My daughter just couldn’t wait to get up early for kindergarten today.
Big day at school. Her class is to host the raising of the flag ceremony in the morning. It’s a big deal in China. Have youse guys ever witnessed it? It is impressive.
The little tykes wear their uniforms and march to the flag, and the Chinese national anthem is played. They beat their drums and unravel the flag, then mount it and hoist it up. Nicely done.
Anyways, its a normal part of Chinese life.
Here’s a father filming his child’s Kindergarten doing the same performance. This is shao ban I think. I minute long. Worth the time to watch if for anything else the sheer cuteness and guns.
One of the things that I love about China.
Here’s the Chinese military doing the entire ceremony. Damn impressive. I’ll tell you what. Short video, but shows you what it is like.
You can see how excited she is. She can’t wait to march in front of the school. Her role today is holding the right side of the flag as it is presented. All the kids are so very excited. It’s great!
Today…
I did CPR on a crash victim until paramedics arrived. They said I saved her life. I am now being sued by her for breaking a rib. What do I do?
Ler them sue.
They will lose.
I stayed with a kid that hit a pole and broke his neck. I held his head so he could breathe and kept him talking.
Every time I turned loose he stop breathing.
Police officers wanted me to leave vehicle and when I explained the situation he just yelled.
When paramedics arrived they told me not to move until they could safely move him and scolded Police which made him madder.
After all said and done the police tried to charge me with disobeying orders and DWI however DA refused.
Viral Posts Calling for Repeat of Violent French Revolution – Inside the USA
Leftist echo chamber Reddit is embracing the French revolution in an attempt to resist President Donald Trump. The platform, notorious for its censorship of conservatives, is allowing posts calling for violent political revolution here in the USA.
Specifically they are saying it’s time for the style of the French “Reign of Terror” to spread virally in the early weeks of the Trump administration.
“They want 1939 Germany, let’s give them 1789 France” is popping up all over the platform, with “1789 France” spiking in Google searches and on X Radar, a feature on X that lets users monitor keywords and track conversations.
Other people, not amused, are noticing:
The reference to the French Revolution describes the time period between 1789 and the late 1790s, and when French citizens “radically altered their political landscape, uprooting centuries-old institutions such as the monarchy and the feudal system,” History.com notes.
“The upheaval was caused by disgust with the French aristocracy and the economic policies of King Louis XVI, who met his death by guillotine, as did his wife Marie Antoinette,” the site adds.
The historical website goes on to note that while this “degenerated into a bloodbath during the Reign of Terror, the French Revolution helped to shape modern democracies by showing the power inherent in the will of the people.”
It is clear, from numerous postings, they actually want bloodshed:
The French Revolution notably concluded with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte, who seized power in November 1799.
Hal Turner Analysis
This movement on Social media is spreading, and no less than Democrat Congressman Ed Markey from Massachusetts also made news when he picked up a bullhorn over this past weekend, and declared “The revolution against Donald Trump and Elon Musk begins here. (Story with video Here)
You’ve gotta laugh about this. Most of these postings are from kids living in their parent’s basement.
90% of the people with these bumper stickers and postings are:
– The 5’10” 110lbs or the 5’1″ 310lbs BMI clusters.
– Mentally dependent on drugs and porn
– Physically inactive
– Have never been in a real fist fight
– Triggered by pronouns
And yet they’re 100% convinced they’re badass.
Why is the US countering China?
It’s very, very simple: China’s rise threatens the USA’s dominant global position.
The USA wants to remain on top, forever.
Unfortunately for the USA, it is declining and China is surpassing it by every measure.
- The world is de-dollarizing. The US Dollar is gradually losing its supremacy as the primary global reserve.
- The USA is wracked by endless domestic problems, such as homelessness, gun violence, poor health care, poor education, crumbling infrastructure, drug addiction, illegal immigration, growing poverty, etc.
- The USA is weighed down by a crushing national debt, currently at $36 trillion and growing by a trillion dollars every 100 days.
- The US military is declining. It suffers from a recruitment crisis, maintenance crisis, budget crisis, etc.
- China has overtaken the US economy by PPP and is on track to overtake it by nominal GDP.
- China is the world’s sole industrial superpower.
- China has the world’s finest infrastructure (roads, bridges, high-speed trains, subway, airports, seaports, power grids, etc.).
- China now has the world’s largest navy, which is growing rapidly. China’s shipbuilding capacity is over 200 times greater than that of the USA.
- China is the world’s technological leader. According to ASPI, China leads in 57 out of 64 critical technology fields. According to WIPO, China is granted more patents than the USA and Japan combined!
- China is winning over the world with the BRI and BRICS.
What should Mexico and Canada do for tariffs to be fully revoked by Donald Trump?
If I were the Prime Minister of Canada, which I ain’t, I would simply announce a free vote in the Commons about whether Canada should trigger the notice provisions of USMCA, a “USMCexit” if you will.
This works well for Trudeau politically too because it would force the Conservatives to “put up or shut up” on at least one issue.
But triggering the exit provisions would be bad for Canada and the United States, but not of course if the United States, which entered into that agreement just five years ago, refuses to abide by it. If the US isn’t going to abide by it, there’s no point in having the agreement anyway.
In the 30 years NAFTA has been around, the economies of all three nations have been entwined and it’s a lot more efficient this way. Gone are the days where the same model of automobile was made in all three countries, or where cattle spent their entire lives in one country even though it was a far better idea to, for example, move them north to Canada in summer and south to Mexico in winter. Americans eat mostly Mexican avocados and Mexicans eat mostly American corn. Hell, they even built a brand new bridge between Canada and the United States to speed up trade as the existing bridge was a massive bottleneck. Canadian and Mexican firms rely on American suppliers and vice versa.
Now, trade agreements don’t necessarily make things “better for everyone” but they do create “winners” and “losers”. The “losers” here will be companies in all three countries that have worked to integrate their supply chains across borders. They’re going to be in big trouble, and almost all of them are American companies.
Which other countries are next on President-elect Donald Trump’s list of potential tariffs?
No-one cares. Sorry, but most civilised countries have already factored in the ridiculous, immature behaviour of the Orange Toddler. We’ll all smile, shake his hand, tell him how much he’s respected as a businessman, then get on with real-world stuff that’s light-years ahead of his brain-damaged nonsense. He’ll be gone in 4 years, or probably less, and leave nothing more than a shit-stain on world history.
The Mask | SMOKIN!
Why are so many men scared to date single mothers?
From personal experience, a single mother of a two-year-old boy really wanted a relationship with me.
She was pretty upfront that she was looking for a man to financially support her and to father more children with her.
I was surprised when she admitted that in her younger party days that she would’ve totally ignored a guy like me, but that now I was her type because I was kind, responsible, and had a good paying career, plus she thought that our kids would be really cute.
It was very clear to her when she told me what all of the benefits that she would receive by dating me. But there was not much that she brought to the table other than offering me sex.
I was kind of young at the time but luckily smart enough to know that it was not a good deal for me.
So I was not scared of dating her, but I did not see the upside for me.
Southern Chili
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds ground meat
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 3/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 2 cans tomato paste
- 2 tomato paste cans water
- 1 (No. 2) can tomato juice
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 cans chili beans, drained
Instructions
- Brown meat with onion, garlic, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the salt, 1/2 teaspoon of the pepper and chili powder.
- Combine remaining salt and pepper with remaining ingredients except beans; add to meat mixture. Bring to a boil; simmer for 2 hours.
- Add beans during final 15 minutes of cooking.
“MOST Don’t Know It YET…” – Richard Wolff
Have No Fear, Love
Submitted into Contest #115 in response to: Write a story where a device goes haywire.… view prompt
Patrick Samuel
*
Lea is still asleep when Natalie comes in with the tray. At least her eyes are closed. She wonders if she put too many pills in last night’s soup. The only idea more frightening is how tempting it gets sometimes to put the whole bottle in.
“When is this fog gonna lift? I’m sick of seeing only gray.”
You’d be sicker if you could see more, Natalie thinks but all she says is: “I thought you were sleeping.”
“I thought I was dead. Or that the rest of the world was. I’m not sure and I don’t know if I even care anymore.”
“Social media still down?” As if she needed to ask.
“What do you think?”
Lea’s eyes are open now, fixated on her sister’s. Natalie forces herself to meet her gaze. Better suspicion than certainty. Don’t let Schrodinger’s cat out of the bag and we can all pretend it never happened.
After just a sip, Lea puts down the cup.
“Bitter?”
“Too hot. I’ll have it later.”
Natalie makes a mental note to put the pills in Lea’s soup from now on.
*
“Got a message from Mom,” Lea says at lunch.
“What does she say?”
“The usual. Hope you’re fine. Love you. Tell Natalie to massage your feet every day until you go to sleep.”
“She didn’t say that.”
“No, she didn’t.” Lea grins. “But you could.”
“Maybe I will,” replies Natalie. “If you finish your soup.”
