEO’s, Directors of banks, and other managers of high regard.
They want to look their best, and be their best.
A Paradise for Sex? – Hardly
Contrary what the news media or the internet might say, China is not a “sex monger” paradise. It just isn’t. China is a nation of hard working nerds. If you want to experience some of the rewards of hard work, labor and study, then come to China. Otherwise and else look elsewhere.
These girls will smell a fake a mile away. You had best be working hard. Show that you know your stuff, and are willing to provide fun and entertainment to your business contacts. China is all about hard work, and relationships. If you are willing to work hard, and have built up a presence in China, and going to a KTV would be your reward.
They only respect and admire achievers. And if the personality match is there, perhaps there might be something more in the future. The truth is that this is the way for many a poor girl to latch on to a very wealthy man and greatly and substantially improve their lifestyle.
Some notes on the songs…
Just a word on the song selection. For the most part, they are surprisingly diverse for China. It’s one of the first things that a foreigner notices. As most foreigners have never heard of Kougu or YouKu. They are unaware as to how metropolitan the Chinese are in musical taste. The music is quite different than would you would find in the States for example.
In China the music is updated every couple of days, while in the USA, the music selection in a (so called) karaoke bar might be months or even years old.
Of course, there are the big wigs, like Lady Ga Ga, and Justin Bieber. There is also a surprising number of smaller less known hits (internationally I mean). Things like TLC, Bee-Gee’s, R.E.M., and a ton of classic rock.
I typically make a bee-line for the American Country & Western songs and I like to sing them, as well as some hits from the 1980’s, and Aerosmith. But, that’s just me. (Shrug.)
The songs play in the order that you choose them. The music video starts with the words on the bottom just like any karaoke anywhere.
About the Videos
Also, regarding the videos, I don’t know why, but some songs don’t get the rights or permission to use the real music video so they have some hilarious stock footage instead.
The song Barbie Girl has a video of people from the 80‘s at an amusement park for instance. These videos are a hoot. The older the song, the cheesier the video. I’ve got to tell ya.
Being Wild and Crazy
As everyone’s drinking, and singing, things can tend to get a little crazy. And, that is just how I like it, I’ll tell you what.
Yeah, Bottles and glasses get smashed, but the staff checks in regularly (the doors have windows) and they try to keep things clean.
Meanwhile, of course, people in the other rooms are also getting drunker and drunker and going out to find the bathroom can be quite funny. KTV places are just a winding, twisting maze of rooms and it’s near impossible to find your way around.
But, not to worry. They have workers stationed all over helping you find your way, but of course some calamity ensues; Guys stumbling drunkenly with their girlfriends on their backs, people walking into utility closets thinking it is the bathroom.
Many times I would help hold up a drunk Chinese stranger at the urinal so he can pee. It’s what friends are for, and it really builds your guanxi, don’t ya know.
Duration of the Party
In general, all KTV’s work within a certain set of hours. For all KTV’s, whether they are business or family KTV’s, you pay in advance. You pay for the room in a set number of hours. In short, you rent the room for a certain numbers of hours, and once your time is up the computer locks itself and you cannot choose any more songs. When that happens, the waiters will come in and start cleaning up. If you STILL don’t get the hint, which happens at times, they turn on the lights and eventually a manger or someone comes in and harasses you until you leave.
In all the big cities the KTV’s are open all night, and we would leave at around 6am. Smaller cities might shut down earlier, with 2 and 3am being the norm.
This is not a problem with Business KTV’s, as eventually you do want to go to your room to chill and have a decidedly different kind of party there.
Continue reading for some of the more (ahem) interesting aspects of the nightly pleasures…
If you want to return to the start of this series, please go HERE.
This is a very detailed discussion on how a Business KTV works in China. This is a pretty large multi-part post. It was originally posted HERE, but it soon became problematic as the videos would not load and the SEO flags weren’t being picked up by the search engines. So I broke it down into smaller bite-sized posts. It’s faster to load, easier to read, and you can see all the videos without problem. Enjoy.
Part 9 of 17.
Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.
Pricing
Of course everything at a KTV comes at a price. If you are being given hospitality, you won’t need to pay for anything. However, it is always a good thing to have an idea of what the costs will be like. The days of $50 USD for dinner and all-night sex are long over. KTV activity has a price tag associated with it. So let’s look at the KTV prices.
Here we discuss the pricing scheme; the “KTV prices”. Yah. It looks so easy when things are given and provided to you. However, in reality on this planet, everything comes at a price. Do not think that it is just “freebees”.
Never the less, you should understand that if you are given this kind of hospitality, you are expected to be “worth the investment”.
Keep in mind that $1 USD = 6.3 RMB. So, to get a handle on these prices, consider 100 RMB = $16. And a 1000 RMB = $160 dollars.
Renting the KTV room alone will vary from a few thousand RMB to 20,000 RMB and up. If the boss has a running VIP account, the rate might be lower, but offset by his repeat business. Location is everything. Two KTV’s in different areas can have wildly different pricing schemes.
Just having a pretty girl to be with you and play will vary from 300 RMB to 750 RMB for four hours. Guys are more expensive for the girls to play with.
Stripped down playfulness might cost you another 500 to 2000 RMB. All of the girls in the room will strip down to their panties, and play with you. Trust me, on this, don’t decline if offered.