“You’re worse than Mom, sometimes.”
“Wrong. I’m always worse than Mom. But thanks for the ‘sometimes’ anyway.”
“When is she coming home, do you think?” Lea now asks.
“Didn’t she tell you?”
“You know how vague she gets with specific questions. She’s even worse when texting.”
“Well, she’s not big on texting. Different generations and all that.”
“She could always call. They did have phones when she was our age, didn’t they?”
*
After lunch (and she did finish her soup, so Natalie feels obliged to rub her feet – not that she minds) Lea mutters : “Can you believe I got Mom to text me but I can’t even get a single one from Chris?”
To a sixteen year-old princess, even a sick one, the absence of a prince charming at her bedside is more than an insult, it’s the ultimate injury. Natalie is tempted to tell her that Chris got himself a new girlfriend. That he’s gone off to live with her in Japan and has forgotten all about Lea. Anything to get her off the subject.
*
She will have the world at her feet, that one, their mother used to say about Lea. Easy enough when the world lies shattered on the floor, Natalie reflects, like the glass bowl she smashed after the last call from Dan.
As if reading her thoughts, or maybe because her mind is still on boyfriends, Lea asks: “Dan hasn’t been around in a while, has he?”
“We broke up,” Natalie says shortly.
“Really?” Lea sounds genuinely surprised.
“Shit happens.” Her hint to drop the subject but for once, Lea is all solicitude.
“When did you guys last spoke?” she asks.
“Some weeks ago.”
“What did he say?”
Natalie takes a deep breath. “He said: ‘Shit’.”
Lea giggles, then realizes she shouldn’t. “Sorry,” she says. “No really, I am. I like Dan. He’s the kind of guy who knows stuff but doesn’t need to brag about it, you know what I mean?”
“I thought he bore you to tears. Like that afternoon we spent at the beach?”
“Please. Like I’m gonna let on when I’m having fun. I don’t even know why I do that, sometimes. Like maybe if I admitted I was enjoying something too much, it would be taken away from me.”
This is the more open Lea has been in ages. Maybe it takes a broken connection to get people talking to each other again.
“We should never have told you that smiling gives you wrinkles.”
“I’d be happy to get wrinkles now. At least it would mean I’ve lived long enough to get them.”
She does smile then, and this time Natalie is not afraid to meet her gaze.
*
Once Lea is asleep, Natalie goes down to the kitchen. From the top of the cupboard she retrieves a telephone, reads the new message and starts writing.
Their mother kept vague about her job. All the girls knew was that it included “buying and selling“ and traveling to the big city on occasions. She certainly didn’t try to make it sound glamorous, in fact sounded so jaded and weary about it that they learned not to ask too much. Which is actually proving convenient now.
October was their mother’s busiest month. That’s when the company held its annual convention, an open door for jokes about Halloween and the true nature of her employers. “The witches brew convention,” as Lea once called it. “Almost to the letter,” Mom said. “Witches crew, then?” Lea said and they both dissolved into a fit of laughter though Natalie failed to see what was so funny.
Even as she pit them against one another, their mother encouraged them to stick together. Constant competition was her idea of emulation. Natalie likes to think this was her way of building up their sense of solidarity against adversity. You make use of whatever life throws at you, including what it throws in your face.
*
It took Natalie a few days before she thought of retrieving the phone. She should have done it sooner, but there were so many things to deal with and so few she could bear thinking about. Like getting rid of a body before its smell got too strong to hide. Digging a hole big enough in the garden at night, all the time praying the pills she put in the soup were enough to make Lea sleep and not enough to kill her. And trying to retain some pretense of sanity through it all.
Then, just when she thought the worst was over, at least for the time being, having to dig up again when she realized where the damn phone was.
*
The worst, smell aside and she had a scarf over her nose, was going through her mother’s pockets one by one, feeling the flesh underneath and its texture already changing after just a few days. No more rigor mortis there. Whether this was the effect of the garden soil, the fog or something else, she’d rather not ponder.
It took another few days before she could establish a closed network between all three phones, raking her brain for what she could remember from electronic classes and Dan’s passion project, the one he bored her to death talking about on their first evenings together. That’s when she had asked if being a geek was a congenital male trait. “You should be grateful for geeks,” he said. “When you spend nights tracking down a bug, finding a G-spot is like a walk in the park.” That made them laugh, and more than laugh. “Feeling geeky tonight?” became their secret code, an invitation neither could resist.
If he could see her now, she thinks, he would be so proud. Though he would probably point out all the things she could have done better and faster. Just for that, she was almost grateful he wasn’t around.
The last thing he said was shit.
Contrary to what she has let Lea assume, they were not fighting but commenting on the fog that was seeping everywhere, messing up electronics and fucking up with the TV and phone reception.
Then Dan did say shit. As in “Oh Shit! Oh shit, no! Shit –“ and then the scream that seemed to last an eternity but might have been only a couple of seconds before he was cut off.
She stopped trying to call back after the first attempts. Knew from what she could hear on the radio that there was no point. Then the radio went dead too.
*
“You need to take care of your sister.” She remembers her mother’s words, and how typical that her sister’s needs should become her own. “Lea just hasn’t got your strength.” A compliment doubling up as burden: another responsibility to shoulder, another reason to be grateful for said strength.
Not that Natalie minded. From the moment Lea was born, Natalie had doted on her. “This is not a doll we bought you for Christmas,” their mother would say. To five-year old Natalie, Lea was better than a doll and much prettier: all blond hair and green eyes like their mother, while Natalie took after their estranged father as Mom liked to remind her.
She never resented the extra care and attention her little sister required. That Natalie could fend off for herself she also took as a compliment – if one she wasn’t sure she deserved or even want. But she had learned to be grateful for anything that came her way whether or not she had wished for it.
*
Natalie takes her mother’s phone and reads Lea’s latest message: “Mom, when are you coming home?”
She starts typing. “Soon.” Pauses, wonders what to add next. Invent a new delay? Searching for inspiration, she browses through old messages. There’s another one from Lea that she missed. Thinking guiltily of her sister awaiting an answer, Natalie opens it. And feels worse than guilt.
“Mommy, please come home. I think Natalie is trying to kill me.”
*
You need to take care of your sister.
The irony is that, after all she did to protect her from the truth, Lea would not believe it if she told her. Lea doesn’t trust her anymore, provided she ever did. And with that dawning realization, Natalie feels more than guilty or helpless but useless as well.
What would be worse? Telling her their mother is buried in the garden because there was no way to do otherwise, and no time either, not when they were cut off from the rest of the world, which might as well be dead for all she knew, oh and by the way you were right about that too, Lea. Even though you’re half zoned out of your mind all the time with all the medicine I’ve been slipping you – not to kill you, mind you, but to shield you from the truth. Because this is what Mom would have wanted. She said you couldn’t bear the truth.
But did she say that, really? Or is Natalie the one who can’t face the truth? Can’t face anything, not even her own cowardice. It doesn’t take courage to do the things she does. It just takes a steadfast denial of reality under the guise of responsibility. Exchanging one burden for another.
What does facing the truth even mean, she wonders. Is the truth some kind of wild animal you can tame with a look, like you’re Queen of the Fucking Jungle? Or do you let it eat you alive like a good Christian martyr? Options are scarce when the only crash course you can get on bravery is from a screen.
*
The truth is nothing you’re prepared for. The truth is that connections are just as fragile as bodies and disconnections even messier. The truth is that nobody remains a body for long when exposed to more than they bargained for. The truth is that a fog is not always a fog even when it hides what you need to run from, run faster than you’ve ever ran as if running could put more than distance but light years between perception and reality, running back in space and time, until the truth stops being the truth.
The truth is that a house is not a home without a few skeletons in its closets.
She knows what needs to be done, she tells herself. It’s either that or die trying. At this stage, both options hold their own appeal.
*
In the fog, the most familiar route looks foreign. A good thing she’s made the trip to the village so often she could do it with her eyes closed – and the temptation is strong to do so, especially when passing by unfamiliar shapes and mounds on the wayside. She knows what they are, would know it by her nose too if it wasn’t protected by her two scarves – one being insufficient to block out the fog and the smell.
*
She has her backpack for scavenging groceries, a mission she usually dreads. Inside the silent store, she has to put her mind on pause as she reaches blindly for the nearest shelves, stepping over mounds of bodies and cans, each burst open in their own way, their smells mingling. She shove cans haphazardly in the bag until it’s full. Hoping it’s the last time she has to do this.
*
Maybe this is just her passing on the bucket, but she has to bring someone in – someone with the proper authority, like Dr. Carter. He will find the right words, and Lea will believe him.
But no one answers the doctor’s door. The bell doesn’t work and neither does her pounding. She should have known, just as she knows it’s no use insisting.
She contemplates her next move. The scarves won’t protect her for much longer and the temptation is to keep walking into the fog until she can’t walk anymore. She almost considers trying other houses, knowing how futile that is, when her phone buzzes. Lea must be awake.
But it’s not Lea. The caller is “Unknown“.
“Hello?” Her voice is muffled through the scarves but she prays it won’t be mistaken for voicemail. “Who’s there? Hello?” She’s frantic with hope, sudden renewed hope pouring like rain on dry land, until she realizes there’s no one on the line.
But there’s still reason to hope. The three bars flashing flashing green on her telephone screen. The first signal she’s had in weeks. Where there is a connection, there is life.
She tries going online. Most of her links are dead except one, a news site that hasn’t been updated in weeks. Still, almost as beautiful as an olive branch delivered by dove.
*
Checking her phone as she walks back, eyes on the green bars that have become like a lighthouse in the night. She doesn’t know if it was moving away from the house that got her service, or if in tinkering with the network, she somehow managed to unlock what needed to be. If so, those late night sessions with Dan did pay off. Or maybe she’s a fucking geek genius herself and never knew it. All she knows is that she needs to keep that connection until she gets home.
She arrives to find the whole house in lights, piercing through the fog as if greeting her in victory. Which must mean the power is back on, another cause for rejoicing.
*
“Lea?” she calls from the hall, but Lea might still be asleep, unaware of all the lights shining again on them. Natalie drops her bag and starts upstairs, creaking stairs under her giddy step as she tries not to run after all these weeks of waiting, waiting without hope. This is what hell must be like: one big waiting room with no door ever opening.
Or maybe hell is a door opening on what should remain closed.
*
Lea lies in bed, eyes open but unseeing, phone still in her hand. Fingers clutched in a death grip on her last connection to life. The pill bottle at the foot of the bed, empty. Natalie wonders how she could have found the strength to get up and retrieve it. Then she remembers Lea’s last message: “I think Natalie’s trying to kill me.” She wouldn’t have drunk her tea, or finished her soup. Probably poured them down the toilet as soon as Natalie left the room. Lea would have been strong enough to get up in her absence and see what the world had become. Or maybe just the garden.
Green light flashing through Lea’s fingers: the bars triumphantly indicating connection. Maybe her phone benefited from the same service as Natalie’s, linked as they were by her homemade network. Lea would have clicked hungrily on the first link available. Even weeks-old news would have been news enough for her.
*
Lea’s fingers twitch now but it’s the phone again, vibrating. Natalie pries the device from her sister’s cold hand. The bell of a message received, a sound she hasn’t heard in ages. She thinks she hears other sounds too, as if the world was stirring out of its hiding place. Echoes of another time: the front door opening, or did she even close it. The creaking of stairs being climbed. Maybe it’s all in her mind, memories by association. She’s not sure and doesn’t care even if she should. Her eyes are still on Lea’s last message: “Mommy, please come home. I think Natalie’s trying to kill me.”
And the answer, just now received: “Have no fear, love. I’m coming to get you.”
The World Is a Ghetto – War | The Midnight Special
Apocalypto (2006)______Best Movie Scene [1080p].
This is the one of the biggest news events of the year!
Right off the bat, before even taking office, Trump makes a FAR dumber move than the Biden administration.
Dumber that the Biden administration. Those are words one wouldn’t expect to hear very often!
The Biden administration put its head in the sand like an ostrich and pretended BRICS and de-dollarization isn’t happening. Not as wise as not using the dollar as a weapon and an exploitative fiat system enriching dollar account holders at the expense of the rest of the world by exporting inflation through reckless printing. But still better than something Trump just did.
Now Trump did something FAR dumber. Trump just indicated to all BRICS nations and everyone in the world, America is actually threatened by BRICS.
Now every country knows America needs everyone to trade using the dollar than they need to trade with America.
Now they know they can collectively bargain to make deals with the United States that puts the US at a severe disadvantage.
Instead what Trump should have done is sell the dollar’s usage — promise not to sanction and freeze assets, unfreeze Russian assets, restore trade relations with all countries including Russia, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba etc., rollback sanctions, allow Fed To be audited, audit Fort Knox be audited, back the dollar with some physical commodity like gold or shale oil and these measures alone with ensure dollar with remain a reserve currency for at least half a century more.
But nope. Got to play the big ego.
This is by FAR the biggest blunder of the Trump administration and Trump is not yet even in office!
Basic human psychology — no one likes to live under threats and fear.
Countries will now question why should they trade in currency of a country that threatens them like this?
They will not only accelerate de-dollarization but they will also they collectively bargain along the way.
Take a look at my post written in summer 2022.
Aging very nicely.
Since then
- Saudi Arabia and Iran have made peace brokered by China
- BRICS have expanded to 11 and bow 25+ and more on the way.
- India and China have calmed their border disputes.
I said the whole global south will be an a place to collectively bargain against the west sometime in the future. The world is slowly but surely consolidating in that direction.
Trump’s tweet was so stupid, I wondered if it’s actually real.
CNN confirms the words are certainly real.
Welcome to the Asian Century.
The Rise of BRICS and the Emerging Multipolar World
A new age of international relations is dawning.
With the West accounting for a declining share of global gross domestic product and the world becoming increasingly multipolar, countries are jostling to establish their positions in the emerging order. This includes both the emerging economies — represented by the recently expanded BRICS grouping — that seek a leading role in writing the rules of the new order and the smaller countries attempting to cultivate relationships that can safeguard their interests.
With the BRICS, what began as an asset class has become a symbol of the yearning for a more broadly representative global order, a hedge against Western-led institutions and a means of navigating growing geopolitical uncertainty. All this has proved highly attractive. Earlier this year, the BRICS expanded from five countries (Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa) to nine (adding Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates). And almost three dozen more countries — including NATO member Turkey, close U.S. partners Thailand and Mexico and Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country — have applied to join.
While the diversity of the grouping’s members (and applicants) highlights the broad appeal of the BRICS+, it also creates challenges. These are countries with very different political systems, economies and national goals. Some are even at odds with each other: China and India have been locked in a military standoff in the Himalayas for over four years, following China’s stealth encroachments on Indian territory.
Translating shared interests into a common plan of action and becoming a unified force on the global stage was difficult even when the BRICS had just five members. With nine — and possibly more — member countries, establishing a common identity and agenda will require sustained effort. But other multilateral groupings that are not formal, charter-based institutions with permanent secretariats — such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Group of 20 and even the Group of Seven — also struggle with internal divisions.
Moreover, the BRICS have demonstrated considerable resilience. Western analysts have been predicting from the start that the grouping would unravel or drift into irrelevance. Yet this month’s BRICS+ summit in Kazan, Russia — the first since the expansion — may well bring movement toward further enlargement, as it underscores the West’s failure to isolate Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
This is not to underestimate the challenge of cohesion. The grouping’s founding members do not even agree about its fundamental objectives: Whereas China and Russia want to spearhead a direct challenge to the United States-led world order, Brazil and India seek reforms of existing international institutions and appear uneasy about any anti-Western orientation.
In this disagreement, however, the enlargement might tip the scales. Six of the group’s nine members, including all four of the new additions, are formally part of the nonaligned movement, and two (Brazil and China) are observers. This suggests that there will be considerable internal pressure for the BRICS+ to chart a middle ground, focusing on democratizing the global order, rather than challenging the West.
That said, when it comes to fostering mutual trust with developing countries, the West has not been doing itself any favors lately. On the contrary, its weaponization of finance and seizure of the interest earned on frozen Russian central-bank assets have caused deepening disquiet in the non-Western world. As a result, a growing number of countries seem interested in exploring alternative arrangements, including new cross-border payment mechanisms, with some also reassessing their reliance on the U.S. dollar in international transactions and reserve holdings.
All of this could aid the larger designs of Russia and China, two natural competitors that have become close strategic partners partly in response to U.S. policy. China, in particular, stands to gain, such as from increased international use of the renminbi. Russia now generates much of its international export earnings in renminbi and stores them mostly in Chinese banks, thereby effectively giving China a share of the returns. China’s ultimate goal — which Western financial warfare is inadvertently aiding — is to establish an alternative renminbi-based financial system.
The BRICS are already engaged in institution-building, having established the New Development Bank — conceived by India and headquartered in Shanghai — in 2015. The NDB is not only the world’s first multilateral development bank created and led by emerging economies; it is also the only one whose founding members remain equal shareholders with equal voice, even as more countries join. By contrast, the U.S. is the dominant shareholder and holds veto power in the World Bank.
The expanded BRICS+ boast formidable global clout. The grouping dwarfs the G7, both demographically (with nearly 46% of the world’s population, compared to the G7’s 8.8%) and economically (accounting for 35% of global GDP, compared to the G7’s 30%). Its economies are also likely to be the most important source of future global growth. Furthermore, with Iran and the UAE having joined their oil-producing counterparts Brazil and Russia as members, the BRICS+ now account for about 40% of crude-oil production and exports.