Drinks are usually provided as part of a “meal plan” where beer and drinks are provided with snacks. This will cost from 500 RMB to 7000 RMB.
High end drinks like whiskey and XO, will be at a premium price. They will have package deals. For instance, a bottle of Johnny Walker Red with ten bottle of green tea for a “sale” price. Most drinks will be fake, or cheap whiskey in an expensive bottle.
The girl will run from 600 RMB to 5000 RMB for a “short time” with “one shot”. (One “shot” is one ejaculation.) Multiple shots and longer periods of time (longer than 40 minutes) can be negotiated. The standard “short time” is around 40 minutes. If the phone starts ringing off the hook after 20 minutes, you are not getting your money’s worth.
“Long time” girls will be double that. A “long time” is an overnight sleepover. This will typically allow for two shots. One before bed and one upon awakening. These girls will leave at 6am, so make sure that you don’t wait until the “crack of dawn” to take her to your room. To get the most “bang for the buck” leave before 11pm. That gives you seven hours of frolic fun.
Additionally, some girls might ask for further “tips” and prices. Make perfectly clear that all expenses have been taken cared of before you go to the room under what ever expectations you might have.
While the vast bulk of girls are in their mid-20's to thirties, be cautious. I have heard of, but never experienced, younger girls lying and working as KTV hostesses. These girls might be under 21, and I have heard that they can be as young as 14! Make absolutely clear that the chick that you are with is what you want, and that she is an adult. Her behavior, more than anything else, will tell you her age.
Anyways, it should be understood that the boss could easily spend 60,000 RMB for you to have fun with and provide you hospitality. This is $10,000 USD.
Do not take the hospitality lightly, and don’t insult his face in the process.
Singing
All KTV’s have a huge big-screen television that is hooked up to the KTV machine. It is a touch activated screen that you can pick a song out of. The songs are provided along with some kind of cheap video (if the actual MTV video is not available). Ask your English speaking aide to assist you.
The screen to select the KTV songs is a touch activated device. There are different systems in use. But, all use a basic search engine technique and basic controls. You can search by name of song, artist, album, year, gender, theme, emotion, and a host of other criteria. These devices have everything from children’s songs to songs suitable for grandparents.
Typically, I carry in my wallet a list of groups, singers and songs that I can program and search for in the KTV. Else, you would have a dickens of a time trying to think of a song to sing. The environment is noisy and the songs that the other people are all singing are Chinese. So you will have a real hard time thinking of a song.
Once you pick out a song, you can adjust the percentage of the vocals to sing along with. It can be anywhere from 100% (as in listening to the full song) where you just sing along, to 0%, where the only vocals are your own. Personally, I like around 60% that way it doesn’t sound so bad. No one really cares how well you can sing. They just want to see you release emotion. As that is the entire purpose of a KTV in the first place.
The reverb and sound can be adjusted with echo and other effects. I personally don’t like the effect. However, others do. You just go with the flow and use the presets unless someone else says differently.
There are decades of technology behind this. Today, you can connect to the KTV player and sing to songs on your smartphone. You can search the internet, if there aren’t any songs on the local hard drive. You can do all kinds of things. HERE is a link to one manufacturer that makes these devices.
Dancing
Often people get up and start dancing. You know, the Chinese are often nerds, and so the girls and the guys will get us and shake their body to the music. Not me. I took five years of professional ballroom dancing lessons. I can dance.
Which surprises the heck out of the girls. Most of the girls don’t get much of a chance to dance with a real dancer. Instead, they are fun and just content to dance with each other and shake and gyrate…
It’s a happy and welcome surprise. These girls are trained and experienced Hostesses. they can follow my lead in dancing, and it is a real pleasure. We do the foxtrot, the merengue, the waltz, the two step and of course the Rumba and Tango. You know, for a guy like myself, just being able to dance, with a experienced and qualified partner is worth everything.
Yet, truthfully, there is absolutely nothing wrong with formal dancing, shaking and gyrating or some kind of line dance. You do what ever makes you feel wonderful. And since this is a KTV, just have fun. No one will make fun of you. It’s all about having fun.
Now, the ballroom dances are very popular in China. Often huge classes are held outdoors in the empty plazas in front of the malls and such. People dance and learn the movements on their own. But, to dance with a partner is just… magical.
I typically start out rather easy with a two-step or something basic. If they can follow well, then it eventually evolves into a tango. There, I like to get really dramatic, and the girls really get into it as well. It is truly amazing. There is something about booze, sex and dancing that brings out the raw emotion in us all.
Dancing the tango. It’s a dance of battle and wits. Once led properly, the woman can release and let herself go. She becomes the dance. The experience becomes magical.
But heck… It’s all about having fun. Whether you are at a KTV, or in a club or in a bar, enjoy life. Seriously, life is far too short to get all worked up and bothered about things that have no direct connection to our lives…read “so called news”.
Get out and enjoy yourself. If this housekeeper can enjoy herself, why not you? Eh?
If you want to return to the start of this series, please go HERE.
Keith Kaplan
CEO, TradeSmith
![What High School taught me about Diversity. Here we look at idea of "diversity" from the point of view of what it was like in my High School years. For my High School was fully and intentionally diverse. And at that time, there were two techniques of grouping people. These techniques were by [1] merit, and [2] by random association. Or in other words; "diversity". Thus we can compare diversity against merit as the criteria used in a selection process.](https://metallicman.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1-23-1024x235.gif)