Yes, the group faces significant challenges, not least uniting to become a meaningful global force with defined (and realistic) political and economic objectives. But they also have the potential to serve as a catalyst for a long-overdue revamping of global governance so that it better reflects 21st-century realities.
Brahma Chellaney – professor emeritus of strategic studies at the New Delhi-based Center for Policy Research and fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin.
Japan Times
Baloney:
One wonders how much AP was paid to publish this empty hype of another U.S. military industrial boondoggle that is clearly not working as advertised.
The Navy is replacing the non-functioning cannons of its three $7.5 billion(!) piece Zumwalt Class ships with launchers for missiles that do not exist.
Key quote:
> A U.S. hypersonic weapon was successfully tested over the summer and development of the missiles is continuing. The Navy wants to begin testing the system aboard the Zumwalt in 2027 or 2028, according to the Navy.
If a U.S. hypersonic missiles had really been ‘successfully tested’ during the summer 2024 why would it take three or four more years to even start ‘testing’ it from a naval platform?
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) – MOVIE REACTION – First Time Watching
Some more pictures out of my archives
What’s the most morally disgusting thing you’ve ever seen someone do?
Sometime you wonder how just much separation there is between some humans and animals.
In the summer 1986 I was a Policeman stationed in the western Sydney suburb of Blacktown.
Sometime after 10pm on Sunday February 2nd we responded to a radio call directing us to a location where a woman had been heard screaming being dragged into light coloured vehicle. Plenty of Police attended however due to the scant details and vehicle description this vehicle and its occupants were not located.
On the following Tuesday I’m again working with another young officer and we returned to the station for lunch. As we walked in the switch board officer advised us that he’d just received a call from a local farmer indicating that he had found the body of a naked woman in his cow paddock.
We advised detectives and went out to this secluded area which was a local ‘lover’s lane’.
We met the farmer and he took us to a stand of trees in the middle of this paddock. What I saw there was a woman’s body lying face down. Her head was barely connected to her body by the spinal cord. There were various significant cuts and lacerations to her hands and body. And from her neck to her ankles were covered in cigarette burns. It was awful. I have never forgotten that sight and I doubt I ever will.
Detectives attended and soon after one of the Australia’s largest murder investigations was launched.
It transpired that on that fateful Sunday night a bright and beautiful young nurse caught the train from the City to Blacktown. Because a payphone was vandalised she was unable to contact her father for a lift home so she began to walk.
Anita Cobby.
She was abducted by five worthless mongrels and what then transpired was horrific.
They drove to a nearby petrol station and while three of these low lives sat on her across the back seat they used money from her purse for fuel and cigarettes. She continued fighting with them causing the serious defensive wounds to her hand and fingers. They then drove her to this remote ‘lover’s lane’ where she unsuccessfully tried to escape a number of times. She had been raped repeatedly and you can only imagine the terror she felt on that longest of nights. She eventually fled from them into that paddock but was tracked down at the tree stand where she was further abused and ultimately had her throat cut.
This was without a doubt the most horrendous sight I endured throughout my entire career.
The beautiful young nurse’s name was Anita Cobby and the full story is here.
The five animals that tortured, raped and killed her were John Travers, Michael Murdoch and Murphy brothers Michael, Gary and Leslie. They’re all in gaol marked never to be released.
I hope they eventually rot in hell.
What was the most inappropriate thing that happened to you when reading at a library?
I was at the library in town, and I live in the south so it’s *mind numbingly hot* here. I was about maybe 12? Anyway, I was wearing some shorts and a tank top, as again it’s boiling hot, and I had filled out by now (thanks puberty at 9), and this dude comes in and touches my back and all of my nerves are on high alert. He leans in and whispers “I’m gonna see you later” and fear gripped my heart. I managed to whisper “No. You won’t.” And he just sounds sinister and tells me “Yes I will. I’ll be waiting right outside the door.” And then he left. I stayed at the library until they closed a few hours later. I’m assuming he got bored of waiting (thank the lord) and left, so thankfully nothing nefarious happened. It was absolutely inappropriate and terrifying. I’m glad I got out of there safe. Even so though, I didn’t visit the library for months after that, scared he would come back.
3:15 PM EST SUNDAY — We CHOSE to Run on Solar Battery Power Tonight . . .
As regular readers know, we installed a solar power system up here at the house in Pennsylvania. The learning curve has been sharp.
We have 11,000 watts (22 individual panels at 530 watts each) of solar panels at 48 volt output each. They go into two (2) mppt charger/controllers which then go into a 30 kilowatt hour EG4 battery bank @48 volts.
From the battery bank, two 4-ought copper wires go to each of two 6800 watt inverters. The Inverters synch with each other, so the sine wave is pure 60Hz, just like normal grid power.
The 6800 watt inverters can EACH handle a needed “surge” of 8500 watts for 30 min or up to 12,000 watts (each) for one minute.
No aspect of this house, at any point, can ever come near that kind of power surge demand.
As I type this story at 8:46 PM eastern time, we have the gas furnace running, the front porch light and rear deck light on, my desk lamp, a light in the dining room on, the under-cabinet LED’s in the kitchen on, the big screen TV and home theater system in the living room, all operating, and the total energy demand of the house is only 1.7 kwh.
In every regard at this moment, life goes on here as if nothing at all is different from normal.
At that rate of power consumption, we have 15 hours of full power available from the battery bank. When we go to sleep and turn off the TV, lights, etc., the draw will go lower.
Twelve hours from now, the sun will be up and the solar array will begin generating power.
Unpleasant Surprises
Once the system became operational the first big unpleasant learning curve item was the voltage coming from the solar array.
The 22 panels are divided into two electrically-separate arrays of 11 panels each. Each single array is wired in SERIES, so each of the eleven panels at 48 volts each is added to the voltage total going into the mppt charger controllers. 48 volts times 11 panels would mean a maximum voltage output of 528 volts. Except we weren’t getting that much; at least not consistently. We were actually averaging about 193-208 volts per eleven panels.
Well, that just wasn’t enough “punch” to charge the battery bank in any speedy way. It could put maybe 2-3kwh into the battery bank at peak, maybe charging it by ten to fifteen percent over an entire day. WAY INSUFFICIENT.
We found out that solar panels have a nasty aspect to the way they handle voltage. The entire array self-limits to the output of the lowest performing panel!
So if ten of the panels are in full, bright, sunshine, but one panel is in the shade, the voltage from the ten in the sunshine would only be equal to that of the panel in the shade.
In order to get around this, we had to go buy 22 “Optimizers;” one for each solar panel. Those optimizers were $50 each (x22). They attach to the rear of each solar panel and accept into them the positive (output) from that single panel.
The Optimizer then connects __its__ positive output to the next optimizer on the next panel and so on. By using these optimizers, we work-around the voltage limiting of the poorest-performing panel.
We finished installing them around 2:30 this afternoon, and the sun, at least up here in northeast Pennsylvania, was already west of the southeast-facing panels. At this time of day in the past, we were luck to get 0.5kwh to 0.8kwh from the panels, but TODAY, it was up around 2.0 kwh. The voltage was also very much improved, over 500 volts.
So tomorrow, which is expected to be a clear day here, we will get our first real look at what the solar array can actually do, now that the learning curve is over and the optimizers are all in.
As such, we decided to run-down the 30kwh battery bank tonight, deliberately, by shutting off the power pass-through from the local electric company. No grid power at all is coming into this house, and it will remain that way until tomorrow morning.
On any regular day, this house routinely uses 50kwh. That’s a LOT of energy, but we’re spoiled by having grid power. Realizing that the ENTIRE battery bank can only provide 30kwh, (and you can’t run it down to zero) our lives will be hugely different if the only power we have to rely upon is solar. It will be bare essentials only: Refrigerator, freezers maybe a light on. But if the solar can recharge itself enough each day, then we’d have more access to the nicer things we are spoiled with.
So tonight is the test to see “what’s what” with this new system. How much does it power, for how long, in real life circumstances, in the cold of winter when the temp outside is 30°, and dropping to 20° overnight.
I thought about buying a second 30 kwh battery bank but what good would that be if the solar array can’t fully charge even one in a single day? Besides, that battery bank is way expensive (~$8600.) and I don’t have that kind of money laying around to just go buy it. I refuse to go into debt for it, so right now, I have what I have and that’s it.
Yes, I have a gasoline generator and spare fuel for it. But that fuel is precious and the generator guzzles about one gallon per hour. So when the gasoline runs out — and if we’re in a SHTF situation where there is no gasoline to even be purchased — We have to know NOW what we can and cannot do with solar power. Hence, tonight’s big “test.”
I’ll let you know how it goes.
UPDATE 7:30 AM SUNDAY MORNING
I got up at 7:22. It was 16° outside. The battery bank is down to 46% because my wife needs an oxygen concentrator on all the time and it ran all night at 300 watts. The math is simple: 300w for twelve hours equals 4.2KW
The sun is almost up, but as of 7:30 AM, the solar panels had not yet begun to send any meaningful power to the mppt charger/controllers.
By 8:20 AM, the batteries were down to 42% but solar panels had begun sending energy into the system. 0.8kw at 192 volts. We __are__ getting sporadic Over-voltage alerts from the Schneider mppt charger controllers, but each time, that clears within seconds.
So now that the sun is visibly over the mountain to my east, we should start getting good solar generation into the system, which should charge the battery rack. We’ll see.
You know, I did the math last night as I was laying in bed, about my wife’s Oxygen concentrator. 300 watts an hour to run times twenty four hours is 7.2kw. About one-quarter of my battery bank capacity.
This is a problem. How do I tell my wife she can’t use the oxygen machine if we’re in a SHTF situation??? I just can’t do that.
Really hoping the solar array does its thing today.
———– MORE:
We are getting over-voltage alerts from the Schneider mppt charger/controllers. They are rated at 600 volts. The system is not supposed to be sending more than 528 volts but the mppt charger/controllers are alerting to over-voltage.
In fact, they just went into SHUT DOWN for self-protection.
We checked the software and they are set to alert of the voltage exceeds 585 volts for ten seconds or more.
The reporting from the mppt controllers is showing voltage around 200 volts (still), so this over-voltage does not make any sense.
We were told that in very cold weather, the panels __may__ give off higher voltage than typical. So my son is out there right now removing one panel from each of the two arrays. That will drop the overall voltage by at least 48 volts and we’ll see if that solves the over-voltage situation.
UPDATE 9:41 AM EDT —
The equipment I am using is:
SCHNEIDER XW-PRO 6848 INVERTERS (2)
SCHNEIDER MPPT-100-600 CONTROLLERS (2)
EG-4 30.72 kwh Battery Rack:
We went back into the Owners manual for the MPPT Charger Controllers and saw another big surprise: They can handle 600 volts, BUT . . . . they won’t charge from 550 to 600 volts! Look:
The voltage needs to be LESS THAN 550 volts in order for them to charge! So this is yet another unwelcome surprise.
As mentioned earlier, my son went out and took one panel off each array – bypassed it in the wiring – to bring down the voltage. We _are__ getting some charging now, but the max output we’ve seen this morning from the solar panels is only 4kw. Look:
This from a solar array that is __supposed to__ max out at 11kw (10kw now that two panels are removed).
We will monitor the system on and off throughout today to get a better idea of the actual performance, but I’ve got to tell ya, I think we got snookered as to the real performance of these solar panels. Maybe I’m wrong, but I have this feeling the panels are __not__ what they claim to be.
UPDATE 1:10 PM EST —
So we’re eating “Brunch” which was really breakfast: Scrambled eggs, Jones Sausage, toasted white bread, and orange juice, when we hear a shotgun blast outside; really close to our property. It’s hunting season and it is not unusual at all to hear distant shotgun or perhaps rifle fire. But this was close. Then, we hear a second shotgun blast.
Since nothing hit the house, we’re OK; nothing to do about it because we know it’s hunters.
I go out on my rear deck to smoke and as I look across the road, I see three guys in hunter orange clothing on the hill just up from my property. I called out “Hey guys, what’d you get?” They replied “A big Doe.”
The Deer is at the end of the red arrow.
Then one of the guys told me, “My 7 year old got him” and sure enough, one of the guys in Hunter Orange was this little kid, with a squeaky voice, all excited that he got a deer.”
It was great. A father teaching his son what it takes to actually survive in this world.
They took a few minutes to gut-it right there on the hill, then apparently they called a friend who came down my road with a pick-up truck where they loaded it in the back and off they went.
Ahhhhh country life.
Back to the solar situation . . . . As of 1:04 PM EST, at peak sunshine for today, we only got a maximum of 5kw output from the solar panels. That is a huge disappointment from an array rated at 10kw.
The battery Bank is only up to 52% charge, up from the 40% it was at as the sun began to generate electric in my solar panels. Twelve percent charge, so far, is woefully inadequate to the survival of me and my family.
WOEFULLY inadequate.
So my son and I will wait until the time of day when the solar panels are providing nothing to the charge, and we decided we will intentionally power-up the GENERATOR to see how long it will take to fully charge the battery bank while still supplying the house.
By the end of today, we will know we used X amount of power on a typical day, we got X amount of charge from the panels on a reasonably sunny day – albeit with intermittent cloud cover, and the generator had to run for X hours (on X amount of gasoline) to fully charge it the rest of the way.
Then we know how much time we have to survive – given the gasoline reserve we have, if everything goes to hell and even if gasoline is not available. Right now: We would survive not too long at all.
It’s a very sobering realization to have this fact-based assessment of my family’s ability to survive. Very sobering indeed. Frightening, actually.
UPDATE 3:15 PM —
At about 2:00, we noticed there was more power coming OUT of the battery bank than going in from the solar array, so I said to my son, let’s go hook the generator up to charge the batteries now while we still have sunlight. This way, we get to see how long it will take to charge them with the generator. He agreed.
We go hook up the Westinghouse 12,000/15,000 generator that I have used in the past to power the house when the grid was down. We go to start it. It cranks . . . . slowly, then stops. Try again. Click. Click. No cranking.
We both said “Dead battery.” SO he gets the NICCO “Genius Charger out of the house and hooks it up. Almost immediately, it shows FULLY CHARGED.
Uh Oh. If the battery is fully charged, then maybe the starter motor is bad????
We bypass the starter relay to test it without the relay, same thing, click, click.
SO we go get jumper cables from my truck, and bring out a new 12 volt car battery. As we go to hook it up, I notice that the fuel line valve is ON. I never shut of off the last time I used the genrator. so for months, the gasoline has been dripping into the carburetor and evaporating. UH OH, the carburetor could be full of varnish.
We hook the car battery up and the generator cranks just fine. Doesn’t start. I press start again, and it turns over and begins running just fine. A bunch of blue smoke came out at start-up, likely all the evaporated gasoline gack in the carburetor.
We tell the inverters to begin using the generator to charge the batteries, and they start trying to pull like 60 amps from it. WAM. Tripped the breaker.
So we had to go into the solar software to tell the inverters to only charge at 50% of the max charge rate. RE-initiated the charging and everything seems fine.
At 2:06 PM we began charging the battery bank which was at about 50%. By 3:12 this afternoon, an hour and six minutes. the battery bank is now at 76%. So 26% charge in about an hour. That’s good. Another hour and we’ll be up around 95% and ready for another 24 hour period of running just on solar. We won’t do that; we’ll go back onto the grid.
Today we learned that the charging circuit had to be backed down, and also learned we need a new battery on the generator.
It’s a process. Better we learn now, than when the SHTF.
SOME DIRECT ANSWERS 4:05 PM EST —
I keep reading in the comments area that I should have a wood-burning stove. I HAVE ONE! It’s been here for years. I have maybe one cord or a cord-and-a-half of firewood outside. I’ve been wondering if maybe I should get more?
The stove is in the living room. When it’s on, the living room cooks up to 80+ degreees, but the REST of the house does not share that warmth. the rest of the house gets downright chilly because the thermostat is in the living room.
I routinely use ceiling fans in the living room to dissipate the heat into the rest of the house, but if electric is not available, the rest of the house will go cold without the fans moving the heat.
I also keep reading about my water heater. I have a TANKLESS water heater. It turns on when a faucet is turned on. It uses propane to heat the water in the water pipe, so there is no storage tank to constantly keep heated.
I have a gas fired stove and oven, also uses propane.
I have four 150 gallon propane tanks, which the local gas company fills to 100 gallons each, so as to allow for safe expansion. That means I have 400 gallons of propane, probably 350 now since last top-off. This propane fires the stove, the oven, the hot water heater, the furnace and the clothes dryer.
I have an outdoor propane barbecue grill with three spare tanks of propane.
I have a refrigerator, a small freezer in the laundry room, and two large freezers in other areas of the property.
So the electric I have or am able to generate, would need to supply the refrigerator and three freezers at minimum, and my wife’s oxygen concentrator, which is on 24/7 and uses 300 watts. and maybe the well pump once in awhile if the house calls for more water. That’s NOT a big demand on electric as far as my thinking goes. Maybe my thinking is wrong.
I unplugged the two satellite uplinks last night just to get a reading and was surprised they pull about 60 watts each. If I shut down the radio show computer rack and the outbound internet connections and router, that will drop some more watts.
It’s just really surprising to see just how much electric we use AND TAKE FOR GRANTED, that we flatly will not be able to use in a SHTF scenario.
This whole practice run has been a gigantic eye-opener!
Trump Will Renegotiate the World – Eric Weinstein
Of all the superpowers (USA, Russia, Canada, UK, France, China, etc) today (2024), which is the most honorable, reliable, less-realpolitik-bound, friendliest of all which marks a big difference above all the others?
Canada, UK, and France are not superpowers. There are only three superpowers: USA, Russia, and China.
USA is the least honourable, least reliable, least friendly of the three.
China is the most honourable, most reliable, and most friendly.
- It has fought no wars since 1979. No other world power in human history has been so peaceful for so long.
- It helps other countries build their infrastructure through the Belt and Road Initiative. Over 150 countries participate in the BRI.
- It leads several major economic alliances, including BRICS and SCO. Over 30 countries wish to join.
- When the West hoarded its vaccines during the pandemic, China stepped forward to help poor countries vaccinate.
Trump tariffs are coming. What can Chinese companies do to avoid them?
I dont think individual companies can do much other than adding the tariff to the sale price of their exports to USA.
In Trump 1.0, Chinese companies absorbed 10% of tariff (average) & added 90% to the sale price. At the end, it was American consumers who paid 90% of the tariff. That was 1 reason why USA suffered inflation.
Or companies can find another buyer & stop selling to USA.
To more effectively counter Trump’s crazily high tariff, it has to be done at the national level by Central gov. Because the Central can strategically target what hurts USA the most. So as to force USA to negotiate. So that China can bargain.
Some companies still will get hurt by Trump’s tariff. But collectively China will get a bargain.
So far, China has done 1 thing to counter Trump 2.0 tariff:
Starting 2024/12/1, China will reduce/cancel tax refund on certain exports from 13% to 9% eg aluminum & steel. This cut accounts to 6.8% of China’s total tax refund.
The purpose of tax refund is to encourage manufacturers to export. With reduced/cancelled tax refund, manufacturers will add the lost revenue to the export price ie US buyers will pay more … Reduce/cancel tax refund = China gov saves money. But = tariff to US. haha. Just a different name.
Trump promotes made-in-USA by banning import of Chinese green energy products eg solar panel, battery, EV etc. But making green energy products requires aluminum & steel.
Refining aluminum requires lots of electricity. China’s green electricity is already well established. But not the West yet as of 2024. Trump 1.0 continued to buy Chinese aluminum. Trump 2.0 may have to continue to buy Chinese aluminum too, but at a higher price as a result of China’s tax refund. haha.
I think China will do more to counter Trump 2.0 tariff. Just watch.
Is it possible for a new superpower country to emerge and potentially replace China or America? If so, what might this country be like and when could this happen?
An united Europe was that country.
Finance and tech from Western Europe, agriculture from Ukraine, natural resources from Russia.
That’s why the US refused Russian bid to join NATO and EU, attacked the Euro currency with wars, destablized the middle east to create a constant flow of refugees, organized an anti-Russian color revolution and coup in Ukraine, installed an American as head of EU, pushed NATO to threaten Russia, and blew up the Nord Stream pipieline when they wanted to negotiate an end to the war.
They say it’s an American strategic mistake to push Russia and China together, but maybe the strategic goal was to deal with Europe first, China later.
It’s classical divide and conquer.
What are the key technical differences between hypersonic missiles and traditional ballistic missiles?
Hypersonic Missiles are missiles that can attain speeds of Mach 5 or above (6000+ kph) without the influence of Gravity
Note the word – WITHOUT THE INFLUENCE OF GRAVITY
This means
Every Ballistic Missile attains Hypersonic Speed, so all Ballistic Missiles are Hypersonic
Why?
Because it is launched by a very powerful rocket into very high altitudes , often into space and then they power back down to earth and are under the influence of gravity
Hypersonic Missiles referred to in the recent context of the Ukrainian War are not Ballistic Missiles
They are cruise missiles which are launched with powerful rockets until a certain altitude is reached (Maybe 30–50 metres) but where you have engines generating sufficient torque to propel the missile to it target
Ideally the Engines that generate thrust forces capable of propelling a missile at Hypersonic speeds are called SCRAMJET or RAMJET Engines
So attaining Hypersonic speed is not difficult
It is MAINTAINING and MANEUVERING at hypersonic speeds that is the key behind making Hypersonic missiles
The Technology behind Hypersonic Missiles is actually called Hypersonic G&T (Glide and Torque) Equilibrium Control
This Technology prevents the Missile from getting shattered to pieces when it changes positions as it travels in its trajectory to hit the final target
Without this, the missile being exposed to such tremendous forces can get crunched if it changes positions mid air and Missiles do this every few seconds for a precise strike
Imagine driving at 240 kmph on a highway and suddenly shifting the steering by 15 degrees. The Car would spin like a coca cola can due to the sheer torque and come crashing to the ground with the driver dead
You need a very rigid control to manage this feat
Nations need only Powerful Rockets to make Ballistic Missiles
However they need to make Ramjet and Scramjet engines & the HGTEC technology to make hypersonic missiles
As on date only three nations have indigenous technology in all the five areas – Fuels, Rockets, Scramjet, Ramjet & HGTEC
Russia, USA, China
North Korea & Iran have access to all five areas but the HGTEC technology is Russian
India has access to Four Areas but only Two Areas are fully Indigenous. India has access to Ramjet & Scramjet technology of the Russians and no access to HGTEC
What is the most callous thing that hospital staff have done in your presence?
The staff at the ICU at Swedish Hospital in Seattle turned off my wife’s ventilator to see if she could be weaned off the vent, and then went out to lunch.
A person on a ventilator is generally drugged into unconsciousness and their hands are strapped to the bedrails to keep them from trying to pull the endotracheal tube out, so my wife was only semiconscious while they did this. The idea is to watch her for 30 minutes to see if she is breathing adequately without help from the vent, and if so they take out the E.T. tube and wake her up.
After 30 minutes it was clear that she was struggling to breathe. I asked the nurse to turn the vent back on. But they can’t. Only the respiratory therapist can, and they weren’t answering their page. I asked them to call the supervisor of the respiratory therapists, but they didn’t answer their page either. I asked the nurse to call the hospitalist, a physician, to turn the vent back on. He came, and avered that he could turn on the vent, but didn’t want to, because it was the respiratory therapist’s job.
Nurses and hospitalist all agreed that my wife was in distress. She was sweating and gasping and her blood oxygen saturation was falling. The hospitalist tried to “reassure” me that she was not in imminent danger of dying.
After an hour or more, the respiratory therapist came to turn on the vent. I sat calmly while she did the adjustments, and then asked if I could talk to her in the hall for a moment. Needless to say I tore her a new asshole about not answering her pager. I got a quiet attaboy from the nurses for reaming her out.
Have you ever seen a mass exodus after a respected employee quit or got fired?
My mom and I opened a real estate office in 1994. Within 2 years, we were one of the largest in our area. One of our agents came to us and asked to buy the business. We verbally agreed, but before we could write anything up, she proceeds to tell everyone in the office all the changes she was going to make under her “new regime”. Apparently nobody liked it. Nearly everyone quit within a week. Once everyone was gone, it was just her, another agent and my mom and I. We came in one morning and their desks were cleared out. They had emptied out their desks overnight and left a note that they were quitting and would go out on their own. Leaving us high and dry with an office that went from incredibly successful to one that was tanking quickly. We pulled it out of the fire, but it’s never been the same. All because of one person.
Tell Me Something Good – Rufus | The Midnight Special
The Good Girls Of Estheria
Submitted into Contest #115 in response to: Write a story where a device goes haywire.… view prompt
Olisa Okoye
All fifty girls in the sanctuary got out of their beds in a frenzy. The cables plugged into their temples throbbed throughout the night and nobody knew why, but it became the major topic for discussion at the cafeteria.
“Me thinks it’s some kind of fault from the tower,” said Glen, a short girl with a dark bob.
Her small frame and coy persona made it easier for the girls to dismiss her as usual.
“I felt a throbbing in me fore’ead” Esmeralda whispered.
Esmeralda’s green eyes twinkled in a slight craze. She demanded an explanation because It was the most interesting thing to take place at the shelter since last autumn. Unlike other days, there was excitement in the air. The boredom of young females was replaced by a thirst for gossip as every unit and every girl was tuned in to the indistinct chatter. At least that was until Ina resumed. Then the talking came to a halt.
They all fell silent and turned their heads to stare at Ina, a mop-stick of a girl with turquoise blue eyes and the lightest skin. Her white tunic was almost too big for her thin frame. Demure in her disposition, she walked silently down the hall and lowered her eyes to avert the glares from the other girls. She had a striking and spotless face, save for the scar on her right temple. This is what the girls were glaring at.
Ina stopped at the glass entree table and played around with the interactive surface until she found something that captured her fancy.
“Such a shame” Esmeralda whispered.
“She could have been selected,” another girl added.
The girls at Esmeralda’s table looked on Ina with pity as she took her tray of greens and settled down by herself in the corner. Ina had become an outcast within the last month. She was marked for bad behaviour and for not adhering to the protocol of the shelter. The protocol was their law. It kept the girls safe. It made them smart and perfect. It was there to mold each one of them into the prototype, Esther. A prototype that Professor Heinrich spent years trying to mold.
Professor Heinrich created the shelter to make the perfect world. Where wars do not exist. Where people will think and frame clever ideas and contribute to society. Where nobody will be poor and nobody richer than the next. A world that excluded what he regarded as the main cause of pathology in society-
Inequity.
The fifty girls of the sanctuary were his first sample. So far all of them showed signs of compliance until Ina painted something extraordinary during her art class. It was a portrait of a boy.
Ina being a talented painter could recreate the dimensions of any object in her sight on paper. Usually she would convey something precise. As was required of the girls, her art usually depicted a clear idea and a message that was easy to interpret. But that day, what she painted was out of the ordinary.
The portrait had dimensions and highlights to bring life to this bright face. His eyes had a sparkle in them. They conveyed something that nobody had ever seen before in art-
Emotion.
She had never met a boy in her life. In their world, the male should not exist. This innocent act was seen as a radical deviation from protocol. Ms Louise, a short plump matron, was conducting her usual rounds, inspecting each of the girls’ works when she came across Ina’s painting. She stood still for a second with a face expressing disgust and disdain. She thought it best to consult the Head Matron Teresa, a stone faced woman with an intimidating demeanour.
Teresa didn’t speak much. Her eyes said enough. She stood tall, with thinning dark grey hair and carried a cane in her left hand at all times which according to rumours, she did not hesitate to use. Many stories about Teresa had been circulating the shelter. Some said you would turn to stone if she looked at you long enough. Some said she slept with her eyes wide open. Some said it was her cane that could turn you to stone. And so none of the girls would dare get a disciplinary mark from Teresa.
Nobody expected Ina would be the first to get in a conflict with Teresa.
Teresa seized Ina’s hand In an instant and dragged her to the disciplinary room. A while after, orders were given to seize the painting and destroy it.
Where could this concept for the painting have come from? Her instructors thought.
It was a mind boggling phenomenon. A steward suggested that It had something to do with the scar on Ina’s forehead. When she brought it to her matron’s attention weeks before, it was dismissed as a mere rash or irritation. It had now been weeks since Ina painted the boy. Her scar was still sore .
It didn’t take long before the chatter in the cafeteria resumed again. The girls carried this bubbly energy through to the next phase of the day. In Ina’s unit, it was a session in Logic and Reasoning. Ina could barely remember anything from her previous session except that the girls behaved more rowdy than usual.
On a typical day, they would line up in a fashion as perfect as robots in a factory. This time, they were a little humanly messy. She didn’t know why but this made Ina feel a sense of relief. The change in the girls’ behavior soon became evident to the instructors. Through the glass, they watched as the girls in Ina’s unit solved puzzles. What bothered the instructors the most was that they looked as though they were having fun.
Little Glen smiled gleefully at Esmeralda who was just putting in the last piece to complete the pattern. Head Matron Teresa, observing from the glass window, noticed something concealed under Glen’s jet-black fringe. A scar similar to Ina’s- an alarming sight .
Matrons and stewards gathered at the disciplinary room to observe and examine Glen’s bruised red scar. She mentioned feeling a throbbing from the cables of her head gear.
“A couple of girls complained that they’re cables went haywire all through the night,” said Louise.
All the girls had experienced it that morning.
Could the fault in the cables in the headgear have something to do with Ina’s strange behaviour?
Desperate to find a solution, Teresa demanded that the headgear was monitored. She thought it highly unlikely that this was the cause. The headgear was only designed to transport them to a virtual reality. A computer generated world known as Estheria. Their only place free from surveillance in this rigidly governed society.
In Estheria it was always warm. There was no seasonal change. The girls could run around and wile away time, playing hide and seek in the trees in the parks. They all took delight in the cool spongy sensation of the green grass when they laid their heads on it.
Time didn’t exist. Neither did work.
Only the girls had the privilege of experiencing the splendor of Estheria. During the day, Ina couldn’t help but ponder on the delightful things she experienced in Estheria. She recorded these ideas in a diary which she kept hidden in a safe, secluded spot inside the hedges near the park benches. It was perfectly concealed and out of sight… or so she thought.
Once every interval break, she would hide herself and discreetly pour out everything she could remember about Estheria down in her diary. The sun shone differently. The sky was a distinct blue and the lake rippled serenely under the tropical breeze. Recently however, she decorated the pages of her diary from end to end with her colorful art. Things recollected from her dreams. Things from the outside world- portraits of nature, savannas, plumerias, hyacinths, human life- women in beaches and swimming pools. A picture of the lake managed to make it into her diary. Like all the other pictures in her diary, it was drawn in haste. The lake was Ina’s favorite place in this virtual paradise. She loved it because it was the only place she could see her reflection. Estheria was the perfect dream until the headgear was switched off every morning at 7:00am.
Afterwards, the routine was the same every single day. They would head out of their dorms in a rigid organized fashion, head to the cafeteria for breakfast which was followed by their daily sessions and then march downstairs to the common lobby to form a circle around the screen. A hologram of a statuesque female would then emerge from the screen.
This particular day however, whilst the other girls sat on the floor transfixed on this screen, Ina’s attention was diverted to the room around her. She began scanning her environment. For the first time, Ina became more aware of her surroundings. Things became more clear and obvious – things she once ignored, things she was once oblivious to. Cartoons in monochrome colors displayed on the television set, the light bulbs, the chandelier, the furniture. As her eyes spanned the room, she caught Glen’s eyes. In this moment, they shared a look of understanding that transcended words. A look of one whose soul had been liberated.
But Ina noticed something else. Something that gripped her and made the hairs on her skin stand erect. She noticed someone studying the girls through the glass above.
It was Teresa.
Only Glen and Ina noticed Teresa and her blank eyes. They were like big dark brown pebbles suspended in the spheres of her dome. Almost soulless. Teresa had a stern look as usual and was holding something in her right hand. As Teresa shifted a slight angle away, Ina caught a glimpse of what she was holding.
She was holding Ina’s diary.
Glen looked to Ina unsure whether to be afraid or alert. Ina however was sure of one thing- she was paralyzed by terror. Teresa didn’t take her gaze off Ina for even a split second..
How long had she been standing there, Ina thought as she sat numb, with a thumping heart and wet palms.
Following a loud spark coming from behind the television set, the light bulbs in the room dimmed slowly and in sequence until the lights were completely off. The girls were left in a bleak dull atmosphere where nothing but their shadowed forms could be seen. An orientation session had transitioned into a complete Lights Out. The screen displayed white noise and Esther’s hologram was nowhere in sight. Ina could no longer make out the sight of Teresa. Only a silhouette
The girls were dumbfounded – a mixture of angst and tension in the air. Ina braced herself and managed to regain a natural breathing rhythm and feeling in her limbs. She figured if she made her way through the girls around her, she might find Glen. Luckily, Glen found Ina first and clung onto her arm like one holding on for dear life. They were latched onto one another like jam on bread. The bond between them was the strongest it had ever been.
“You will be fine,” Ina whispered.
Their embrace was interrupted by the violent sound of the door being kicked open, followed by the sound of heavy boots stomping on the wooden tiles. The girls all scrambled to find their footing. A yellow flickering light from a torch pierced the darkness and hovered over the girls’ faces. It wandered around the room until it stopped at Glen and Ina.
A sudden forceful tug on Ina’s arm detached her from Glen’s embrace. She managed to cling onto Glen a few seconds longer. A few seconds long enough to whisper to her ,
“The Passageways….Behind the television”
Everyone could hear the tug of war- the rough kicking and screaming as Ina resisted being dragged across the room. Glen panted heavily as Ina was dragged away. She didn’t quite grasp the meaning of Ina’s words just yet. Passageways? Television ?
Light from the opened door revealed Ina being carried away by two uniformed guards. The harsh sound of the door slamming shut reverberated through the room. Whether by sheer force of will, determination, or a rush of adrenaline Glen found a way through the herd of girls, to the television set and managed to dismount it. A shocking show of strength for someone of her stature. Other girls were in a frantic state. Some cried for Esther, others cried for Louise whilst others bit their nails in heart pounding anticipation.
Ina’s words kept replaying in Glen’s mind- The Passageways…Behind The Television. Still in a state of shock and utter delirium, Glen pushed the TV to the wall. A vain attempt to mount herself to the window ledge. Not practical, she realized. And it was also too risky. As she slowed down to catch her breath, she sunk into the wall and looked to the window high above. She felt a small indent along the face of the wall. She ran her hands through it and followed it’s trace as it led to a subtle dent somewhere in the middle.
All the girls sat and watched in awe as Glen’s act of bravery seemingly led to a wonderful discovery. Glen forced her fingers through the dent and ran them through the inner surface. It was indeed a wonderful discovery. What appeared to be a dent in the wall was actually a door handle.
Very carefully and slowly she pulled the ledge towards herself and allowed the entire surface to detach from the wall. The prancing of the girls slowly drew to a calm. They sat and watched with numb mouths as Glen unlatched this door from the wall. She looked back at the others and paused momentarily as if to take a breath. She braced herself.
She then turned back to face their one hope out of a messy situation. She made her way through the door and boxed herself inside the confinement of the hollow space. She examined the surrounding area. It was desolate, unkempt, dry, dusty, occupied with nothing but muddy air and the stench of metal. She looked to the right and the tiny space seemed to lead further down into an extremely long path. One more time, she turned to look at the other girls. No one was brave enough yet to follow. She started down the path alone until finally a green eyed fuzzy-haired fellow from behind crouched down and followed. She recognized the green eyes. They belonged to Esmeralda.
The two crawled into the confinement through the long stretch of metal and wood. Very quickly, two became three. And then three became four. Within minutes, ten girls followed behind Glen and forged down this risky path that seemed to stretch on for miles.
Glen continued to lead the pack, crawling with her eyes set ahead. The ceiling got higher and the smell of dank wood and metal began to dissipate slowly. They forged further until an hour passed and their surroundings became more friendly.
Their grueling journey had led them to an incline along the path a significant distance away from the door and the room. The width of the passage walls got wider, giving them liberty to squeeze through. A hungry and fatigued Glen was tempted to take a break until she considered the girls behind and how far they’d come. She mustered up courage to make it a few meters ahead. Esmeralda kept close to her tail. With assistance from those behind, Glen gained leverage to the top of the incline.
Immediately, she was met by a greater open space. A brick-walled and concrete floored structure filled with abandoned furnishings. Another room perhaps? Glen and Esmeralda shook the debris off their bodies as they helped themselves to their feet realising they had come to a cellar.
Their end of the tunnel.
Looking around there were timeworn boxes and mirrors arranged against the wall, old furniture, broken bulbs, and dusty portraits scattered along the floor. The ceiling was at least twenty feet high supported by long rusty wooden trusses nailed to the wall. Long lines of images on plastic film stretched across the room. There were faces on them. But too much contrast to make them out. One of the girls soon realized they were all pictures of females.Youthful girls in particular.
Glen was startled by a sharp noise from behind. Esmeralda’s loud gasp. Everyone looked to Esmeralda as she abruptly dropped what she was holding- a rain soaked teddy bear. A series of flashbacks ran through her mind.
Esmeralda slowly stepped away from the toy box and let tears rain down her face. Memories of another life began to stem from her adolescent heart. Memories of her childhood. Glen laid an arm on Esmeralda’s back as she came to a mutual understanding. This rain soaked teddy bear was a surviving remnant of her life before the shelter.
Other girls ransacked the boxes. There were toys, portraits, pins and needles stuck into balls, woven shawls, pink knitted scarves and sweaters. It slowly became evident to them- they grokked Esmeralda’s tears. Each item belonged to one of the girls. Fragments of a former life.
Glen was still pacifying the broken Esmeralda when she looked up to the mirrors arranged along the wall. She had never seen anything of its kind. In the shelter there were no mirrors. Only images. She became curious, noticing her full body’s reflection in all its dimensions. Wow, She thought. She moved closer. The modest light from the small window situated at great height compensated for the dimness of the room. She couldn’t see her face clearly in the mirror but what she saw was enough for her. Enough for her to remember who she was.
What was the slickest thing you have done or seen somebody do on an airplane?
I hitched a ride on a private jet.
I was seventeen, visiting my grandmother in Stuart, Florida, and staying in her condo. Her next-door neighbor was a pilot who played bridge with her.
I met him near the end of my stay, and when I told him I was headed back to New York the next day, he said, “Save your ticket. You can fly back with me.”
In those days, plane tickets were fully refundable, so this was a big savings. Plus, I didn’t have to wait in lines or sit in the crowded coach section of a big commercial plane.
I don’t remember what kind of jet it was, but it was a luxury model, with plenty of comfortable seating and a lounge. The pilot flew for a wealthy private patron whom he referred to as “Mrs. Payson.” He would fly her down to Florida, leave her down there for a week or so, then fly the empty jet back to New York. So for this trip I had the entire cabin to myself.
This isn’t the model I flew in (we’re talking 1974 or thereabouts), but the general layout of the cabin was something like this…
A while later, I learned that “Mrs. Payson” was actually Joan Whitney Payson, the founder and owner of the Mets.
Flying cross-country by private jet is definitely the way to go, but expensive if you’re the one footing the bill. It’s much better to hitch a ride like I did!
Thank you for the A2A.
EDIT: I had no idea this answer would get so many upvotes. If I did, I would have given more careful thought to my answer.
Hitching a ride on a private jet is the slickest thing I’ve ever done on an airplane, but it’s not the slickest thing anyone I know has done.
The Godfather horse head scene
Is President Xi Jinping rich? What main sources of income do China’s presidents usually have?
The Chairman of the CPC is an unpaid post and has been since 1921
It’s an honorary position albeit the most powerful position in China
Xi Jinping gets a Salary of around 220,000 Yuan a year for his equivalent Civil Service Rank when he joined the standing Committee (Around $ 30,000)
Additionally he also gets a salary of the President of China for the People’s Congress which is undisclosed but expected to be equivalent to the highest civil service pay rank which is 320,000 Yuan a year
So all in all he makes around $ 75,000 a year in Salary
As Chairman of CPC he also gets
- Lifetime Free Housing in the Zhongnanhai, Beijing
- State Allowance of 100% for all living expenses which means Servants, Food etc are fully free and paid by the State
- Lifetime Security & Transportation
Plus by his own disclosures, he has invested in A Shares & other instruments in the Chinese market
Georgia Baked Ham
Ingredients
- 1 (13 to 15 pound) fully cooked bone-in ham
- 4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons ground cloves
- 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons ground mustard
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup (approximately) apple cider (not hard cider)
- Brown sugar for topping
Instructions
- Trim some of the fat from ham.
- Combine flour, brown sugar, spices, mustard and pepper. Add enough cider to make a dough.
- Roll out dough into an oval, large enough to cover top and sides of ham. Drape dough over ham and lightly pat it in place so it clings to the surface. Do not encase the ham completely with the dough, just cover the top and sides leaving the bottom open.
- Place the ham on a rack in a shallow, open roasting pan. Start ham in a cold oven. Set control to 325 degrees F.
- Bake until thermometer reads 160 degrees F, about 3 1/2 to 4 hours, basting with cider every 30 minutes.
- After it’s baked, remove dough jacket and discard.
- Sprinkle ham with brown sugar and return to oven until top is bubbly and golden.
What is the reason for US importers paying tariffs to China?
Frankly, only Americans do not know such a basic fact! Everyone on earth knows such an ABC of tariffs. Everywhere on earth the importer of the product is responsible to pay for the tariffs and the importer of Chinese products are almost always American nationals or American companies. They don’t pay to China they pay to the US customs!
So your government took this money and they can decide what to do with it. You suckers pay for it through higher prices! So it is like a tax or it is like your government stealing your money. In economics it is called inflation.
Importers pay the same price before the tariffs were put in place they don’t pay one cent more or one cent less. So China do not lose anything, it only lose if US importers buys from some where else! If not there is no effect on the Chinese. Since most of the things China does it is very very competitive and nowhere on earth can it be done at the price and the quality. Chances is almost everything still has to come from China!
So in effect the US government is punishing Americans! Not China or Chinese!
Will China really be a peaceful superpower if it does become one?
China is already a superpower. And a most peaceful one at that. China has fought no wars since 1979.
China has the world’s largest army and the world’s largest navy. China has advanced stealth fighters like the J-20 and J-35. China has advanced hypersonic missiles. China has a large nuclear arsenal.
China is the only other country capable of building supercarriers. The Type 003 will go into service shortly, and the Type 004 is coming.
China’s Type 055 and Type 052D are among the most powerful warships in the world.
China is the world’s technological leader. According to ASPI, China leads in 57 out of 64 critical technology fields. China has more patent grants than the USA and Japan combined.
China is the world’s sole industrial superpower. The USA doesn’t even come close.
China is the world’s largest economy by purchasing power parity.
Doc Holliday | Full Western Movie
The undisputed leader in terms of the number of killed fighters is Poland (2,960 arrived, 1,497 eliminated).
They are the buzzwords of New York City crime circa 2022: Random and unprovoked.
Of course.
![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)
The US Empire is eating its own tail (vassals) and its own homeland (the US) because it can no longer extract vast wealth from outside its imperial core with ease. Happening on a smaller level with respect to France with respect to its African ex-colonies. Its going to be a rough time from here for the populations of the West, en route to a Soylent Green world (perhaps it will be made of bugs not people).
Better to leave the West, or at least give it some distance. Georgia, Hungary, Slovakia, and now possibly Austria see the light. As do all of Asia, much of Latin America and most of Africa. Spain has also shown some independent orientation. Also, perhaps Romania.
The French, Germans, Italians, British, Canadians, Australians (their elites not the general population) will keep themselves in the bowl as they get made into broth.
Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jan 10 2025 16:00 utc | 1